Improve Your Business Through Web Marketing

If you own a business and haven't as yet taken it online, you've missed something. More and more business owners all over the planet have found the benefits of having a web marketing portal. Taking your business online means opening up a wider market for your products and services. You need to have an extensive networking plan to create an effective internet marketing tool.

Let's take a step by step look at how you can take your business online and make the most of your efforts.

Website Design: if you do not have a niche product or service on offer and other companies like yours are offering similar products or services over the net, then the design of your website will make all the difference. First and foremost, make sure the website is easy to navigate and is accessible. A potential customer won't waste a second on a website that is not user friendly and will navigate away to others. Taking assistance from an experienced professional in this regard is highly recommended.

Regular updates about all your products and services and upcoming products are indispensable. Let customers place their orders through simple forms and try to ask for only relevant information. Add a small feedback form including spaces where customers can provide their email addresses as well as email addresses of their friends. By all means, keep personal information confidential.

Delivering what you've Promised and a Bit More: Most companies deliver only what the customer has ordered. Try adding freebies to the packages. Deliver more than you have promised and see the difference. Internet marketing if utilize effectively will bring a huge traffic of buyers for your products.

Social Networking and blogging: These are sure ways to let your business get the recognition it needs. Make your own personal blog and update it with product features, upcoming products, and services etc. Social networking websites are a great way to let your business gain prominence. It is also a good way to get feedback on your products and services and tips to make improvements. You can also try article marketing, SEO, link building etc.

It is of utmost importance to get your website indexed and ranked in search engines. Another way to effective internet marketing is to make use of banner ads.

Free Product Samples: If you believe in your products and services, then offering free product samples and services for limited periods won't be a problem. Most companies boast about the stuff they are offering but are reluctant to give money back guarantees.

These tips are sure to get your marketing website the kind of traffic you want and improve your profits manifold.

author: Michael Antony

4 Ways You Can Improve Your Business With Your Leads

There are several ways you can improve your business with your leads if you know what you can do with them. Most list owner only knows how to bombard their list with offer after offer of affiliate products hoping they will buy one of them eventually.

The bad thing about this method is that the list owner will eventually find that most of their leads have unsubscribed from their list because of the irritating sales emails.

In this article, I will highlight the 4 ways you can use your leads to improve your leads.

1) Your leads can be our advisor on what products to create. All you have to do is to ask your leads for the major problem they are facing and you can then produce a product that can help them to solve their problem. Who else can be a better customer to your new product other than your people from your list?

2) Your leads could participate your product creation process. You can ask for an interview of those leads that are more experience in this field. Do not underestimate your leads, there are people who are talented in website design, copy writing or proofreading and you can easily ask for their service in exchange of the product. They can sometime be your best partner in your business.

3) Your leads can provide you with testimonials to use in your sales page. You can offer a review copy of your product for the first few who responds to your offer and get their testimonials for your use.

4) Your leads can be your launch partner during the day of your product launch. They can be your first batch of affiliate promoting your new product to their own list.

The trick to this business is your ability to leverage your list. Once you understand how to leverage your list, you will be able to make a decent income from this business.

author: Kelvin Lee

Learn How a Good Virtual Assistant Can Improve Your Business Value

A virtual assistant performs a significant role in your day to day business activities and supports the business owners by providing them with personal, creative, administrative as well as technical assistance. Attaining the services of such a professional can prove to be a favorable decision for the business owners as they take up some special projects and help the business in saving both their valuable time and precious money.

A virtual assistant promises to fetch you maximum benefits to secure your business, without entailing you to make any further investment on him or providing him with any special kind of training program.

Appointing these skilled professionals can prove to be a befitting decision for your business especially for the marketing related tasks. The virtual assistant provide you with complete assistance in attaining what you require for the smooth and effective functioning of your business. Whatever may be the size of your business; you can easily appoint a such assistants and get them served with excellent results in return.

In addition to this, a good virtual assistant keeps himself updated and informed about the various sites and ways of extracting benefits for its users by conducting online search and surfing the internet thoroughly.

To know more about how a they can help you improve and enhance your business value, read on the article and intensify your knowledge. Some of the major benefits of hiring a virtual assistants are as follows:

- Helps you cut down the cost that you might have incurred by hiring an in-house personnel to perform the same job.
- They offer you complete peace of mind and enable you to save your time and energy and invest the same in performing other business activities.
- Being a business owner you need not incur the expenses like health care for the virtual assistant as he is not a part of your office staff.
- They also prevents you from taking up the cost of the providing a separate cabin space in your office as they work from outside sources.
- They also offer you with another major benefit of making a payment against only the time taken by them to actually perform a particular task.
- They do not necessitate you to provide them with a constant salary as they are to be paid only for the time they are working.
- Virtual assistants are skilled and trained professionals who do not obligate you to provide them with necessary training to perform a certain job.
- Appointing these skilled employees helps you relax as it ensures you that your internet and marketing tasks are being handled by experts.

Due to all these reasons it becomes important for you to hire a professional virtual assistant and secure all your needs.

author: Shweta Suri

5.5 Ways to Improve Your Business

If you are building a business, you are probably working hard. Make sure that you are also working smart. Here are 5.5 steps that you can take to improve your business immediately:

1. Make a Plan

2. Tell Your Friends

3. Learn to Communicate

4. Act like an Executive

5. Learn to Lead

5.5 Ask for Help

Why do people go into business? People go into business because they have a good idea. People go into business because they want to be their own boss, or they want to “Get out of the rat race.” Generally, the business is based on some skill that they have or on a perceived need that they can satisfy. That skill is seldom, if ever, their ability or burning desire to do business planning. Yet, in order to succeed, they must. Most often business owners give little or no thought to a business plan, let alone a Strategic Plan. Despite this, a Strategic Plan is the best tool you can use for increasing EARNINGS without having to borrow.

Why do businesses fail? The fact is that most businesses fail because the business owner has no plan for success. There was no assessment of the market or the competition, or there was not enough capital to sustain the business until market penetration and brand awareness takes hold.

This can be avoided by sitting down at least once a year and taking a detailed look at the business and deciding where you are, where you want to be in 3 to 5 years, and how you are going to get there. This is a Strategic Plan. Every company should one.

Now that you have a plan, you need to put it in motion. Start by telling your friends. The best way to do that, the simplest way to do that, and the cheapest way to do that is to network. So, get out there and tell everyone about your business. Tell the people you meet at the bank or doctor’s offices, tell the people standing in line with you.

That leads us to the third thing you can do to improve your chance of success. You must learn to communicate. Since you cannot over communicate, you must learn how to use many ways of communicating. Try any or all of the following:

- All hands meetings (if it’s just you and your associate, and the associate happens to have a tail and whiskers, practice on him or her)

- Print posters of your vision and your values and post them throughout the organization

- Add your tag line to your signature block

- Publish articles. Establish yourself as the expert in your field

- Send monthly newsletters to your clients

- A verbal pat on the back can go a long way when an employee is having a bad day

- And, finally, remember to LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN.

