Every day, millions of people are calling toll-free #s to obtain information about a product or service. One organization that we work with, mails 1,200,000 pieces of mail per month, to let people know that they can pre-qualify for a loan, by calling an 800 number, with a real-time response conversion rate of 1.2%. Another company makes 1000 + calls a day connecting potential car buyers with lenders, initiated by a web opt-in mechanism, resulting in a 2.5% response conversion rate. What do they have in common? They both use IVR (Interactive Voice Response) to generate interest, acquire sales leads, connect the buyer with the seller and provide a continuous deal flow to their sales force.

How Can You use IVR to generate more leads.

A key benefit of using IVR for a sales lead generation is that it can work for you 24/7.

The ability to activate a pre-approved auto loan or apply for a mortgage pre-approval, are just some examples.

Say you are an Auto Dealer, and you want to generate more prospect-flow. You can easily rent a targeted consumer list from dozens of sources and write a compelling sales letter “ which invites your target to apply for a pre-approved auto loan, 1000s of dealers are doing this across the country.

The same can be done if you are a mortgage broker, and you provide a quick telephone mortgage application. By renting your list from a credit service, such as Equifax, you can target your audience, and make your offer even more compelling.

IVR allows you to engage with consumers and process your leads 24/7 over the telephone, and leads are delivered to you in real-time.

What Response Rates Can You expect?

Your response rate will vary depending on your product or service, your unique sales proposition and the type / quality of the list. IVR allows you to turn the calls into leads that you can follow-up on.

Based on a cross-section of the organizations that we work with, you can anticipate response rates of 1% ~ 3% and in some cases even higher.

For example, we have recently worked with a client that was obtaining a 11% response rate from his voice mail drops (from an opt-in list), initially with 1.5% conversion rate. Eventually, through the utilization of some IVR optimization techniques, the client was able to generate even higher conversion rates (2.7%).

Using Inbound or Outbound Calling – What is the Difference?

When you are using IVR to help you with sales lead generation, you can use one of two approaches,

* Inbound calling, where you invite a prospect through print letter , or other media to call into your toll-free #.

*Outbound, where prospects are called and invited to take action, on a unique offer you are making them.

Buy or Outsource? If you plan on setting up your own IVR infrastructure, this is an expensive proposition. That is why there are service providers who will offer IVR Sales Lead Generation as a managed, hosted service. You will require NO Hardware or Software to run your programs, basically you pay for what you use, and you are supported 24/7.

By capitalizing on a hosted service, you have NO infrastructure requirements. E-mail and web access will do, as you can either receive your leads via e-mail or access them though the web.

If you want real-time integration with your in-house systems, you will require conversations between your IT team, and your IVR vendor.

How Do I Get Started?

Source Your List: If you are currently engaged in direct marketing or have conducted direct marketing or web marketing campaigns in the past you probably have established sources for prospect lists. If you are using outbound calling, make sure you comply with the no-call list guidelines.

Messaging: Your message must be clear and have a direct call to action, which is a call to a toll-free # to respond on the spot and complete the application. There must be alignment between your sales letter/voice message and the greeting when the prospect responds. Research has shown that this can increase conversion rates by as much as 50%.

Your Script: Prepare a script for your service provider. This should be a simple process to start, however your service provider will help you refine it. Write it as if you were the caller hearing your message, application, etc. over the phone. What would make you stay engaged, and interested in continuing? Remember that your participant will need instructions, what is common sense on paper, may not be in an IVR survey, and so you should provide detailed instructions on how to respond. Your service provider will certainly be able to assist you.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is an ever evolving process of making a site easily navigated and ranked by all the major search engines. Web Designers and marketers implement Search Engine Optimization to increase a sites ranking in search engines to drive more internet traffic to a site.

Website Designers have abused certain techniques to boost their results and it’s this abuse that has added to the difficulty in getting legitimate websites indexed. The major search engines continually modify their algorithms to avoid the use of tricks and to improve search results. Sites have been banned for using deceptive tactics.

The site, www.seoProofofConcept.com, demonstrates site ranking using only Search Engine Optimization tactics, the results will then be analyzed to verify the process and validate the Proof of Concept. Initial Search Engine Optimization adjustments on an existing website can be a huge process but one the modification are done the upkeep will be minor.

