If You Didn’t Measure It – You Didn’t Do It! Part 1

If you’re going to spend money doing something, the only way to know if you accomplished your goal is to measure it. Here is a tool that works well to both define the problem and provide a yardstick against which to measure results.

The analysis breaks down into three main components:

• Need – What is the problem, and what is the result we expect from the money we are about to invest?
• Content – How will we move people to the desired result?
• Measurement – Did you actually meet, or better, exceed, the goals?

Need drives the entire process. You are not going to spend the money to do something that doesn’t need to be done. You have a situation or a problem – and it usually has a measurable cost – and you need to solve that problem, to eliminate, or at least significantly reduce that cost.

We may have to invest time or money to solve the problem, but if the problem is well defined and quantified, not only can we reduce or eliminate the problem with appropriately targeted communications; we can measure how well we did it. It could be increased sales, increased signups for a new program, or broader support within a community for a new service or idea. Whatever it is, it must have the necessary yardstick for success.

Let’s use an example to illustrate how this process functions and how well it can work.

Several years ago, a company was planning to introduce a new product into a saturated marketplace. The new product represented major innovations, and would likely have been very successful by itself, but the company needed to ensure that success and overcome several other issues. We’ll start the story of the launch in this article, and follow it through two more articles.

The NEED – The situation or problem:

• Moderate existing market share for existing product, #2 in sales
• Lack of respect for the company because of “me too” parity products in the past
• Low company sales force morale from carrying unexciting products
• Lack of personal contact by company executives with dealers across the country
• An exciting new product to launch, including many firsts, under a new brand umbrella, based on a new and very unfamiliar technology

The GOALS – what were the desired measurable results?

• Capture #1 sales position in the marketplace, as measured by published industry data
• Establish the new brand with dealers and consumers
• Build new levels of respect for the company brand and their sales force in the market place
• Dealer owners pleased with personal contact with company executives
• Retail clerks educated and excited about the new product, and motivated to sell the product and the company
• A memorable event to keep the company “top of mind” for the foreseeable future.

The Obstacles:

• Low respect for company in the market place – would dealers even listen?
• Large number of outlets and clerks to be informed/trained/motivated across the market, preferably in as short a time as possible
• The introduction would be in January/February, the worst time to travel a show around the country.

You can see how all of these elements defined the measurement criteria. Sales can be plotted against the launch. Market share is a standard industry published statistic, and can be plotted against the time of the launch. Respect will be reflected in the attitudes of the retail clerks to the sales representatives calling on the stores and the how the products and the company are received after the launch. This, and how well the event was remembered, would show up in weekly sales call reporting.

Observable, accurate, and actionable. The hallmarks of good metrics.

This is the first of Three Parts of this story.

Part 2 is here: http://www.EzineArticles.com/?id=899065

Part 3 is here: http://www.EzineArticles.com/?id=886852

Copyright 2008 Dan Davenport

Dan Davenport is an award-winning business communications producer: Multimedia, video, print.

Goal: Bring excitement to business communications.

Look to http://blog.smallofficecommunicator.net to blog with us about small office communication ideas and answers – share your own experience with others and get answers to your questions.

Loan Modification Marketing Series – Ad Campaign Tracking and Analytics

Tracking your marketing and advertising campaigns is incredibly crucial to their effectiveness. You need to track who and where every lead comes from, which leads ended up paying you and how much, how much money and time went into each marketing and advertising effort, which leads were better than others in non-monetary ways, how many referrals have come from each lead source and how frequently, and more.

Build a spreadsheet that organizes everything. Compare the return on investment (ROI) for each marketing effort. Analyze and compare which marketing efforts are the most successful and profitable. Focus your future dollars and energies on these. Cut anything that doesn’t seem to be providing high returns (though, don’t be too quick to cut out the leads groups and other long-term networking efforts).

