Prioritizing Your Marketing Choices

One of the toughest challenges for entrepreneurs is prioritizing their day and focusing their time.

And one of the reasons for this is because it's like a buffet! So many things to choose from and we want to dive into it all!

Well, just like a buffet, if we pile too much on our plates, some items will get cold before we can get to them, some items will melt into others and some will lose their pure "flavor" by being so close to stronger seasonings.

If you want to enjoy the bounty that a buffet provides you want to "sample" before you fill your plate. This way you can dive deeply into a pan of tasty dishes that will fill and satisfy you.

Now that you're sufficiently hungry, let's talk about how this relates to your business.

When you have the bounty of tools, tactics, resources and strategies from which to choose to grow your business, how in the world do you decide which to choose. And once chosen, how do you prioritize how to include it in your already full agenda or "to do" list?

My clients, and myself at times, go back and forth with how to prioritize the bounty we're presented with every single day. As an example, do we focus on networking - offline or online. In either case, where's the best place to spend our expensive time and dollar? Why would we want to use this one strategy over any other?

Next, do we invest in newsletters, audio or video for our communications vehicles? Are more people interested in reading, listening or seeing what we have to offer?

You see, same buffet of choices. What's a busy, hungry entrepreneur to do?

My recommendation has always been and continues to be similar to that approach to a buffet filled with lots of different foods to try. And that is to "sample" those different approaches. You want to put a couple on your schedule to see what response you receive from prospects and potential ideal clients.

You may find that in your profitable market, your prospects read and highlight things of interest to them. Or perhaps they're on the road more often and would enjoy audio messages from you. Then there are those who prefer to "see" what you have to offer.

Since there are so many ways to see which of your dishes deeply fills and satisfies. Here are just a few to get you started:

- You can measure where your traffic comes from - Google Analytics

- Run a test to see how often your email messages are opened

- Look at how many downloads there are of your articles

- Review how many comments or views there are of you videos on YouTube.

Now you have several ways to determine who is "sampling" and who is going back for seconds. And that, my friends is one of the best ways to determine how to prioritize your time and day, and where you want to put your focus.

We are often blinded by the latest and greatest tools, tactics, etc., but why not pursue excellence where we know our prospects and clients get their enjoyment and fill their plates?

Just to give you a quick example close to home. I observed ezine authors use a new strategy to drive traffic to their blog, so I decided to try it too. I would put a couple of paragraphs of my article in the ezine and direct readers to my blog to read the entire article online and comment.

So what happened? My open rates for my newsletter plummeted! Fewer people were reading it. When I returned to posting the full article, open rates went up, as did new subscribers! However, without the test, I wouldn't know the buffet choices of my readers!

Now you have some examples and strategies to help you approach and prioritize the buffet of marketing choices in front of you as a busy entrepreneur. Choose wisely.

The business mentor to the service professional who is ready to thrive as an entrepreneur, Chris Makell shows her clients a different way to "Think Big...Play Bigger" so they create profitable 6 & 7-figure businesses. Claim your free special report "5 Critical Steps to Get High Paying Clients, Today" at http://ChrisMakell.com/specialreport/

Internet Marketing Tips - Avoid Spamming People

Avoid Spamming People

With so many people moving towards an online community to get goods and services, Internet marketing tips seem to be on the mind of small business owners and affiliate marketing talent alike. If you're in either one of those categories, it's important to look into options that will get your information into the eyes of millions of potential friends and customers. While some skeptics will scoff at the notion of getting free advertising, many large companies have figured out the best way to get promotion is to befriend others through free profiles on social networking websites.

Success without spamming people

Most recently, in an issue of Money Magazine, a small business was highlighted as getting an increase of 200% in profit through simply giving away their software in exchange for a social media shout out. With so many people taking advantage of this, and so many users talking about it on their social media page, the company become profitable nearly overnight, and millions of new potential customers came to their website and purchased other items.

