#bought some cds on target because of their buy 2 get one free sale on music last week. to treat myself because i need to honestly look

[oh-cramity-its-amity]

....almost done, its almost over. i just have to keep surviving. push through. one more day and then i can rest for a day. then four and then ill have an actual weekend. you can totally do this me. yeah. yep. mandatory overtime is a bitch but your gonna crush it like you always do and have a super thick paycheck. you're gonna get it done.

[objectivesubjectivity]

I buy CDs. I may have mentioned that before.

Normally I spend, on average, less than $3 a CD: bargain bins, deep discounts, garage sales. 

But every now and then, I do something throughly irrational.

In honor of my recent purchase of DAMN. COLLECTORS EDITION even though I already own the regular album, here are some of the most unnecessary ways I’ve spent my hard earned money on CDs in the past.

I mail ordered Less Than Jake’s “Bootleg a Bootleg, You Cut Out the Middleman” because I was convinced that live albums were the shit. Or rather “the s#!&”: the live album was a bootleg of a radio broadcast so the entire thing is edited. And nothing disrupts a song quite like the sound of scrambling a track to keep us from hearing a “fuck” or two.

I bought American Hi-Fi’s live album “Rock’N’Roll Noodle Shop: Live From Tokyo” because it was an import. Never mind the fact that they had literally only released one album prior to this. You know that thing when new bands just “play the album?” Yeah, that was pretty much it.

I once spend nearly $20 on a new copy of Staind’s “Break the Cycle.” 

I bought Weezer’s “Hurley” at a Best Buy or maybe a Target but only because it contained 4 bonus tracks I wasn’t going to get at the other location.

I bought a hard copy of each Run the Jewels album even though I had already downloaded them from their website for free. But it’s Mike and El, so it’s definitely worth it. And most likely rational.

I could have easily rearranged the track listing on my iTunes and achieved the same result as buying the collectors edition of DAMN. But no. A collector’s gotta collect!

And, just for fun, here are some scenarios in which I would part with my hard earned money for completely unnecessary reasons:

Chance the Rapper decides to press his mixtapes to CD

Frank Ocean’s “Blonde.” Not “Boys Don’t Cry.” “Blonde.” The full album, with all the tracks, in that order.

RxBandits original pressing of “Halfway Between Here and There,” because it has a different track listing and it’s technically a Drive Thru Records album I don’t own (I saw a copy of it at my friend’s local music store in L.A. and had to fight myself to not spend the $10. I’m still regretting it).

What I listened to last week:

Top 100 contenders in bold.

Farewell - Run It Up the Flagpole

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 3

Walking Concert - Run To Be Born

Deerhoof - The Runners Four

Rush - Rush

Catch Up Albums (Albums I missed or purchased/acquired since beginning the quest):

Prince and the Revolution - Around the World in a Day

Ludacris - Back For the First Time

Friction - Blurred in Six

D’Angelo - Brown Sugar

Kendrick Lamar - DAMN. COLLECTORS EDITION

Common - Finding Forever

The Books - Lost and Safe

The Chainsmokers - Memories...Do Not Open

Prince - Prince

Albums listened to in total: 1,392

[samuelfields]

Why It’s Better To Retire In A Bear Market Than In A Bull Market

Living a comfortable retirement life is all about managing expectations. You generally don’t need as much as you think to be happy because the freedom you gain more than makes up for lost income.

However, if you retire at the top of a bull market, and don’t change your risk profile, you’re screwed. The day you retire will be about as good as it gets.

If you retire at the bottom of a bear market, even if you change your risk profile to be conservative, your financial days will likely only get better. A recovery makes retirement living so much easier.

No matter how good we get at forecasting the future, we tend to extrapolate too positively for too long when times are good. While those who retire in a bear market will likely forecast lower returns than reality.

Retiring In A Bear Market

Let’s say you retired with a $3 million in after-tax investments in 2012 that excludes the equity in your primary residence. Your $3 million is spitting out a comfortable $120,000 in gross passive income each year. 50% of your $3 million is in real estate while the other 50% is in a 50/50 stock and bond portfolio.

After tax, your $120,000 turns into $100,000 and you only spend $70,000 because you’re not 100% sure you’ll be able to stay retired. Besides, when you have no mortgage and no kids to support, $70,000 a year is more than enough, even in a high cost of living city.

Instead of earning a 10%+ return a year as the S&P has done since 2012, you only been able to earn a 6% return given your more conservative stock portfolio and lower leverage in your real estate portfolio.

After 6 years at a 6% compound rate of return with $30,000 a year in savings, your $3 million portfolio grows to $4,800,000. Applying the same 4% withdrawal rate, you’re now able to comfortably earn or withdraw $192,000 a year in gross passive income.

After tax, the $192,000 turns into about $155,000, which means if you stick with your $70,000 a year budget, you can now save $85,000 a year instead of just $30,000.

Clearly, it’s time for you to get more conservative with your investments because your after-tax passive income is 2X your budget. Meanwhile, your net worth is almost 70X your annual after-tax expenses.

Retiring During A Raging Bull Market

Let’s say you’ve decided to retire with $3 million after 10 years of up, up, up in the S&P 500 and real estate market where you own a couple rental properties. 70% of your $3 million is in a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio.

Your portfolio also spits out a comfortable $120,000 a year in gross passive income or $100,000 net passive income. You forecast you’ll earn at least $120,000 a year in gross passive income for the next 10 years because you believe your investments will grow by at least 3%, the current risk-free rate of return.

It’s important for you to continue earning $120,000 gross/$100,000 net in order to maintain your retirement lifestyle and pay for your 8th grader’s college tuition.

Your expenses are a little higher than the previous couple at $90,000 a year versus $70,000 a year as a result. But at least you still have a $10,000 a year cash flow buffer, which equals 11.1% of your annual after-tax spend. Not bad, but not so good when a bear market strikes.

Let’s say within six months after you retire, the S&P 500 corrects by 10%. The only way you could have earned 3.2% is if you invested 100% of your $3 million in to 10-year treasury bonds. But you didn’t with a 60/40 equity/fixed income portfolio. Meanwhile, a tenant vacates and one of your rentals is left empty for four months before you can find a tenant for 10% less than the previous rent. Your after-tax investments are now worth about $2.7 million.

At a 4% withdrawal rate, your $2.7 million portfolio can only produce about $108,000 in gross passive income, or about $88,000 a year after tax. No longer do you have a $10,000 a year cash flow buffer, you’ve now got a $2,000 annual deficit.

But 10% is only considered a correction, not a bear market, so let’s keep going. After tightening up spending to $78,000 from $90,000 since you always want to save $10,000 a year, the S&P 500 and real estate market keep correcting by another 10%. Down 20% is officially the start of a bear market. Your $2.7 million now shrinks to $2.43 million.

At a 4% withdrawal rate, your $2.43 million portfolio can only produce $97,200 a year in gross passive income, or about $80,000 after tax. Now your lifestyle is really getting crunched. You start to wonder whether the declines will ever end.

But of course, a 20% decline in the stock market and real estate market isn’t uncommon. For good measure, let’s model in another 10% decline. Now your $2.43 million portfolio shrinks to $2.18 million, meaning it can only generate about $87,000 gross or $71,000 in net passive income.

With a $70,000 a year college bill (tuition, room, board, transportation, books) just a year away, there is really no choice but to go back to work, do part-time work, or draw down principle. No matter how frugal you get, it’s not enough.

Retiring During Times Of Uncertainty

When I left work in early 2012, the S&P 500 had recovered about 70% of its losses from the financial crisis. The real estate market was still in the dumps, so I still had concerns we’d relapse into a recession.

Instead of going naked long, I used 100% of my severance check to buy a DJIA structured note that provided principal protection in exchange for only receiving a 0.5% annual dividend yield. The note offered 100% upside participation of the DJIA over the next six years.

Not only did the S&P 500 do well since 2012, the San Francisco real estate market also began to recover.

Only a fool would be unable to stay comfortably retired if they left work in 2012. Luckily I ain’t no fool.

If you read the FS archives, you’ll know that I’ve been relatively conservative with my public investment portfolio since 2012. I’ve written my goal in retirement is to shoot for a return equal to 2X – 3X the risk-free rate of return. In other words, when the 10-year bond yield was at 2%, I was looking for a 4% – 6% public investment portfolio return.

With a 4% – 6% annual target, I never went beyond a 75% equity weighting in my portfolio since 2012. Further, a large part of my equity investments were in structured notes that had downside protection with sometimes capped upside and sometimes leveraged upside like the one here. My goal was to try and sleep as soundly each night without letting investing FOMO get the best of me.

With an average synthetic equity weighting of around 70% since 2012, my public investment portfolio ended up returning closer to 8.6% compounded. With $0 contribution, my public investment portfolio would be up 65% at that rate of return.

But since 2012, I made several fortuitous moves:

1) Bought and remodeled a ocean view fixer in 2014 that is up about 40% based on a comp that just sold last month. At the time, a large CD came due and I was bored of my old neighborhood so I took some risk and leveraged up another $1,000,000.

2) Held onto my previous primary residence that I tried to sell in 2012. By holding it until mid-2017, it grew at a compound return of 11.3%. Since the property was 55% leveraged on average, the cash on cash return was closer to 23% a year for five years.

3) Stayed consistent writing on Financial Samurai 3X a week. As a result, Financial Samurai has grown at a faster clip than the property I sold because there’s been some lucky breaks.

All of these investments have been heavily boosted by a bull market since I left work. If a bear market struck after I left, the only item that may have continued to perform well may have been Financial Samurai.

Given my content is more measured since I’ve written extensively about the dotbomb period and the 2008-2009 financial crisis, I suspect FS would attract more readers during slow times compared to sites that only discussed the good times. Experience matters during downturns. Further, sales for my severance negotiation book would likely increase as well due to job uncertainty.

If a bear market hit within two years after I left work in 2012, I’d give myself an 70% chance that I would have aggressively tried to find a full-time job again. At the very least, I’d consult for some fintech companies part-time.

Don’t Get Too Greedy

If you are close to financial independence or were able to retire, it’s not worth taking excess risk when you could potentially lose a lot of time and money.

Please do not forecast the good times will last forever. You’ve got to bake in some flat or negative returns when you do your retirement modeling.

