Toms Tech

Let’s face it, keeping your marketing mix fresh can be a real challenge.  You’ve done the article marketing thing.  You’ve planned email marketing campaigns, promotions, joint ventures, linking, ebooks, advertising, giveaways, and maybe even direct mail.  What’s left?  What can you do to interact with your customers, engage and excite them, and encourage traffic and promotion?  The answer?  Audio marketing.

Here’s how audio can enhance your online business marketing plan.

Marketing with audio enables you to personally connect to your audience.  Ever turn to the last page of a book to see what the author looks like?  I do that all the time.  What about visiting a web page and searching the about us page so you can learn a little bit about who runs the business?  I do that too and I’d like to think I’m not just a voyeur and that I am like most people and I want to connect a little bit with the companies I shop from and interact with.

When you provide an audio on your file, you give visitors the opportunity to hear your voice and connect with you for a few seconds.  You can use your audio file to say hello, to tell them a little bit about yourself and why you created your company or to jump right into a sales pitch and tell folks why your product or service will change their lives.  When they hear it from you, they may be more likely to believe it.

One suggestion when you’re creating your audio file is to consider making listening to it optional. I only say this because many people surf online when they’re not really supposed to.  Maybe their at work or at the library or even at home while they’re watching television and the last thing they want is to click on your site and have your voice, as wonderful as it is, break the silence.  It’s a dead giveaway to their boss that they’re not working and it can be irritating if they’re surfing in a quiet location.

When you include an audio file on your business website, consider your visitors and maybe add a button they need to click on to listen to it.  Another option is to test which works better, an audio that begins 30 seconds after they’ve arrived on your site or an audio they have to click on.  That way you know you’re meeting your customer’s needs.

Another reason to use audio is that it is a fantastic medium to offer free products like an audio tutorial. A free MP3 is an excellent trade for an email address.  Additionally, there are now many information based websites that offer tons of written content and also tons of audio tutorials.  Visitors can click on the links to listen to the material and learn, they can download it to their computer to listen to later or they can transfer the audio file to their MP3 player and listen to it when they’re in the car.  They can also share it with friends and increase the exposure of your company.

Audio tutorials are excellent however what about audio books, audio reports, recorded interviews, recorded workshops and more.

Audio is incredibly cost effective.

In fact, there are many tools on the web that make creating an audio file and embedding it on your website virtually cost free. Audio programs like Audacity, which is an open source program, enables you to record telephone interviews or conference calls and save them as MP3s.  You’ll need a few tools like a simple converter but they generally cost less than $50.00.

Additionally, it only costs you to produce the file once but you’ll be using it hundreds, or maybe even thousands, of times.  AND when you create an audio file in the form of a CD giveaway the production costs are extremely minimal.  That being said, the majority of people prefer digital audio files which is more cost effective for you.  One thing to consider when creating an audio file is that it needs to be quality.  If people cannot hear you or understand you, or they’re hearing your dog barking in the background, then you’re going to lose credibility and the effect you’re going for.

One of the benefits of audio is that it is easy to convert print into audio.  For example, let’s say you have a report that has done well as a content piece, transferring it into an audio file is as easy as speaking into a microphone.

When recording print copy, it is important to make sure you sound natural.  A great way to do this is to read it aloud a few times to get the hang of the copy and then ad lib.  Read the copy like you’re talking to a friend.  Add contractions, pauses, and even a joke or two where appropriate.  If you’re not comfortable with this task or the project just isn’t turning out how you want it to, consider hiring a voice to record the copy for you.

It is also really easy to take an audio file and transfer it into a print product.  For example, you can interview an expert and market that audio, have it transcribed and sell the transcribed product or give it away as a separate promotion.  Your only cost is the cost of transcription – about $15/hour.

Podcasts are growing by leaps and bounds, now you can easily reach your audience weekly via your voice, rather than via email Ezines.  Podcasts are viral and can be shared and recommended by fans and they’re an excellent, cost effective way to communicate with your audience on a regular basis.

There are so many reasons to use audio to market your business.  It’s cost effective, easy to use, interactive and it enables you to communicate directly with your customers on a more personal level. It’s a great tool.  Include it in your marketing plan today!

Establishing website is very important if you plan to apply Internet marketing to improve your business. To make sure that your investment on the website is beneficial, you need to choose the trusted partner to support your website. First, you need to purchase the right domain as the name of your website or the address of your website. You can use your company name since you need to choose the one that really represents your company.