If you want to duplicate that kind of success, you'll have to figure out what internet marketing tips will work for you and what won't. There are several do's and don'ts that are applicable to situations of marketing potential. For instance, you do want to engage people in conversation about what it is you and your company do, but you don't want it to be so transparent that you're selling something to someone. If you're not selling anything, but rather are trying to communicate with a new user base, you'll find that spamming people is easy.

If you simply send a message to a stranger, even if they seem interested, you could be labeled as a spam artist. In the marketing world, the spam title is a major blunder that you want to never have to deal with. Instead of sending people blind messages, make sure that you engage all friends and neighbors in any social networking site with sincerity, and do not mention what you're promoting for quite sometime.

Let the conversations happen over time, naturally. It will take some savvy, but you can get any one to be interested in your content, if you simply engage them at a social level that is not pretentious in any way. The easiest way to facilitate this is to simply comment on their posts, pictures, and communicate with them through simple questions and answers.

Simple Method For Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing can be very rewarding and fun. There are a few different methods that you can follow to achieve your goals. Remember it is always a good idea to think outside the box and try some new methods yourself. A lot of people are lured into the idea that marketing can be automated and you don't have to put any time into it. This is totally false if you have been sold on this idea then you are destined to failure. No matter what type of job you do there is a certain amount of work you have to put into it this is the same for making money online.

One method that I have had a lot of luck with is, using a squeeze page. Squeeze pages are set up to collect info from the visitors such as emails and names, usually if people fill out the form they are given a free gift of some sort such as a news letter, ebook, video etc etc... Building a list can bring you a lot of success. Sending out emails from your auto responder is much more effective then sending out a tweet on twitter, think about it people can just ignore your tweets but it is pretty hard to ignore email messages. My favorite part with this method is it is very quick and simple to set up. The main focus of your squeeze page should be to set it up to convert. Make people want to fill out your opt in form give them a gift that is to good to pass up.

The next obstacle to overcome is to get a steady flow of traffic to your page. My suggestion here is to get your link out there. You can do this by forum posting with a link added to your site in your signature, promote on social networking sites, and blog commenting don't get me wrong there are several ways to bring traffic to your site like I said before think outside the box. Forum posting may take some time before you start seeing results but the wait is well worth it. Make sure you are posting interesting content within the forum so people will take notice. This goes the same for social networking make your tweets on twitter interesting enough for people to take notice, like I said above it is pretty easy to ignore a tweet. And blog posting this can work just like forums and it also adds a one way link to your site so it works out real well for you. Keep your post on the topic and interesting the rest will take care of itself.

So as long as you do a good amount of research and promote your site well you can make a very descent living online. Don't lose your focus keep your head up and have a little patience it will all pay off for you as long as you do not give up. There is plenty of help out there just look for it.

Prioritizing Your Marketing Choices

One of the toughest challenges for entrepreneurs is prioritizing their day and focusing their time.

And one of the reasons for this is because it's like a buffet! So many things to choose from and we want to dive into it all!

Well, just like a buffet, if we pile too much on our plates, some items will get cold before we can get to them, some items will melt into others and some will lose their pure "flavor" by being so close to stronger seasonings.

If you want to enjoy the bounty that a buffet provides you want to "sample" before you fill your plate. This way you can dive deeply into a pan of tasty dishes that will fill and satisfy you.

Now that you're sufficiently hungry, let's talk about how this relates to your business.

When you have the bounty of tools, tactics, resources and strategies from which to choose to grow your business, how in the world do you decide which to choose. And once chosen, how do you prioritize how to include it in your already full agenda or "to do" list?

My clients, and myself at times, go back and forth with how to prioritize the bounty we're presented with every single day. As an example, do we focus on networking - offline or online. In either case, where's the best place to spend our expensive time and dollar? Why would we want to use this one strategy over any other?

Next, do we invest in newsletters, audio or video for our communications vehicles? Are more people interested in reading, listening or seeing what we have to offer?