You must always stay on top of your risk exposure. If you can continuously save in retirement while doing something to keep you active that makes money, all the better.

Given we’re still considered in a bull market, you might as well keep on milking the good times until a bear market arrives.

If you can retire in a bear market, then your finances will have been thoroughly battle tested so you can remain retired forever. Besides, when times are bad, it’s easier to leave things behind.

In a scenario where you have so much money it doesn’t matter when you retire, then feel free to leave whenever you want.

Readers, at what stage in the economic cycle do you think it’s best to retire and why? At what stage is it easiest to say goodbye?

Related: The Ideal Financial Scenario In Retirement: Low Volatility, Steady Returns

The post Why It’s Better To Retire In A Bear Market Than In A Bull Market appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Finance https://www.financialsamurai.com/why-its-better-to-retire-in-a-bear-market-than-in-a-bull-market/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[mcjoelcain]

Why It’s Better To Retire In A Bear Market Than In A Bull Market

Living a comfortable retirement life is all about managing expectations. You generally don’t need as much as you think to be happy because the freedom you gain more than makes up for lost income.

However, if you retire at the top of a bull market, and don’t change your risk profile, you’re screwed. The day you retire will be about as good as it gets.

If you retire at the bottom of a bear market, even if you change your risk profile to be conservative, your financial days will likely only get better. A recovery makes retirement living so much easier.

No matter how good we get at forecasting the future, we tend to extrapolate too positively for too long when times are good. While those who retire in a bear market will likely forecast lower returns than reality.

Retiring In A Bear Market

Let’s say you retired with a $3 million in after-tax investments in 2012 that excludes the equity in your primary residence. Your $3 million is spitting out a comfortable $120,000 in gross passive income each year. 50% of your $3 million is in real estate while the other 50% is in a 50/50 stock and bond portfolio.

After tax, your $120,000 turns into $100,000 and you only spend $70,000 because you’re not 100% sure you’ll be able to stay retired. Besides, when you have no mortgage and no kids to support, $70,000 a year is more than enough, even in a high cost of living city.

Instead of earning a 10%+ return a year as the S&P has done since 2012, you only been able to earn a 6% return given your more conservative stock portfolio and lower leverage in your real estate portfolio.

After 6 years at a 6% compound rate of return with $30,000 a year in savings, your $3 million portfolio grows to $4,800,000. Applying the same 4% withdrawal rate, you’re now able to comfortably earn or withdraw $192,000 a year in gross passive income.

After tax, the $192,000 turns into about $155,000, which means if you stick with your $70,000 a year budget, you can now save $85,000 a year instead of just $30,000.

Clearly, it’s time for you to get more conservative with your investments because your after-tax passive income is 2X your budget. Meanwhile, your net worth is almost 70X your annual after-tax expenses.

Retiring During A Raging Bull Market

Let’s say you’ve decided to retire with $3 million after 10 years of up, up, up in the S&P 500 and real estate market where you own a couple rental properties. 70% of your $3 million is in a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio.

Your portfolio also spits out a comfortable $120,000 a year in gross passive income or $100,000 net passive income. You forecast you’ll earn at least $120,000 a year in gross passive income for the next 10 years because you believe your investments will grow by at least 3%, the current risk-free rate of return.

It’s important for you to continue earning $120,000 gross/$100,000 net in order to maintain your retirement lifestyle and pay for your 8th grader’s college tuition.

Your expenses are a little higher than the previous couple at $90,000 a year versus $70,000 a year as a result. But at least you still have a $10,000 a year cash flow buffer, which equals 11.1% of your annual after-tax spend. Not bad, but not so good when a bear market strikes.

Let’s say within six months after you retire, the S&P 500 corrects by 10%. The only way you could have earned 3.2% is if you invested 100% of your $3 million in to 10-year treasury bonds. But you didn’t with a 60/40 equity/fixed income portfolio. Meanwhile, a tenant vacates and one of your rentals is left empty for four months before you can find a tenant for 10% less than the previous rent. Your after-tax investments are now worth about $2.7 million.

At a 4% withdrawal rate, your $2.7 million portfolio can only produce about $108,000 in gross passive income, or about $88,000 a year after tax. No longer do you have a $10,000 a year cash flow buffer, you’ve now got a $2,000 annual deficit.

But 10% is only considered a correction, not a bear market, so let’s keep going. After tightening up spending to $78,000 from $90,000 since you always want to save $10,000 a year, the S&P 500 and real estate market keep correcting by another 10%. Down 20% is officially the start of a bear market. Your $2.7 million now shrinks to $2.43 million.

At a 4% withdrawal rate, your $2.43 million portfolio can only produce $97,200 a year in gross passive income, or about $80,000 after tax. Now your lifestyle is really getting crunched. You start to wonder whether the declines will ever end.

But of course, a 20% decline in the stock market and real estate market isn’t uncommon. For good measure, let’s model in another 10% decline. Now your $2.43 million portfolio shrinks to $2.18 million, meaning it can only generate about $87,000 gross or $71,000 in net passive income.

With a $70,000 a year college bill (tuition, room, board, transportation, books) just a year away, there is really no choice but to go back to work, do part-time work, or draw down principle. No matter how frugal you get, it’s not enough.

Retiring During Times Of Uncertainty

When I left work in early 2012, the S&P 500 had recovered about 70% of its losses from the financial crisis. The real estate market was still in the dumps, so I still had concerns we’d relapse into a recession.

Instead of going naked long, I used 100% of my severance check to buy a DJIA structured note that provided principal protection in exchange for only receiving a 0.5% annual dividend yield. The note offered 100% upside participation of the DJIA over the next six years.

Not only did the S&P 500 do well since 2012, the San Francisco real estate market also began to recover.

Only a fool would be unable to stay comfortably retired if they left work in 2012. Luckily I ain’t no fool.

If you read the FS archives, you’ll know that I’ve been relatively conservative with my public investment portfolio since 2012. I’ve written my goal in retirement is to shoot for a return equal to 2X – 3X the risk-free rate of return. In other words, when the 10-year bond yield was at 2%, I was looking for a 4% – 6% public investment portfolio return.

With a 4% – 6% annual target, I never went beyond a 75% equity weighting in my portfolio since 2012. Further, a large part of my equity investments were in structured notes that had downside protection with sometimes capped upside and sometimes leveraged upside like the one here. My goal was to try and sleep as soundly each night without letting investing FOMO get the best of me.

With an average synthetic equity weighting of around 70% since 2012, my public investment portfolio ended up returning closer to 8.6% compounded. With $0 contribution, my public investment portfolio would be up 65% at that rate of return.

But since 2012, I made several fortuitous moves:

1) Bought and remodeled a ocean view fixer in 2014 that is up about 40% based on a comp that just sold last month. At the time, a large CD came due and I was bored of my old neighborhood so I took some risk and leveraged up another $1,000,000.

2) Held onto my previous primary residence that I tried to sell in 2012. By holding it until mid-2017, it grew at a compound return of 11.3%. Since the property was 55% leveraged on average, the cash on cash return was closer to 23% a year for five years.

3) Stayed consistent writing on Financial Samurai 3X a week. As a result, Financial Samurai has grown at a faster clip than the property I sold because there’s been some lucky breaks.

All of these investments have been heavily boosted by a bull market since I left work. If a bear market struck after I left, the only item that may have continued to perform well may have been Financial Samurai.

Given my content is more measured since I’ve written extensively about the dotbomb period and the 2008-2009 financial crisis, I suspect FS would attract more readers during slow times compared to sites that only discussed the good times. Experience matters during downturns. Further, sales for my severance negotiation book would likely increase as well due to job uncertainty.

If a bear market hit within two years after I left work in 2012, I’d give myself an 70% chance that I would have aggressively tried to find a full-time job again. At the very least, I’d consult for some fintech companies part-time.

Don’t Get Too Greedy

If you are close to financial independence or were able to retire, it’s not worth taking excess risk when you could potentially lose a lot of time and money.

Please do not forecast the good times will last forever. You’ve got to bake in some flat or negative returns when you do your retirement modeling.

You must always stay on top of your risk exposure. If you can continuously save in retirement while doing something to keep you active that makes money, all the better.

Given we’re still considered in a bull market, you might as well keep on milking the good times until a bear market arrives.

If you can retire in a bear market, then your finances will have been thoroughly battle tested so you can remain retired forever. Besides, when times are bad, it’s easier to leave things behind.

In a scenario where you have so much money it doesn’t matter when you retire, then feel free to leave whenever you want.

Readers, at what stage in the economic cycle do you think it’s best to retire and why? At what stage is it easiest to say goodbye?

Related: The Ideal Financial Scenario In Retirement: Low Volatility, Steady Returns

The post Why It’s Better To Retire In A Bear Market Than In A Bull Market appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Money https://www.financialsamurai.com/why-its-better-to-retire-in-a-bear-market-than-in-a-bull-market/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[ronaldmrashid]

Why It’s Better To Retire In A Bear Market Than In A Bull Market

Living a comfortable retirement life is all about managing expectations. You generally don’t need as much as you think to be happy because the freedom you gain more than makes up for lost income.

However, if you retire at the top of a bull market, and don’t change your risk profile, you’re screwed. The day you retire will be about as good as it gets.

If you retire at the bottom of a bear market, even if you change your risk profile to be conservative, your financial days will likely only get better. A recovery makes retirement living so much easier.

No matter how good we get at forecasting the future, we tend to extrapolate too positively for too long when times are good. While those who retire in a bear market will likely forecast lower returns than reality.

Retiring In A Bear Market

Let’s say you retired with a $3 million in after-tax investments in 2012 that excludes the equity in your primary residence. Your $3 million is spitting out a comfortable $120,000 in gross passive income each year. 50% of your $3 million is in real estate while the other 50% is in a 50/50 stock and bond portfolio.

After tax, your $120,000 turns into $100,000 and you only spend $70,000 because you’re not 100% sure you’ll be able to stay retired. Besides, when you have no mortgage and no kids to support, $70,000 a year is more than enough, even in a high cost of living city.

Instead of earning a 10%+ return a year as the S&P has done since 2012, you only been able to earn a 6% return given your more conservative stock portfolio and lower leverage in your real estate portfolio.

After 6 years at a 6% compound rate of return with $30,000 a year in savings, your $3 million portfolio grows to $4,800,000. Applying the same 4% withdrawal rate, you’re now able to comfortably earn or withdraw $192,000 a year in gross passive income.