With regard to your pay per click (PPC) ad word campaigns and search engine optimization (SEO), there are really cool applications, called analytics, that collect, organize, and measure more information than you ever dreamed possible. Do not run any ad word, banner, or other online marketing campaign without using an analytics program or service. If you’re tech-savvy, then give one of the free ones a go, such as Google Analytics. If not, then pay for a service to do this for you.

A good ad campaign with solid analytics (assuming you have a competitive company, sales person, product, service, and pricing, obviously) can literally have a monthly ROI % in the 1000s, and an exponential monthly growth factor. These are very powerful tools when used correctly. If you want dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of clients every month, then you seriously need to make web 2.0, ad words, SEO, a blog, and analytics a central part of your business model and marketing plan. These kinds of results are absolutely possible, but you need to do them right to have that kind of success.

To learn more about how to build a successful loan modification business and to access all the tools and forms you need to get started, please click here: http://StartALoanModBiz.com

About the Author
Matt Sparks is a successful entrepreneur, both offline and on. He is also a licensed mortgage broker, employing real estate broker, and Realtor. He has written books, articles, and blogs about small business, real estate, finance, New Urbanism, and sustainable cities.

(c) Copyright – Matthew R. Sparks. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

2010 FIFA Football World Cup

South Africa was awarded World Cup 2010 on 15 May 2004. The main opponents were Morocco and Egypt. The spectacle will be hosted in June/July 2010 in 9 South African Cities in 10 stadiums. Cities include Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. Building of the stadiums has just started. Tickets for the World Cup tickets will be advertised in 2008.

Although this is still 4 years away, it is best to start making plans now. Whether you are visiting from abroad or live in South Africa, you will need to make plans for when the tournament begins.

South Africa draws thousands of international visitors each year. Combine this with the 2010 Football World Cup – billed as the biggest sporting event of all time – and you have a situation in which masses of people are going to be trying to book a limited number of flights, accommodation, tickets and more. Hotels around the stadiums have already set about 80% of their rooms to officials from around the world and so forth. If you are planning on staying in a hotel or anything of the sorts, you had better book as soon as possible. Even 4 years in advance the hotels are becoming fully booked!

In the 12 years since democracy, South Africa has staged more successful high-profile international events than many developed nations. South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 1196 African Cup of Nations, and the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

The World Cup will provide an improved and advanced infrastructure, increased tourism through global exposure and referrals, the creation of permanent jobs and focused entrepreneurship, and probably the greatest benefit being the pride of a nation united under a rainbow.

Keep up to date on the FIFA 2010 World Cup

How You Can Make Real Money Online

When it comes to making money online there are many challenges. In effect there are many pieces to the puzzle. One piece is to identify a market. The next step you will need to take is to determine demand within that market.

Once you determine demand you will need research the competition and see what you are up against. Then if you decide that you can compete, you will now need to try and understand what that market wants and how hungry they are to get it.

Keywords are one way to determine what is being searched but you also need to understand the person behind the keyword so that you can communicate with them in a way that they will understand what results can be achieved.

If they can see the results for themselves then you will have to do little to convince them and furthermore it is always be better when they convince themselves.

In order to gain understanding you will need to start a conversation with your site visitors. Then you will need to listen. One place where conversations take place all the time is on forums.

Here you will get to see what questions are been asked and what concerns they have relative to any given issue.

In order to find out what they want you will need to be constantly testing and monitoring the results. This way you will be listening by watching their actions.

This way you will know what is working and what is not and will do a better job moving forward when it comes to getting them what they need.

If you are an affiliate your job will not be to sell but to pre-sell, warm the visitor up so they know what they can achieve.

All in all testing and experimenting will be the key to your success because this way you will at least build on the facts rather speculate based on theory.

