China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that Online marketing and small business experts, Ajax Union, best known for helping small businesses increase their web presence via online marketing, are giving companies a huge boost to not only keep them viable but make them successful in the lagging US economy.

To help companies stand out from the crowd they are devoting November 26, calling it Small Business Saturday, to helping small businesses increase sales and take full advantage of one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.

Ajax Union, founded by Joe Apfelbaum and Zevi Friedman, is proof that companies can thrive in a down economy. One of the few businesses actually hiring these days. They provide companies with methods for increasing their web presence and brand marketing. Their success record is undeniable. They have helped troubled companies not just survive but actually thrive in our current poor economy.

Joe Apfelbaum and Zevi Friedman, co-founders of Ajax, were recently featured on FOX News, discussing how small businesses can benefit from targeted online marketing and advertising. In fact, they are offering their proven, effective advice to small business owners on November 26, as a way to help them increase their web traffic and take full advantage of one of the busiest weekends of the year.

This dynamic duo’s expertise includes methods for effectively increasing and utilizing Search Engine Anatomy, Search Engine Optimization Basics (SEO), and Google Places Listing and Optimization.

Ajax Union is a Brooklyn, New York-based search engine agency offering a diverse array of services created to suit the needs of small businesses. Since 2007, they have been serving their clients with an effective blend of industry-tested internet advertising services, plus a little something extra.

The result has been a unique search engine marketing strategy for every campaign – no nonsense, no budget-breaking expenses, and no work that you can only assume is getting done.

Ajax Union presents a better business marketing model that offers 100% transparency, 100% flexibility and zero contracts. In other words, a better kind of online marketing designed for small businesses.

Their approach is simple – they become experts in each business. They study the company, the industry, the goals and the competition and if any of those factors change, they adjust each campaign to match. This approach has enabled them to realize measurable results in improved search engine rankings, greater traffic to websites, and targeted social networking to connect each business to its key demographics.

Joe Apfelbaum and Zevi Friedman are the co-founders, and CEO and President respectively of Ajax Union. They possess years of experience in online marketing and by combining their entrepreneurial talents and hands-on approach with those of their hand-picked team, they are able to develop innovative business strategies that are tailored to the individual needs of their small and medium-sized business clients, ensuring them of maximum success online.

China Watch Blog is really blessed to have come across this article about how Mark Satterfield teaches readers the power of persuasion – a common trait found among all really successful sales people.

Their secret? Story-telling. Look at the late Steve Jobs; he was charismatic and people will never forget the stories he told.

In Unique Sales Stories: How To Persuade Others Through the Power of Stories, Mark Satterfield teaches this same powerful sales and marketing strategy that will make them stand out from the competition.

You might be thinking: ‘It can’t be that simple.’ But Mark has proved it is. There is a definite art to story-telling and when Mark is in front of an audience sharing his simple five-step process with them, they get to see that they too can create great stories that persuade and entertain. Audiences are amazed when they see how easily they can learn the art of persuasion and how it will make their clients remember them because they made it believable.

Mark Satterfield uses Super Bowl commercials as an example of the power of a story. Those ads run around $3 million for 60 seconds and people never forget them; in fact, the commercials are now almost as popular as the game itself. Anyone can now have that power at their fingertips – minus the $3 million tab!

Very few people are natural-born storytellers. Mark admits he wasn’t – but it’s a skill he learned and he now passes that skill on to readers and audiences. The power of persuasion is strong and audiences are thoroughly entertained when he shows them how easily they can learn to do it too. He’s proven it works – after all, we know that’s the one thing all successful professionals have in common – telling great stories.

Unique Sales Stories is a practical guide for developing and delivering memorable stories. Divided into three main sections, it offers a collection of Mark’s essays on creating unique stories with step-by-step instructions on how to develop your own one-of-a-kind sales stories, and includes a variety of examples he has developed for clients to use.

Mark has a Masters Degree in Psychology and an undergraduate degree in English from Washington University. Prior to founding Gentle Rain Marketing, he held executive positions with PepsiCo and Kraft Foods in addition to having served as the Director of Career Services for the Graduate School of Business at Emory University. He has been mentioned in Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s Who in Higher Education, and is the recipient of the AMA Award for Excellence in Management Education.

Mark encourages readers to visit www.uniquesalesstory.com or www.GentleRainMarketing.com for more information on his book and seminars.

China Watch Blog detects a huge jump in the use of press releases for marketing various products, and has reproduced a typical example where the release reports that the highly anticipated Boogie Board Rip LCD Writing Tablet, the first Boogie Board tablet model with save capabilities, is now shipping to addresses in North America, Europe and other select global locations.

It continues to say that purchases can be made through Brookstone.com (U.S. only), Amazon.com, and improvelectronics.com. Preorders placed on improvelectronics.com will also begin shipping today.

“This is a monumental day – not only for Improv Electronics but for environmentally-conscious consumers around the world,” said Dr. Albert Green, Kent Displays/Improv Electronics CEO, was quoted as saying.

“Paper has been used as writing and drawing medium for roughly a thousand years. With the launch of the Boogie Board Rip tablet, we now offer a comprehensive family of Boogie Board eWriters that are viable electronic, paperless alternatives to note books, composition books, legal pads, sketch books, memo pads, sticky notes, scratch paper and other writing and drawing mediums. As more and more consumers use Boogie Board eWriters instead of their paper-based counterparts, we will move much closer to a truly paperless society.”