After tax, the $192,000 turns into about $155,000, which means if you stick with your $70,000 a year budget, you can now save $85,000 a year instead of just $30,000.

Clearly, it’s time for you to get more conservative with your investments because your after-tax passive income is 2X your budget. Meanwhile, your net worth is almost 70X your annual after-tax expenses.

Retiring During A Raging Bull Market

Let’s say you’ve decided to retire with $3 million after 10 years of up, up, up in the S&P 500 and real estate market where you own a couple rental properties. 70% of your $3 million is in a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio.

Your portfolio also spits out a comfortable $120,000 a year in gross passive income or $100,000 net passive income. You forecast you’ll earn at least $120,000 a year in gross passive income for the next 10 years because you believe your investments will grow by at least 3%, the current risk-free rate of return.

It’s important for you to continue earning $120,000 gross/$100,000 net in order to maintain your retirement lifestyle and pay for your 8th grader’s college tuition.

Your expenses are a little higher than the previous couple at $90,000 a year versus $70,000 a year as a result. But at least you still have a $10,000 a year cash flow buffer, which equals 11.1% of your annual after-tax spend. Not bad, but not so good when a bear market strikes.

Let’s say within six months after you retire, the S&P 500 corrects by 10%. The only way you could have earned 3.2% is if you invested 100% of your $3 million in to 10-year treasury bonds. But you didn’t with a 60/40 equity/fixed income portfolio. Meanwhile, a tenant vacates and one of your rentals is left empty for four months before you can find a tenant for 10% less than the previous rent. Your after-tax investments are now worth about $2.7 million.

At a 4% withdrawal rate, your $2.7 million portfolio can only produce about $108,000 in gross passive income, or about $88,000 a year after tax. No longer do you have a $10,000 a year cash flow buffer, you’ve now got a $2,000 annual deficit.

But 10% is only considered a correction, not a bear market, so let’s keep going. After tightening up spending to $78,000 from $90,000 since you always want to save $10,000 a year, the S&P 500 and real estate market keep correcting by another 10%. Down 20% is officially the start of a bear market. Your $2.7 million now shrinks to $2.43 million.

At a 4% withdrawal rate, your $2.43 million portfolio can only produce $97,200 a year in gross passive income, or about $80,000 after tax. Now your lifestyle is really getting crunched. You start to wonder whether the declines will ever end.

But of course, a 20% decline in the stock market and real estate market isn’t uncommon. For good measure, let’s model in another 10% decline. Now your $2.43 million portfolio shrinks to $2.18 million, meaning it can only generate about $87,000 gross or $71,000 in net passive income.

With a $70,000 a year college bill (tuition, room, board, transportation, books) just a year away, there is really no choice but to go back to work, do part-time work, or draw down principle. No matter how frugal you get, it’s not enough.

Retiring During Times Of Uncertainty

When I left work in early 2012, the S&P 500 had recovered about 70% of its losses from the financial crisis. The real estate market was still in the dumps, so I still had concerns we’d relapse into a recession.

Instead of going naked long, I used 100% of my severance check to buy a DJIA structured note that provided principal protection in exchange for only receiving a 0.5% annual dividend yield. The note offered 100% upside participation of the DJIA over the next six years.

Not only did the S&P 500 do well since 2012, the San Francisco real estate market also began to recover.

Only a fool would be unable to stay comfortably retired if they left work in 2012. Luckily I ain’t no fool.

If you read the FS archives, you’ll know that I’ve been relatively conservative with my public investment portfolio since 2012. I’ve written my goal in retirement is to shoot for a return equal to 2X – 3X the risk-free rate of return. In other words, when the 10-year bond yield was at 2%, I was looking for a 4% – 6% public investment portfolio return.

With a 4% – 6% annual target, I never went beyond a 75% equity weighting in my portfolio since 2012. Further, a large part of my equity investments were in structured notes that had downside protection with sometimes capped upside and sometimes leveraged upside like the one here. My goal was to try and sleep as soundly each night without letting investing FOMO get the best of me.

With an average synthetic equity weighting of around 70% since 2012, my public investment portfolio ended up returning closer to 8.6% compounded. With $0 contribution, my public investment portfolio would be up 65% at that rate of return.

But since 2012, I made several fortuitous moves:

1) Bought and remodeled a ocean view fixer in 2014 that is up about 40% based on a comp that just sold last month. At the time, a large CD came due and I was bored of my old neighborhood so I took some risk and leveraged up another $1,000,000.

2) Held onto my previous primary residence that I tried to sell in 2012. By holding it until mid-2017, it grew at a compound return of 11.3%. Since the property was 55% leveraged on average, the cash on cash return was closer to 23% a year for five years.

3) Stayed consistent writing on Financial Samurai 3X a week. As a result, Financial Samurai has grown at a faster clip than the property I sold because there’s been some lucky breaks.

All of these investments have been heavily boosted by a bull market since I left work. If a bear market struck after I left, the only item that may have continued to perform well may have been Financial Samurai.

Given my content is more measured since I’ve written extensively about the dotbomb period and the 2008-2009 financial crisis, I suspect FS would attract more readers during slow times compared to sites that only discussed the good times. Experience matters during downturns. Further, sales for my severance negotiation book would likely increase as well due to job uncertainty.

If a bear market hit within two years after I left work in 2012, I’d give myself an 70% chance that I would have aggressively tried to find a full-time job again. At the very least, I’d consult for some fintech companies part-time.

Don’t Get Too Greedy

If you are close to financial independence or were able to retire, it’s not worth taking excess risk when you could potentially lose a lot of time and money.

Please do not forecast the good times will last forever. You’ve got to bake in some flat or negative returns when you do your retirement modeling.

You must always stay on top of your risk exposure. If you can continuously save in retirement while doing something to keep you active that makes money, all the better.

Given we’re still considered in a bull market, you might as well keep on milking the good times until a bear market arrives.

If you can retire in a bear market, then your finances will have been thoroughly battle tested so you can remain retired forever. Besides, when times are bad, it’s easier to leave things behind.

In a scenario where you have so much money it doesn’t matter when you retire, then feel free to leave whenever you want.

Readers, at what stage in the economic cycle do you think it’s best to retire and why? At what stage is it easiest to say goodbye?

Related: The Ideal Financial Scenario In Retirement: Low Volatility, Steady Returns

The post Why It’s Better To Retire In A Bear Market Than In A Bull Market appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/why-its-better-to-retire-in-a-bear-market-than-in-a-bull-market/

[lindyhunt]

The Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce

The first ecommerce sale was made in 1994 … and can you guess what it was?

It was a Sting CD.

Dan Kohn, a 21-year-old who ran a website called NetMarket, sold Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales CD to a friend who purchased it with his credit card for $12.48 plus shipping costs. These exchanges are what we know as ecommerce today: Sales of services and goods made through the internet.

Ecommerce has come a long way since 1994, and it’s growing as more shoppers turn to devices and computers as the primary tools for discovering and buying new products. Let’s take a deeper look at what ecommerce is and the growth trends around it, as well as some basic getting started tips.

Ecommerce Trends in 2018

The biggest trend around ecommerce right now is growth — and that growth extends far and wide.

U.S. Ecommerce Growth

Ecommerce has seen tremendous growth within the U.S. in the last 10 years. In fact, data from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that in 2017, U.S. ecommerce sales grew faster than it had since 2011 and that it represented 49% of the growth in total retail sales. That growth trend isn’t slowing down, either. Statista data predicts that ecommerce revenue will surpass $638 billion in the U.S. by 2022.

Image source

Global Ecommerce Growth

Global ecommerce is rapidly growing, too. Emarketer trend data indicates that retail ecommerce sales may exceed $4.058 trillion by as soon as 2020. As more shoppers look for products across borders and from international marketplaces, an uptick in ecommerce sales is evident around the globe.

The Nielsen Connected Commerce report said, “Shoppers are increasingly looking outside their country’s borders, as 57% of online respondents in the study who made an online purchase in the past six months say they bought from an overseas retailer.”

Ecommerce Growth by Category

ComScore data indicates there are a few particular industries seeing rapid change in regard to retail ecommerce growth. Jewelry and watches was at the top of the growth chart (as of 2016) with 39% growth, followed by furniture, appliances, and equipment (26%), and video games/accessories (24%).

  Image source

With this foundation of understanding around ecommerce, let’s now move on to some best practices and tips around the world of online sales.

Benefits of Ecommerce

Ecommerce is not a trend, and it isn’t going away any time soon. The reason is that selling goods and services on the internet highly benefits both the seller and the buyer. Here’s why. 

Benefits to the buyer:

Convenience

Quicker and easier transactions

Informed purchasing decisions

Easier price and product comparisons

Improved delivery process

Targeted communication 

Benefits to the seller:

Lower overhead costs due to the elimination of brick and mortar locations

The ability to sell goods around-the-clock (versus traditional store hours)

Ability to reach customers beyond geographical location

More control over the selling process and tracking, especially if there’s one portal that handles point-of-sale (POS)

Greater visibility to potential customers via SEO

More control over personnel costs and inventory management

Types of Ecommerce

There are three classifications of ecommerce. The classification depends on who is selling to who.

Business to Business (B2B)

Goods and services are sold from one company to another. For example, HubSpot provides products to other companies that are looking to grow better.

Business to Consumer (B2C)

A business sells to a customer. This is one of the most common types of ecommerce. An example would be an online clothing store or the online segment of some popular brick and mortar business, like Walmart or Target.

Consumer to Consumer (C2C)

As you may have guessed — consumers sell directly to consumer via online marketplaces. Craigslist, Ebay, and Amazon are all examples of C2C ecommerce.

Best Practices for Ecommerce Websites

When you’re ready to build an inbound ecommerce website, there are a few best practices to keep in mind that will help you get results out of your time and effort.

1. Select and customize a mobile-friendly theme.

BrightEdge data shows that more than half (57%) of web traffic now comes from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets — which means it’s essential to use a mobile-friendly theme when building your ecommerce website.

Image source

On ecommerce platforms, you can browse a selection of free and premium themes (all of which are mobile-optimized) and find one that’s best suited for your needs. Plus: From there, you can customize the templated website theme. By adding your color scheme and branding elements (like your logo), you can make your ecommerce website look 100% custom-made.