Learn more Powerful Web Marketing Strategies That are built on results. Join our conversation

Lets help one another build a real business online

On the blog you will get Free Videos On How To Effectively Market Your Business online. You can ask questions and leave comments as we work through our marketing experiment

Follow along as we test marketing techniques to see what results you can actually get. This can save you time and money

Learn How To make real money online

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Blogging and Why it is a Good Business Opportunity From Home

One business opportunity from home that anyone can develop is blogging. Not everyone that has a blog is making money however! Let’s take a look at how you can make money and create a good home business by starting a blog of your own.

One thing you should know right up front is that not all blogs are created equal. For example blogger.com is owned by Google and is a very fast way to get started with a blog of your own. This is not the best way to do it however.

A better way is to use Word Press as your blogging platform and host it yourself. To do this you need to purchase a domain name, and join a hosting company to install your WordPress blog at. If this seems a little bit much there are people that you can hire who will set it all up for you and do it for less than $100.

The important thing is that Word Press offers many advantages in terms of Plug-ins that will help you make your blogging efforts more effective. And the key thing in hosting your own blog is that you will now control everything about it.

A fast way to create income from a blog is to join the Google AdSense affiliate program. It is very easy to blend Google ads into your WordPress blog posts. The benefit of doing this is the ads appear to be part of the content and you will increase your click ratio when you do it this way.

This is an easy way to create income as well because every time someone clicks on a Google ad you earn a small commission. This can really add up as you begin to develop a blog and the traffic coming to it.

Another thing you want to do is monetize your blog post with affiliate products that you earn commissions selling. You can add banners across the top, down the sidebar, or in the footer of each blog post.

You can also embed your affiliate links in the text of the posts themselves. This is a natural way for you to promote your affiliate products and again send traffic directly to an affiliate sales page.

Blogging is a good business opportunity from home because people enjoy reading a well written blog, and search engines like them too. If you have a hobby or something that interests you, then you can certainly take money starting a blog about it.

Want to make money online now?

Sign up for our FREE Internet Business Training Program and learn more about a business opportunity from home to help you become a successful work at home professional!

David Ogden is an established online marketer who specializes in practical website resources and advice

Top 10 Training Metrics

Is it time for you to measure the effectiveness of your training programs? If you’re not sure where to start, these Top Ten Training Metrics can help.

Measuring the effectiveness of training is a very difficult task, for stakeholders, training departments and end users. If you are a training manager or company stakeholder looking for ways to measure the effectiveness of your programs, these ten metrics are a great place to start.

One: Increased retention. Most Human Resources departments measure the rate of retention in all or various jobs. Many times, the front line, high turnover jobs are the ones that receive the most attention. If newly trained employees feel ill-equipped for the job, they are more likely to leave within their first 90 days. When you measure training success this way, higher retention points to a successful training program.

Two: Increased sales. Many organizations can track efficiency based on sales. If training is heavily geared toward a sales or customer service force, an effective program will eventually increase sales numbers. You can also measure product knowledge training as part of a sales number – poorly educated sales people usually do not make the sale. Dollar figures and unit sales make good metrics, but be sure to balance any metric with other factors that can influence sales numbers.

Three: Increased operational efficiency. In highly regulated or production-oriented businesses, managers look for more efficiency, which raises the bottom line. If your training programs teach skills, look to management’s efficiency metrics, as a baseline, before and after the training intervention. If you are building a new program or product, look at the efficiency numbers to obtain direction on training course content.

Four: Customer service results. Any organization can link training to customer service, which can be both internal and external. Customer service is also one of the easier place to start: one well-written survey can identify a host of customer related issues that can be addressed by training programs. Remember that training may not be the only solution to those issues. If your organization already has a customer survey in place, use those metrics to cross check your programs. When your programs impact the survey items, you can correlate an increase in customer satisfaction back to training.

Five: Company-defined scorecards. Training outsourcers tend to use client-defined criteria to determine training effectiveness. If your organization has a wide variety of possible measurements, sit down with management, and stakeholders, to create a custom scorecard based on expectations and the training programs that need to be in place.

