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Gambling: They call it Lady Luck

Thanks to the Lotto and scratch cards and online casinos, more women than ever before are developing a gambling problem.

According to government figures, 60% of adults in the UK spend up to £50 per month gambling at the betting shop or on Lotto. As the result of changes coming shortly, the amount spent in this country per year is expected to go up from the current £42 billion to £60 billion.

30 million people regularly buy UK Lotto tickets in the second largest of the 192 lotteries across the world. And despite official figures telling us that a mere 1% of these have developed out of control gambling habits, Gamblers Anonymous are finding that they’ve had an increase of 17% in calls for help. GamCare has also seen an increase in requests for their counseling service.

Women have always dominated the Bingo scene, where they outnumber men, 70% to 30%. The average age is under 50 and the average spend for a night (including food and drinks) is £20.

Women tend not to visit casinos and betting shops, and favour on-line gambling instead where they have the perception of its being safer, less intimidating, more fun, more tempting and where they can remain anonymous.

As they are seduced by the escapism of on-line shopping, developing an internet gambling addiction, as they are encouraged by the on-line sites to create alternative realities: a different identity; and play along with the fantasy that it’s not real money they’re playing with.

There are something like 1700 gambling websites, including casinos, bingo halls, lotteries. Something to meet everyone’s tastes. And of course, they’re open 24 hours a day.

As says Lysette Offley of Sounds Positive in Henley on Thames, where hypnotherapy for gambling addiction is used: We’re fast approaching a time when the number of people in the UK with broadband access to the internet will overtake those still on dial-up, so access and availability to on-line gambling is increasing. Not surprisingly, problems are expected to increase.”

So what can a person do about it if they feel their habit’s getting out of control?

“Get help now. Don’t let it go on and on,” says Lysette. “There is plenty of professional help available and many ways to stop gambling. I see people regularly who are able to turn their lives around and with just a little help learn how to stop gambling. And of course there are self-help products too which can help enormously. Why would you play the victim of your habit when you really can do something about it?”

Sounds Positive specialises in fully downloadable self-help hypnotherapy products, incorporating other psychology techniques such as NLP and EFT. Stop Gambling is available from their website.

Get Your Local Business Found Online With SoLoMo

I always enjoy the looks that I receive from clients when I mention “SoLoMo”. I can only imagine what they are thinking (“has he finally lost his mind?” Comes to mind a lot). In fact, I’ve memorized the explanation and have learned to quickly throw it out as soon as I bring it up. Still, SoLoMo is my favorite marketing method for local businesses, mainly because of the success that it has brought our clients, so it’s a conversation that must be had with each and every local business owner that comes through our doors.So, what the heck is SoLoMo? SoLoMo is an acronym that stands for Social, Local, Mobile, and it taps into the buying patterns of more that 80% of consumers in today’s connected world. Here’s how it works:SocialHow many times have you scrolled your Facebook or Twitter feed and saw one of your contacts (or maybe you’ve even done it as well?) asking others about the best “insert cuisine here” restaurants in the area? Or how many times have you checked online reviews on Facebook, Google, Yelp etc. before going to a local business? I’ll bet you’re just as guilty as the other 62% of all online shoppers who do the exact same thing. And of that 62%, 75% of them end up clicking through to the business’s website in the process.Having a social presence online is no longer a choice for local businesses. Nearly EVERYONE has a smartphone these days and has near-instant access to information on any business in their local area. If your business isn’t in that mix, you’re going to lose customers to the ones that are… lots of customers.LocalWhen someone who is close to your widget business searches for “widget sellers near me”, you have the opportunity to be right in front of their face at the very moment they are in the vicinity. Compare this to traditional advertising methods such as Yellow Pages, Billboards and Newspaper advertising – which are all super-expensive and not nearly as effective – and Mobile marketing is a no-brainer. Plus, with the technological advances being made with GPS tracking, it’s now possible to hit consumers with special offers when they are near your business location, making it 100 times more likely that they will stop in, even if they weren’t necessarily looking for what you’re selling at the moment.MobileAs mentioned above, pretty much everyone (even my 82-year-old grandmother) has a smartphone these days, giving them instant access to the internet and everything on it. When you combine the above two marketing methods with the power of smartphone technology (such as Apps for your company, email marketing, location-based coupon services, etc.) you end up with an ultra-powerful marketing campaign that is guaranteed to not only get your business in front of consumers, but to really grow your bottom line as well. There is simply no better method of targeted advertising for local businesses. Period.The problem with this approach for most business owners is that it does require a bit of technical know-how to set it all up, and a little TLC to keep it running smoothly. It can also lead to negative consequences such as receiving bad reviews for your company. My advice to businesses who share these concerns is to first weigh the pros and cons of using the SoLoMo approach to marketing. I’ve yet to find a single person who has found enough cons to justify not doing it. Even if you’re way too busy running your business to do it yourself, the gains you will no doubt experience from it would justify hiring a search marketing agency to handle it for you!

