Khumbulani Phiri asked: If you want to start a consulting business, you are certainly in the right direction as the market for consulting services continues to grow every single year. But, how many consultants are adequately taping into this huge market through proper marketing? Not many! In fact, there is one vital marketing element that most consultants neglect to their detriment. That element revolves around ensuring that your business has a well crafted website that continuously brings you business.But, why a website?According to a study conducted by analysts at RainToday.com, a cool 60 percent of consulting clients are influenced by your website in the process of deciding whether to contact you or not. This definitely emphasizes the need for a website that not only speaks to your target market, but also offers clear value that uniquely differentiates it from any other competitor. A "me too" web presence" will not cut the grade.The one key factor that will clearly differentiate your consulting business website from the rest of the noise is when you provide unique and high value content to your target market. High value content gives you instant credibility in the eyes of your target market and gives your prospective .. more »
Elizabeth Newberry asked: So, you've started your own business. You saved the money, carefully constructed a business plan, thoroughly studied your potential consumers or clients based on their needs for your product or service, rented a space from which to work, hired a few people, and posted the "Open" sign on the door. But wait -more goes into business management that just planning your business, hiring employees, and selling a product or service. As a business owner, you need to consider risk management and insurance.The steps of risk management and purchasing insurance are some of the most important steps when it comes to business management. Risk management involves considering the kinds of damage to your business or employees that could occur, taking the necessary steps to help ensure these kinds of damages don't occur, and how to handle these kinds of damages in the event that they do occur.First, you need to figure out what kinds of accidents could happen on your job site that could cause damage to your business or injuries to your employees. Your roof could spring a leak, causing water damage to your computers and an employee to slip and injure himself. You could end up .. more »
Sam Miller asked: The purpose of advertising may differ from media to media, application to application, business to business. But no matter how it is used, there is only one major purpose to advertising - and that is to inform and move people to respond to it. Advertisements can be seen anywhere, it is on billboards, on TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, on the internet, mobile phones, buses and even on grocery carts. The advertising spending of corporations and mammoth brands has increased significantly over the last few years. In 2006, the international ad spending reached $385 billion. How does advertising become so effective? How do they measure advertising as an effective marketing activity?Tracking the performance and effectiveness of an advertisement is usually done after the implementation of the campaign. This is often called post testing or advertisement tracking. The activities usually range from product testing or usage, ad awareness, brand awareness, attitude reviews and continuous long term researches that help monitor the performance of a product or service. The duration of the activities vary. There are those that are implemented frequently, while there are tracking activities held every few weeks, months or quarters. Measuring advertising may be conducted by the .. more »