Once your business is moving along, your next move is to act like an executive. One of the hardest things for many business owners is to act like an executive, especially if you have never BEEN an executive. Executives have one focus, the success of their business. The way they dress, walk, and talk is carefully planned to further their business goals. Remember that the next time you think, “I never want to wear a suit again;” or the next time you think, “I think I’ll wear shorts to this networking meeting.” Is this the impression you really want to give about your business? You are not the driver of your appearance, your market is. Make a conscious effort to position your business where you want it, and then walk the walk…24/7.

Finally, you MUST learn to lead. I define leadership very simply. Say what you’ll do and do what you say. Leadership is not charisma, or sports ability, or intelligence. It is simply about getting results. If you say you will build a successful business, you will do whatever is required for you to achieve that goal, and you won’t stop until you get there.

There’s just one more thing that you can do to get immediate results. If you don’t know how to do something…ask for help. No one can know it all, no one can succeed on his/her own. Ask your friends, a trusted colleague, or hire a coach, and then do what they tell you.

author: Kathy Emond

You Have to Improve Yourself to Improve Your Business

Most people who are in a home based business are looking and searching for a way to take their business to the next level. If you want to do that you need look no further than looking at yourself. When you improve yourself you'll totally be able to improve your business almost overnight.

It's not always easy but it's always worth it. Improving yourself doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you or that you aren't good at what you're doing. But people should constantly be improving themselves if they want to continue to grow in their business.

So what are some ways that you can improve upon yourself? Maybe you need a boost in confidence. Many people do and when you bring your confidence to the next level your business won't be able to stop it's self from growing. Some people need to learn how to listen better or take direction.

Still others need to stop procrastinating. Whatever it is that you want to work on there are probably a ton of websites that you can visit for free or books and ebooks that you can purchase that will help you get where you want to go.

Try not to focus on improving 5 different things at once just work on one at a time and when you feel that you've mastered one move on to the other. Also, don't just read a book and then forget about it. Really try to learn and retain what you've read and use it in your everyday life as well as your business.

You can also read a ton of books on how to be successful in business although, honestly most people need to be less focus on their business skills and more focused on their life skills.

Once you start to see an improvement in yourself an improvement in your check is soon to follow. So take a good hard look at yourself and start working to make yourself a better person because when you do you'll see a whole lot more success in your home based business.

author: Dan T Himes

2 Quick And Simple Tips To Improve Your Business

There are many things that you can twist and apply to your affiliate marketing business to improve your business incomes. This article will list the 2 quick and simple ways which you can use to apply to your business and it is totally free.

The 1st tip is to just promote or recommend your affiliate products in your “Thank You” emails or page. This is actually a very simple method. Whether you are going to say thanks to the customer for joining your list or for buying a product that you are promoting, you must always give your potential leads an affiliate recommendation on a targeted product which you have personally found it to be very useful when you use it.

The 2nd tip is to create a autoresponder course for your customers who have opt in to your list on topics that is related to the affiliate products that you are promoting. This is a very good way to presell your affiliate products. When your customers receive your email and they like the content that you have provided for them, they will have more trust in you. Once your credibility is there, the customer will trust you on the recommendation of any products that you will be promoting to them.

These are the 2 simple tips which you can use and apply to your affiliate marketing business to improve your business income. If you know these 2 tips and you are not going to apply them, nothing will ever happen. So once you have know these 2 tips, do apply it as soon as possible so that you will be able to achieve the affiliate success that you richly deserved.

author: Zack Lim

Improve Your Business Marketing With Great Headlines

Picture the scene. You're sitting in a doctor's waiting room, flicking through the pages of a magazine when you suddenly start reading an ad. Why? What drew your attention to that particular ad? An attention grabbing headline, that's what.

Think about how you 'read' magazines. What do you look at first? My bet is it's the headlines. If the headline grabs you, you'll scan the rest of the text to see if there's anything more that grabs you. If there is, you'll read the whole thing. Those who know about good business marketing know about writing great headlines.

Your job, if you really want to sell your products or services, is to make sure whoever picks up the magazine containing your ad will actually stop and read what you have to say. The day you went into business, marketing became a number one priority - without it you'll never sell a thing.

So let's see what you can do to make sure your business marketing is up to scratch when it comes to writing great headlines that will grab the reader and compel her to read on. We want her to want to know more.

First of all, to create a great headline there are three things that need to be fulfilled.

1. Hook your reader quickly

2. Give them a personal benefit

3. Give them a reason to continue reading

The following takes a closer look at how you can achieve the above.

Use A Headline

As obvious as this may sound, far too many businesses omit the use of a headline when compiling their ads in a bid to get as much information into as little space as possible. Unfortunately, this is bad economy.

If there's no headline, there's nothing to grab the reader's attention so it's far better to cut out some of the waffle in your text and make room for a great headline that'll reach out from the page and entice potential clients to read your text. When it comes to writing ads, there's no such thing as good business marketing without the use of headlines.

Know Your Market

An ad placed in "The Lady" will be targeted at a completely different audience to one placed in "Mother and Baby". Both groups could well be potential clients but when it comes to business marketing, it's important that each ad is individually directed at the audience in question. Give plenty of thought to the type of headline that's most likely to be compelling to the groups of women that read each of the magazines.

Give the Reader A Reason to Stop

People lead busy lives and even while browsing magazines, they'll only be willing to offer you a certain amount of time in which to grab their attention, with three seconds being the average. Not long is it?

It's been proven time and time again that great headlines are those that offer the reader something. By that, I don't mean "Read This and Get A Free Dinner", but you do have to let them know there's something in it for them.

"Clear Skin Can Be Yours Today" and "Take The Dream Holiday You Didn't Think You Could Afford" are examples of good business marketing through the use of ads that promise personal improvement.

Again, consider your target market and tailor your headline so that it offers the reader something that she considers valuable to her lifestyle.

Create Urgency

In business marketing, it's important that your headline compels the reader to act quickly. The more time that passes between reading the ad and acting on it, the greater the likelihood that they'll never actually place an order.

Words and phrases such as "now", "ending soon", "don't delay", "today" and "final offer" all tell the reader that this is an opportunity they'll lose out on if they don't act now.

Use Facts

People like facts - they trust them.

A headline that says "Ten Thousand Satisfied Mothers Can't Be Wrong" will be more compelling than "The Whole World Is Using Our Nappies". Nobody is going to believe that everybody in the whole world is using your product are they? But they are likely to believe 10,000 mothers have been satisfied.

Notice that we haven't actually mentioned what the product is? By leaving this out of the headline, if the reader wants to know exactly what it is 10,000 mothers are satisfied with, she'll have to read on. That's good business marketing.

Follow the headline up with information to support the fact. Something like "More than 10,000 customers return to place a second order - why not join those mums and put your baby in the nappies he'll love best?" will give them a sense of buying a tried and tested product. They may even feel they're not doing what's best for baby if they don't use your products, which is an extra bonus.