You see, same buffet of choices. What's a busy, hungry entrepreneur to do?

My recommendation has always been and continues to be similar to that approach to a buffet filled with lots of different foods to try. And that is to "sample" those different approaches. You want to put a couple on your schedule to see what response you receive from prospects and potential ideal clients.

You may find that in your profitable market, your prospects read and highlight things of interest to them. Or perhaps they're on the road more often and would enjoy audio messages from you. Then there are those who prefer to "see" what you have to offer.

Since there are so many ways to see which of your dishes deeply fills and satisfies. Here are just a few to get you started:

- You can measure where your traffic comes from - Google Analytics

- Run a test to see how often your email messages are opened

- Look at how many downloads there are of your articles

- Review how many comments or views there are of you videos on YouTube.

Now you have several ways to determine who is "sampling" and who is going back for seconds. And that, my friends is one of the best ways to determine how to prioritize your time and day, and where you want to put your focus.

We are often blinded by the latest and greatest tools, tactics, etc., but why not pursue excellence where we know our prospects and clients get their enjoyment and fill their plates?

Just to give you a quick example close to home. I observed ezine authors use a new strategy to drive traffic to their blog, so I decided to try it too. I would put a couple of paragraphs of my article in the ezine and direct readers to my blog to read the entire article online and comment.

So what happened? My open rates for my newsletter plummeted! Fewer people were reading it. When I returned to posting the full article, open rates went up, as did new subscribers! However, without the test, I wouldn't know the buffet choices of my readers!

Now you have some examples and strategies to help you approach and prioritize the buffet of marketing choices in front of you as a busy entrepreneur. Choose wisely.

The business mentor to the service professional who is ready to thrive as an entrepreneur, Chris Makell shows her clients a different way to "Think Big...Play Bigger" so they create profitable 6 & 7-figure businesses. Claim your free special report "5 Critical Steps to Get High Paying Clients, Today" at http://ChrisMakell.com/specialreport/

Internet Marketing Strategies - Keyword Research

One of my top tips for anyone starting out online or setting up a business is to put together a sound marketing strategy plan. But before you do this, I want to let you in on one of THE most important internet marketing strategies you will ever learn.

Keyword Research - Keyword Research is the most important foundation of any business in today's markets. be it an online business or an offline business, your internet marketing strategies are going to prove to be the lifeblood of your research and planning when setting up.

A solid approach keyword research will show you in an instant whether there is a market out there for your product or service, and will determine the profitability of your future marketing campaigns.

Sounds like a strong statement doesn't it?

I'm sorry to say, but it's true. For those of you who put little to no thought into, OR who don't understand the high significance of keywords, in their internet marketing strategy, the keyword research you do before getting one single web page up will have a tremendous impact on how well you market to your target audience.

If you're an offline business (purely shopfront) you will need to consider implementing keyword research into your marketing strategy before you start, as most consumers now search online for their product or service before purchase or physical visits to businesses.

No pressure.

So - you're probably wondering "why is this keyword research so darned important to my internet marketing Strategies?"

Imagine for one moment that you own a Web Design Company and you've been invited to speak at an event.

You turn up, ultra prepared, notes in hand to deliver the presentation of your life.

You step out in front of the 200 or so attendees, everything goes to plan, and you speak ever so compellingly for about 25 minutes.

When you are finished, the crowd claps nicely...almost out of obligation. Everyone leaves their seat immediately, and heads to the hotel bar, leaving you standing their, no questions to answer, no-one to follow up, no exciting after speech buzz to attend to.

You're knocked sideways. It was your best presentations to date! You were compelling, but not too sales-y. You presented the problems with no pitch, and you managed to outline the available solutions, before unveiling your perfect product to fit the bill.

So, what happened?

The people you were presenting to weren't expecting you...they were waiting on someone else who was going to present about business network marketing. They don't even understand and weren't interested in your area of expertise and had little or no interest in your product.