SEO and natural link building are impemented by www.ExpertSEOnow.com to increase organic internet traffic and page rank. Their software shows what modifications need to be done to a site over time as the Search Engines adjust the way sites are indexed.

If you look at the html for the site you will see nothing out of the ordinary, only pure Search Engine Optimization is used to achieve the Proof of Concept. The process used is the same simple process they use for any site and can be implemented easily.

For increased internet traffic with fast organic results I recommend www.ExpertSEOnow.com. They will help your site get indexed properly and the process used is easy to understand and implement.

There is nothing overly difficult or complex about SEO and site promotion so there is no reason to try and fool the search engines. Sites can achieve fantastic results by simply adjusting the keyword placement and density and then adjusting the proper tags in the correct locations.

Just a short time ago, it was no big deal for a company to spend large sums of money on marketing measures. As long as the public was spending money, companies felt confident that they would always have buyers. More often than not, the cost of the campaign would not be considered, because they were so sure there would be a return.

Changes soon happened. We are all well aware of the economic down turn that happened, as it affected us all. It really affected the normal way of marketing that most companies were used to. It was the norm to be spending lots of money, but that had to change with the new and very different climate.

Most importantly, companies no longer had all that money at their disposal to budget towards marketing costs. It was becoming generally accepted to cut costs everywhere possible, with marketing being some of the first ones to get the bad news. Companies still needed to market somewhat, but they had to be very wise about how to do it, since many companies were going under every day.

Consumers then decreased their buying. As companies struggled, their employees cut their own costs in turn because of job uncertainty. They began to shop and do more things on the internet, like socialize with friends. This gave smart companies a new medium to use to reach these people who weren’t going out to store fronts as much.

When things like this start to happen, businesses have to rethink their marketing strategies. It’s difficult to predict what the market will do in the future, but it’s important that companies take initiative and try to anticipate what will happen so they can change with it. They will be better prepared to make changed if they do this.

In this environment, the difficult thing is to find a marketing firm will do very high quality work while being able to compete with their competitors on price point. If you can find an agency that has done a good job of streamlining their own procedures, you will probably be able to get a good deal and an innovative workforce as well.

You might see this in a company that has placed emphasis on fewer clients while striving for a higher quality workforce. The workforce will most likely be smaller and better able to react to outside forces than its bigger adversaries.

And lastly, the firm must be able to change quickly with the times. If they are to survive, they must be willing to adapt to whatever comes their way. They must be technologically savvy, capable of producing stellar web press, and able to do it for less than the traditional companies. These are the keys to the future of marketing.

Are you looking to expand your website’s presence in the search engines? If you are like any other entrepreneur or even a serious hobbyist, you will definitely want to raise your rankings in the search engines. This way, more traffic will find its way to your site and you can enjoy all the rewards expanded traffic will deliver.

Search engine optimization requires a commitment of time to be effective. Purchasing one way links is an option that can produce results and increase traffic to your website. One way links can work for you to raise your rankings slowly and steadily over a period of time.

There has been much idle chatter about how buying links will not improve your ranking and that search engines discount purchased links and ignore them. But, this is not true. When you buy links, you will reap the benefits and be found by the appropriate search engines. You will ultimately benefit from higher rankings.

First, you will want to buy links from an SEO service that has a sound record of delivering what they promise. Avoid a �fly by night� organization that you know nothing about. Verify the services credentials. When you buy links from a reliable source you will see results in your search engine optimization efforts in a realistic amount of time.

Also, it is important to stick with services that offer one way links onto relevant websites. By definition, relevant websites are those sites that share commonalities with your website. Hence, it would make sense that your link was placed on them. If your website deals with hunting and fishing and you place your links onto a site or blog that deals with the motion picture industry, the search engines may not see it as all that valuable of a link. As such, its impact on your search engine ranking would be minimal.

Conversely, if your link was placed on a website that deals with camping or canoeing, it would still be considered a relevant link. Why is this? Camping, canoeing, and hunting and fishing are considered outdoor activities. Therefore, these links would all have value regarding boosting search engine rankings and that it why it is necessary to buy links on relevant sites.

Some people decide to purchase a large quantity of links all at one time and think that�s all they have to do. You will see better results if you spread your budget over a period of time. One way links should be purchase in equal numbers on a regular basis throughout the year. Buy whatever you can afford to buy but buy them monthly, or quarterly. This will produce the best results for your search engine ranking.