Don't Bore The Reader

It's a fact that too many headlines are just plain boring. Clichés and churned out statements we've all seen time and time again just don't provide the hook you need if your business marketing is going to have any chance of success. Look for something fresh.

Use Words That Attract

Certain words attract the reader more than others. Those involved in business marketing know which ones are winners and by using them they have the edge of amateurs who are writing their first business ads.

The following words will attract the reader to your ad:

• Today
• New
• Reveal
• Improve
• Quick
• Discover
• Important
• Be the first
• Discover

Now that you know what kind of ad works, it's time to learn how to actually write them.

• Start by writing a few headlines that tell the reader what you want them to know.

• Re-write a few times so that you have several alternatives of each.

• Without adding any text, ask friends what the headlines tell them and find out how they'd react. Try to find friends from different backgrounds and who have different lifestyles.

• Ask yourself which type of people did your ad work best for and which magazine they'd be likely to read.

Now that you know the secrets of improving your business marketing by writing great headlines, all that remains is for you to place your ad and start reaping the benefits.

author: Sharon Jacobsen

Internet Marketing Tips To Improve Your Business

Almost any business can benefit from being on the internet. Marketing your business on the internet can be done on a local level or with a worldwide approach. You just need to work a little bit at it. Here are a few internet marketing tips to help you improve your business.

You should have your own website. Many small business owners have been slow to embrace this idea because they do not know how to create one themselves and they think it is to expensive to get one of their own. This could not be further from the truth. If you already have a company logo on your business cards you can put that on the internet and create a website. This could be anywhere from 1 to 5 pages for less than $100. eLance.com is full of talented people ready to do that for you. If for no other reason than just building credibility every online and offline based business needs a website.

Forum marketing is a great way to create passive marketing on the internet. Discussion forums are communities of people who have the same interests and share them online in a forum by posting thoughts. Forums are a great place to hang out and read what other people are saying about topics within a niche. You can participate by registering and creating a profile about yourself and you business. Most forums will let you include a link to your website in the form of a signature file. This is really nothing more than a short classified ad about your business. By posting helpful answers to questions in the forum you can send people to your website when they see you sig file and click on your website link. This is an enjoyable form of online marketing and you will make many friends all over the world when you participate.

Search engine optimization is a great long term strategy for helping your business be found out of the billions of websites on the internet. SEO involves many things, but the main thing is to include relevant keywords on your page that a person would be searching for. One of the ways a search engine determines what your website is about is by the words you put on your pages. The more variations of a keyword the more you saying "this is what my website is about." As you build more pages you can expand on this to include hundreds of relative keywords which can create more traffic from the ranking a search engine gives each page.

Social marketing has become a big phrase on the internet. Basically this just means making your website more interactive with your visitors. You can do this several ways. Have a survey form and ask for your visitors to enter their feedback to a question that is relative to the content of your website. You could start a blog and ask for comments to the posts you make. To encourage people to comment you could offer a monthly drawing for a free prize for the best comment. Adding audio and video is another way to make your website more interactive to your visitor.

These are just a few internet marketing tips you could use to improve your business. Try and see your website through the eyes of your target market and create a website that gives them what they want.

author: Guy Mendelson

Increase Your Marketability with Customized Brochure Printing

A brochure is a good way to promote something that you need promoting. An original custom print brochure will always put across your message very easily.

This is the case especially when promoting your business products or locations. You must, however be careful with your customizations as they may backfire and contribute to the infectivity of the marketing strategy than an increased impact in your audience. In fact, there are some dangers that you need to know when there is too much customization in your print brochures.

Be sure that your brochure is understandable and coherent

One instance of "too much customization" can deeply damage your content itself. If for example you decided on a big and very different approach to your print brochures such as using a wild and unique layout, it can have a terrible effect on the flow and coherence of your customized brochure. A layout of many designs presenting and different ideas, the paragraphs can be divided awkwardly so that people lose track of the main thought as they read your brochure.

Certain design elements can distract the reader from the crucial images, which should have helped people with your message. You can create a situation where you become forced to cut your brochure content in order to make way for your custom labels and designs damaging the message itself. Therefore, there must be a balance between custom design and standard functionality to put the message across, thereby, making it more understandable and coherence playing a very important role.

Leave an overall impact that would capture the attention of your audience

Too much customization can risk the impact of your printed brochure on your prospective clients. As you try to reach more and more people with your custom brochures, you will encounter more adverse and intense commentaries. This means that your layout and design must adapt to a more general and standardized format to make them appeal to almost anyone. “Any kind of extreme customization can attract or repel people in many ways”. Customized brochure printing may present a risk to your overall impact but if it is so unique to capture the attention of your audience, it is worth all the risk in the marketing world.

Produce a specific impression

If you have recently introduced a new product or service, brochure printing could be an excellent means for you to get your existing customers or clients interested. The great thing about brochure printing is that the information you provide is completely up to you. It could be as simple as an article to get your customers and clients to learn more about the product or service.

You also have the option of including the rates or prices of your new products and services in a very detailed, organized but in a perfectly personal way. The important thing, however, is to present a unique and customized presentation to be able to produce a specific impression that would make the clients become interested in learning more about your products and services.

author: Katie Marcus

How to Explode Your Small Business Marketing and Fatten Your Wallet!

Small businesses are popping up everywhere. However, one of the biggest problems they face is small business marketing. To understand this lets first take a look at why.

Today more than ever, people are jumping on the small business band wagon like the traffic that arrives at a 60% off sales at a major clothing store.

There are all kinds of people starting their own plumbing business, contracting business and whatever else you can think of.

Part of the reason for this is there is no job security anymore and unions seem to be a thing of the past. The days are long gone where people stayed at the same job for 25 years or more.

Corporations have downsized more than ever in today’s changing world. People seem to be laid off for just about any reason you can think of anymore. One thing is for sure, the economy has changed.

Many people think we are doomed as a society but, are they failing to realize that things have just only changed.

It’s kind of like the auto worker who was laid off because he was replaced by the mechanical robot arm that now makes cars. However that worker took notice and went back to school and learned to repair those robots.

His future is now bright again because he was able to see the change he needed to make.

In marketing, the same change takes place all the time. Marketing is a never ending battle to get the word about your products or services. If one thing doesn’t work you should try something else until you land upon a winning combination. And then create a small business marketing plan.

Don’t get caught up in the mindset of you tried something once and it didn’t work for you so therefore it doesn’t work at all.

Marketing takes many years of skill and practice to be able to perform it like a red belt karate master.

But let’s look at that karate master just a little closer for a second. In some forms of martial arts, a black belt has to learn only 5 to 10 moves to become a black belt.

So they practice those moves over and over until they know them like a pup knows its own mother.

The point here is many people are looking for the quick fix all the time. They continue to search out many sources of marketing information without taking any action at all.

Learning is a very positive thing and should be performed all the time. However, one of the greatest tricks of marketing is finding that one thing that you know you can do and works very well for you. And then repeat it over and over until you know it like the karate master.

Then and only then can you move on to other things in the marketing mix to help make your business more money.

