Some people don’t feel comfortable in their hometowns and seek to live somewhere with more opportunities. Others are studying or pursuing a career that makes them relocate. It’s good to research the state where you plan to live. For the past years, Oregon has been one of the hottest states that attract newcomers. But what makes Beaver State so attractive? How does the housing market look?

Is it worth it to hire a real estate agent in Oregon? Those are the questions you might ask yourself. Laws and customs in real estate might indeed vary from state to state. You need to know the market to avoid running into troubles and make the moving process a lot easier for yourself. Whether you’re looking for real estate agents in Salem,Guest Posting OR, or Portland, OR, there are some customs you should be aware of before buying a house in Beaver State.

Reasons why Oregon attracts newcomers

Being one of the most popular states for relocation, Oregon has plenty of exciting advantages to offer. Let’s discover the main reasons Americans choose Oregon as a new home.

1. A paradise for nature lovers

Except for stunning beaches on the Pacific coast, Oregon has a crazy amount of great lakes and rivers. If you love water sports or fishing, you will find your happy place here. For hiking or biking lovers, there are many trails, forests, and mountains that you can enjoy in each season.

2. The state economy is looking bright.

The financial future of Oregon is bright, attracting more investors and business owners. The employment rate increased by 46% in the last ten years. The tech and IT sectors are getting bigger, creating a new “Silicon Forest.”

3. No sales tax

Significant relief for people coming from out of state, there is no sales tax, so you pay what you see in the price tag—no more surprises at the check-out.

4. Relaxed way of life

One of the main reasons why Oregon attracts new homeowners is the quality of life the state has to offer. Extensive job opportunities combined with fresh air and fantastic nature create a combo for perfect and worry-free living. You can easily find a scene for any of your hobbies and interests, from water sports and hiking to the big art scene in Portland.

5. Diverse political scene

You can always fit in Oregon, whether you’re liberal or conservative.

6. Famous vineyards and breweries

The wine and beer industry is what attracts lots of tourists. Oregon is the place for you if you’re a fan of good-quality wine and love to explore different kinds of beer.

Real estate market in Oregon

Moving cross-state could be challenging, but the construction industry is strong and can provide new affordable houses to match demand. The quality of life in Oregon is high, so there is no problem finding a property for different budgets. Finding a property is accessible regardless of whether you’re interested in Portland or smaller Salem.

What laws and customs do you need to know about buying a house in Oregon

The real estate market might play by different rules than you used to. In that case, by familiarizing yourself with how Oregon people handle the housing business, you gain some advantages for making a successful purchase. Here’s what you have to be aware of when entering the housing market in the Beaver State:

1. Know who the real estate agent represents

Oregon has many dual agencies, meaning the buyer and the seller are represented by one party. Is it beneficial for you as a buyer? Not always. After all, you cannot expect the same agent to protect the interest of both seller and buyer. When you have the first contact with the agent, you will receive the Initial Agency Disclosure Pamphlet, which will describe your cooperation with a real estate agency. Remember that having a buyers’ agent won’t cost you extra. Commission money from the sale price would be divided between sellers’ and buyers’ agents. That way, you can make sure you have a representation of your interests.

2. You might never meet the seller while buying a house in Oregon

As it’s common in Oregon for both parties to be represented by the agents, buyer and seller don’t even meet on a closing day. Most communication and signing are performed through the agents or even in their office.

3. Should you hire a home inspector?

If you’re in Oregon, you must provide a property disclosure statement. It contains all the information about the state of the house, like the water supply system, repairs on the roof, etc.

4. Closing and signing procedure

Closing and signing in Oregon is relatively quick and takes around 40 days from the moment you accept the offer. Another thing is that all official business is performed in the office. Don’t be surprised when you get the keys to your new place in the real estate agency.

5. Laws regarding the purchase agreement in Oregon

As a buyer, you construct a Residential Real Estate Agreement with your agent stating all the terms under which you will proceed to purchase. After that, the agreement is handed to the seller to review and accept the terms. Usually, the procedure is handled by the clerks.