There is no question that buying links, if done so from a reputable source in a consistent fashion, will produce results. It is not a difficult process and one of the best ways to improve your rankings on search engines.

Should you be doing a search for Microsoft certified training, then you’ll naturally expect training providers to offer a good number of the most superior training courses available today. Maybe you’d choose to talk through what you’re looking to do with an advisor – and if you haven’t come to a decision, then take counsel on whereabouts in industry would be right for you, based on your likes and dislikes and your character. Be sure your course is put together to your skills and abilities. A reputable training company will make sure that the course is designed for the career you want to get into.

Commencing with the idea that it’s necessary to find the job we want to do first, before we can even mull over which development program fulfils our needs, how can we choose the way that suits us? Reading long lists of different and confusing job titles is no use whatsoever. Surely, most of us have no concept what the neighbours do for a living – so we have no hope of understanding the complexities of a particular IT career. Getting to an informed decision really only appears through a meticulous examination covering many shifting factors:

* The type of personality you have and interests – what kind of working tasks you enjoy or dislike.

* What sort of time-frame do you want for your training?

* Does salary have a higher place on your list of priorities than other requirements.

* With everything that the IT industry encapsulates, you’ll need to be able to understand how they differ.

* You should also think long and hard about what kind of effort and commitment you’re going to invest in your training.

In actuality, your only option to seek advice on these matters is through a chat with someone who has experience of IT (and more importantly it’s commercial needs.)

You have to make sure that all your exams are what employers want – don’t bother with studies that only give in-house certificates. Unless your qualification is issued by a company like Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe, then chances are it could have been a waste of time and effort – as it’ll be an unknown commodity.

Don’t accept anything less than accredited simulation materials and an exam preparation system as part of your training package. Confirm that the mock exams haven’t just got questions from the right areas, but additionally ask them in the way that the actual final exam will pose them. This can really throw some trainees if the questions are phrased in unfamiliar formats. Clearly, it’s very crucial to know that you’ve thoroughly prepared for the real exam prior to going for it. Going over mock-up tests adds to your knowledge bank and will save a lot of money on wasted exam attempts.

There are colossal changes washing over technology in the near future – and it becomes more and more thrilling each day. We’re barely beginning to get a handle on what this change will mean to us. The way we interrelate with the rest of the world will be significantly affected by technology and the web.

Should receiving a good salary be way up on your scale of wants, you’ll welcome the news that the usual remuneration for a typical IT worker is a lot higher than with other market sectors. As the IT industry keeps developing year on year, it’s looking good that demand for qualified professionals will continue to boom for a good while yet.

We’re often asked why traditional degrees are being replaced by more commercial certificates? Industry is of the opinion that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, certified accreditation supplied for example by Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe most often has much more specialised relevance – at a far reduced cost both money and time wise. Higher education courses, for example, become confusing because of vast amounts of background study – and a syllabus that’s too generalised. Students are then prevented from getting enough specific knowledge about the core essentials.

Assuming a company is aware what work they need doing, then they simply need to advertise for the particular skill-set required. Vendor-based syllabuses are all based on the same criteria and can’t change from one establishment to the next (in the way that degree courses can).

For years now, the video store was the way to get movies. Now, with internet usage exploding, movie downloads are becoming very popular. Just about any movie every made can be attained through a movie download site now. Check out these samples.

Mickey Blue Eyes: Alarmingly unfunny characteristic based on the renowned nearsighted animation personality refreshed in the energized credits, with Greg Burson filling in for Jim Backus as the voice of Magoo. Nielsen does his best unconditionally, although the pointlessly difficult structure-in reference to the theft of a dear cherry-just goes on and on. And there are a tremendous amount of mean spirited characters for a babies‘ film. Cast includes Hugh Permit, James Caan, Jeanne Trippet, Leslie Nielsen, Jennifer Gamer, Malcolm McDowell, and Miguel Ferrer. (103 minutes, 1999)

Absolution: Young Benjamin Starfield is tired of being the teacher’s favorite at his Catholic school. So, he decides to play a joke on Father Goddard (Richard Burton). In confession he claims to have accidentally killed his best friend and buried him in the forest. Things get even more intriguing when Goddard finds the dead body of the young boy Benjamin claims to have killed. Richard Burton, Dominic Guard, Dai Bradley, and Billy Connolly star. (1978 Drama)

Blank Check: Mobster Carl Quigley almost kills young Preston when he runs over his bike. Wanting to just pay the kid off, he gives him a check. The problem is he gave Preston a blank check. Preston makes the check out for $1 million dollars and cashes it. Mow Quigley sees what has happened and want his money back. Can Preston avoid Quigley and his goons?