Again, do not get caught up in thinking you have to learn and do everything at one. Your business marketing will take time to learn. Make it a process and enjoy it. Continue to read books and other marketing strategies materials that help you learn about marketing.

If you find yourself in a bind and already own a business that needs help with marketing. Here are five small steps to help you until you learn the bigger picture.

1. Hire an expert. Many marketing experts do consult for thousands of dollars at a time. However, maybe you have a friend that owns a business. Jump up off the couch and see what they do for their marketing.

2. Get the word out. Listen you are going to make mistakes. But, doing nothing is a total loss. Get out there and do something today to make it happen. You could try to make a flayer and hand it out to people.

3. Tell your friends and family. Friend and family are there to help when you need it. So don’t be shy. Ask them for help. You could ask them if they might know anyone interested in your business or if they know anyone who could help you.

4. Start a company web site. A website is a great way to get the word out about your business. The trick here is learning about web marketing. One way could be a logo on your car.

5. Joint partnerships with other businesses. Whatever business you own there are similar businesses that you could pair up with. You could recommend each others products or services to the others customers. Just make sure they are in line with your target market.

These are small ways to leverage your business over your competition. Just remember to learn all you can and if you do nothing else take action to make it happen. You will stumble along the way, that is a given. But, if you do nothing you have no business.

author: Todd Jirecek

Business Marketing Strategies

For many small business managers, finding the time and commitment to develop business marketing strategies is difficult. There are so many other obligations vying for our attention it is tempting to push formal strategy development to the back burner. Giving into that temptation, however, means putting your business at a disadvantage. Marketing strategies help point you toward the best marketing programs for your business. Without strategies, you risk becoming unfocused in your marketing efforts, choosing programs that do not support general strategies.

To be most effective, your marketing strategies should be integrated into your marketing plan (which in turn should be part of the business plan). By integrating strategies into your overall company plans, you can better achieve business objectives. Additionally, over time this will result in more consistent decision-making throughout the organization.

Integrating Marketing Strategies into the Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is similar in structure to a business plan, but with a narrower focus. Marketing plans include overall objectives; marketing strategies; and marketing programs, each progressively narrower in scope.

-- The objective addresses the big picture and sets the tone for your strategies. In general terms, your marketing plan objective answers the question "How will I overcome my main marketing challenge(s)?" If your company is a new Web-based business, for example, a main challenge may be figuring out how to use your Web site to better build client business. An objective, therefore, may be "To enhance online client service as well as build site awareness and interest with clients."

-- Marketing strategies support your objective. The strategies define general approaches you will take to meet your objective. For example, marketing strategies to support the above objective could include 1) improving online communication, information, and education, 2) building awareness of and interest in your company on the Internet, and 3) communicating the Web site’s existence and advantages to existing clients.

-- Programs are the things you will do to bring your marketing strategies to life. Programs for strategy 2 in the above example (improving online communication, information, and education) could include 1) sharing experience and observations in your industry through participation in discussion boards, 2) offering an email newsletter, and 3) listing/submitting your site to targeted search engines and directories.

By keeping your business marketing strategies in mind as you initially choose marketing programs, then making adjustments throughout the year based on those strategies, you build a better foundation from which your business can grow.

author: Bobette Kyle

What Can A Small Business Marketing Consultant Do To Help You Grow Your Business?

Think back to the time you started your business. Chances are it was because you enjoyed being in a particular industry – you had a passion about your product or service, and wanted to share it with the world. But did you ever stop and say to yourself, “I can’t wait to market this business”? Probably not. That unfortunately is why many of today’s small businesses fail. The owners try everything they can think of to save their business, yet they miss out on the one opportunity that can turn their business into true success: hiring a small business marketing consultant.

A small business marketing consultant specializes in learning the top ways to market a business; creates strategies that will help businesses double, even triple their current profits; and teaches the most effective methods for increasing the bottom line of any business.

In today’s business world, there are two types of small business marketing consultants:

* Traditional small business marketing consultants

* Online small business marketing consultants

A traditional small business marketing consultant can help you create a marketing strategy using traditional tools. They understand how to advertise your business. They understand the importance of branding. They can help you write copy, and create dynamic promotional pieces. In short, they understand how to marketing your business well in the traditional environment.

But if someone has been in the marketing field for a number of years, and understands traditional marketing venues well, what they may not be good at is making the transition to the online world. And there is a world of difference between traditional and online marketing.

An online small business marketing consultant understands the same strategies used in traditional marketing. They understand advertising. They understand branding. They understand the importance for creating dynamic promotional pieces. But from there is where the differences begin.

An online small business marketing consultant realizes that you sell differently online than you do off. It takes different strategies, different copy, and different promotional materials to succeed online. Not only should a consultant provide you with traditional methods, but they should make sure these methods feed the online world as well.

For example, a postcard sent out direct mail has always been a successful tool. But if you send out that postcard asking for the reader to take one action step – heading to a website to sign up for a free report – you success rate for that postcard will improve dramatically.

While this technique may seem simple, there are many techniques just like this that can bridge the traditional and online world together, and make your business stronger and more profitable. It’s all in what you know – and whom you ask to help make it a possibility.

author: Lori Osterberg

5 advantages of using social networking sites to gain online prospect for business.

There are many advantages to using social networking sites, one of them is to build a list. This is one of the best Internet Marketing tips out there. Using Networking Sites to build loyal followers who want to look at what you have to give them. What I call "e-commerce free"


1) EASE OF USE - Free, fast, fun and a great way to keep in touch with friends, family or even an online prospect. You can easily sign up for free allowing you to upload a profile picture and start customizing your page; even upload your recent holiday snaps.


2) NETWORKING - Perfect for building links, launching your viral advertising or getting bloggers to your products whilst building relationships that will last. Its always about networks! Linking Mr Smith to Mr Blogs and then back to you, a busy network of interlinked relationships.


3) WORLD-WIDE - The chance to be connected to anyone in any country and at the click of a button makes it a powerful tool. Just imagine being on holiday abroad whilst your list of networked relationships become driven traffic to whatever link, website or product you want. (definitely ecommerce free!)


4) BLOGGING - The minute a blog or post is uploaded then it will spread ASAP, remember when Michael Jackson passed away? I was awoken by my smart phone buzzing away at me because I had so many friends updating their profiles online!information spreading like wild fire all around the globe.


5) LINKS - You can always post or "tweet" a link to any site or article you want. A silly video on Youtube or a satirical comment on a forum, links are always a great way to get people to view what you want and as a marketer great to get "back links" to your article for higher Google ranks. Who else wants to know the insider secrets to using social networking sites to gain new friends, get more traffic and make more sales?

author: Marc Wyndham Bass

How to Determine Your Target Market Through Keyword Research

When starting out in business it is important to know your target market. To determine your target market is to determine what they are thinking. As an entrepreneur the most effective and efficient way is PPC. Pay per Click connects to a person's thinking in real time.

With proper understanding of PPC, an entrepreneur can literally search what some one is thinking at a given moment. The internet is not static it is dynamic.