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Are You Ready to Hire the App Marketing Agency for Your New Application?

App marketing being one of the most important factors deciding the success of your mobile application has to be employed in the right manner, and thus the most right of times so as to hit the iron hard just when it is hot. With the technical expertise and professionalism that most of the mobile app marketing companies claim, the main point of concern remains the right time of the employment of the app marketing strategies.Based on various studies, it is suggested that companies should opt for an early employment of app marketing services so as to get an advantage of creating an audience base prior to the launch of the application. On the other hand, there may be many demerits of early deployment of these services, which may include an unplanned move towards marketing and thus failing to achieve the marketing goals due to lack of readiness. As a result, each organization has its own list of factors that decides its readiness towards the concern of right time of deployment of mobile app marketing services.Effectively tracking the importance of the concern through an explicit analysis, we here guide you through the various parameters that help you know the right time of hiring an app marketing agency for your new business application. These parameters are-1) Market Research:One of the most important parameters that decide the appropriateness of the time you choose to start with your marketing campaign is ‘Market Research’. If without a proper market research of your app market, you opt for an early hiring of the marketing agency, you are likely to face a failed marketing campaign and loss of investment. The market research factor includes knowing the-

Target audience

List of keywords to be focused

Popular categories

USPs of your competitors over you and vice-versa

With this analysis in your hand, you are now ready and can discuss the marketing strategy well with your app marketing service provider.2) Dedicated Centre of Ideas:Before hiring a mobile app marketing company for your business, you need to decide – who will be the main dedicated centre of ideas? Whether you have your list of ideas to be implemented by the marketing agency or you want them to create and implement the marketing ideas for you? These questions need to be well thought and answered before making the hiring process. Here generally the firms with long-term marketing business partners generally let their partner decide and implement the marketing ideas. While if you are hiring a new marketing company your prior market research will help you discuss your marketing ideas with him.3) Readiness of Your Team:Before you go for the mobile app marketing services you need to know whether your team is ready for the change and will support the required marketing operations on their side. With this, you also need to judge the technical expertise required by your team to add a functional support to the marketing campaign and ask the agency to train them for the same.4) Coordination between the App Marketing team and the App Development Team:Often overlooked, there needs to be a strict coordination between the app development and the marketing teams so as to know the effective intervals of promotion and the USPs that needs to be highlighted. Here, businesses providing a one-stop solution for both the app development and marketing services promise a high success rate for your business application.5) Knowing the actual App Release Date:In order to target the mobile app market with a well-scheduled marketing campaign, you need to know the important dates like the actual app release date. A prior decided app launch date can help you with announcements in the Tech World and earn enough space for the popularity of your app prior to its actual release. With this, you can hire the preferred mobile app marketing company at the time of Beta testing, where you can get hold of the customer feedback and judge the values of the app based on the genuine customer feedback. Here a professional team based on the feedbacks can develop the marketing strategies for your business application and implement them accordingly at the right time.

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