Take a look at this Shopify template example:

Image source

2. Optimize for the web.

Web optimization encompasses a wide range of strategies and tactics that help convert more site visitors into customers, but let’s focus on two in particular:

Write enticing product descriptions. Use persuasive copywriting triggers to make your product descriptions sell. That means tapping into psychological tactics like fear of missing out, reciprocity, exclusivity, and more — all of which encourage site visitors to buy (and to buy NOW).

Add beautiful product images. When it comes to marketing, visuals are extremely important — especially for online buyers who can’t see or touch products before making a purchase. Along with static product images, add context by incorporating images of models using the product and videos that give customers a 360-degree view.

3. Create a stellar customer experience.

Research indicates that customer experience will overtake price and product as the primary brand differentiator for sales by 2020. This means it’s important to focus on creating an impressive customer experience across all of your brand’s various touchpoints.

A few ideas to get you started:

Add a FAQ page. Answering frequently asked questions on your ecommerce website helps potential customers quickly and easily find the information they need to complete a purchase.

Reduce image sizes for quick load times. Survey data shows more than half of website visitors expect a page to load in less than two seconds. At more than three seconds, they leave the page (and aren’t likely to return.) Reduce the size of your on-site images so it loads quickly.

Leverage user-generated content. Including user-generated content (think customer reviews, images from social media, and testimonials) on your ecommerce site means adding elements of social proof — which can improve the overall buying experience for customers.

Ecommerce Marketing Best Practices

What do you need to know about marketing for an ecommerce business? Here are a few best practices that can help jumpstart your efforts.

Test social media ads.

With 1.18 billion daily active users, Facebook has a huge audience that can be tapped. Consider targeting your audience with social media posts and videos and experiment to see what works best and drives sales and revenue.

Collect email addresses and stay in touch.

Recent data shows that three-quarters of companies agree that email marketing offers "excellent" to "good" ROI. By collecting email addresses on-site and asking customers to opt-in to future communications from you, you can give visitors a reason to keep coming back to your ecommerce site again and again via offers, sales, VIP discounts, and more.

Use personalization to tailor offers/messaging.

Personalization is more important than ever for online shoppers. In fact, research shows 74% of online consumers get frustrated with websites when offers, ads, and promotions appear that have nothing to do with their interests. Make sure you’re leveraging personalized product suggestions, personalizing your email marketing efforts, and generally striving to make each customer feel like you’re speaking only to him or her.

Gather feedback via surveys.

The best way to keep a finger on the pulse of what your audience wants is to ask them. Leverage online surveys to gather feedback on everything from product to your marketing efforts to customer service interactions.

How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Software

When searching for the best ecommerce platform and software to meet your needs, there are many factors to consider. Look for:

Themes and customization abilities: You should be able to customize ready-made themes that allow you to personalize and add company branding.

Domain name customization: Make sure you can get a custom domain name and URL (so you don’t have to include the platform’s name in your website URL).

Expert, 24/7 support: Take the time to explore the platform’s service in detail. If an emergency crops up down the road, you want to be sure you’ll have fast, reliable support at a moment’s notice.

Flexible payment options: Customers want to pay in a variety of ways today — from credit cards to digital wallets and beyond. Look for an ecommerce software solution that is flexible enough to support many different secure payment options.

Multiple language abilities: Your customers may be coming from all over the world, so you need to be able to speak their language. It’s a good idea to work with a tool that supports many different languages.

If you're looking to start a business or want to switch from your current platform, consider the software options below:

Examples of Inspiring Shopify Ecommerce Stores

Not sure what your ecommerce store should look like? Here are a few examples of inspiring stores to help get your creative wheels turning.

Tattly

Because Tattly offers a product that’s highly visual in nature, they’ve opted for a theme that’s photo-centric. This lets new visitors quickly get acquainted with the product offering and provides a few different paths for deeper product exploration, too.

Graydon Skincare

Graydon Skincare uses a website layout with a large rotating header image that helps communicate a feeling around the brand and product. The images feature different products sold by the brand, and the simple top navigation makes it easy for customers to quickly find what they’re looking for.

18Waits

18Waits also uses large rotating photos on the home page of their ecommerce store — but they sometimes integrate them with promotional offers. This helps shoppers visualize themselves wearing the product, while also enticing them to check out a special sale going on, too. Overall, the theme they’ve used is fairly minimal, which puts all the focus on the photography.

Easy Tiger

Speaking of minimal … Easy Tiger takes minimal design to the extreme. With a clean white background and no distracting design elements, all the focus is on their products. The red text also pops from the screen, making it easy to read and consume.

BluKicks

BluKicks also uses an image-centric approach on their homepage with quick navigation to product types. The lifestyle-type images they spotlight here communicate a certain feeling to shoppers — and ups the beachy charm of their product.

Sales Tax

Now, you might be worried about how sales tax should be incorporated into your online sales. Let’s look at a state-by-state breakdown of sales tax. There are five states that do not currently collect sales tax: Delaware, Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire, and Alaska.

Sales Tax by State

State

Tax Rate

Alabama

4.00%

Alaska

0.00%

Arizona

5.60%

Arkansas

6.50%

California

7.25%

Colorado

2.90%

Connecticut

6.35%

Delaware

0.00%

Florida

6.00%

Georgia

4.00%

Hawaii

4.00%

Idaho

6.00%

Illinois

6.25%

Indiana

7.00%

Iowa

6.00%

Kansas

6.50%

Kentucky

6.00%

Louisiana

5.00%

Maine

5.50%

Maryland

6.00%

Massachusetts

6.25%

Michigan

6.00%

Minnesota

6.875%

Mississippi

7.00%

Missouri

4.225%

Montana

0.00%

Nebraska

5.50%

Nevada

6.85%

New Hampshire

0.00%

New Jersey

6.625%

New Mexico

5.125%

New York

4.00%

North Carolina

4.75%

North Dakota

5.00%

Ohio

5.75%

Oklahoma

4.50%

Oregon

0.00%

Pennsylvania

6.00%

Rhode Island

7.00%

South Carolina

6.00%

South Dakota

4.50%

Tennessee

7.00%

Texas

6.25%

Utah

5.95%

Vermont

6.00%

Virginia

5.30%

Washington

6.50%

West Virginia

6.00%

Wisconsin

5.00%

Wyoming

4.00%

D.C.

5.75%

  Source: Based on 2018 Data. Refer to State's Department of Revenue for up-to-date rates.

The Future of Ecommerce Sales tax is a hot topic in the news right now — and the Supreme Court may be making changes to the policies for ecommerce retailers. Be sure to stay up-to-date on the latest laws and regulations.

The future of ecommerce is a bright one, and with the right strategy and tools, launching an online business can be easier than you ever imagined. Tap into the audience of engaged online shoppers and get your piece of the growing ecommerce pie.

[kutee-boutique-fan-blog]

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Sweater, Hoodie, Longsleeve T-Shirt

Do you love it? https://kuteeboutique.com/shop/rudolph-and-clarice-ugly-christmas-sweater/

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Sweater, Hoodie, Longsleeve T-Shirt

You know, Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Sweater,  I get people being upset about preorders not coming, but Taylor doesn’t control that. Target or whatever does. She doesn’t ship them out herself and maybe it’s back ordered, lots of us preordered. Shipping in general is slow this time of year because of more people ordering early to get Christmas shopping and all done too. It’s not her fault. Who lives out of the country and wants one? I ordered 2 extra and I can see how much shipping costs if you want it. In Vietnam , a female singer has just called Taylor by the name : Snake.

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Sweater, Hoodie, Ladies T-Shirt

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Hoodie

Her name is Uyen Linh . Searching her name and you can see her and look what she did. Can someone please answer this, just bought the album and the last song “New Years day,” sounds off ? Is it just the style of the instruments on this track or did I get a bad cd? Purchase it at target but the last song seems off instrumental wise almost like it’s skipping the bass or piano or guitar wtvr sounds weird (sorry not a musician if I’m using wrong terminology) I remember watching her live performance and the piano part sounded very pronounced but the track it sounds super off… is it just me? Someone respond thanks!

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Guys Tee

If you decided that you loved me and found/bought me both the magazines when you’re in florida/travellig in the states – i would definitely not hate you for it (i would pay you back). Omg Taylor I love your album, the only artists that loves their fans and the one that truelly gets out there to see their fans in stores and such. Much love to you and your cats Taylor swift ! we cannot get this sent to the UK! I hope there are some still available when I visit the US in December!  I bought 2 UK magazine versions at 54 pounds including delivery… Now all I want is the promised higher chance to get the tour tickets.

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Ladies Tee

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Sweater, V-Neck, Tank-Top, Long Sleeve T-Shirt

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Ladies V Neck

I wish I would have checked Facebook before running errands, I bought vol. 2 for $20 at Target today. Oh well, Taylor, shut up and take my money! That’s nice for others but I paid full price on Saturday! Then only on wait list for preordering tickets. Oh my goodness this is priming the pump. I mean I’m not a hater but this is a sales tactic for that first week number. It’s a $7 dollar cut making the total for 2 $26 as opposed to $40. Meaning it’s almost a 2 for one so if you’d like to collect the magazines this is perfect way but it also means 2 more units shifted. I mean obviously a lot of fans are upset if you read these comments but i guess it will work.

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Unisex Tank Top

And only at Target, not everyone has the convenience of a local target.Such a limited marketing idea. This can be pretty plain next to the most common stuff.Results in me on this mountain of hollow feeling, just cannot put my finger on it. pity they cant even get the album out to people on time! got no chance for this lot to the UK!��terrible service Taylor Swift. Bought version #2 for my daughter’s Birthday….thank you for the sale cause we have medical issues. Okay waiting for my pre-order from August, could not wait anymore. Purchased today at Target, now I will have two!

Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Unisex Longsleeve Tee

Wished I would have known that instead of paying $20 each on the day the album cane outYou are very greedy your music supposed to be for everyone not just for money I think it’s not good enough for you all the great Sell of your albume around the world some people can afford to buy it and you are so greedy to let people enjoy your music for free. Rudolph And Clarice Ugly Christmas Sweater. i love you Taylor Sweet, i want to be with you and take care of you but i don’t know how to make it happen. Free money!  Who can use some extra bread? All u got to do is have people to visit your website or they can sign up for free. No up front pay or nothing.