With over 3 million people on the net every day searching for answers to their questions, it is no wonder you can see what some one is thinking as they search.

Also, most don't search once and leave when they can not find what he/she are looking for. 82% of the time people will continue to search and add additional words to their search.

How to use PPC effectively find your target market:

Keywords are not just keywords. Key words should be thought of as questions.

Keywords are questions that they are looking to solve. As you advertise on the internet, keep in mind that you need to find out what the questions are.

One way to find out the questions is to do a query in your favorite search engine. The query will give you an idea of the many different ways people are searching for answers to their questions.

Hint if you are developing and ad this is good time to begin filtering out all those searches that are not relevant to what you are adverting which can save you a some money in your advertising budget.

The next step is to start to build a good key word list. A good keyword list is a list of key words that are closely related to what you are trying to accomplish in your business.

Most search engines have a remarkable tool that can analyze internet marketing trend. This free analysis analyzes the exponential growth of a word or words and vise versa of that particular word or group of words.

By using this marketing trend, you can further see if that word or words are being used a lot or being used very little.

Moreover, if you have time there are several other marketing tools that will give a researcher various options of how your particular word/words are being used as URL's.

Once you have these options it would be a good idea to visit the websites of your closet competitors and analyze their keywords they are using and in what format or context.

You can spend hours of research to determine your best keywords but what your ultimate goal from the research is to find out what your customers are thinking and designed an ad campaign around your customer's thinking.

author: Tim Mason

Easy marketing through Bulk SMS

Today the most interesting and popular device of communication is mobile phone. It was costly when the mobile companies first launched it. But as the number of mobile companies started to increase, the price of the phones began decreasing. And now after a long period of its invention, mobile phones are available in a large number. A huge number of teenagers or the working people or the house wives are using the mobile phones. The advantage of the mobile phones is that you can call as well as send messages by it. In fact SMS comes next to phone call now-a- days. It is a very easy process to connect with someone. Because of this SMS has become the means of marketing.


With the growth of technology various new aspects like internet, music, videos or games are attached to the mobile phones. But the popularity of SMS has remained the same. It is because of this that sending SMS is a very easy process. You have to just write and click on the sending option. As mobile is used by a large number of people, marketing is very easy through SMS. There are certain reasons behind this.


At first it is a spam free communication service. The problems that you face with email do not happen in this service. At one time the same SMS can be sent to a large number of people. It is possible within a few minutes. The mobile phones are endowed with the option of forwarding the SMS by a single click. You have to only select the numbers that you are supposed to deal with.


One of the major demerits of email is that it is sometimes arrested with junk mail. So there is the risk of deleting of the message from your id. But in the case of SMS marketing you can simply store up the messages in SMSC server. You can use these every time you wish.
Again you need not to face any hazard even if the mobile phone is switched off. The person concerned can receive the message the moment he or she switches the mobile on.


SMS marketing is preferable also for another reason. Suppose it is you to whom the details of any product will be provided. If you are busy with any work and the workers of the companies are calling you for advertising, you will surely feel irritated. Even if you are interested in buying that you will fell disgusted to talk to the salesman. But if the companies send you SMS you can read it at the free time. You will be in a relaxed mood and also interested in the details.


SMS marketing is the cheapest way of marketing. Moreover it gives you instant service. The customer receives the message within a few seconds of its delivery. You can be sure about the delivery because in this service problems are not so often created. You can convey everything about the product in 160 words because one SMS contains 160 words in it.

author: Kathe Marion

Four Types of Marketing For Small Businesses

As a small business owner, you most likely spend quite a large amount of time trying to discern new ways to gain customers. Marketing can be a fun or stressful business. They key is to understand the types of marketing.

Instead of sending your marketing budget in many different directions, you can choose a specific type and be consistent with it. You will quickly see that your marketing budget pays off much more quickly.

Here, you will find information on four of the main types of marketing. This way, you will be able to choose the marketing actions that will work best for your business. You will then be able to point your marketing budget in the right direction.

1. Blanket marketing is a type that is often used by larger business. Blanket marketing means that you spend money advertising to everyone. Many people choose to do blanket marketing by advertising in magazines or newspapers. You will not really have control of who sees your advertising, but you will have the potential to reach many people.

The downside to blanket marketing is that it can be quite expensive, and you could be wasting money marketing to people who may never become your customers at all. Blanket marketing is best for those who have plenty of funds available and who feel that they will be able to gain many customers from the plan.

2. Targeted marketing is a method in which you choose a certain demographic and only market to them. This could mean that you advertise to everyone in a certain area. Alternatively, you could advertise to everyone in a certain age range.

The great thing about targeted marketing is that you will have a much better chance at getting customers since you will be advertising to the types of people who would most likely become customers. The downside is that it will take a little legwork to determine who your target is and then find the right way to advertise to them.

3. Social media marketing could be called the new kid in town since it is relatively a young concept. With this marketing, you use any one of the many popular social media sites to advertise your company. You can also use a daily blog to garner business.

The downside to this type of marketing is that you will be sending your information out to many people who may not be interested at all. With blogs, you will have to take the time to keep the blog up to date. Otherwise, people may stop reading it.

4. The last type of marketing is not marketing at all. There are not upsides to this. It may seem like a way to save money, but when your business fails, you will actually lose a great deal of money. It is extremely important to find marketing funds within your budget.

author: Melissa Evans

Importance of A Video on Your Landing Page

There are a lot of companies that are making tons of money each single month. What do these companies do to make that much money? They get a lot of traffic to their website and product pages, but they could make a lot more money. In fact, if you are not getting an opt-in conversion rate of about 25%, then you are leaving a lot of money on the table.

Those are only companies that "know" what they are doing. There are many more companies that simply do not know what it takes, or how, to run a successful business in this current state of the internet. The internet is evolving at a very fast rate, and if you are not keeping up with the latest technological trends, then you are going to remain in the dust while others make a fortune.

In order to make a lot of money, you need to have a video on your landing page. What this means is that you make a professional 1-2 minute video describing your products, and how it benefits the people if they sign up by putting in their names and emails. The current industry success rate is 1% conversion on your actual sales page, so that means you lose out on 99% that simply just go to your page. Now if you had a video landing page, then you would be collecting about 25% of the peoples' emails and names, which means you can simply send them your offer at a later date.

By having a video on your landing page, not only are you raising your bottom conversion from 1% to as high as 5-6%, but you are collecting peoples' information to email at a later date, which can bring in tons of back end profits.

author: Vin Suave

Recession Marketing - 9 Survival and Growth Strategies

Businesses and consumers are cutting back on discretionary spending, which could mean lower response rates for you. On top of that, many marketing budgets are being cut. This combination has sent many marketers into a panic. That's why you need to reevaluate your marketing game plan for this recession. Here you'll get some specific actions you can take to survive this economic downturn and be more successful in 2009.