Are you ready to move to Oregon?

Finally, it’s time to answer the main question after knowing more about Oregon’s housing market and quality of life. Would it be the right place for you to move? Oregon became home to many Americans and foreigners. It’s an excellent venue for your career and educational opportunities and has a variety of scenes. You’ll be able to relocate to Oregon smoothly and worry-free.

Don’t you think that the business world would completely stop if there is no internet marketing? It has become a part of marketing and to reach customers, internet marketing has become the easiest mode. Though, it is a challenging task, and you would definitely be in need of an expert who can manage all the search engine marketing services.

To overtake your competitors in regard to traffic, it is essential to opt for internet marketing. There are different services involved such as pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, social media marketing etc.

How to market your product online?

Want your business to gain a significant position in the world of the internet? There are different ways through which you can easily market your product. Just make use of Google AdWords or Yahoo’s overture advertising network, cost per click, eBay etc. It is essential to have an exceptional network marketing strategy while adapting different online marketing tools.

No matter what you deal with, a good online presence can always be created through help of an internet marketing company so that the website can be highly optimized while providing positive results. It seems that the use of any network marketing can give return on investment through cost per click online tool. Google AdWords and Yahoos Overture programs are dominating the world of internet marketing. If you are really interested in making your company No.1 and want to rule the top position, then opt for cost per click campaign.

Common types of internet marketing

Internet marketing can possibly be done through three different means and so they can be distinguished in three different types. In this article, you will get to know the types which can act in favor of your business and definitely can benefit from it:

1. Video marketing: It is an advertising strategy that is quite similar to the television ads which is capable of promoting specific products and services. Video marketing has made its way to digital world and enables internet surfers to learn about products that are available. Make use of YouTube and Tube-mogul for video marketing.

2. Article marketing: It is also a known marketing strategy which is ignored by many people around. Article marketing is a proven strategy that can surely bring leads to business, but it needs to be done on regular basis. So, it demands consistency in your approach. Being consistent it is possible to drag leads and generate income in no time, but it is essential to maintain consistency.

3. Social media marketing: It can possibly generate a good number of leads which is why it is said to be an amazing marketing tool. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are some of the places where you can easily market articles and videos. There are other websites too where you have the possibility to post articles and videos.

You’ve no doubt heard about the K.I.S.S. principle – “Keep it simple, Stupid.” Or as I like to say… “keep it simple, silly.”

K.I.S.S. has been around the block a few times. In fact, it was a design principle noted by the US Navy in the 1960s.

The phrase was coined by aircraft engineer Kelly Johnson. It’s nice to note that Johnson was the lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works (creators of the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 spy planes).

Though the acronym has been used mostly by the US military, namely the U.S. Navy and United States Air Force, civilians, businesses and lots of other groups use it too.

Heck, I bet you’ve used it a few times yourself.

We all tend to over complicate things, including myself.

But I prefer simple any day and twice on Sunday. When tackling any problem, my number one rule is to start with the simple basics first (is the power on? Is the lamp is plugged into the electrical outlet?)

And you’d be amazed at how effective the simple way of doing things can be. After all, you can always complicate the hell out of things later, if you like.

You’ll be pleased to learn “simple” also works in marketing your biz too! Truth be told, simple has taken me a long, long way in the marketing of my business.

Let me explain…

The Three Pillars Of Good Marketing

OK. Let’s break this down into, you know, simple terms. You can easily and simply market any product or service if you examine the 3 pillars of marketing.

But before I go into details, I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. While, I’d love to think that I’m a marketing and advertising whizz, truth be told, I’m scratching the surface here.

What I have learned came from the true geniuses of the game. The guys who figured it out and have been in the marketing trenches for decades.

With that said, what you’re about to learn came from marketing top-gun Dan Kennedy. I recommend that you get your hands on any books, programs or live events he puts on. It’s nothing less than pure gold.

OK. On with the show. The pillars of good marketing are:

Message

Market

Media

Let’s talk briefly about each one.

