We are Hiring!
We need help! We are looking for some dynamic people to ad to our Infinite Horizons Team.
We have the following postitions available that we would like to fill immediately:
Marketing and Sales Executive
Full time position
Hours: M-F 9-6pm
Pay Type: Commission with Bonus
Experience: Strong Selling and Communication skills a must, Marketing and Advertising experience preferred.
Graphic Designer
Full time position
Hours M-F 9-6pm
Pay Type: Hourly / Salary
Experience: Strong Communication skills a must, Experienced in graphic design and project execution from start to finish, Fluent in all Adobe CS4 programs, Team player, Creative and Forward thinker, Ability to work independently and problem solve, Web experience a plus.
Marketing Intern
Part time position
Hours TBD / Flexible
Pay Type: For-credit / Credit Internship
Experience:
1. High school diploma or equivalency. Field of study: journalism, business, marketing
2. Excellent interpersonal communication skills, positive attitude, responsible / reliable.
3. Proficiency with computers, especially Word, Excel and Windows software. Minimum typing speed of 60 wpm.
4. Good organizational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities.
If you or some one you know are interested in any of the positions mentioned above please email your resume and digital portfolio (graphic design position) to jparness@infinitehorizonsdesign.com or call Jennifer at 815-980-8342 for more information.We are looking to fill these positions immediately!
Read MoreWhich one would you call?
We need your help! We are working on a case study and your feedback is important to us.
Out of the two Phone book ads which would you call the first or the second ad?
Don’t forget to Click here to give us your answers!
YellowPage Ad#1
YellowPages Ad #2
If you where looking in the phone book for a service and had to make a chose on who to call based on the two ads above which one would it be?
Don’t forget to Click here to give us your answers!
Infinite Horizons now offering web hosting!
Infinite Horizons is proud to add web hosting, domain registration and transfers to our wide range of services! Infinite Horizons Web is a new division if Infinite Horizons Design. Do you need a web site? We do that too! Check out our website for more information and be sure to click on the request a quote link for an instant web site estimate. www.infinitehorizonsonline.com or click on the picture below to learn more about our packages and domain services.
Should You Cut Your Marketing Budget During a Recession?
If you are in business you might have noticed that we are in an economic downturn. It’s on the news and it is in the papers. Everywhere I turn we hear of the downward spiral of our economic state.
This is especially scary for business owners and I know what you are thinking; it’s time to cut that marketing budget. Let’s start slashing costs and marketing is the first to go. Makes sense, right? No! Let me explain.
Cutting your marketing budget is one of the first mistakes businesses make during times of economic crisis. It’s time to get smarter about your marketing dollar and spend it to bring results. Sounds good doesn’t it? But how do you do it? If ever customer intelligence was important it’s now.
The key is to look at your marketing dollars as an investment not an expense.
Use the customer knowledge that you have and implement SMART marketing during these times of financial distress.
SMART marketing consists of the following
S – Strategize
M – Maintain market spend
A – Assess and allocate the budget
R – Research your customer thoroughly
T – Target and reach out to them
Stand fast during this time. I can not stress to you the importance of seeing your marketing spending as an investment during this time and not an expense. Companies have survived difficult times and have come out strong. You don’t have to take my word for it. I came a across a fantastic and informative study done by Penn State’s Smeal College of Business entitled Research: Proactive Marketing During Recession . All business owners should read this article. In this study they remind of us of companies that weathered the storm and succeeded. A few examples include:
* Proctor and Gamble – During the Great Depression they pushed Ivory soap.
* Intel – In 1990-1991 during economic difficulty they pushed out the campaign “Intel Inside”.
* Wal-mart – Walmart launched their “Every Day Low Prices” campaign in 2000-2001.
I am sure you recall all of these campaigns as I do. Even when there are difficult times well-positioned companies can in fact survive and thrive in them. It truly is about being SMART and taking marketing seriously now more than ever.