To everything there is a season

First, it is important to know that recession is a normal part of the business cycle. The U.S. economy will come through a downturn or recession and then enter a new period of growth. But the hard truth is most recessions last about 16 to 18 months. This current one began in December 2007, but will probably last into 2010. And with the government scrambling to implement dramatic economic policies that will likely cause more harm than good, some economists project that we won't see the end until mid-2011. Whatever the length, you can increase cash flow and profits now...and secure a major advantage over your competitors. You can also expand your market share in the next few years.

Anticipating economic reality: Knowing the 4 economic trends

Before we look at the 9 recession marketing strategies that you will need to survive and thrive in this recession, every marketer should be aware of 4 basic economic trends that will affect your campaigns.

1. Deflation
A downturn in the economic cycle reflecting declining prices and a credit contraction. Our current historic deflation was predicted by a number of economists and investment advisors over the past few years. It's not a recession, but an economic crisis of inflation accompanied by a recession.

2. Inflation
A rise in the general level of prices of goods and services over time caused by high rates of growth in the money supply. Inflation can be thought of as a decrease in the value of the unit of currency. It is measured as the rate of change of a price index. Because of the massive government bailouts and deficit spending, this will be your marketing enemy in a few years. Under the Carter administration, inflation shot up over 12%. Under George W. Bush, it was up to 6% by November. Now it's dipped back to about 3.4% because of deflationary pressure. Expect to see inflation rise at the start of next year.

3. Recession
A significant decline in activity spread across the economy, lasting longer than a few months. It is visible in industrial production, employment, real income and wholesale-retail trade. The technical indicator of a recession is two nonsecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by a country's gross domestic product (GDP).

4. Stagflation
A condition of slow economic growth and relatively high unemployment. It is a time of economic stagnation accompanied by a rise in prices, or inflation. This could be what we are headed for, lasting for 5 to 10 years.

By anticipating and understanding these economic realities, you can better adjust your marketing message and strategy. The key is to approach your challenges strategically and tactically-rather than act out of emotion and fear. When the late Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, was asked what he was going to do about the recession years ago, he answered: "We don't plan to participate."

One of the recession research studies gives us some strategic guidance.

McGraw-Hill Research published a study of 600 companies in 16 industries over a 5-year period that included a recession. Researchers concluded that firms that chose to maintain or increase their marketing budgets experienced sales growth that was 256% higher than those companies whose advertising suffered. Furthermore, those who cut back on their advertising realized a small increase of only 19% in that same time period.

Here is another lesson learned from the last recession: The 25% of companies that increased their marketing budgets saw an increase in market share that was 2.5 times greater than competitors who cut back. But that's not all you need to know. This is what you can learn from past recessions...

• Companies that don't adjust their marketing to the new economic environment suffer.
• Businesses that follow the direct marketing model trump those who rely on traditional advertising.
• Historically, companies maintaining or increasing their direct mail marketing through economic downturns increase sales and market share during and after the slow period.
• Businesses that regard direct response advertising costs as investments rather than expenses enjoy higher long term dividends.
• Companies that stay aggressive in a downturn seize market share from more timid competitors.
• Companies that cut back will lose revenue and opportunities, with fewer upsells and cross-sells for several years after the recession...profoundly impacting the bottom line in the long-term.

Lesson learned: Think twice before arbitrarily cutting your budget. With so many of your competitors cutting back, you'll have new opportunities for growth.

Now let's look at the 9 survival strategies you should implement now.

Strategy #1: Re-examine your current marketing initiatives
Image advertising is a waste of your time and money, especially in a time like this. If you're not using advertising that provides a measurable, quantifiable cost per lead, cost-per-sale and lifetime value of a customer, you're practically throwing your money away.

You absolutely must know your:

• Cost per lead
• Cost per sale
• Lifetime value (LTV) of a customer

In a recession, it is more critical than ever to hold every marketing campaign accountable. That's the only way to know how you should react in a down market and get the maximum impact for every single dollar spent. For example, the lifetime value Publisher's Corner of a customer tells you exactly how much you can afford to spend to acquire a new customer. Without these statistics, it is impossible for you to know whether you're making the most profitable use of your marketing budget. It's the only way you'll know whether you're getting a positive or a negative return on your investment.

Strategy #2: Review your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
A powerful USP will grab prospects' attention, distinguish you from competitors and draw them into your story. Now is the time to review and revise your USP. If it doesn't tell your prospects how they will benefit from your product in today's downturn and distinguish you from the competition...chances are you'll become irrelevant. Your USP needs to be prominent, easily found and up-todate in all of your marketing-TV, direct mail, website, you name it.

Tip: Before sending out your next campaign, take the time to review and revise your USP. Then place it at the beginning, middle and end of every marketing piece you create.

Strategy #3: Address marketing evils with preemptive copy
Marketing evils are the barriers that stand between your customer and their decision to buy from you. They create skepticism toward your product. Today's marketing evils include:

• Economic crisis
• Recession
• Competition
• Legal and regulatory changes
• Budget cuts
• Unemployment

When money is tight, fear of making a poor purchasing decision is high. Prospects will question what you say and raise more objections that prevent them from buying. Don't ignore the worries, fears and concerns that are plaguing your prospect. Instead, use preemptive copy to address and overcome prospects' skepticism.

Well-executed copy for this recession will achieve the following 4 goals:

1. Address and dismiss your prospects' objections.
2. Demonstrate how your product solves their most pressing problems.
3. Explain why your product is absolutely necessary-even in an economic downturn-and why it's in your prospect's best interest to buy now.
4. Clearly demonstrate why an alternative choice is not going to cut it.

Tip: Ask yourself these questions: Do I feel that the writer cares about me and understands my problems? Why should I respond now or later? Do I still have objections?

Addressing these evils and explaining why your product overcomes them will boost your response. Likewise, ignoring these evils will depress your response.

Strategy #4: Take advantage of dropping marketing costs
Media spending is plummeting and we haven't hit the bottom yet. As a result, online and offline media costs are dropping-and, in some cases, this trend is likely to be long-term or permanent. Here's where I've successfully helped marketers with cost-cutting negotiations:

• Printing
• Media costs
• Lists
• Postal discounts
• Media options

The price of radio and TV time has seen deep cuts-which may be why the ubiquitous Snuggie™ ads aren't confined to late-night TV spots. In addition to lower costs, you'll find deals and opportunities never seen before. For example, many local newspapers and even The Wall Street Journal are selling ad space right on the front page.

Strategy #5: Reevaluate your offer and make it preemptive
In this recession, consumers are hunting for the best way to get more for their money. It's critical to update your value proposition so that it's powerful and preemptive: It should answer prospects' questions before they ask them and overcome their objections. Remember, your offer is not about the product-it's about the prospect and what the prospect gets. The strongest offers reinforce value. They focus on the deal that the prospect will receive and present a get-morefor-your-money image.