Six: Cost of training. This is an internal training department measurement. In high turnover organizations, lowering cost per student can be used as an effectiveness measurement. Cost of training could also relate directly back to retention – if you’re spending less on new hire training, your retention may be higher. Work with your stakeholders and the HR department to determine training costs and where you want those numbers to be.

Seven: Return on Investment. ROI has long been a “catch all” metric. In some cases, it’s easy to define ROI, but in more cases it’s increasingly difficult. If you deliver soft skills training, it’s hard to put a dollar figure on the return. There are numerous ROI calculations available, so if you’re thinking about using an ROI metric, look for the formulas and plug in what you can. If you are part of a numbers-driven organization, you’ll be able to make friends with the stakeholders by defining and measuring concrete ROI.

Eight: Revenue generation. This metric appears most likely as a combination of sales numbers, operational efficiency, and customer service. If an organization shows increased revenue, a solid training program can be part of that increase. If your organization is rolling out a new revenue generator, such as a product or service, that is generally the best time to use revenue generation as training metric.

Nine: Instructor performance. Instructor evaluation is an important internal measurement. The results can come from student and manager evaluations, and must take into account the instructor’s presentation skills, knowledge of the subject, projection of organizational values, and adherence to instructional guidelines. The good part about instructor performance as a metric is that it can also be used as an external measure. When training is under discussion, training managers should be the first to praise their instructors for delivering quality instruction in every course – and instructor evaluations provide the supporting evidence.

Ten: End-user satisfaction. Your audience can measure effectiveness quicker than anyone else, both immediately following training and after a given time period, such as 30 or 60 days. The immediate results, sometimes referred to as “smile sheets”, can give you a picture of what happened in the classroom. The delayed results can tell you if the material is useful or not. Plus, end-user surveys are great tools for proving effectiveness with management.

Remember that training metrics may take time to put into place and show results. It’s also important to obtain buy-in from your stakeholders while you’re determining how to measure results. Use these metrics to start with – and use them whenever you’re developing or revamping training programs. Once you can prove bottom-line effectiveness, your credibility will go a long way.

Copyright 2008 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Managing Director and National Sales Trainer – assists executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for sales organizations.Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering.

Subscribe to his monthly ezine – Lengthen Your Stride! ™ – and learn the legendary secrets of top business achievers at: http://www.BryantNielson.com

Incredible Hulk

“How do I know I won’t keep changing?” an anguished Dr. Bruce Banner asked himself in one issue of the Incredible Hulk comics. “Into that brutal, bestial mockery of a human – that creature which fears nothing – which soon despises reason and worships power! Soon, the sun will set again~ And here I sit helplessly, fearing I may again become the Hulk!”

Poor Dr. Banner’s anguish began when he was performing bomb tests. Seeing teenager Rick Jones driving towards the test site, Banner rushed to stop him and in the process was affected by gamma rays. While Rick Jones was unaffected, Banner began to transform into the Hulk.

Originally, Banner’s transformations were triggered by the rise and fall of the sun. Later, his transformation would be triggered by emotions, most notably anger.

Sometimes grey, sometimes green, the Hulk debuted in 1962, but soon faced cancellation. The character did not enjoy a successful solo run until the 1970s. During his solo series, Banner gave his cousin, Jennifer Walters, a transfusion, leading her to become the She-Hulk. This in turn added even more guilt to the Hulk’s already burdened conscience.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a major arc was introduced that explored the possibility that Dr. Banner had been mentally ill before getting hit with the gamma rays. In an effort to explain his Hulk persona (the one who offered such fun phrases as “Puny humans! Hulk smash!”) writers introduced the theory that Banner had been abused as a child. As a result, Banner had suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, his mind’s way to try to deal with the abuse. The gamma rays merely magnified those problems. During this time, Banner underwent hypnosis as a way to combine the Hulk parts of his personality with the calmer Banner part. The result was a Hulk that was more cunning, powerful, and intelligent than before.