Pillar 1. Message. This is the “what” you say to your prospects or clients. It’s the communication part of the equation of good marketing. If you get this wrong, then your efforts won’t necessarily fail but will suffer greatly in terms of results and sales.

Keep in mind, even if you have a great message and you shoot it to the wrong market, it’s going to land upon deaf ears. And you’re wasting marketing bullets… time, money and other resources.

Pillar 2. Market. The is the “who” you want to sell to. It’s the group of people most likely to be interested and willing buy your stuff. These are the prospects you are communicating with and who will receive your sales messages (sales letters, print ads, landing pages etc.)

So, your mission is to match your message to the correct market using the correct media.

As you know privacy is essentially dead these days. So, getting the names and addresses for nearly any target market is a fairly simple process.

Mailing lists comes in all shapes and sizes today. If you know what market you want to go after, you’re likely to find a list. It’s just a matter of contacting a list broker and describing who you’re looking for.

For example, If you are looking for people who are at least 7 feet tall, drive a BMW, live in South Carolina and subscribe to Psychology Today, you can get that list. It may not be a very large list, but nevertheless it still exists.

Pillar 3. Media. This the delivery system. It’s the vehicle that your message rides in. Think: magazines, newspapers, newsletters, social media such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and list goes on forever it seems.

The best way to select which media to use, starts with the market. Are you targeting folks over the age of 65? There’s a good chance they do not use social media as a primary medium.

Yes, they very well may have a Facebook account, but this is not their main means of communicating or staying in touch with others.

They do read the local paper and use their cell phone regularly. They probably listen to the radio and watch TV.

But the only way to truly know is to ask your clients and prospects.

How To Target Your Market

One popular way that business owners use to target their market is by geographic.

Using geographic marketing you choose your market based on a specific location, for example, businesses within a 10-mile radius. This is a very simple way to choose your targets but it’s like dropping flyers out of a plane and hoping one lands with the right person.

Yes, a bit of an exaggeration but with a few simple tweaks, you can make your geographic marketing more effective. And you can do this by using…

… Demographic targeting. Demographic targeting is selecting people by age, gender, how much money they have, whether they are conservative or liberal, or what religion they are, single or married and so on.

Next, you have psychographics. Psychographics deals customer behavior, attitudes, interests and lifestyles. It’s useful when segmenting your market. This can be very powerful (and effective). Plus, it allows you to customize your marketing messages based on whatever market segment you are going after.

Hey, you could combine all three. And many of the cloud based programs, such as Adobe Marketing Cloud, Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketing 360 and more do just that. You could also check some of the open source solutions.

Again, you don’t have to get all “techie” just be sure you have details such as their contact info, and carefully track how much they spend, what they buy and how often. Simple with Excel.

Of course, I could go way deep into this topic, but staying the “simple” approach, suffice to say keep good customer lists, learn what your prospects and clients want and become the “go-to” company that fills their needs.

So, the next time you start a new marketing campaign, consider the ideas presented here. If you are tired of dumping big bucks down the advertising toilet and you’d like more profitable results, then I encourage you to give me a shout. Do you have questions about this article or would like to see a subject covered? Again, just shoot me a line. I’m always happy to help.

Marketing is nowadays a vital aspect of every business. The price of an item increases on account of marketing, but reliance on it has attained an inevitable aspect of buying/selling behavior of consumers/producers due to multiple reasons such as competitive market structures (e.g., monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and niche markets), economical communication technology, information revolution, MNCs, globalization, battle for competitive edge, and Brand Identity phenomenon. Marketing is the managerial effort through which goods/services move from producer to the consumer. The Effective Marketing is “The right product/service with right way, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price and making a profit in the process”. The American Marketing Association offers the following formal definition: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Encyclopedia Britannica defines, “Marketing is the sum of activities involved in directing the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers.” According to Kotler, the shortest definition of marketing is “meeting needs profitably”.