Put simply.....this wasn't YOUR audience. This was not your target market.

You had everything prepared...you had perfectly prepared, presented and led right to the obvious solution...your product. But you were in front of the wrong people.
But how does this relate to keyword research as part of my internet marketing strategy?

People who visit your site are a direct relation to the keywords you are optimizing for. If you only tell search engines about your company name, how will people looking for your services find you?

For example - Say you're a trendy hairdressers called 'Zap Cuts' and you build your website stuffed with Zap Cuts specials and Zap Cuts Pricelist etc, you're not directing it towards your consumer. Your target market are not looking for 'Zap Cuts' They are looking for "Hairdressers."

By setting out Keyword research as the most important part of your internet marketing strategy, you will determine what phrases people are searching for that have the problem for your solution. They are searching for "perfect pick up lines" or "golf swing techniques" not "The Potty Putter." They don't even know you company even exists!

And, unless you do effective keyword research and optimize your site for it, they never will.

So, how do you go about finding the right keywords to research? Put yourself in your customers shoes. If you were someone out there with the problem your product solves, what would you be searching for?

"How to perfect my golf swing"

"Free Dog Training Guide"

"Best Art Museums"

"Traditional kids toyshops"

These keywords are the search terms your customers are using to find YOUR BUSINESS. These are the terms you need to incorporate in your Internet Marketing plan.

Of course, keyword research doesn't end there. There are many internet marketing courses and marketing skills you can use in conjunction with KW research that will compliment your findings and enhance your ability to translate the necessary action you need to take to optimize your website and online marketing campaigns.

Internet Marketing Tips - Avoid Spamming People

Avoid Spamming People

With so many people moving towards an online community to get goods and services, Internet marketing tips seem to be on the mind of small business owners and affiliate marketing talent alike. If you're in either one of those categories, it's important to look into options that will get your information into the eyes of millions of potential friends and customers. While some skeptics will scoff at the notion of getting free advertising, many large companies have figured out the best way to get promotion is to befriend others through free profiles on social networking websites.

Success without spamming people

Most recently, in an issue of Money Magazine, a small business was highlighted as getting an increase of 200% in profit through simply giving away their software in exchange for a social media shout out. With so many people taking advantage of this, and so many users talking about it on their social media page, the company become profitable nearly overnight, and millions of new potential customers came to their website and purchased other items.

If you want to duplicate that kind of success, you'll have to figure out what internet marketing tips will work for you and what won't. There are several do's and don'ts that are applicable to situations of marketing potential. For instance, you do want to engage people in conversation about what it is you and your company do, but you don't want it to be so transparent that you're selling something to someone. If you're not selling anything, but rather are trying to communicate with a new user base, you'll find that spamming people is easy.

If you simply send a message to a stranger, even if they seem interested, you could be labeled as a spam artist. In the marketing world, the spam title is a major blunder that you want to never have to deal with. Instead of sending people blind messages, make sure that you engage all friends and neighbors in any social networking site with sincerity, and do not mention what you're promoting for quite sometime.

Let the conversations happen over time, naturally. It will take some savvy, but you can get any one to be interested in your content, if you simply engage them at a social level that is not pretentious in any way. The easiest way to facilitate this is to simply comment on their posts, pictures, and communicate with them through simple questions and answers.

Basic Google+ Tips for Small Business Owners

By now you've probably noticed that Google places has morphed into Google+. The platform now closely resembles the functionality of Facebook. Early adopters where wavering as to whether Google+ would become relevant but it appears that critical mass has been reached and now big brands and small businesses of all kinds are leveraging it to connect with their audience. This post will share some fundamental steps to help you get your Google+ presence organized and optimized.

1. Create a Google Profile - if you have a Gmail account then this will be a snap. You simply head over to the Google+ page and start building out your profile. Their are several pre-set fields that will guide you through completing the profile. Be sure to be thorough as this information will show up in search engines. If you don't have a Gmail account, you can still create a profile and walk through the same process outlined above.