[digitaliskingfashionisqueen]

Marginal users & magnets to get them

Not every customer who visits your website or physical store is willing to buy immediately. In fact, it takes time to build trust and prove your value. In some industries, it takes less time to build trust, while in other cases building trust can require up to a few month or more before you are able to sell to the customer. The more your business is innovative and strange, the more skeptical most people will be towards you. So get used to the fact that you’ll have to spend some time building trust. Another fact to be noted is that a very high percentage of visitors never return to a website as per the web statistics analysis.

If you have already developed your sales funnel, it means you know what action you want potential customers to take when they visit your website, physical store, or have interaction with you in any other way. You may want them to buy a product, pay for a service, sign up to your pre-order list, become your beta user, come to your special event, etc. But what you do if they quit your website or physical store without completing your desired action? They basically quit your sales funnel even without entering it. Whatever your initial goal is, you have a chance to increase your conversion rate by focusing your attention on marginal users and setting up compelling lead magnets for them.

When it comes to driving growth, people who are already using your product are not the ones you have to worry about the most. Yes, they are important, but they already know and trust in you and your product. What you need to focus on is the marginal user, the potential customer or user that is close to making a purchase decision, but doesn’t make it without additional encouragement. Simply stated, you know there is a certain number of potential customers who are not yet using your product or who don’t know even about it, and there are paying customers. If you make a list of your paying customers, the marginal users would be those who you would write down somewhere outside the margin. They are not paying yet, but they are close enough and might convert at any time.

A lead magnet is a tempting offer that provides a very specific value to highly a targeted customer segment (marginal users, in this case). In other words, when you offer your lead magnet, you give an ethical bribe or gift (call it what you like it) in exchange for their contact information. The main goal of such lead capturing is to secure the marginal users’ contact information so that you can get them into your sales funnel and start building a relationship and trust. So instead of doing nothing and continuing to lose your website visitors who don’t buy and never return back, offer them a tempting lead magnet as soon as they visit your website and once again when they are trying to leave. Different studies report that well-developed lead magnets can result in up to 20 to 60 % conversion depending on the industry and some other variables. So, just imagine what a tremendous effect that could bring to your startup if your average sales conversion is just 2% or even less. According to Marketo, Forrester, and CSO Insights, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales at 33% lower cost per lead (Jean Marie Bonthous).

Identify your most important marginal users

In order to create effective lead magnets, you must first identify your marginal users, those potential customers who are the most likely to convert into paying customers. You should be able to identify where your marginal users are and get some insights about how you could reach them. Try to figure out what potential customers do and feel in each stage of your sales funnel, what do they want, need, or dream about? Decide on how your products or services can satisfy those needs.

Online marketing traditionally suggests developing different lead magnets for each stage of your sales funnel. Therefore, it’s quite common to identify your marginal users (hottest potential prospects) at the beginning of your sales funnel (for example, they might be first-time visitors to your website). You also need to think about who you should target at the end of your sales funnel, for example, when you’ve employed every marketing effort you can but these potential customers still didn’t buy. So, who are they and what do they really want? You should also consider any sales funnel stage in between. Identify at which stages of the sales funnel potential customers might be already close enough to make a purchase decision or, on the contrary, at what stage are you losing most potential prospects without having a chance to reach them again. Who are these people and what would encourage them to buy your product?

For any early stage startup business, I would pay attention to at least two main groups of marginal users. First, you should really be concerned about bringing as many potential customers to your sales funnel as possible. Therefore a lead magnet for marginal users who get in contact with you, your product, or brand for the very first time is a must. Once you have a well-tested lead magnet for this group of marginal users, it’s time to check those customers who already bought from you but who didn’t become loyal or repeat customers, and those who were your repeat customers, but who don’t make purchases anymore.

The main part of this task is to set criteria for how you can identify the different types of marginal users. Once you have that done, let’s get down to creating lead magnets to hook them.

Decide on lead magnet type

The best-performing lead magnets add great value to the potential customer by satisfying their specific need or solving their problem. These lead magnets appeal to the target audience because they provide a much-needed service, valuable information, guidelines on how to solve a problem, and so on. The best lead magnets do not seek to answer all of a customer’s questions, but very specific ones. Lead magnets can be of different forms, but all of them can be delivered or at least ordered through your website. Here are a few of the most common types of lead magnets that you might consider adopting for your startup:

Cheat sheets are well-designed short tips, lists, or worksheets that help customers solve a specific problem. But, be aware, even though it looks easy to prepare a cheat sheet (it is short and simple), this lead magnet used by itself is less effective. Therefore, think about how you could reinforce a cheat sheet. Combining it with any additional type of lead magnet (for example, a free video training or an eBook) could bring significant results.

Free training can include videos, workbooks, courses sent by email or done on specific platforms, or any combination of these. If your marginal users have problems that require multiple steps to get to a final solution, free training might be an ideal lead magnet. If you could show step-by-step training on how to solve at least a small piece of a general problem, it could be a very effective lead magnet to attract those potential customers who really want to solve the main problem. The lead magnet will give them real value (by solving a small piece of the problem) and will generate more trust towards your products and services.

Free templates might generate lots of targeted leads, you just have to be sure your templates support what you are selling and don’t replace it. Templates as a lead magnet can be used in many startup businesses because they can consist of nearly anything you can imagine, from spreadsheets to videos. I used templates as a lead magnet to promote this post, and I started collecting leads before I had written a single post. Without spending anything on advertising, I collected more than a thousand qualified leads. If people are downloading templates that are useful for developing a startup business, they might be also interested in reading my post about startup marketing. So when my post was ready to be published, I already had a solid list of marginal users. Maybe you were one of them and I sincerely thank you for that.

Swipe files contain good ideas and examples of things that your marginal user could use in practice.

Toolkits can be a little more complex to produce because they are filled with resources that usually include one or two e-books and a worksheet, a video, or a checklist.

If you are short of ideas what value you could share for free with your marginal users, take a look at these additional types of lead magnets:

Free product or service

Free tickets to live events

Product samples

Product giveaways

E-books

Audiobooks

Checklists

Worksheets

Workbooks

Test or quiz

Case study

Free consultation

Coupon for special deal

Free shipping

Audio CDs

Mini-courses

Video courses

Audio courses 19. Email courses

Webinar with live Q&A

Webinar replays

Cheat sheets

Guides

Mind maps

Process flow diagrams

Resource lists

Tip lists and sheets

FAQ sheets

Planners

Specific calendars

Action plans

Spreadsheets

PowerPoint download

Starter kits

Scripts

Industry reports

Predictions and forecasts

Infographics

Calculators

Generators

Recorded video events

Transcripts

Branded, promo materials

Acceptance to Facebook group or any other members area

Access to library

Mobile games and apps

Recipes and other kinds of regular advice

Original research data as per enterprise data management

Certification program

Lotteries and contests

Create magnets to hook your marginal users

The main point here is that you must give customers a reason to provide you with their contact information. Most people today are overloaded with emails, newsletters, and all kind of promotions. Therefore, if you want to earn a potential customer’s trust and get their contact details, your lead magnet must offer significant value to those people you want to reach. Simply inviting people to sign up for your newsletter no longer generates the results it once did. The same can be said about primitive and plain lead magnets: creating a lead magnet just to have one won’t make much sense nor benefit your business. Remember, the value you share in your lead magnet can differentiate your marginal users. The only potential customers who will take your lead magnet are those to whom it is meaningful (for example, if somebody signed-up for the trial version of your software, it’s obvious that this person probably has a need for this or similar software, and that makes him a valuable lead).

If your products or services require more consultation and care before someone decides to buy, you should apply the multiple step lead generation approach. This means that you propose a so-called soft offer with no obligation from customer’s side and later (when the customer moves along your sales funnel) you introduce additional lead magnets that deliver even higher value, but require a bit more effort or commitment from the potential customer (for example, to complete more fields in your contact form or to provide credit card details). This step-by-step approach helps build the relationship and trust by encouraging a potential customer to make small commitments and eventually, purchase your product.

No matter what marginal user group you are targeting and if you are using a multiple-step lead generation approach or just a single lead magnet, to create an effective lead magnet it must contain:

Promise—explaining what you are offering in exchange for their contact details

Clarification—making it clear why you created the lead magnet and who it’s designed for

Key points (bullet points)—summarizing and emphasizing the value of the lead magnet

Call to action—clear and concise instructions about what action the potential customer should take

Once you’ve created your lead magnet, it’s time to implement the process, which works as follows:

A target customer visits your website and sees your free, highly valuable lead magnet. Be sure to place your lead magnet in the most visible part of your website and make sure that visitors see the promise of your lead magnets.

A potential customer enters his contact information into an opt-in form on your website to get access to your lead magnet. Be sure to capture and store those contact details automatically. Setting up an opt-in form is much easier than you think and most email marketing platforms provide solutions that you can integrate them into your website.

You set up an autoresponder message via your email marketing platform to automatically send your new subscriber a link to download or access your lead magnet. There are many options and they range in pricing and functionality. Probably one of the best choices for early stage startups would be a free account on MailChimp, which provides services for free until your list reaches 2000 contacts. By the way, the freemium model worked as a great lead magnet for MailChimp!

Your target customer almost instantly receives an automated email message with the link to access your lead magnet. You don’t need to do this manually, your email marketing platform or any other email autoresponder solution does it for you.

You start building a relationship with your target customers and earning their trust.

Test your magnets and update sales funnel, if needed

Even before implementing the process workflow that we have just discussed, I recommend that you show your lead magnet to at least ten different people who fall under your target customer persona. Ask them how they view your offer from their perspective. Is it clear and appealing? If none of them is interested, well… you already know that you haven’t found a market fit yet and you will need to do some changes in your lead magnet before employing it in your sales funnel on a large scale.

Here is a brief checklist for an efficient lead magnet. Run through it on your own, as well as with those first ten interviews, and finally check how it performs in the sales funnel.

? Does your lead magnet appeal exclusively to the target audience? Focus on developing a lead magnet that is interesting for your marginal users, not everyone. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your time and resources in the next stages of your sales funnel. The goal is to generate leads that are as targeted as possible instead of attracting just a curious crowd.

