Dick and Jane Revisited

Choosing A Merchant Account Provider
When looking for a merchant account provider, it is important to do a lot of research. You do not .....

Former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher is known to have said; 'If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.'

Who Gets It
Women get it. They've always gotten it. In a long ago century (1800s) Harriet Beecher Stowe said, 'Women are the real architects of society.'

Women are the doers of the family, of the office, of the world. It's precisely because women get it, and because we are doers, that it's important for small businesses venturing onto the Internet to understand the women's market ' a market that isn't about male bashing, but about embracing new technology. Today it's about getting your marketing and sales message in front of Jane, not Dick.

Be Friendly
The numbers don't lie; more than 63% of the online sales last year were made by women.

Being 'female-friendly' isn't all that hard. Women just want you to treat them with respect and consideration. Online that means using marketing elements women find useful and attractive; elements such as navigational text-links, not graphics that make us guess what you mean. Elements such as showing women on your homepage what you're about, right in that prime real estate section'the center of the computer screen. And, if you're reading that e-mail marketing is dying a slow death, let me paraphrase Mark Twain: the death of e-mail marketing has been greatly exaggerated. Women are prime users of e-mail.

Cache In The Bank: Understanding Google's Advanced Operators
Copyright 2005 Log Cabin Rustics

If you would like to know when your site was last indexed by Google, you can find out easily by using the .....

Women share advice in e-mails, they distribute information, and they talk about where to buy the best stuff. By targeting the women's market you increase your reach extensively because any woman who reads your ad and likes what she sees, will share it with others far more often than any man will do so. My own daughter recently clicked on an e-mail sales message, found something she liked, bought it ' online-- and then wrote to tell me about it.

Being friendly means generating trust. Any sales and marketing expert will tell you that trust is a prime factor in making sales. People buy from people they trust. Women especially need that trust factor. Make friends with women by creating loyalty programs, by offering free shipping, and by asking for feedback. Keep an 800# on your homepage and on your catalog or product page. At the very least, make sure you have a contact method with an auto-responder that will follow up any e-mail question within 24 hours.

Buying Text-Link Ads
It is widely agreed that SEM (search engine marketing) is one of today's most cost efficient and effective .....

It's time to put away childish toys and thoughts. That old Dick and Jane world of marketing to men only, once so popular in the 20th century, belongs in history books, not in your marketing plans. If you rely on Dick to buy your products, you will be cutting out more than half of your potential market. Fully 63% of the shopping done online last year was done by (women) Jane, not by (men) Dick.

Whether Jane is a CEO in charge of major company purchases; whether she is an office manager in charge of the supply cabinet and the conference room; whether she is a homemaker trying to keep her family happy and healthy; or whether she is a college graduate starting a new career; Jane is looking for you online and she isn't asking Dick's permission to buy. She needs office supplies; she needs a good leather ......