The second step is choosing the best UK Web Hosting to serve your website to the Internet users. Web hosting is a service to store all files and data of your website and make them available to be accessed by the Internet users. To avoid any problem occur in the future, it is better that you choose reliable web hosting provider and the right type of web hosting that fits your needs.

As you see that there are several type of web hosting available now. Need the less expensive one? Shared web hosting the answer. However, if you need the one that gives you less trouble, you can count on Dedicated Server. If you want the combination of them both, VPS Hosting is ready to serve your website. If you find the one which you can sell to other web masters, Reseller Hosting is the best choice.

Recently, my neighbor asked me about how to call international long distance with no-minute charge. He also was interested in learning how to lower his home phone bill. I told him about a phone system called VoIP that would benefit his interest. This article is a brief information to introduce VoIP to you.

First, do you know how many people are using VoIP services? Here are interesting numbers… In 2007 there were almost 65 million worldwide voip subscribers. In the USA, over 16 million US VoIP subscribers, with continue to grow 6-8 million new subscribers every year, about 24 million US VoIP subscribers expected by 2008. By 2010 , US VoIP Subscribers will reach 44 millions, and the number of worldwide subscribers is predicted to rise to over 197 millions.

So what is VoIP – VoIP is standing for ” Voice over Internet Protocol “. VoIP also is referred to as Internet Telephony, IP Telephony, or Voice over the Internet, VoIP Telephone, Broadband Telephony, Broadband Phone, Voice over Broadband, or simply Internet Phone.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a protocol optimized for the transmission of voice hrough the Internet or other switched networks. It’s described as the transmission of voice traffic over IP-based networks, a unique technology that allows us to make calls using a broadband Internet connection ( through broadband modem ) instead of a regular (analog) phone line. At first, the Internet Protocol (IP) was originally designed for data networking systems. Later, with its success in data networking field and the explosion of Internet Era, the IP has been developed in voice networking and nowadays it is bringing us the most profit in this field. VoIP has become more and more popular because of the cost advantages to consumers compares to traditional telephone networks.

A brief explanation on how does VOIP work? – The traditional phone system is using analog phone signals to deliver and receive calls, with VoIP system, it’s using digital signals that can be sent over the Internet. If you have quality Internet connection – DSL (digital subscriber line), described as High Speed Internet Service which makes fast Internet connection ) you can get phone service delivered through your Internet connection instead of from your local phone company. In basics, here is how system works:

PC to PC: Computer connects to Broadband Modem connects to Internet connects to Broadband Modem connects to Computer

PC to Phone: Computer connects to Broadband Modem connects to Internet connects to Telephone Network connects to Telephone

Phone to Phone ( using Router ): Telephone connects to Phone Adaptor connects to Router connects to Broadband Modem connects to Internet connects to Telephone Network connects to Telephone

Benefits of using VoIP: There are two major reasons to use VoIP: Low Cost and More Profits

Low Cost: Phone services via VoIP costs less than equivalent services from analog systems. With the traditional analog phone services, users pay a flat monthly fee for the service, and pay other fee for long distance call service plus per-minute charge. With VoIP, the users who already have High Speed Internet service (DSL), can take advantage by using VoIP over this service – Many VoIP Service Providers allow you enjoy unlimited in-network calling – it means you can call any other in-network customer without charge. Other companies allow you to call any number, including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. For International calling, the users who using VoIP can get big savings with lower rates. Depends on each VoIP service offer, you can enjoy unlimited calling worldwide to many destinations for a flat monthly fee with no minute charge or low rates.

More Profits – Compares to analog phone networks, VoIP has more advantage functions. You can make calls from your personal computer to other’s computer or other’s regular phone, or you can make calls directly from your regular phone to other’s regular phone. Besides, The digital signals let you enjoy high quality voice and many advantage services such as Voice Mail, Caller ID, 3-Way Calling, Call Waiting, Speed Dial, Repeat Dial, Do Not Disturb, Call Forwarding, Emergency 911 Service, Online Account Management, Virtual Calling Card, access the service to your cell phone…

Further more, Incoming phone calls are automatically routed to your VoIP phone where ever you plug it into the network, so you can take your VoIP phone with you on a trip, around the world – anywhere you can connect it to the High Speed Internet, you can call and receive your incoming calls anytime. The VoIP Router can be set up anywhere with High Speed Internet, it provides you the advantage of savings. For example, a VoIP provider allows you get the US number and connect the router outside of the US. So when you call to that number, just like you call locals, and the person who is in other country calls you by using this service ( connected through router ) just pay a very small charge per minute, or sometimes it’s free.