Does your lead magnet have a high perceived value? Perceived is the key word here. It doesn’t matter how valuable you perceive the lead magnet to be. The main question is how your potential customers perceive the value you are proposing. The good news is that an effective lead magnet doesn’t have to cost much. It just has to be something of value to your audience. The higher perceived value of your offer, the more you can ask in exchange. While most lead magnets are used for collecting email addresses if the offer is really valuable you can ask potential customers to do more. For example, LinkedIn gives away $50 coupons for advertising services. Even though Linkedin incurs no direct costs, the perceived value to the target audience is quite high. Therefore, Linkedin asks you to create a company page and provide your credit card details so that you can be charged if your advertising exceeds $50. So, make sure your lead magnet has a high perceived value.

Is your lead magnet offer specific and relevant to the product or service you are willing to sell? A great offer isn’t just good for the person who receives it; it must be useful for your startup, too. Especially in the case of lead generation, you want your offer to tie into the product or service you’re selling. That way, it will help advance the sale, and maybe even inspire or at least educate your target audience to take specific actions.

Is it easy to understand and take action on? Make it simple. Don’t add a lot of conditions or steps. Your lead magnet should seek an immediate response and action from the viewer. If possible, stick with one step: click here to download, type in this discount code, register here, call this number, etc. The simpler the better!

Is it visually appealing? Lead magnets with great designs are more likely to increase your conversion rates and compel visitors to opt in for your offers.

Does it help create and facilitate a long-term relationship with your target customers? Too many businesses are trying to pitch and sell at the very first contact with the customer. As we’ve already discussed, earning trust and building a relationship helps to open the door to the long lasting business without being pushy and annoying.

[autopilotrecruiting]

New Post has been published on

New Post has been published on http://leadershipmentoring4free.info/a-lead-generation-system-that-works-2/

A Lead Generation System That Works

One of his comments was “Wow, I can’t believe how much you have grown your business! I remember when you started, just moving from France, and you didn’t know anybody here. How did you get to this point? You definitely can’t do all of this on your own, so how many people work for you now? What is your secret?”

I answered that I found my result a normal growth. You know, you work hard, you learn from others, you implement the techniques and strategies that you have learned, and if you do it correctly, the normal result is to grow. Simple isn’t it?

But when I got back home, I thought about it. What did I do for the past couple of years to double my business. I must have done something!

Here are some of the strategies I implemented that helped me grow my business

#1- Spend lot of time learning from others, reading books or attending seminars. But reading a book or attending a seminar is not enough. Most people close a book or leave a seminar very motivated – “Wow, great techniques!” – but the next day they return to their routine and never implement those techniques in their business.

#2 – Learned how to delegate, and have all of the administrative tasks done by avirtual assistant, while you have more time to work on your marketing plan and work with clients.

#3 – Established systems, so you don’t have to do the same thing over and over. Do it once and put all of my business on automatic pilot. This, by the way, gives you more free time, to either work on a new project or just take a vacation.

#4 – Make technology work for you. Don’t send your newsletter manually, use professional software so in just one click, you send the newsletter to your subscribers.

#5 – Have a lead generation system that works. Most people usually send e-mails, sometime have a newsletter, go to networking (but don’t follow-up effectively) and stop there. If you use 3 or 4 lead generation techniques, instead of 10 or 15 lead generation techniques, as mentioned in this article, you definitely get more chances to turn your leads into clients.

Here is an example of effective lead generation system?

1. Exchanged links with other entrepreneurs or websites that have the same target market, but are not your competitors. So when people visit their websites, they see your link and come to check your website.

2. Have a mailing list box on each page of all of your websites. you never know when a visitor will decide to sign-up for your newsletter, make sure that you don’t miss any opportunity.

3. Offer a free report or a free mini e-course. Having a mailing list box on your website is one thing, but to make sure people will actually sign up, offer them something that will interest them, something that will inform them and help them to solve one of their problems.

I offer a free mini e-course, “15 Ways to Maximize Your Networking Results”. This is free info for them, but at the same time it is a way for me to show them what I do, how I can help them, and how to get more clients with networking. People usually don’t buy from people they don’t know or trust, so showing a part of your product or service will help them to get to know and trust you.

4. Send a weekly newsletter People sign up first to get the free report. After that, it is your job to tell them more about your business, and share resources, marketing and networking information in order to build a relationship with them. Statistics show that when people don’t buy immediately, they will buy in the next 12 months. That is why you need to make sure that you are always in the top of their mind, so when they are ready to buy, they will buy from you.

5. Use auto-responders to automate your website. Use auto-responders when people sign-up for the newsletter or for an event. Set up a series of information messages about your products or services and the benefit of using them. Use them to send audio postcards, to offer special reports for free, and/or to thank your clients for their purchases. Any message will remind them about your services and, more importantly, remind them to come back and buy again. This series of follow-up messages reinforces your relationship with your clients.

6. Use a software like “Act” to automate your follow-up system, with people who either attended seminars or teleclasses or bought your book, or program. The first time, set up the different follow-up messages you want to send to people, then each time you have a new client, just enter his or her name, and the software will remind you what to do and when to do it. You won’t even have to think about it. As I mentioned earlier, do the work once and put everything on automatic pilot.

7. send “Thank You” notes to your clients after they bought your book, program or CD, and after a month, send them a special offer on their next purchase. keep the relationship going. In this age of technology, sending a handwritten “Thank You” note makes you stand out from the crowd. You want to impress your clients or contacts and want them to remember you.

8. Ask your clients for testimonials. Testimonials from satisfied customers are typically the best way to promote your business, and it doesn’t cost you a thing. Stop selling and let your clients do it for you.

9. Write at least one article a month and post it on various directories of articles. Writing articles is actually one of the best ways that I found to get free exposure. Each article is a way to share your expertise with people, and again, to give a sample of what you do and how you can help them.

10. Publish a press release on various websites, each time you have a new product. As with the articles, it is a way to get free exposure and inform people, and the press, of what is new in your business.

11. Organize events and promote them on various websites. This is another way to get free exposure, so even if people can’t come to the event, if they are interested in learning about it, they check the website, and sign up the newsletter, plus each attendee is a new lead.

12. Do public speaking. This is not my favorite, but it can work for you. Scheduled a public engagement every month, so another organization will promote your book or program to their newsletters and subscribers. This is another way to get free exposure, and meet new people during the event.

13. Offer free consultation. Again, people don’t buy from people they don’t know, so offering a free consultation breaks the fear. They can share their project with you. Inform them of all the steps. They see how you can help them, and doing so, you start building a relationship.

14. Have an Affiliate Program so other people can sell your program and your book. Because you are a solo entrepreneur or a solo professional, you don’t have to do everything on your own. Having an affiliate program is the easiest and fastest way to increase sales and greatly increase your profits. It is like having plenty of salespeople working for you, FOR FREE. The more affiliates you have, the more access you have to thousands of people, who will see your products or services on somebody else’s website or newsletter. You are not the only one to promote your products now, you have a sales force. Your affiliates promote your products or services for free and you don’t pay them until they generate a sale for you. When they make a sale, you will be more than happy to pay them a commission, since you would probably never have had this client otherwise.

15. Do numbers of partnerships with companies or entrepreneurs who have the same target market but are not your competitors. Would you rather meet a thousand people, one at a time, or meet a few people who will each introduce you to a thousand? Most people see networking events as a place to get contacts one at a time or make one sale at a time. Your goal when you attend a networking event must be to meet potential partners, so you could cross-promote each other on our respective websites and newsletters, organize seminars or teleclasses together, do mailing campaigns together, etc. The benefit of it is that you have exposure to their contacts while they have exposure to your contacts. That is a win/win situation.

16. Last, but not least, have a follow-up system that works. Statistics show that we need to hear or see a message at least 7 times in order to notice it. So if you are part of those people who follow up only two or three times, you are losing opportunities to turn prospects into clients. That is why it is important not only to have a follow-up system, but to have at least a 7-step follow-up system in place.

As you can see, using systems in your business is the best way to grow easily and effortlessly. And most of the strategies that I just shared with you don’t even cost you money. All of these strategies work very well if you are starting your business, or if you need to refocus your business to get the result you are expecting after few years. And when you are an established business, that is a way to keep growing.

So what is YOUR lead generation system?

Take some times to sit and think about it. Are you using 2 or 3 lead generation techniques, or do you have 10 to 15? Make a list. Which of your lead generation techniques works the best for your business? What other techniques could you implement today? Schedule a new technique each month, set up a date to make sure you will respect your marketing calendar, track the result for each technique, see what works for your business, and watch your sales grow.

Enroll in a System designed to improve interpersonal skills and recruit one a day.  https://tinyurl.com/n47wfwu

Business Opportunity Get a 0ne minute presentation with Erving Croxen Skype= network4seccess1

Or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1497107700584907/

“Finally, An Easy Way To Recruit – Rejection FREE – Without Wasting Your Time & Money Chasing Dead Beat Prospects & Leads…” https://tinyurl.com/jwjzmxh

[jackalfordtvfilm-blog]

Techniques of adverts

 This technique of advertising is done with the help of two factors, needs of customers and fear factor. Most common appeals under need are: Need of something new, need for getting acceptance, need for not being ignored, need for change of old things, need for security, need to become attractive.

Most common appeals under fear are: Fear of accident, Fear of death, Fear of being avoided, Fear of getting sick, Fear of getting old.

Promotional Advertising

This technique involves giving away samples of the product for free to the consumers. The items are offered in the trade fairs, promotional events, and ad campaigns in order to gain the attention of customers.

Bandwagon Advertising

This type of technique involves convincing the customers to join the group of people who have bought this product and be on the winning side. For e.g. recent Pantene shampoo ad which says “15crores women trusted Pantene, and you?”

Facts and Statistics

 Here, advertisers use number, proofs and real example to show how good their product works. For e.g. “Lizol floor cleans 99.99% germs” or “Colgate is recommended by 70% of dentists of the world” or Eno - just 6 seconds.

Unfinished Ads

 The advertisers here just play with words by saying that their product works better but don’t answer how much more than the competitor. For e.g. Lays – no one can eat just one or Horlicks – More nutrition daily. The ads don’t say who can eat more or how much more nutrition.

Weasel Words

 In this technique, the advertisers don’t say that they are the best from the rest, but don’t also deny. E.g. Sunsilk Hair Solution – reduces hairfall. The ad doesn’t say stops hairfall.