Marketing is required for increasing sales and achieving a sustainable market segment for product or service. Customer gets satisfaction from the product or service, entrepreneur gets profit on sale, and business achieves reputation or goodwill. Effective Marketing materializes reputed business, profitable sale, and satisfied customer. The investigation of demand behavior is focal area of marketing. Consequently, marketing has two parents, economics and psychology. Economic considerations of demand behavior are pull or visible factors while psychological leanings are push/invisible factors behind any demand behavior. A marketing effort concentrates on customers’ propensities for psychological satisfaction and designs multiple incentives of economic benefits for customers. An effective marketing approach accommodates economic rules of selling/buying and psychological tendencies of sellers/buyers. There are seven major reasons of marketing:

To inform about new product/service or product awareness
To introduce a new business or business awareness
To motivate/persuade someone for buying or demand creation
To create stable customer account or achieving customer loyalty
To attain Sustainable Competitive Advantage
To achieve reputation or Goodwill,
To realize Brand Equity
Marketing vs. Selling: – The aforesaid concept of effective marketing covers the full experience of a business deal between seller and buyer; however, there are two distinct aspects of effective marketing, i.e., selling and marketing. Perceptually, Sellers and Marketers are two different groups in a marketing activity. They have distinct views towards the customers. Harvard’s Theodore Levitt drew a perceptive contrast between the selling and marketing concepts: “Selling focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller’s need to convert his product into cash; marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering, and finally consuming it.” The strategic alignment between marketing and selling is vital for better results. “A study from App Data Room and Marketo found that sales and marketing alignment can make an organization 67% better at closing deals, reduce friction by 108%, and generate 209% more value from marketing.”
Marketing vs. Branding:-Branding is the marketing process by which a marketer or brand manager reduces a company’s reputation to a single word or phrase or design. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.” There is a well-known rule in marketing: “Sell what people are buying.” Similarly, the well-performing rule in branding: “Brand the attributes that people love.” An established brand creates consumer trust and emotional attachments; as a result, brands foster relationships among consumers, products and business that lead to the valuable benefits to a producer such as premium pricing, low promotion cost, loyal customer and constantly growing market share. In a nutshell, a branding effort enhances Brand Equity for sellers. Brand Equity is the brand’s power derived from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time, which translates into higher sales volume and better profit margins against competing brands in the market. The vital strategic aspect of Brand Equity creation is internal branding. “Internal branding consists of managerial activities and processes that help, inform and inspire employees about brands.” In a branding effort, a marketer or an entrepreneur adopts four perspectives for an effective branding – Consumer Perspective (to ascertain desirability of product/service by multiple consumers), Company Perspective (to improve, technically and aesthetically, presentation and delivery process of product/service), Competitive Perspective (to understand and exploit differentiability/parity content of products/services with respect to competitors), and Brand Perspective (to work on creation of possible brand equity). It is noteworthy that, in branding, you create a perception of product/business while, during marketing, you motivate or persuade someone for actual buying. Branding is who you are while marketing is how you affect consumers’ decision process. More specifically, “Branding or Brand Management is a communication function in marketing that includes analysis and planning on how that brand is positioned in the market, which target public the brand is targeted at, and maintaining a desired reputation of the brand.”

Marketing vs. Advertising: – Marketing deals with multiple business efforts to realize ‘Profitable Sale’ such as market research, pricing & distribution of product/service, branding, selling and public relations. Advertising is just one component of marketing. In advertising, an entrepreneur or business communicates to the potential buyers about his/her products or services. Advertising is defined as:”Any form of communication in the paid media”. The prominent advertising mediums are, print media, electronic media and social media. Conceptually, marketing is the way or strategy to convince potential buyers that you have the right product/service for them, while, advertising is conversion of marketing strategy into specific communication media. In advertising, you tell the potential customers about the existence and availability of right product/service for them. The greatest issue of present-day advertising is Cluttering. “An Advertising Clutter refers to the excessive amount of ad messages consumers are exposed to on a daily basis.” It is vital responsibility of a marketer to manage the clutter. The clutter management means to find the right time and place to connect with target customers and to send impeccable messages to them about your business or offerings.

