The Business Pod's Blog

In business, every contact with your customer is an opportunity for expanding and growing the relationship.  A phone call is nice but sending a business greeting card means that effort and consideration was put into the relationship. A greeting card can be sent as a reminder for an event, upcoming meeting or simply a thank you note. With the highly competitive market that we have today, having a good rapport with your customers is a way of getting ahead of the competition.      There are a lot of reasons why businesses send greeting cards. You may want to attract new customers, enhance a current business relationship or show appreciation to those who have faithfully supported your business during the year. It is essential though to carefully design the card as a well-meant card can actually offend the recipient when it is not done properly. Choosing a poor design can also mean a lot of things to the people you want to impress. The recipient can take it as a s...

1. Email (opt in) If you're not sending your own personal email newsletter you're missing a huge opportunity.  I don't care if you're an employee of a Fortune 500 company or a self-employed consultant.  You MUST develop you own email newsletter. An eZine will allow you to build your relationship, credibility and trust with the people that subscribe.   Provide them useful, unique and pertinent information and watch your sales skyrocket. 2. Pay-per-Click (PPC) Pay-per-click or PPC ads are a very effective and cost efficient way to drive prospects to your website.  Whether it be a one-page sales letter or a "squeeze page" for them to sign up for your ezine, PPCs are an easy way for you to build awareness. By using PPCs you can achieve laser like focus on your target market by using specific keywords.  Then run ads for only those keywords.  The benefit is when the prospect clicks on that ad they are not going to a general site with all kinds of garb...

Stress doesn’t only affect the mind; it can also have some adverse effect on your body if left unchecked. Even if we are mentally capable of doing all our tasks, there is a possibility that our body is not fit enough to cope with the burden you are subjecting it to. If you push it to the limit, then you will surely feel a breakdown that might disable you permanently. We can never deny the fact that all of us have our limits. Like our minds, our body can only take so much until it falls apart. It is a common fact that we can do anything if we set our minds into it, but we need to realize that our body should be able to cope with what we want it to do. Your Body And Stress Stress affects us different depending on the state of our body. The most common ailment attributed to mental stress is headache or migraine, or even dizziness from time to time. We would also feel some minor cramps, aches and pains on our back, shoulder, or in different parts of our body when under the grip ...

If you haven't heard the word 'niche' being batted around by Marketers then you haven't been listening. Finding a niche has become the antidote to competing in overly saturated online markets.  What is a niche?  According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary a niche is described as "a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted... a specialised market".  Have you noticed that despite the closing of many businesses in these harsh economic times, the local hobby train store is still around? That the 'hole-in-the-wall' eatery is thriving? Or that trends such as scrapbooking can start with a bang and still close within a year when four similar businesses start up in the same area?  The online business world reflects the same trends as experienced in the offline world - often with faster turnover and startup rates. Those who promote a product or site that targets a small, select audience can tap into a m...