A major key is to know your consumer. Know them inside and out. Know what they think and know where they are. Know how these economic times are hitting them. Create your message around that pain. Reach out to them. Look and revise your product line if necessary. Look at developing lower cost solutions if possible. Be flexible, but at the same time be aware and always assessing.
Consider this – if you in fact cut your marketing budget, how will your consumers find you? You have severed your business lifeline and future hope of potential growth. Success can happen and it can be done, but marketing has to be involved.
Read MoreWhat’s the deal with Affiliate Marketing?
Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing
Posted in Affiliate Marketing
More and More people are lured into affiliate marketing and you might be one of them. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. It’s a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates as both benefit from each sale materialized. Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliate’s advertising, promoting and selling strategies. Everyday, as affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens as well so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ unique and effective ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail of the products and services offered.
Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient. But why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are a lot of reasons and a lot of areas in the program to look into. The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. Many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect because they lack hard work, which is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and in all other kinds of business as well. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it. Affiliate marketing isn’t as simple as directing customers to the business site. If you want to earn big, of course, you have to invest time and great amount of hard work in promoting the products. As earlier mentioned, the competition is very high and customers nowadays are very wise, too. After all, who doesn’t want to get the best purchase—that is, to pay less and get more in terms of quantity and quality.
Lack of preparation is also a reason why one fails in affiliate marketing, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. On the part of the merchant, he has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program. In order to be sure he has the best choices, he must have exhausted his means in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are sure fit to his products and services. The affiliate site’s visitors must match his targeted customers. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer must likewise research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program. He must ensure that the merchants’ products and services match his interests so he can give his full attention and dedication to the program. He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.
The website is a very important tool in the whole affiliate program. As an affiliate marketer, you should plan how your site is going to be, from domain name to the design, the lay-out, the content, and ads. Some users are particular about what they see at first glance and thus when they find your site ugly, they won’t read through the content even if your site has many things to say and offer. On the other hand, there those who want information more than anything else. Affiliate marketers with “rich-content” web sites are usually the ones who prosper in this business because the content improves traffic to the site. Websites with high quality contents—with relevant keywords and more importantly, right information about the product and not empty hyped-up advertisements—allow you to earn big in affiliate marketing even when you’re asleep. If you won’t be able to sustain the interest of your site visitor, you won’t be able to lead him to the merchants’ site. No click-through means no sale and thus, no income on your part.
Selecting a top level domain name is also crucial to the success of the affiliate program. Lots of affiliate sites don’t appear in the search engine results because they are deemed by affiliate managers as personal sites. Major search engines and directories would think of your site as transient ones and thus, they won’t list it in the directory. Before you decide on the domain name, know first what you are going to promote. Many fail because their sites are not appropriately named, so even when they feature the exact products the customer is looking for, the customer might think the site is not relevant and thus, won’t enter the site.
Above all, an affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are still a lot of things to learn and so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they don’t grow in the business and they are merely concerned about earning big quickly. If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in affiliate marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques. Likewise, study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.
Keep on trying; don’t get disappointed if your first attempts did not pay off. Thousands are attracted by the possibility of generating skyrocketing incomes through affiliate marketing and so they sign up in any affiliate program without carefully understanding every aspect of the business. When they don’t get instant results, they quit and sign up for another program and repeat the process of just copying links and referring them to others. When you sign up for an affiliate program, don’t expect to get rich in an instant. Work on your advertising strategies and be patient. You’ll never know how much you can get if you don’t persevere.
Read MoreGet involved! Join a group!
Beside our blog, we have created some other groups on the web. Check them out and join the one that fits you!
Do you own a business in the Rockford Illinois area? Are you involved in marketing your company? If so this is the group for you.
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| Rockford area business leaders |
| Visit this group |
Design101 Is a group tailored to designers or people that are interested in becoming designers. Anyone can join and post topics, share their work, or ask questions. If you are a designer or would like to know more about design then this is the group for you.
Visit the group Calling all Creatives!