Marketing vs. Networking: – Networking is a systematic human interaction with fellow human beings to exchange information and opportunities. Business Networking is dynamically linked with effective marketing. Business networking is an outcome of socio-economic interactions of an entrepreneur. The networking efforts shape a business circle. It is noteworthy; a business circle is a sub-circle of a big socio-economic circle of an entrepreneur. A business cannot survive or flourish, at least with full potential, without proper interaction among all economic agents/stakeholders. Executives’ presence in a big socio-economic circle and related associations is vital to develop an effective business networking. The business networking, BtoB and BtoC, is the crucial aspect of effective marketing.

Concisely speaking, the effective marketing is combination of networking, branding, marketing, advertising and selling. The networking earmarks areas of targeted customers, branding prepares ground through shaping/reshaping of perceptions/emotions of prospective customers, advertising informs them about product/service through multiple media, marketing motivates them for buying, and selling materializes the actual profitable sale.

As a business owner, it is important to be aware of the fact that you are your brand. Many business owners spend tons of time and money trying to discover and develop their own branding, when the truth is you are your own brand. If you realize this early on you are aware of how easy it is to take your own personality, your own strengths and who you are to develop a strong, personal brand that can be a powerful marketing tool for your business.Business women in particularly can use this to their significant advantage. More often than not women are intuitive and in touch with themselves and enjoy discovering their own unique personality, gifts, talents and strengths. Once they do so, they are then able to turn those things into a winning brand for their business. So, what is an enjoyable journey for most women becomes a powerful business tool as well. Why not use what you may already enjoy learning about yourself to add an element to your business that can truly allow you to stand out and be even more successful.Using yourself to build your brand can save you time, money and headache. It really is simple. There are a few things you’ll need to remember.Determine your “style and tone”. You will want to utilize this when choosing a graphical representation of your brand and you’ll want to stick with it. This can mean your colors, fonts, and other graphics. You will want these to be a clear reflection of who you are and how you want others to view you. You will want to use the same graphics across the board wherever you represent yourself both online and off.You will also want to stick with a particular tone in your business. Will your business be all serious or will you choose to use a bit of humor or sarcasm here and there. Again, this will need to be a direct result of your own personality and will vary from person to person.Mark your territory. This may sound a bit odd but you want to make sure that you secure your brand’s place everywhere you can from social media sites to domain names. Be sure to claim your preferred user name on all the major social networking sites and the domain names that go with your brand. It is highly suggested that you secure your own name as a domain name as well. Secure your user name on the different sites even if you aren’t currently utilizing them. You can’t obtain them once they are gone.Spread the word. Once you’ve determined your brand, you’ll want to begin spreading the world about who you are and what you are able to share with the world. What do you have to offer, what do you want to become known for? This is what you’ll begin to share with the others, one tweet at a time, one article at a time, one promotion at time.Now that you know how easy it is to take who you are to build your brand why not get started? It really is a strong powerful tool for your business.

Many small business owners do a great job of developing their business plans. They are excellent at addressing the operational and product issues of their small business. In many cases the small business owner’ business plan rivals that of a big brand. However, when it comes to marketing, small business owners often come up short. Here we will discuss how to market your small business like a big brand through brand positioning.In general, small businesses do not market themselves like a big brand because they fail to have a real brand positioning. Brand positioning has been defined many ways. To summarize brand positioning should be thought of this way: “What is your biggest advantage, against the most fertile competitors among the most promising target?”Small businesses typically address only one of those two key aspects of brand positioning. They either focus on a target market without regard to their competitors for that target market or they focus on their competition without regard to a specific target market they can reasonably attract. If you want to market your small business like a big brand you must think about the intersection of those two factors.To be good marketers, small businesses need to think about the fertile competition. Who in the category is doing good business? More importantly, who is doing good business that your small business can realistically attack. This is what “most fertile competitors” means. Part of successful small business marketing is understanding exactly which competitors you can steal market share from. They need to be competitors who are somewhat successful or there is nothing to steal from them.This is how big brands think all the time. Who can we steal market share from? They analyze the category and look for vulnerabilities in other brands. Then they attack those brands. Learn from the big brands in marketing your small business.The second part of the positioning statement is “among the most promising target”. Small business can learn a lot about how to market like a big brand when it comes to analyzing the target market. Big brands spend an enormous amount of time and resources analyzing target markets. They focus on one specific niche and go after it. Big brands try to know their target both in demographic and psychographic terms. Most importantly, big brands seek a target market that their product or service is designed to capture. If it’s not a good fit they move on or they develop a product or service that would be right for that target market.To reiterate, brand positioning is defined as “What is your biggest advantage, against the most fertile competitors among the most promising target?”
So brand positioning is the intersection of your company advantage against a well defined set of competitors and among a group of consumers that are right for your brand or product.Good brand positioning is one of the best ways that a small business can market like a big brand. It takes some time and research. There may be miss-steps along the way. However, the rewards of a good brand positioning cannot be overstated.