Scooby Doo: Scooby’s crime solving buddies Fred, Shaggy, Daphne and Velma have been summoned to Spooky Island to look into some strange things that have been occurring on the island. The scary goings on will soon scare the resorts customers away. Can Scooby and his friends solve the mystery and save the resort?

Everest: Astonishing images of climbing Mount Everest. An IMAX crew ascends the peak in May of 1996. The IMAX team succeeded, but eight climbers from other teams died. The IMAX team assisted in rescues before finishing their ascent.

Report to the Commissioner: Newbie cop Moriarty inadvertently slaughters covert cop Blakely and gets to be embroiled in branch-wide cover-up. Vicious melodrama ranges from practical to overblown; tight however not unconditionally persuading. Cast includes Michael Moriarty, Yaphet Kotto, Susan Blakely, Hector Elizondo, Tony Baron, Michael McGuire, Dana Elcar, Robert Balaban, William Devane, Stephen Elliott, Richard Gere, Vie Tayback, and Sonny Grosso. (78 minutes, 1948)

Abbott and Costello in Hollywood: Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein SEE: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Cast includes Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Thalmus Rasulala, Tony Baron, Bemie Hamilton, and Craft Lund. (94 minutes, 1975)

Rudy: Stone-dense, vastly amusing based-on-truth account of Rudy Astin, a performing-style boy motive on grasping his fantasy of playing football at old The university of Notre Dame regardless of his uninspiring academic record and unimposing sports orientated aptitude. There are many shocks, although it’s well performed with particular kudos to Dutton, and a genuine crowd pleaser. Cast includes Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, Robert Prosky, Charles S. Dutton, Lili Taylor, Jon Favreau, Jason Miller, and Vince Vaughn. (112 minutes, 1993)

Chicken Run: The chickens want to fly the coup in this animated, family comedy. Mrs. Tweedy, the greedy farm owner has other plans, and not only thwarts their escape, but threatens to make chicken pie out of them if egg production doesn’t stay up to standards. All hope seems lost until Rocky shows up and helps the chickens make a more elaborate and daring escape attempt.

Try a search phrase something like „Movie Dowloads“. If a search does not yield a good result, try different searches. Try something different, like „Downloading DVDs“.

If Cisco training is your aspiration, but you’ve not yet worked with routers or network switches, you should first attempt the Cisco CCNA qualification. This teaches you the knowledge you need to understand routers. The world wide web is built up of many routers, and big organisations with many locations also rely on them to allow their networks of computers to communicate.

You might end up joining an internet service provider or a large commercial venture that’s on many locations but still needs contact. Both types of jobs command good salaries.

Getting your Cisco CCNA is the right level in this instance – don’t be pushed into attempting your CCNP for now. Get a couple of years experience behind you first, then you will know if you need to train up to this level. Should that be the case, you’ll have a much better chance of succeeding – as your experience will help you greatly.

If you’re considering a training company which is still using workshops as a benefit of their course, then listen to these difficulties encountered by most students:

* Constant travelling to and from the centre – often very long trips.

* If you’re working, then Monday to Friday workshops cause problems at work. Typically you are facing 2-3 days at a time as well.

* Let’s not disregard lost holiday time. Often, we get 4 weeks annual leave. If half is given up to classes, then we aren’t going to be doing much vacationing.

* Classes usually become quickly full, leaving us with the ‚2nd best‘ solution.

* You may prefer to move at a somewhat more suitable pace – rather than be dictated to by the rest of the class. Sometimes this causes a lot of tension amongst the class.

* The cost of travel – driving to and from the training centre together with several days accommodation can mount up every time you have to go. Assuming just 5-10 centre-days at a cost of 35 pounds for an over-night room, plus 40 pounds petrol and food at 15 pounds, we find an extra four to nine hundred pounds of hidden costs that we now have to fund.

* Training privacy is often very important to many trainees. You don’t want to give up any job advancement, income boosts or achievement in your job because of your studies. If your work discovers you’re putting yourself through accreditation in another area entirely, what do you think they’ll do?