 Endorsements

 The advertisers use celebrities to advertise their products. The celebrities or star endorse the product by telling their own experiences with the product. Recently a diamond jewelry ad had superstar Amitabh Bacchant and his wife Jaya advertising the product. The ad showed how he impeded his wife by making a smart choice of buying this brand. Again, Sachin Tendulkar, a cricket star, endured for a show brand.

Complementing the Customers

 Here, the advertiser used punch lines which complements the consumers who buy their products. E.g. Revlon says “Because you are worth it.”

Ideal family and Ideal kids

The advertisers using this technique show that the families or kids using their products are a happy go lucky family. The ad always has a near and well-furnished home, well-mannered kids and the family’s us a simple and sweet kind of family. E.g. a Dettol soap ad shows everyone in the family using that soap and so is always protected from germs. They show a florescent color line covering whole body of each family member when compared to other people who don’t use this soap.

Patriotic Advertisements

 These ads show how one can support their country while he uses their product or service. For e.g. some products together formed a union and claimed in their ad that if you buy any one of their products, you are going to help a child go to school. One more cellular company ad had a celebrity showing that if the customers use this company’s sim card, the they can help control population of the country

Questioning the Customers

 The advertisers using this technique ask questions to the consumers to get response for their products. E.g. Amway advertisements keep on asking questions like who has so Meany farms completely organic in nature the kids grow in a proper and nutritious way, is there anyone who is listening to their entire questions. And then at last the answer comes- “Amway: We are listening.”

 Bribe

This technique is used to bribe the customers with something extra if they buy the product using lines like ��Buy one shirt and get one free”, or “be the member for the club for two years and get 20% off on all services.”

 Surrogate Advertising

 This technique is generally used by the companies which cannot advertise their products directly. The advertisers use indirect advertisements to advertise their products so that the customers know about the actual product. The biggest example of this technique is liquor ads. These ads never show anyone drinking actual liquor and in place of that they are shown drinking some mineral water, soft drink soda.

 Media Regulators and their roles and responsibilities

 Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the self-regulatory organization (SRO) of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organization and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instance.

Types of ads they deal with are:

·      Magazine and newspapers advertisements

·      Radio and TV commercials (Not programmer or programmed sponsorships)

·      Television Shopping Channels

·      Advertisements on the Internet, including:

·      Banner and display ads

·      Paid-for (Sponsored0 search

·      Marketing on companies’ own website and in other space they control like social networking sites Twitter and Facebook

·      Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads

·      Posters on legitimate poster sites (Not fly posters0

·      Leaflets and Brochures

·      Cinema commercials

·      Advertising within smartphone and tablet apps

·      Direct mail (Advertising sent though the post and addressed to you personally)

·      Door drops and circulars (advertising posters thought the letter box without your name on

·      Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes

·      Sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they pear.

 Online behavioral advertising

The ASA now regulates Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA). OBA is the practice of collecting information from web browsers so that it can be used to present online advertisements that are more relevant to the user of a particular computer. The rules we oversee require businesses to make clear when they are collecting and using information for OBA and require them to provide a tool so that you choose not to receive it. If you’re considering making a complaint about receiving OBA advertising.

When you visit a site, a cookie may be placed on the computer’s browser by a OBA business (sometimes called an “ad network”). If you or anyone else use that browser to visit websites the OBA business has a relationship with the cookie that collects information about these visits. For example, it can collect information about pages visited, ads clicked and products purchased or shown an interest in. it does not collect information that identifies and individual.

Using this information, the ad network can allocate the viewing behavior from a particular web browser too different ‘interest segments’ and the ad network will then save different ads to different interest segments. For example, of a browser frequently navigated the book review section of a news website and searched other websites for books, that interest might be placed within a ‘book lover’ segment and served advertisements for books and other goods or services relevant to a literary interest.

Alternatively, a specific product or service may be displayed on your browser because you have a looked into buying that product. For example, you may be looking for a present for a friend (a coffee maker for instance) and search a department store website and click on a few different coffeemakers in the appliances section. After a while you give up search and decide to visit an online newspaper site to read an article. Once there, you may find that you are then presented with ads for different coffee makers. This type of advertising is something called ‘re-targeting’.

 Audience Information

A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or another message. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumers within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipient for a particular advertisement or message. Businesses that have a wide target market will focus on a specific target audience for certain message to send, such as The Body Shop Mother’s Day advertisements, which were aimed at the children and spouses of woman, rather than the whole market which would have included the women themselves.

A target audience, is formed the same factors as a target, but it is more specific, and is susceptible to influence from another factors. An example of this was the marketing of the USDA’s food guide, which was looking to appeal to the age range of 2-18 yours old. The factor they had to consider outside of the standard marketing mix, were things such as the nutritional needs of growing children, children’s knowledge and attitudes regarding nutrition and other specializes detail. This reduced their targeting market and provided a specific target audience they could focus on. Common factors for target audience can be reducing the target market to specifics such as ‘managed 20-30 years old living in Auckland, New Zealand’ rather than ‘managed 20-30 years old’. However, just because a target audience is specialized doesn’t mean the message being delivered will not be of interest and received by those outside the intended demographic. Failures, however, of targeting a specific audience are also possible, and occur when information is incorrectly conveyed. Side effect such as a campaign backfire and ‘demerit goods’ are common consequence of a failed campaign.

 Target Market

A target market is a selected group of potential or current consumers, which a business decides to aim its marketing and advertising strategies at in order to sell a process or service. Defining a ‘target market’ is the first stage in the marketing strategy of a business, and is a proses of market segmentation. Market segmentation can be defined as the division of a market into its select groups, based on a variety of factors such as needs, characteristic and behaviors, so that the application of the marketing mix can be appropriate to the individual. Segmentation of the market gives a business the ability to define its target market for its product or service, and effectively apply the marketing mic to achieve the desired results.

  There are major techniques used by the advertisers to advertise their products. There are some different techniques used for online advertising such as web banner advertising in which a banner is placed online, link advertising giving links on different sites to directly visit the product website, ect.

[autopilotrecruiting]

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New Post has been published on http://leadershipmentoring4free.info/a-lead-generation-system-that-works/

A Lead Generation System That Works

One of his comments was “Wow, I can’t believe how much you have grown your business! I remember when you started, just moving from France, and you didn’t know anybody here. How did you get to this point? You definitely can’t do all of this on your own, so how many people work for you now? What is your secret?”

I answered that I found my result a normal growth. You know, you work hard, you learn from others, you implement the techniques and strategies that you have learned, and if you do it correctly, the normal result is to grow. Simple isn’t it?

But when I got back home, I thought about it. What did I do for the past couple of years to double my business. I must have done something!

Here are some of the strategies I implemented that helped me grow my business

#1- Spend lot of time learning from others, reading books or attending seminars. But reading a book or attending a seminar is not enough. Most people close a book or leave a seminar very motivated – “Wow, great techniques!” – but the next day they return to their routine and never implement those techniques in their business.

#2 – Learned how to delegate, and have all of the administrative tasks done by avirtual assistant, while you have more time to work on your marketing plan and work with clients.

#3 – Established systems, so you don’t have to do the same thing over and over. Do it once and put all of my business on automatic pilot. This, by the way, gives you more free time, to either work on a new project or just take a vacation.

#4 – Make technology work for you. Don’t send your newsletter manually, use professional software so in just one click, you send the newsletter to your subscribers.

#5 – Have a lead generation system that works. Most people usually send e-mails, sometime have a newsletter, go to networking (but don’t follow-up effectively) and stop there. If you use 3 or 4 lead generation techniques, instead of 10 or 15 lead generation techniques, as mentioned in this article, you definitely get more chances to turn your leads into clients.

Here is an example of effective lead generation system?

1. Exchanged links with other entrepreneurs or websites that have the same target market, but are not your competitors. So when people visit their websites, they see your link and come to check your website.

2. Have a mailing list box on each page of all of your websites. you never know when a visitor will decide to sign-up for your newsletter, make sure that you don’t miss any opportunity.

3. Offer a free report or a free mini e-course. Having a mailing list box on your website is one thing, but to make sure people will actually sign up, offer them something that will interest them, something that will inform them and help them to solve one of their problems.

I offer a free mini e-course, “15 Ways to Maximize Your Networking Results”. This is free info for them, but at the same time it is a way for me to show them what I do, how I can help them, and how to get more clients with networking. People usually don’t buy from people they don’t know or trust, so showing a part of your product or service will help them to get to know and trust you.

4. Send a weekly newsletter People sign up first to get the free report. After that, it is your job to tell them more about your business, and share resources, marketing and networking information in order to build a relationship with them. Statistics show that when people don’t buy immediately, they will buy in the next 12 months. That is why you need to make sure that you are always in the top of their mind, so when they are ready to buy, they will buy from you.

5. Use auto-responders to automate your website. Use auto-responders when people sign-up for the newsletter or for an event. Set up a series of information messages about your products or services and the benefit of using them. Use them to send audio postcards, to offer special reports for free, and/or to thank your clients for their purchases. Any message will remind them about your services and, more importantly, remind them to come back and buy again. This series of follow-up messages reinforces your relationship with your clients.

6. Use a software like “Act” to automate your follow-up system, with people who either attended seminars or teleclasses or bought your book, or program. The first time, set up the different follow-up messages you want to send to people, then each time you have a new client, just enter his or her name, and the software will remind you what to do and when to do it. You won’t even have to think about it. As I mentioned earlier, do the work once and put everything on automatic pilot.

7. send “Thank You” notes to your clients after they bought your book, program or CD, and after a month, send them a special offer on their next purchase. keep the relationship going. In this age of technology, sending a handwritten “Thank You” note makes you stand out from the crowd. You want to impress your clients or contacts and want them to remember you.

8. Ask your clients for testimonials. Testimonials from satisfied customers are typically the best way to promote your business, and it doesn’t cost you a thing. Stop selling and let your clients do it for you.

9. Write at least one article a month and post it on various directories of articles. Writing articles is actually one of the best ways that I found to get free exposure. Each article is a way to share your expertise with people, and again, to give a sample of what you do and how you can help them.

10. Publish a press release on various websites, each time you have a new product. As with the articles, it is a way to get free exposure and inform people, and the press, of what is new in your business.

11. Organize events and promote them on various websites. This is another way to get free exposure, so even if people can’t come to the event, if they are interested in learning about it, they check the website, and sign up the newsletter, plus each attendee is a new lead.