In the 2006 story, “Planet Hulk,” the Illuminati, a group of covert superhero leaders, decided that the Hulk was a potential risk to Earth that needed to be eliminated. Thus, they sent him into space to live on a planet uninhabited by other sentient life. The ship malfunctioned, however, and landed on the planet Sakaar.

Sakaar was a violent planet, which seemed to fit Hulk’s personality. After being captured, Hulk became a leader of the rebels and eventually rose to emperor status. But his happiness was short lived, as his rocket exploded, killing his pregnant lover, Caiera and destroying the planet.

A vengeful Hulk returned to Earth, determined to make the Illuminati pay for what they had done. Tragically, however, Hulk found out that it was one of his own allies that destroyed his ship and he was taken into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D.

Essential storylines:

~ Planet Hulk
~ World War Hulk
~ Illuminati
~ Future Imperfect
~ Crossroads of Eternity

Follow the exploits of rockers DEMON TWEAK and the racing clan HARD DRIVING HEROES, as they battle the evil trickster Loki at http://www.classic-comic-books.com. Also read articles on your favorite classic comic book heroes written by our resident historian VIRGIL THE STORYTELLER.

Essential Tips For Hiring a Consultant

Some time ago we talked about the circumstances under which hiring a consultant can add value to a business. If you’ve already established the need to recruit one, pay attention to a few issues before you plunge headlong into a contract. Here’s a quick checklist.

Assess in-house expertise. First of all, make sure that you’re not hiring a consultant to teach you things you already know! The best way to do so is to include your senior managers in the decision, and ask them about the existing pockets of expertise in their respective functions. At the end of it all, you might find that you have a smaller or even no need for an outside expert! Better now, than later.

Investigate credentials. There are consultants, and there are consultants. Each of them will have their strengths and weaknesses. Do a thorough background check on the consultant you plan to hire, in terms of capability, commitment and compatibility. Talk to the consultant’s other clients about their experience, if possible.

Pay attention to the contract. Hiring a consultant is serious and expensive business, and is more likely than not to leave a lasting impact on your company. Hence, you can’t seal a consulting assignment on a mere smile and handshake. Draw up a proper contract, which comprehensively covers all important points relating to the scope of the assignment, costs and fee associated with the engagement, and, of course, key deliverables. Have it looked at by someone who understands legalese.

Sign a confidentiality agreement. A consultant will be privy to a lot of internal data – make sure your interests are protected by getting him or her to sign an agreement of confidentiality. You can find guidelines on drafting one in our earlier story on the subject, or better still. If the project is of critical importance, you may like to include a clause that prohibits the consultant to work with a competitor for a certain period after the completion of your assignment.

Shop around. Price is always an issue, and when it comes to the expensive business of hiring a consultant, even more so. An established consultant may just charge for his or her reputation, make sure you find out what the going rate is. Often, you can agree to a basic fee, topped up by a generous bonus in proportion to the end result.

Describe your requirements. The very purpose of hiring a consultant is defeated if there is no clarity on expected results. It is in your interest to ensure that the boundaries of the engagement are made crystal clear – that includes deliverables, timelines and cost considerations.

Involve your team. This is the most important commandment for a company hiring a consultant. No one likes having an outsider telling them how to do their job, your staff included. Share with them the reason for taking on an expert, and what benefits you expect by doing so. Impress upon them the need to support the project, and its impact on the goals of the organization. Once they get used to the idea, it won’t seem like such a bitter pill to swallow. From your perspective, you need to ensure ground level support, without which you can kiss any chances of successful implementation goodbye!

Hi, I’m Akhil Shahani, a serial entrepreneur who wants to help you succeed. If you like to work smart, check out http://www.SmartEntrepreneur.net . It’s full of articles and resources to help you start and grow your business successfully. Please visit us & download our special “Freebie of The Month” at http://www.smartentrepreneur.net/freebie-of-the-month.html

Does Your Business Need a Search Engine Marketing Consultant?