* Who amongst us hasn’t avoided putting our hand’s up, because we wanted to look smarter?

* Working and living away – a fair few attendees need to live or work somewhere else for certain parts of their study. Days in-centre are hard to get to, yet the monies have already been handed over with your initial fees.

Why don’t you simply watch and study with industry specialists one-on-one through videoed modules, working on them at a time that’s convenient for you and you alone. You can study from home on your desktop PC or why not in the garden on a laptop. Any questions that pop up, just utilise the 24×7 Support (that should come with any technical program.) You don’t have to worry about any note-taking – all the lessons and background info are laid out on a plate. If you need to cover something again, just go for it. While this won’t take away every little difficulty, it unquestionably reduces stress and eases things. You also have reduced travel, hassle and costs.

The market provides an excess of job availability in IT. Arriving at the correct choice for yourself is a mammoth decision. Working through a list of IT job-titles is a complete waste of time. Surely, most of us don’t even know what our own family members do for a living – so what chance do we have in understanding the intricacies of a particular IT career. Achieving any kind of right answer will only come through a meticulous study across many changing factors:

* Your individual personality and interests – what work-oriented areas please or frustrate you.

* Are you aiming to realise a specific aim – like working from home as quickly as possible?

* Where is the salary on a scale of importance – is it the most important thing, or is day-to-day enjoyment higher up on the scale of your priorities?

* Considering all that IT covers, it’s a requirement that you can understand the differences.

* Our advice is to think deeply about the level of commitment that you will set aside for your education.

To be honest, it’s obvious that the only real way to seek advice on these matters is via a conversation with an experienced advisor that understands computing (and specifically it’s commercial needs and requirements.)

Many students assume that the school and FE college track is the way they should go. Why then are commercially accredited qualifications beginning to overtake it? As we require increasingly more effective technological know-how, industry has had to move to specialist courses that can only be obtained from the actual vendors – that is companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA. Often this saves time and money for the student. Clearly, a reasonable amount of associated detail must be learned, but precise specialisation in the areas needed gives a vendor trained person a huge edge.

As long as an employer is aware what work they need doing, then they simply need to advertise for someone with a specific qualification. Syllabuses all have to conform to the same requirements and can’t change from one establishment to the next (as academic syllabuses often do).

Web 2.0 has become something of a buzzword in the online marketing industry which gets thrown around quite a bit, though many are unclear on just what it means. What is Web 2.0? Its a somewhat nebulous concept which doesnt necessarily lend itself to a single cut-and-dried definition, though there is a growing consensus as to what exactly is “ and is not Web 2.0.

Your wish to do a website design with some astounding effects which makes your site more appealing. A web 2.0 design helps you to draw some artistic designing aspects which will capture audience concentration and helps you to keep them at your site for long time.

What do all of these developments in web technology mean for internet marketers? In a word, opportunities. Opportunities to reach narrowly targeted groups of consumers, opportunities to get out ahead of the media and manage your own brand image and corporate identity and opportunities to communicate directly with consumers one on one.

Viewers of your site are chasing for information or produce what they required! Thus web 2.0 design styles suggest you to keep easy navigation system for visitors at your site.

A company blog that allows visitors to make comments is invaluable. If you have a staff, assign somebody to read visitor comments and write back to them, keeping the communications open and alive and making the visitors feel like they’re truly part of a community. It’s also a wise idea to put together podcasts that people can subscribe to with an RSS feed. Internet videos are like viral marketing for you, and if you use the new Article Video Robot technology you can create and distribute 100 of these videos per month for less than $1 a video!

Above all, you need to be unique. You have to target a niche market and tailor your Internet marketing efforts to them. Be more creative than everyone else and find ways to make yourself look like the expert. This involves remembering the limitations of Web 2.0: democracy strongly tends to create mediocrity. Your visitors are mostly not businessmen or marketers, and the average visitor will not be the most imaginative or intelligent person. They cannot be the ones who control you.

You can insert remarkable labels at your design for special offerings of your business. By using this special feature of web 2.0 design style you can directly reflect your selling strategies in front of your business market.

There are of course many other platforms and techniques which can help you to take full advantage of Web 2.0 technologies and the opportunities they provide to business. The important thing is to get started immediately; the benefits of these new developments are there for the taking and can help you to build your business online.