I just graduated with a bachelor’s in Marketing and a minor in economics. I’m looking for an entry level marketing job any where but what job titles would take the most advantage of my minor?

Banking would be a great entry level job with that degree.

When opening a home business or a small business outside the home there are several choices to make regarding marketing. You can use different methods such as Mail Order Marketing, Conventional Marketing, Direct Marketing and MultiLevel Marketing. Each one has its pros and cons and can get you and your business on its way to making money and being successful. The type you choose depends on such factors as your product type, your business type and your overall goals as a small/home business owner.

Take a look at each of these marketing plans and see which one you think would work best for your situation and goals.

1. Mail Order Marketing - At some point pretty much all of us have open the mailbox to find a catalog from a company such as Victoria Secrets or REI or one of a thousand other companies that use mail order marketing. Smaller companies might send out something smaller such as a flyer or brochure, but the intent is the same. They are hoping you will be excited about the products they are offering and that the catalog or flyer will entice you to buy something.

This type of marketing can be successful if you happen to get the right person at the right time. The best way to do that is to send it to pretty much everyone or at least find a “list” that groups people according to their interests so you only send your information to people who might use it. The success rate usually is less than 5% so you will need to send out a lot of information in order to be successful.

This is a very hard way for the average person to start a business. Especially if you consider this is just the marketing part of the business, you still have to worry about getting a product, making the catalog, taking orders and finally shipping. A lot of work and a lot of initial expense.

2. Conventional Marketing - Everywhere you go you are bombard with advertisements trying to show you how wonderful some product is and how you can’t live without it. This is the primary marketing plan of many traditional businesses. Coke, Pepsi, Nike and many others spend millions of dollars to get you to purchase their brand.

As a small business you would also be trying to get people to use your product and service. Local radio and TV stations, billboards and newspaper ads are all good ways to get your name out to the public. As with any business and advertising, eventually a word or mouth campaign can also help with your business promotion.

Again this is a money intensive way to get the word out. You still have all the other problems of having a store front or place people can go to get your product or service. You quite often will have employees and all the work and expense that go along with them. Once again, this type of business takes a lot of money to get started.

3. Direct Marketing - Remember the door to door salesman? It was something done in the past much more than today but most of us can remember the Kirby vacuum salesman or maybe the Fuller brush man. Today, there are still those direct sales companies but they do less of the door to door sales and have converted over to things like “home parties” and other venues like home and trade shows. Examples of this type of business are Mary Kay, Tupperware and even Avon.

The advantage of this marketing system to a small business or home business person is there is no need to have a storefront and the expense that goes with it. There is also no product to produce; the parent company has already taken care of that. It also does a lot of the work as far as brand recognition and warehousing and shipping of your product. You might be required to keep a certain amount of inventory on hand but it can quite often be kept in a closet or spare room within your house.

With less initial startup cost, very little advertising cost (you and word of mouth are your advertising), and no employee or storefront expense this is a much better option for the average person looking to start a home based business.

4. MultiLevel Marketing - MLM and direct marketing are similar in many respects. An MLM company uses its money to motivate its distributors and not towards the national public through advertising campaigns. When looking into MLM, you may have heard of companies such as Shaklee or Scent-sations. The biggest difference between Direct Marketing and MLM is that Multilevel Marketing is concerned with selling product but adds the team building aspect.

You, as a network marketer, would help others create their own home based business and give them training on how to build it stronger and in turn help even more people. This is called your downline. You get paid not only on what product you sell but the product they sell as well. Therefore it is in your best interest to help your downline become successful, just as it is important for your upline to help you be successful.

The parent company uses the money it saves from advertising to pay you. They also spend it on improving the product, creating more products for you to promote, creating new tools for you to be successful, giving education classes, and offering other bonuses such as money, trips, cars and other incentives.

They take care of all the production costs, the warehousing, the handling of payments and the shipping. Most of the good MLM companies don’t require you to keep inventory on hand but they do require that you purchase and use their product. Each company has a different requirement on how much you are required to purchase each month in order to be a distributor.