Of all the mascots I would expect a high-end luxury hotel to have, the lowly mallard duck is certainly not one of them. And yet, that was what greeted me when I stepped into the Peabody Orlando Hotel.There is an actual story behind the ducks (which is printed on the napkins) but the reality is the story is less interesting than how the hotel has built a brand around ducks.First, you have the “March of the Ducks” — at 11 am the ducks “march” (or more accurately waddle) on a red carpet to spend the day in a luxurious fountain. This fountain is located in the middle of the hotel and is actually quite a nice place to get a little work done or enjoy a coffee and cupcake (while watching the ducks splash around). At 5 pm they then “march” (waddle) back to their Duck Palace to enjoy a duck dinner and a “quiet evening” together.Now the fact they make this an event — with marching music, a red carpet and an actual Duck Master (which is trademarked — yes if you were thinking about hiring a Duck Master for your own Duck March you would be out of luck) is one thing. But the ducks are also front and center to their branding.There are ducks on the carpet, duck soaps in the rooms, drinks named after ducks, ducks embroidered on the staff’s clothes — the list goes on and on. It’s all quite tastefully done and the ducks are elegantly and subtly woven throughout the hotel’s brand and image.Now the real question is, of course, is it worth it? Only the Peabody knows for sure but from the outside it certainly appears like it is.First off, remember where the Peabody Orlando is — it’s in Orlando competing against Disney World (who knows a thing or 2 about branding themselves) Universal Studios and other theme-oriented attractions. Without the ducks, the Peabody would be a very nice, high-end hotel that would be like every other very nice, high-end hotel. With the ducks, now you have your own attraction. Now you have something to talk about. Now you have something your kids might want to see almost as much as Mickey Mouse.(Now there is another Peabody, complete with ducks, in Atlanta as well. The Atlanta Peabody certainly wouldn’t be in competition with Mickey and company, but I suspect there’s enough other competition with high-end hotels and history that the ducks earn their keep there as well.)One of the main ways you can successfully market yourself to an affluent clientele is to provide an experience. People like experiences. It gives them something to talk about (or write ezine articles about). And if you wrap an experience inside your brand, you just transformed yourself from a “good” business to something extraordinary. And extraordinary is what gets people to notice, to “take a chance on” if nothing else to witness that experience for themselves.So, for you, what can you do to create an experience for your clients? And is this something that can be woven into your branding strategy? (And if you can make it unexpected or off-the-wall even better.) Or maybe it was an accident you overlooked at the time — with the ducks Mr. Peabody came back from hunting and was enjoying some Jack Daniels with a friend, when they decided it would be a nifty idea to put the duck decoys in the fountain. Well everyone loved the decoys floating around so now we have actual ducks in the fountain. (See what I mean about how lame that story is? But no matter, the point is they saw an opportunity and seized it — do you have any of those “happy accidents” in your own business you can capitalize on?)Remember the point of a good brand is to make yourself memorable to your ideal clients. And a great way to make yourself very memorable is to wrap your brand around an experience.