2. Optimize Your Profile - include copy and keywords that are relevant for your industry. Also, be sure to hyperlink the most important keywords in your profile copy back to the most relevant pages on your website; this is called link-building. These links will help Google identify the terms your website should rank for. Include links to as many social media profiles as possible and make sure to check all links to ensure they're working.

3. Make it Pretty - include photos in your profile that represent your brand or business. There is also a section specifically for adding photos, outside of just the standard profile photo. This is a great place to upload pictures of your business in action. Whether you're a restaurant, dentist or landscaper, this section will best used by showing pictures of the results you produce; examples might be pictures of food, equipment used, customers or your staff. There is also a section for uploading videos. This is a great way to stand out and build an interactive element into your profile. The video does not have to be fancy either; shoot one with a smart phone and upload it if you don't have a fancy recording device.

4. Connect - Google+ will recommend people for you to follow, that's a great start but you'll also want to connect to others. Take some time and find people that are in your area; these are the people that will most likely want to do business with you. Focus on not only connecting with them but also engaging them by either sharing or commenting on the posts they make. This part is ongoing and will be a regular exercise each time you use Google+.

Google+ can be a real advantage for your business. Allowing you to connect with new customer and increase your exposure in Google and other search engines. Don't be intimidated by having yet another social media platform to manage; embrace it and think of it as a potential revenue stream and communication channel to help you grow your business.

Internet Marketing Strategies

The Internet has truly revolutionized the world around us. This is particularly true for those in the business world, as a decade ago the term 'online marketing' meant very little. At this point in the game, there is a good chance that your specific company is utilizing some type of Internet marketing strategy. Online marketing utilizes various tactics to essentially increase awareness about your specific product or service across the Internet. While strategies are constantly evolving, there are a few proven methods that cannot be overlooked.

Similar to the concept of paying a magazine a fee to have a page of print ads, one approach is paying a particular website, directory or search engine a fee to advertise on their site. Through negotiations you will determine where on their site your advertising spot will be physically located, how large the area will be, the length of time your ad will be featured and various other options. This allows you to specify which audience to target by selecting popular sites with your target audience. However, there is no guarantee that someone will physically visit your site, which is why there are online marketing tactics that allow you to pay (the host or publisher) when you have results; when someone visits your own website.

Pay per click advertising (known as PPC for short) works on this very premise. Essentially you only pay your chosen host or publisher a fee (as negotiated between the two or more parties involved) when a user clicks on your advertised link (wherever it is located on said hosted site). Many companies employ this method because you only pay when you have results. Furthermore, should you choose to place your ad with a directory or search engine, you can choose to have your ad appear when people enter specific key words into the search query. By selecting product or service specific keywords, you can further tailor you ads to those seeking what you are offering!

However, all the traffic in the world will not increase profits if users aren't intrigued by your website, and your website can be your best salesperson. By utilizing PCC or other forms of advertising, you have managed to get users to visit your website that are inherently interested in your product or service, and now it's time to close the deal. Providing information and facts about your products is vital, but perhaps you want to reward these specific digital customers by offering special deals or discounts. The point is that once you have the visitors, the opportunity is yours.

This is why contacting a professional web design and advertising company is so important. From the first to final stage, you can have a single business entity handling the technical side of your digital marketing campaign. Furthermore, there are different techniques to incorporate into the structure of your website to facilitate specific Internet marketing approaches. A professional company with a proven track record can harness these approaches for you, ensuring a steady stream of clients. Whether you need to build a website from scratch or bring your old site up to date, using one company for all your digital marketing needs can be a money and time saving decision.

Stop by www.siteboost.ca to visit Toronto's web design and Internet marketing experts. They specialize in adword services and PPC Toronto, and can offer you expert Internet marketing advice should you be seeking it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patrick_A_Thompson