Here are 3 components of a successful offer:

1. A discount or price reduction. Right now people are looking for value, and a discount is the simplest way to deliver it. Just look at the most successful catalogs, emails and mailing pieces. You'll find discounts in every one, from consumer retailers like J. Crew to B2B marketers like Thermo Fisher Scientific. Even designer makeup and beauty products are on sale, which is rare.
2. A premium. It's a gift, a bribe, a strong enticement: Add value by giving something away. This can help you justify a higher price if you are unable to offer a hefty discount.
3. A guarantee. Reassure your prospects that they have nothing to lose. If you don't have a guarantee, now is the time to start one.

Convince prospects that they'll be losing out on something big without accepting your offer - recession or no recession.

Strategy #6: Concentrate on your database
For most marketers, 20% of your customers represent 80% of your profits. Any significant loss of this core group could mean a serious hit to your sales, profits and future. Remember, it is always three to four times cheaper to upsell or crosssell an existing customer than to acquire a new one.

That's why you should implement these customer-retention strategies:

• Upselling and cross-selling. Reevaluate your current process. Are you being aggressive enough in offering products or services that complement your prospect's purchases?
• Loyalty programs. It is more important than ever to reward your best customers with extra perks to keep them coming back. Creating an exclusive club for loyal customers is also effective.
• Conversion series. If you offer a free trial, be sure you have a professional follow-up direct marketing conversion series in place to convert these prospects to buyers. Many marketers make the mistake of letting qualified, interested prospects slip away easily. See the chart above for an example of a conversion series time line.
• Retention series. Don't wait around for your customers to renew subscriptions, reorder products or come in for your services-remind them of your value, and reinforce their decision to purchase from you.
• Database lead management. If you don't convert those hard-earned leads to sales, you're wasting your marketing efforts.
• Reactivation campaigns. Use your improved, preemptive offer, complete with premiums and discounts, to entice former customers to come back. Craft copy that demonstrates why your product is the best choice right now.

Strategy #7: Revamp your corporate website
Static corporate home pages do nothing to encourage sales or improve your results. Yet so many marketers still rely on these non-marketing or anti-marketing sites. Instead, turn to direct marketing microsites and landing pages: Individual websites geared toward specific products and promotions. These sites use only direct response copy and art to sell a product or service. To improve efficiency and boost response, they don't have navigation distractions. For example, you may want to create unique pages to capture leads and sales, or develop a product-specific sales page.

Strategy #8: Streamline your shopping cart to boost sales
It's a fact: 7-1/2 out of 10 online prospects will abandon their shopping cart before completing a purchase. Here are 2 big mistakes to avoid...

Mistake #1-"Tombstone" carts. This is what I call shopping carts without sales copy. They're a dead-end. Your cart should engage prospects, reassure them that they are making a good decision and lead them right to the "Buy Now" button. It must have direct response sales copy and direct response art.

Mistake #2-Multistage process. The more you ask your prospect to click, the more sales you'll lose. A one- to two-page seamless checkout process is more effective and efficient than a multistage process. Prospects will be less likely to have second thoughts and click away. Above all, keep it simple.

Strategy #9: Reevaluate your media
Be sure to put your recession appropriate USP to work in all campaigns-including online and broadcast media.

1. Direct mail. You're still able to produce a low cost per lead or sale with this highly targeted medium...even in a recession. It should be a major component of any marketing mix.
2. Paid search. Easy paid search is dead in this recession. But the right mix of keyword strategy, powerful direct response ads and separate, dedicated landing pages with timely content will produce a very high ROI-although the numbers will be a very small part of your overall lead generation and sales program.
3. Email. The days of sending a sales letter via email are over. Sales hype will not work. Instead, use an information-driven, content-rich email. Remember value.
4. TV and radio. Rates for prime airtime have been dropping, so now's your chance to renegotiate rates and retest your options, such as time of day.

What worked last year is not going to work now because the market psychology is completely different. Opportunities for success are out there if you know where to look. Remember that your prospects' spending patterns change in a recession, but they'll still be spending money somewhere.

Consumers may start to give up trips to the coffee shop in favor of a do-it-yourself espresso machine. Businesses may choose new software instead of new hardware, or invest in extra tech support to avoid an expensive technology meltdown. With these strategies, you can turn this recession into an opportunity for growth, profits and greater market share.

author: Craig Huey

How to Reach Your Target Market --Target Audience

Ways You Can Reach Your Target Market -- Target Audience

Starting a business is challenging enough, but finding and reaching your target market/s or audiences can be even more of a hurdle. Firstly you need to decide who your target audience or target market is, then you need to work out how you will reach them!

Here are a few things to consider when finding out who your target market is: and how you can go about reaching them:

The first question you need to ask yourself is; Are you targeting a local, regional or national market/s. When you have decided the kind of market yuou are going to target is when you can look at other things like your Business Plan, what and who your competition is. You should also put into the age group you are targeting for it will help you in knowing the kind of marketing plan to use. You should also put into consideration where your target audience shop and the kind of media they have access to; is it magazine/newspapers, television or internet?

Other things you need to think about is the kind of service or product you are going to offer to your audience and is it a seasonal product/service or its long term? You should also put into consideration the kind of budget you have in mind for the marketing plan; How you plan on reaching your target audience. Is it through the internet, through print media, through radio adverts, printed adverts and so on.

Finding and reaching your target audience or target market can be done on a shoestring budget so long as you undertake some research. Find out where your market is and what they respond to, do this and half the battle will have been won.

Reaching your target market is the second thing you should do after finding out about them. Here are some 5 KEY Steps you should follow to achieve success.

1. Undertake market research, use both primary and secondary research, find out what they read, watch and listen to.

2. Collate your market research results, then test out and trial your business, its products and services on a small sample of your target market. Find out what works and what doesn't.

3. Find out prices and so on for all the types of media your target audience use and take notice of, draw up a budget and timescale for the channels, methods of marketing and advertising you will use to reach your target market.

4. Create a marketing plan and a marketing plan for your business, products and services, will you launch everything all at the same time, or will you drip feed products and services to your target market? All of this should and must be considered to enable you to come up with a workable marketing plan and budget.

5. Decide how you will measure your success and results, how will you find out what has been successful and what has not.

Author: L J Pearce

10 Ways to Market Your Business

Creative and Cost Effective Ways to Advertise, Market and Promote Your Business

Starting a business is in some respects is a lot easier than getting your business out there and getting in found. Being known, talked about and recognized requires creativity, time, hard work and patience. Below are a few ideas as to how you can market your business and get it out there.

1. Take out banner adverts on the internet. Find out what websites your target market view and visit, and see if a banner advert on one of them would help your business.

2. Articles. Promoting a business need not cost the earth - how about writing a few articles on or around your business/target market/sector and placing them on a few free article sites.

3. Through branding. Turn your business into a brand.

4. Through flyers and handouts, print these up yourself or get them professionally printed and get them out there. Drop them through letterboxes, get them in local newspapers and so on.

5. How about marketing your business through word of mouth. Let everyone know what your business is, and how it can benefit and help others and then get them to spread the word.

REMEMBER: No matter how small or large your marketing budget, there are always ways you can market your business, sometimes it just requires you to think outside of the box a little.