Like direct marketing this plan is a great starting place for a majority of people looking to start a home business. It has very little startup cost and very little risk. You can work this business while keeping your “real job”. It can be used as a way to make just a little extra each month or if it is your goal, you can use it to replace your current income.

Whatever you choose make sure it fits your goals and aspirations. It is good to go through and create a vision map of what you are trying to accomplish and where you see you and your business in the future.

Find a mentor, friend or coach who has been there and discuss the options of whatever plan you decide on. Starting a home business or small business is a big decision and one that you should research before just jumping in with both feet.

Think about it!

Michael Tomberlin
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/mlm-versus-other-marketing-stratagies-740984.html

In order to succeed in your Network Marketing Business, you must develop the mindset of a leader. 98% of the people who start a home-based business wind up quitting after a few months because they put too much emphasis on being a follower. The ability to positioning yourself as a leader is the one thing that makes the difference between success and failure.

Why are you struggling with your business? It is not because the products you represent are not good. It is not because people have less spendable income than they did a year ago. It is not because you are not cut out to succeed. It is simply because you have not figured out how to get yourself into the driver’s seat!

How many times have you been instructed to do 3-way calling with your upline? It looks really good on paper, right? Unfortunately, all this tactic does is position your upline as a leader instead of you. It helps them grow their business, but you are left looking like someone who is sitting in the passenger’s seat.

Needless to say, you must stop doing 3-way calls with your upline! Even if you may not be as comfortable moving your products as you think you should be, no one but you has to know that. You are the CEO of your network marketing business. Recruiting people who are under the assumption that someone else is an expert will teach them that they will not have to be an expert either.

Another way to put yourself in the driver’s seat is to stop begging for business. People can sense when you are desperate, and that is looked upon as a sign of weakness. Leaders never sound desperate for anything. The minute that a person thinks you need them, it is all over. They do not want to be in a network marketing business with someone who can not stand on their own.

I know it may be difficult since you really do need to pay your rent, but shifting the focus off money and aiming it toward helping people is what will catapult your business into orbit. You have the upper hand here, so use it. Let people know that you are considering them to join your network marketing business instead of trying to persuade them.

To be successful in our network marketing business remember to always be confident, in yourself and in anyone you talk to. Your attitude needs to be self-assured because you know the value of what you offer. You hold the keys to an exclusive club, and you have to power to admit only the best qualified people. Always hold your head up high.

When you do not think you can succeed, it comes across in the way you talk to people and your body language as well. Who wants to be in your network marketing business with you if you do not think you are going to be successful? Remember this phrase: fake it until you make it. That does not mean be a fake person, but have the confidence that you will reach your goals before you actually experience the success.

Understanding your capacity to improve people’s lives by mentoring them is another important factor of being a leader. Be aware of the struggles your prospects faces every day, and his or her options for improving their situation. The changes posed by a changing economy and diminishing job market may not affect you, but it affects the people looking to work from home who are fed up with working for corporate America.

You actually have more at stake than the person you are mentoring. Realize that you are taking the responsibility to develop their business and work alongside them until they can do it. Their success is your success. Do not do their work for them, but show them how to do it for themselves. Successful leaders do not babysit, they mentor.

Putting yourself in the driver’s seat of your network marketing business requires the mindset of a leader. Leaders offer prospects a chance to take charge of their future, to develop self-confidence, and to become free for once in their lives. Instead of asking who you can convince, ask who is qualified to work with you.

You hold the keys to a better future, for yourself and for everyone you care about. With proper network marketing education, you can learn how to get prospects calling you on daily basis begging you to take them into your network marketing business. The days of chasing down existing customers and prospects sitting on the fence will be gone for good. Trust me, I know.

I spent over 10 years handing out flyers, talking to people in parking lots, hanging signs and alienating my friends and family members. It wasn’t until I learned How To Put Myself In The Driver’s Seat Of My Network Marketing Business that I began to succeed. The only thing that changed was my way of thinking.