12. Do public speaking. This is not my favorite, but it can work for you. Scheduled a public engagement every month, so another organization will promote your book or program to their newsletters and subscribers. This is another way to get free exposure, and meet new people during the event.

13. Offer free consultation. Again, people don’t buy from people they don’t know, so offering a free consultation breaks the fear. They can share their project with you. Inform them of all the steps. They see how you can help them, and doing so, you start building a relationship.

14. Have an Affiliate Program so other people can sell your program and your book. Because you are a solo entrepreneur or a solo professional, you don’t have to do everything on your own. Having an affiliate program is the easiest and fastest way to increase sales and greatly increase your profits. It is like having plenty of salespeople working for you, FOR FREE. The more affiliates you have, the more access you have to thousands of people, who will see your products or services on somebody else’s website or newsletter. You are not the only one to promote your products now, you have a sales force. Your affiliates promote your products or services for free and you don’t pay them until they generate a sale for you. When they make a sale, you will be more than happy to pay them a commission, since you would probably never have had this client otherwise.

15. Do numbers of partnerships with companies or entrepreneurs who have the same target market but are not your competitors. Would you rather meet a thousand people, one at a time, or meet a few people who will each introduce you to a thousand? Most people see networking events as a place to get contacts one at a time or make one sale at a time. Your goal when you attend a networking event must be to meet potential partners, so you could cross-promote each other on our respective websites and newsletters, organize seminars or teleclasses together, do mailing campaigns together, etc. The benefit of it is that you have exposure to their contacts while they have exposure to your contacts. That is a win/win situation.

16. Last, but not least, have a follow-up system that works. Statistics show that we need to hear or see a message at least 7 times in order to notice it. So if you are part of those people who follow up only two or three times, you are losing opportunities to turn prospects into clients. That is why it is important not only to have a follow-up system, but to have at least a 7-step follow-up system in place.

As you can see, using systems in your business is the best way to grow easily and effortlessly. And most of the strategies that I just shared with you don’t even cost you money. All of these strategies work very well if you are starting your business, or if you need to refocus your business to get the result you are expecting after few years. And when you are an established business, that is a way to keep growing.

So what is YOUR lead generation system?

Take some times to sit and think about it. Are you using 2 or 3 lead generation techniques, or do you have 10 to 15? Make a list. Which of your lead generation techniques works the best for your business? What other techniques could you implement today? Schedule a new technique each month, set up a date to make sure you will respect your marketing calendar, track the result for each technique, see what works for your business, and watch your sales grow.

Enroll in a System designed to improve interpersonal skills and recruit one a day.  https://tinyurl.com/n47wfwu

Business Opportunity Get a 0ne minute presentation with Erving Croxen Skype= network4seccess1

Or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1497107700584907/

“Finally, An Easy Way To Recruit – Rejection FREE – Without Wasting Your Time & Money Chasing Dead Beat Prospects & Leads…” https://tinyurl.com/jwjzmxh

[jackalfordtvfilm-blog]

Techniques of adverts

This technique of advertising is done with the help of two factors, needs of customers and fear factor. Most common appeals under need are: Need of something new, Need for getting acceptance, Need for not being ignored, Need for change of old things, Need for security, Need to become attractive.

Most common appeals under fear are: Fear of accident, Fear of death, Fear of being avoided, Fear of getting sick, Fear of getting old.

Promotional Advertising

This technique involves giving away samples of the product for free to the consumers. The items are offered in the trade fairs, promotional events, and ad campaigns in order to gain the attention of customers.

Bandwagon Advertising

This type of technique involves convincing the customers to join the group of people who have bought this product and be on the winning side. For e.g. recent Pantene shampoo ad which says “15crores women trusted Pantene, and you?”

Facts and Statistics

Here, advertisers use number, proofs and real example to show how good their product works. For e.g. “Lizol floor cleans 99.99% germs” or “Colgate is recommended by 70% of dentists of the world” or Eno - just 6 seconds.

Unfinished Ads

The advertisers here just play with words by saying that their product works better but don’t answer how much more than the competitor. For e.g. Lays – no one can eat just one or Horlicks – More nutrition daily. The ads don’t say who can eat more or how much more nutrition.

Weasel Words

In this technique, the advertisers don’t say that they are the best from the rest, but don’t also deny. E.g. Sunsilk Hair Solution – reduces hairfall. The ad doesn’t say stops hairfall.

Endorsements

The advertisers use celebrities to advertise their products. The celebrities or star endorse the product by telling their own experiences with the product. Recently a diamond jewellery ad had superstar Amitabh Bacchan and his wife Jaya advertising the product. The ad showed how he impredded his wife by making a smart choice of buying this brand. Again, Sachin Tendulkar, a cricket star, endored for a show brand.

Complementing the Customers

Here, the advertiser used punch lines which complements the consumers who buy their products. E.g. Revlon says “Because you are worth it.”

Ideal family and Ideal kids

The advertisers using this technique show that the families or kids using their products are a happy go lucky family. The ad always has a near and well-furnished home, well-mannered kids and the family’s us a simple and sweet kind of family. E.g. a Dettol soap ad shows everyone in the family using that soap and so is always protected from germs. They show a florescent colour line covering whole body of each family member when compared to other people who don’t use this soap.

Patriotic Advertisements

 These ads show how one can support their country while he uses their product or service. For e.g. some products together formed a union and claimed in their ad that if you buy any one of their products, you are going to help a child go to school. One more cellular company ad had a celebrity showing that if the customers use this company’s sim card, the they can help control population of the country

Questioning the Customers

The advertisers using this technique ask questions to the consumers to get response for their products. E.g. Amway advertisements keep on asking questions like who has so Meany farms completely organic in nature the kids grow in a proper and nutritious way, is there anyone who is listening to their entire questions. And then at last the answer comes- “Amway: We are listening.’

Bribe

This technique is used to bribe the customers with something extra if they buy the product using lines like “Buy one shirt and get one free”, or “be the member for the club for two years and get 20% off on all services.”

Surrogate Advertising

This technique is generally used by the companies which cannot advertise their products directly. The advertisers use indirect advertisements to advertise their products so that the customers know about the actual product. The biggest example of this technique is liquor ads. These ads never show anyone drinking actual liquor and in place of that they are shown drinking some mineral water, soft drink soda.

 Media Regulators and their roles and responsibilities

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the self-regulatory organisation (SRO) of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instance.

Types of ads they deal with are:

·      Magazine and newspapers advertisements

·      Radio and TV commercials (Not programmes or programme sponsorships)

·      Television Shopping Channels

·      Advertisements on the Internet, including:

·      Banner and display ads

·      Paid-for (Sponsored0 search

·      Marketing on companies’ own website and in other space they control like social networking sites Twitter and Facebook

·      Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads

·      Posters on legitimate poster sites (Not fly posters0

·      Leaflets and Brochures

·      Cinema commercials

·      Advertising within smartphone and tablet apps

·      Direct mail (Advertising sent though the post and addressed to you personally)

·      Door drops and circulars (advertising posters thought the letter box without your name on

·      Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes

·      Sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they pear.

 Online behavioural advertising

The ASA now regulates Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA). OBA is the practice of collecting information from web browsers so that it can be used to present online advertisements that are more relevant to the user of a particular computer. The rules we oversee require businesses to make clear when they are collecting and using information for OBA and require them to provide a tool so that you choose not to receive it. If you’re considering making a complaint about receiving OBA advertising.

When you visit a site, a cookie may be placed on the computer’s browser by a OBA business (sometimes called an “ad network”). If you or anyone else use that browser to visit websites the OBA business has a relationship with the cookie that collects information about these visits. For example, it can collect information about pages visited, ads clicked and products purchased or shown an interest in. it does not collect information that identifies and individual.

Using this information, the ad network can allocate the viewing behaviour from a particular web browser too different ‘interest segments’ and the ad network will then save different ads to different interest segments. For example, of a browser frequently navigated the book review section of a news website and searched other websites for books, that interest might be placed within a ‘book lover’ segment and served advertisements for books and other goods or services relevant to a literary interest.

Alternatively, a specific product or service may be displayed on your browser because you have a looked into buying that product. For example, you may be looking for a present for a friend (a coffee maker for instance) and search a department store website and click on a few different coffeemakers in the appliances section. After a while you give up search and decide to visit an online newspaper site to read an article. Once there, you may find that you are then presented with ads for different coffee makers. This type of advertising is something called ‘re-targeting’.

 Audience Information

A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or another message. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumers within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipient for a particular advertisement or message. Businesses that have a wide target market will focus on a specific target audience for certain message to send, such as The Body Shop Mother’s Day advertisements, which were aimed at the children and spouses of woman, rather than the whole market which would have included the women themselves.

A target audience, is formed the same factors as a target, but it is more specific, and is susceptible to influence from another factors. An example of this was the marketing of the USDA’s food guide, which was looking to appeal to the age range of 2-18 yours old. The factor they had to consider outside of the standard marketing mix, were things such as the nutritional needs of growing children, children’s knowledge and attitudes regarding nutrition and other specializes detail. This reduced their targeting market and provided a specific target audience they could focus on. Common factors for target audience can be reducing the target market to specifics such as ‘managed 20-30 years old living in Auckland, New Zealand’ rather than ‘managed 20-30 years old’. However, just because a target audience is specialized doesn’t mean the message being delivered will not be of interest and received by those outside the intended demographic. Failures, however, of targeting a specific audience are also possible, and occur when information is incorrectly conveyed. Side effect such as a campaign backfire and ‘demerit goods’ are common consequence of a failed campaign.

 Target Market

A target market is a selected group of potential or current consumers, which a business decides to aim its marketing and advertising strategies at in order to sell a process or service. Defining a ‘target market’ is the first stage in the marketing strategy of a business, and is a proses of market segmentation. Market segmentation can be defined as the division of a market into its select groups, based on a variety of factors such as needs, characteristic and behaviours, so that the application of the marketing mix can be appropriate to the individual. Segmentation of the market gives a business the ability to define its target market for its product or service, and effectively apply the marketing mic to achieve the desired results.

  There are major techniques used by the advertisers to advertise their products. There are some different techniques used for online advertising such as web banner advertising in which a banner is placed online, link advertising giving links on different sites to directly visit the product website, ect.