Many businesses in the UK make the mistake of not using a search engine marketing consultant, especially when they are first contemplating whether or not to design and implement an Internet website. In this article, we’ll answer some of the commonly asked questions about search engine marketing.

Q. Why do I need a search engine marketing specialist?

A. First, some background: Successful Internet search engine marketing services can provide highly specialized services. One of these is called PPC (pay per click) and it’s a powerful way to direct customers to your website. But not just any customers, PPC helps assure that the customers who visit your site are already interested in your products and/or services. PPC is driven by search engine results. Search engine results are in turn driven by keywords.

Q. How can a pay per click consultant help me choose the most effective keywords?

A. Many business owners make the mistake of thinking they can generate their own list of keywords. While this may be somewhat true, an experienced search marketing consultant often sees the “big picture” and can consider tangential but critical issues like keyword variations including regional keywords, negative keywords, abbreviations, misspellings and unique brand and/or product terms and descriptions. Competent search engine marketers will also target users who are looking specifically for your products or services with a customized and effective landing page that will capture the user’s attention.

Q. What search engines does a search engine marketer work with?

A. At the very least your search engine marketing plan should include Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, AltaVista and AOL. But the consultant’s actual expertise is best utilized by helping clients determine what second level search alternatives are available for the client’s specific products and services. A partial list of second tier search engines includes Kanoodle.com, Enhance.com, PageSeeker.com and Search123.com. Your consultant will also help you find specialized search engines that will, for a small fee, provide a customized search platform for you. Beyond search engines, a search engine marketer will help expand your web presence into blogs, forums and sites that review products and services.

Q. What about the costs?

A. Search engine consultant costs can be customized and tailored to your particular needs and budget. PPC advertising is extremely flexible and allows you to determine the amount you’re willing to pay whenever a user clicks on your ad. But this isn’t the whole picture. It’s important to remember that factors like how relevant your content is and the historical performance of your keywords will effect the bottom-line cost. This cost can range from $.05 to more than $20 per click. So the experience of a search engine marketing consultant would be of prime importance.

This FAQ has touched on only the very basics of what a search engine marketing consultant can accomplish for business in the UK. But the fact remains, that such a consultant these days is a definite necessity for a successful online business presence.

The author is an online marketing professional with Infomedia Direct Technologies Ltd – a professional Search Engine Marketing Consultant in the UK The company is an expert in providing innovative internet marketing solutions for small, medium sized and large businesses. They offers cutting-edge pay per click, Search engine optimization and search engine marketing solutions for your business with a full refund guarantee.

To get more information and for a 30 minute no obligation absolutely free consult in how to make your Internet marketing strategies work log on to http://www.infomedia-direct.com/search-engine-marketing

An Organized Life is Important For Getting a Perfect Body Shape

People normally have a very good body if not a perfect body shape when they are young. The increase in the body weight is usually seen in the individuals as they grow older. As we all know that in our teenage days we tend to be more concerned about the perfect body shape.

It is not that we are not concerned about our body as we get older. The fact is that we get more responsibilities as we grow older. Therefore, we get lesser time or absolutely no time to take care of our body.

We get so engrossed with our other commitments that we get absolutely no time to take care of our body and our health. However, we cannot shy away from our responsibilities as well if we want to be winners in our lives.

In the midst of all this chaos, it is very important for us to focus on the weight loss program. It is very vital to stay fit in order to fulfill the other commitments of our life more efficiently. The first step for a healthy body is to develop the body fitness. However, your weight loss program will be a successful one if you eventually manage to get a perfect body shape.

The fitness of your body also reflects on your lifestyle and your daily habits. Smoking cigarettes is very harmful to your health. Therefore, smoking does not have any place in your weight loss program or in your healthy life.

We will need to make sure that our body gets a balanced diet, proper rest and proper body exercises. Organizing our lives is the best formula for getting a perfect body shape.

You could find a lot of interesting information about weight loss and fitness on http://www.top-secret-fat-loss-secret.org