6.What about marketing your business through a direct mail campaign. You could launch one of these yourself or get a company to do it for you, to ensure your material reaches your target market.

7. Through your email signature. Make sure you never send out a blank email, always make sure there is something about your business, be it a telephone number or website address at the bottom of each email you send out as you never know who may read or see the email.

8. How about marketing your business on yours and your friends and families vehicles/mode of transport.

9. Why not try using and utilizing social networking sites such as Face book and MySpace. Create pages for your business/products and keep them updated .

10. Use blogs to market your business, start your own, write for others, or try advertising on a blog.

TOP TIP: Before you jump into marketing your business, always conduct your research. Find out what your competitors are doing and what they are not. Also find out what your target market and audience read, watch and respond to. For example its no use placing an internet advert if your target market aren't internet savvy.

author: L J Pearce

How to Develop Your Small Business Marketing Strategy Elements

Developing and following a small business marketing plan is an essential task that must be continually undertaken. Marketing strategy elements that encompass shifts in market conditions, the economic outlook, or a significant change in what customers are looking for are signals that what worked in the past may not work in the future, thus requiring revisions in how a product is marketed.

Once your small business marketing plan is drafted the information in it is 'carved in stone'. Your marketing strategy elements must remain flexible to change with these, and other, internal and external factors. Developing marketing strategy elements for your small business marketing plan will keep you focused and your message consistent as changes occur.

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Research
• Dedication to follow your marketing plan.
• Flexibility to change as needed.

1. Step 1

   There are eight marketing strategy elements that your marketing plan must contain to succeed.
   
   Who Is Your Real Customer - As a small businesses you may be inclined to take on any type of customer just to make a sale and lose sight of the prospects that have the real potential to become a long term customer. This is not a growth marketing strategy. Your best strategy should be to try to address customer needs which currently are not being met in the market place. A small business cannot be all things to all people and must analyze its market, know it's own capabilities, and focus on the 'real customer' it can serve best.

2. Step 2

   Establish Small Business Marketing Goals - This is your road map of where you are now and where you want to be one, five, even ten years from now. When you have a marketing strategy and clear set of marketing goals there will be little to stop you. Writing down goals you want to accomplish is essential to the drafting of the rest of your marketing plan. If you do not know where you are going, how are you going to get there?

3. Step 3

   Differentiating Factors - A small business needs to be unique in the marketplace. This is an essential small business marketing strategy. Uniqueness can be a make-or-break marketing element in today's business world. How will you set your small business apart from your competition? What are you offering that your competition is not? Can you define a difference in how you are delivering your product/service?

4. Step 4

   A Clear Target - The two things a small business owner is always short on are time and money. When you miss your target market you are wasting both. A small business marketing strategy requires you to become an expert at target marketing. For your marketing tactics to be cost effective pick a target audience or your niche and focus on it exclusively. By marketing to your target audience, who you know already have a need for your product/service, you have already increased your small business marketing campaign' s likelihood of success.

5. Step 5

   Strong and Consistent Message - Smart marketing means effective communication. When you communicate well you make sales but when you cause confusion, such as changing your message too often, you fail. It's that simple. Creating a communication strategy for a consistent and strong marketing message is critical to your success.

6. Step 6

   Brand Your Small Business Identity - As a small business you may think you are not big enough to need a branding strategy. Nothing can be further from the truth! A Small business needs an identity that is part of a focused marketing strategy. Take time to decide how you want the market and your customers to perceive you and know your positioning in your competitive field.

7. Step 7

   Strong Small Business Positioning Plan - Small business success is achieved, or not achieved, based on how your clients and prospects perceive you and if you can help them. They decide what is in their best interest and if your product will benefit them. Position your small business with a marketing strategy that will be the best choice with the lowest risk they have in their buying process. Ensure that your company's inside reality is what your customer's outside perception of your company is.

8. Step 8

   Small Business Financial Projections - Break down by product line, for one to three years, the returns on the marketing investments you plan to make. After each marketing campaign decisions are made and implemented you need to evaluate how well they performed. Set standards of performance and evaluate results against them.

9. Step 9

   A small business marketing plan is a continuous process of testing and adjustment. It represents flexible ideas that will guide your marketing decisions. Keep your eye on these eight strategies to stay focused and consistent as your marketing plan is drafted and updated.

author: George Larson

How to Draft Your Small Business Marketing Plan - Take The Time

Drafting a small business marketing plan will benefit your small business so you need to take the time. If your business employs one or a very few and you feel that there is no time to stop, do research, and write a plan, make time. That investment of time to write your marketing plan will save your small business time and money consistently down the road.

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Time to spend researching all aspects of business.
• Be able to follow your plan for business success.

1. Step 1

   Marketing Plan Is Your Roadmap
   
   When you do not have a marketing plan to use as your business road map you start making mistakes or are not consistent. By developing your own marketing plan, you ensure that the marketing part of your business will run smoothly and will not be subject to the "spur of the moment" type decision making. Marketing your business will then be organized.
   
   The return on your investment for making time to draft a marketing plan stays with you as long as you follow and update your plan. These are five reasons that will get you started.

2. Step 2

   1. You need to think about your small business.
   
   The biggest advantage of taking time to draft your small business marketing plan gives you time to think, in depth, about your business. What is your current situation in regards to customers, marketing activities, and ROI? Who is your current competition? Is there anything going on in the industry that can change how you do business? Do you know what your goals are for the next week, month, and year? Without a plan you will not have a road map showing you how to get from now to then.

3. Step 3

   2. A marketing plan organizes all of your marketing objectives.
   
   The second advantage is that a small business marketing plan organizes all your marketing activities you plan on using and eliminates any last minute decisions. You know what you are going to do to market your business over a set time frame.

4. Step 4

   3. You will know how and where to spend your marketing dollars.
   
   By developing a marketing plan for all of your marketing initiatives you will have to decide on how and where you are going to undertake marketing activities. You will know what marketing tactics will be and give you time to think about money, time, and any other resources you will need to carry them out. This ensures that you do not over spend your budget.

5. Step 5

   4. Outline all details for when and where to begin your marketing plan tactics.
   
   When you sit down to draft your marketing plan you will understand details about when to initiate your marketing objectives and tactics. Understand your industry and/or business' cycles. Know when there are busy cycles and slow down periods. While drafting your plan understand those cycles and make informed decisions if you want to increase your marketing activities to generate sales in quiet periods and if you would be able to handle the increased demand if you marketed aggressively during busy periods.

6. Step 6

   5. A small business marketing plan helps to know what ROI to expect and what you want to achieve.
   
   The marketing research you will do for your small business marketing plan ensures that you know the return on investment to expect your marketing activities to achieve. You will need to follow and analyze each campaign and put mechanisms in place to measure the results against expectations.

Tips & Warnings

• The time you spend on drafting your small business marketing plan will benefit your business for as long as you write it for and keep updated. This will continue to guide your business to successful implementation of your marketing campaigns. Take time, upfront, to draft your small business marketing plan and you will have more time to run your business and ensure that your business grows.

author: George Larson