William Winch
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/how-to-put-yourself-in-the-drivers-seat-of-your-network-marketing-business-746391.html

For those people who have network marketing websites on the internet, they are always out to drive traffic to their websites. This could be due to two reasons. One is to build their mailing list where they will use the site more as a lead capturing tool. Another is to increase their Google Adsense income if they have such advertisements on their site.

Most people will try various ways of generating traffic to their websites. You can go for the paid traffic or the free traffic. Both ways will allow you to generate website traffic and can include search engine optimization, article submission, traffic exchange, social media marketing and other online marketing methods.

One generally unexplored way is to go back to the traditional offline system. This can be done by working hand in hand with current network marketing leaders. As network marketing leaders have a great following, if you are able to offer great information to their network marketing downlines, you will be able to create a win-win situation. They have the traffic that you require and you have the ability to offer great content that they require.

Of course, by doing this, you have to be able to deliver great quality content for their downlines. You have heard that content is king. If you are able to offer good valuable information that will allow the network marketing leader to help his downlines succeed, the leader is more open to sending all his people to visit your website as this will make his job easier.

If you are able to approach your network marketing leader, all the better since being your leader or upline, it is his job to ensure that you as well as your downlines succeed as well. He might even send all his downlines to your website. This will enable great teamwork and help build rapport with your team since there is great valuable information that everyone is able to have access to.

However, if you are not approaching your own upline or leader, it is still possible to work with the network marketing leader in another organization. By doing so, you can still position yourself as an expert in your area which is to give great and valuable information to everyone in the network marketing industry. At the same time, you can also position yourself as a product user in order to gain their trust.

As most network marketing leaders are still doing the business the traditional offline way, this can be a great way of helping them bring part of their business online. As most of these leaders have a huge organization and an ever larger list, if you are able to joint venture with any of them, this would greatly help you to generate website traffic. Since traffic is also king and if you are able to have both content and traffic working for you, your website will be one of the top performing websites soon.

Once you have traffic to your website, you are then able to capture their information with a lead capturing page and an opt in box. Here you can consider marketing affiliate products to the readers. However, do take note that quality content and information is a must. This is something so important and cannot be compromised.

Veronica Tan BK
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/how-to-explode-your-traffic-with-network-marketing-leaders-750449.html

The first thing a good business is going to do is sit down and come up with a marketing plan.

Well, this is what you are supposed to do, and in theory I am sure plenty of businesses would agree, but how many of them put the theory into practice?

The reason why coming up with a marketing plan can be such a chore for so many businesses is because they do not want to just sit down and write things out. They want action instead. They want to actually do something, and planning is not very action packed, now is it?

These are the people who just do not bother to come up with any kind of marketing plan. They will wing it and see what happens. If they want to get color brochure printing done than they will do it whether this is the best marketing to use or not.

The next type of person will actually take the time to write out a marketing plan, but once the plan is made they completely ignore it. The plan is there, and by coming up with one they think they have made some great stride, but then they do not use it at all and just do whatever they want with their marketing.

On the other end of this spectrum is the person who not only comes up with their marketing plan but also sticks by it through thick and thin no matter what happens. This is the first plan they made and this is the plan they are going to stand behind. They might keep using a form of marketing that is not working very well simply because their plan calls for it.

The majority of people will fall somewhere in between these different groups, and where you need to be if you want to be successful.

Yes, you do need a marketing plan no matter what. The less focused your marketing is the less successful it will be, and the less sales you will be able to generate.

However, you cannot stand so rigidly by that plan that you let good opportunities slip by you because you were trying too hard to keep doing what your marketing plan called for.

You might notice a few months into your business that other companies are being successful with brochure printing or maybe direct mailing, and while your own marketing plan did not call for that, you might want to make a few changes to stay competitive.

You need to know when to be flexible and when to stick by what your first researched showed you. Marketing plans are made for a reason, and even if you are making minor changes, they can still do a good job at keeping your overall marketing focused on the right tasks. You do not want to find yourself on either extreme. Create a good place for yourself in the middle ground.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Color Brochure Printing, Brochure Printing

Janice Jenkins
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/following-through-on-your-marketing-plan-685147.html