Revised from Janet Attard's Entrepreuner [A Good Quick Read]
Having trouble finding customers for your new on-line business? If so, you're not alone.
Many women who start their own business quickly discover that finding customers is a lot more difficult than they had thought. They call a few friends to let them know they’ve started a business, print out fliers and stuff them in neighborhood mailboxes, set up a website, run an ad in the local newspaper, or buy pay-per-click ads online, and sit back and wait for customers to come. When the leads and sales don’t happen, guilt (over the money they’ve spent to set the business up), frustration and stress set in.
Sound depressing? It is. But you don't have to fall into that trap. And if you have fallen into it, you can climb out. Here's how:
Make a commitment to marketing. Marketing isn't a one-time activity. To find customers and keep them coming in, you need to actively promote your business in as many ways as you can on an ongoing basis.
Learn to network. Businesses and consumers don't buy products or services from companies. They buy them from people. People they know and trust. Become an active participant in business or community groups, local home owners associations, parent’s groups, religious groups, that attract the type of people you want for customers. Get yourself known in the group as the person who sells jewelry, solves computer problems, or runs a companion service for elderly shut-ins.
Remember that word of mouth advertising is the single biggest source of customers for home-based businesses. As you build your network and start to bring in those first customers, do everything you can to be sure positive word of mouth spreads about you. Bend over backward to to do exceptional work and get it out on time. The customer may never thank you, but they'll remember your work and call on you again -- or refer you when their friends or family need what you sell.
Ask for referrals. Asking for referrals is easy once you realize you aren't begging for business. You're just asking customers and friends if they know anyone who has the kind of problem your product or services can solve.
Get other businesses to refer business to you. This isn't as hard as you think. Find people who serve the same market but sell different products or services from yours. A party planner may well hear of people who need gift baskets made up. And, the gift basket business is very likely to meet customers who need events planned. Talk to each other. Refer each other. Both of your businesses will grow.
Do a reality check. If despite your best efforts your product or service isn't selling, use your network groups to find out why. Even if you researched the need for your product or service before you started the business, you may still run into customer resistance. If so, question your prospects. Find out what it is they really need. What problem they need solved. How they are getting the problem solved now. And what they are willing to spend to solve the problem. Ask if there's anything you could change about your business to make them interested in buying from you. Whatever you do, don’t take the answers personally. Use the information you glean to learn what changes you need to make to land sales and bring in customers on a steady basis.
strategic identity <> tactical marketing <.> web sales <> great results
Email Blasts ...
custom ... approach ... ask about our 'Six To Stick Progam'
Listen, it's no big secret that to be successful on the web, you must actively promote your website. And we all know that email is one of the fastest, most measurable, and most affordable ways to drive website traffic. Emails can do more than drive website traffic.
When you use email as part of an intelligent and integrated online marketing strategy, you can really maximize its power to build brands, increase revenue, and strengthen relationships.
As you embark on another year of building your business, consider some new (or some not-so-new) ways to increase your overall presence on the Web and make email marketing a successful and valuable part of your overall business strategy. Even with a tight budget, you can raise your visibility and communicate with more people in more targeted ways. How? By integrating your email marketing efforts with other online activities. Here are our top ways to expand your exposure:
Search Engines Most people use search engines like Yahoo!, Lycos and MSN when they want to find something on the Web. Advertising on these websites — and Cost-Per-Click (CPC) search listing in particular — is a growing trend among business owners because it gives you the ability to reach prospects when they're actively searching the Internet for goods and services, and because you only pay when people actually click to your site. Here's how CPC works:You determine common words (search terms) that are used to describe your product or service (such as "sunglasses"). Decide in advance how much you are willing to pay for someone to visit your website. When someone searches the Web for the term "sunglasses," sites with that word can appear at or near the top of the results page under "search listings". When someone clicks on your search listing, you pay the previously agreed upon price. Once people click-through to your site, it's your website's job to offer them a compelling reason to subscribe to your email list (see next section). Depending on the search terms and your opt-in list builder, you can target future email campaigns to the people who searched for a particular term, for even better email marketing results.
Another low-cost way to improve your success with search engine marketing is to optimize your website's meta tags and keywords and then proactively submit your site to the search engines on an ongoing basis. (Clients have their META TAGS updated monthly for optimization. Many of our clients are listed high in major search engine listings). A complete meta tag strategy is part of every package we offer.
Whether you take the CPC or traditional route, make sure people using search engines can find your site — and subscribe to your email list — quickly and easily. A good ranking on the right search terms can really boost your visibility and your ability to grow a quality opt-in email list.
Invisible Landing Pages and Microsites So what happens after someone clicks on your link? Simple: There should be a unique landing page for that particular email offer. A good landing page should be an extension of your email, a place on the Web where readers can go for more information or to take immediate action on your offer.
Microsites have been around for years, but for whatever reason, they aren't as widely used as they should be. More than just one page (usually 5 to 10) a microsite is a mini-website devoted to a particular brand, product, event, topic, etc. A microsite might seem like a lot of effort for one little call-to-action in an email campaign, but think beyond the inbox.
Every time you create a microsite, or even a landing page, your presence on the Web gets bigger and more personalized at the same time. Not only can you increase the success of each email campaign, but you can also increase the quality of leads coming in from search engines and the quality of your customer relationships. Would you develop a stronger, more immediate connection to a poodle owner if she landed on your main "pet store" home page or your microsite "poodle store" home page? Something to think about for 2006.
Online marketing is more than just email, more than a website, more than a banner ad. But if you're using email as your main online marketing tool (a wise choice), you can increase its effectiveness by increasing your overall online presence — and that takes thinking outside the inbox. Our packages guarantee traffic to client sites. Just Ask ...
The 'Six To Stick Program' offers regular & professional emails to niche markets over a defined period of time. Embedded html images & supporting text enhance your business . Drive your on line business forward.
We employ individual & group training modules utilizing skype technology. Our Sales Training System is technology driven and results oriented. Initial training is virtual and is approximately One week. We also have on-going sales development & product knowledge training - quarterly.