The Boogie Board Rip tablet will be launched with optional Virtual Desktop Companion software, downloadable from improvelectonics.com. The Microsoft Windows compatible tool expands the functionality of the Boogie Board Rip tablet when it is connected to a PC. Users can view notes and drawings on a computer monitor in real time, save files directly to their computer, and share files via e-mail.

“The high volume of Boogie Board Rip tablet preorders indicates consumers are eager to embrace an electronic, paperless writing and drawing medium,” continued Dr. Green. “The benefits compared to paper are obvious: they are less costly (than an equivalent amount of paper), offer expanded functionality, and have far less impact on the environment. I am confident eWriters will become the preferred writing and drawing medium of the 21st century — it’s just a matter of how quickly.”

MSRP for the Boogie Board Rip tablet is $129.99 USD (114.99 Euros, 99.99 British pounds, and 14,800 Yen). Consumers can click the Buy Now button on improvelectronics.com to view local retailers. Announcements about Boogie Board Rip tablet availability in additional countries and retails outlets are forthcoming.

Yours truly believes that this is way to go for marketing products. Contact us, if you need press release writing services at affordable prices, which we not only write them, but can also publicise them to our huge readers that is growing day by day.

China Watch Blog has picked up this interesting article on marketing impacted by the Internet. Simply by registering on a beauty forum, Zhao Minrui received some of L’Oréal ‘s latest sunscreen lotion, the article said.

It was the third time she had received a free sample this year, either for sharing her experiences of skincare or participating in online bidding.

With or without even realizing it, the 20-year-old sophomore had played a role in increasing the popularity and sales of the cosmetics, while at the same time getting a decent return.

“My friends and I find new skin products through micro blogs (Weibo in Chinese) or gaming sites, and we carefully study the online comments before deciding whether to buy them,” Zhao, the young but experienced online buyer, told China Daily.

The days when TV commercials were seen as key to successful marketing strategies are long gone, superseded by the Internet and social media, which make traditional advertising obsolete by upending the way it interacts with potential consumers.

Synovate, a UK-headquartered market research company, reported after a recent survey that 64 percent of Chinese netizens have access to the Internet every day, spending an average of 11 hours online each week.

In addition, the survey revealed that for respondents aged between 8 and 24 in first-tier cities in China, the Internet has replaced television as their “life essential”.

“Mobile phone users are now spending 5.8 hours per week on non-talk activities, compared with 3.2 hours per week on talk,” said Edwin Song, head of Synovate China. “They are willing to swipe the finger to decide what they have for lunch.”

These and similar findings have driven international businesses to increasingly rely on various forms of word-of-mouth marketing to attract new clients.

Sec-kill, a concept with its origins in Internet games, has become a new way for bidding online where products are only available for a short period of time. Companies including BMW, McDonald’s and Apple Inc have introduced sec-kill into their marketing portfolios.

Zhao once won a facial mask through a taobao.com sec-kill. She said being the winner among thousands of netizens gave her a sense of accomplishment. “It can attract my attention and enhance my engagement because many of my friends are involved in it. As a result I end up liking the product anyway, even if I had never heard of it before.”

Inspired by the success of Groupon.com in the United States, many start-up companies followed suit and spawned a multitude of sites in an attempt to benefit from group purchasing in China.

On meituan.com, a group purchase website exclusively selling skincare products, people are abuzz with discussions about high-end perfumes such as Chanel’s No 5. With a 60 percent discount, 3,000 bottles were sold in less than two days.

The move by McDonald’s to launch a branding campaign called Group Lunch with Kaixin001.com, one of the most popular social network sites in China, was aimed at encouraging netizens to choose specific branches for lunch together. Some 150,000 people participated, enhancing the brand’s awareness among white-collar workers.

With micro blogs now firmly dominating social networks, big companies are moving in.

Biotherm, a leading skincare brand from L’Oréal, launched its official micro blog on weibo.com earlier this year. The site has more than 40,000 followers and regularly updates the latest promotional activities, answering online inquiries instantly and providing useful skincare tips.

“Passive learning no longer fits into the pattern of modern life. Ordinary people are playing a more active role, exchanging views on product promotions,” Zhou Jing, public relations manager at Biotherm China, said.

Zhou said each brand from L’Oréal China has set up a digital division to oversee online marketing strategies, and annual budgets on e-commerce are steadily on the rise.

As a frequent visitor to Biotherm’s micro blog, Zhao said she posted her skincare diary on a regular basis and actively engaged in every online discussion.

Daisy Zhang, chief executive officer of CIC, a domestic leading social business intelligence provider, broached the importance of using “e-fluencers” – people who have large social networks and are good communicators – to positively promote a brand. Zhao is one such person.

The ancient form of communication known as word of mouth has been updated using new technology such as blogs, online message boards and podcasting, now known as IWOM (Internet word of mouth), Zhang told China Daily.

“Marketers are now reaching out to ‘evangelists’, who are already die-hard fans of a brand, in the hope that trendsetters would pass the information to others and create excitement about a product,” she said.

“Word of mouth is the most honest advertising medium there is.”

Zhang’s remarks were echoed by Ethan Tsai, chief operating officer of AdMaster, a digital advertisement monitor supplier.

Tsai said evaluating effectiveness is crucial to any digital campaign, but “depending solely on the ratio of clicks to evaluate the impact of online ads presents a one-sided and incomplete picture. A more precise approach is to monitor and analyze the process of exploration, conversation and change in brand recognition, where opinion leaders often played a role”.