As a business owner, you understand the need to develop trust between you and your clients. Customers will continue to seek out your expertise and refer you, if they know that you are someone they can trust.  One way to establish this trust is by creating products that provide solutions for your customers.

Creating an information product from scratch can seem daunting. But when it’s broken down into a step-by-step process, it suddenly becomes a lot easier. In fact, you can write an extremely high-quality informational product in under a week if you follow this process.

Step 1: Research

There are a few things you need to research before you even write the first word.

The Market

Most specifically, what are the gaps in the market? What are the questions people have that aren’t being adequately answered? What are “hot” trends right now in the market that people are focused on?

Other Products

What questions are already answered? What prices are they charging? What kind of media are they using? What are the main selling points your competitors are using?

Information

This is by far the lengthiest and most important part. Do in-depth research on your subject to supplement what you already know. Look for little-known yet useful information.

Expand Your Search Beyond the Internet

Check out books from the library, read articles on the Internet, and consult industry experts. Do as much research as possible to make sure you create an A+ product.

Step 2: Outlining and Drafting

Start by outlining all the things you’ll cover in your information product. If after outlining it you feel that something’s missing, go back to doing your research and fill in the blanks.

Once you have a solid outline, just start writing. Write as quickly as possible, with little attention on spelling or grammatical errors. The goal is to just write the first draft as quickly as possible.

Once you have the first draft finished, which shouldn’t take more than a few days if you type fast, then set the draft down and take a break. Leave it aside for a day and do something completely unrelated.

Step 3: Editing and Finalizing

Look back on your first draft with a critical eye. Look at your work ruthlessly and cut out anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. Add in details that you may have missed the first time. See it from the eyes of your customers and ask yourself what this person needs to really get the answers they’re looking for.

Keep on refining until you feel that you have a product you can publish. At that point, give it to a friend or colleague to look over. Take their feedback and make any last-minute improvements.

Those are the 3 basic steps to creating your own information product. Creating an information product can seem like an endless task when you’re sitting there with a blank document staring at you. But once you break it down into research, outline, draft, edit and peer review, the whole process becomes a lot easier. With some practice, it’ll quickly become second nature!

Information Product Creation: How to Sell Your Knowledge is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. How to Create a Successful Content Marketing Strategy

When building your email marketing campaigns follow these steps to get your subscribers to read and take action!

You’ve worked hard on getting your email marketing system set up. You’ve crafted wonderful emails to go out to your list on certain days depending up the time of sign up. You’ve built your list and now you are sitting there wondering what now.

Why isn’t anyone opening the emails?

When they do open them why aren’t they clicking on anything?

There could be many issues to consider.

Below are a few thoughts that may get your subscribers to read and take action on your email.

Educate Your Subscribers

Tell new subscribers exactly what is going to happen. Educate them on what to expect from joining your list.  If you’ve joined our email list, then you might remember our Welcome Email. Tell them how often they will hear from you, the email address they should ad to their “Contact List” or “Address Book” (you might want to stay away from saying “White List”, some might not be familiar with the term), and any other information you think that will inform your subscribers on what to expect from you. Then stick to it.

Segment Your List

Nothing is worse than getting the same emails over and over again about a product you already bought. Eventually you set up a rule to just automatically delete the emails or you unsubscribe from the list, right? If you segment your email marketing list better you will avoid this problem. You will be able to target your email copy right to the people you want to based on which list they are on.  AWeber (affiliate link) is the service Smart Marketing Small Business uses and it’s amazing how you can “slice-and-dice” your list. The great thing is that it’s simple to set up these rules in your autoresponder.

Have a Call To Action

You really do need to tell people what to do. What action to take.

Click here now to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

Don’t miss out!

This offer only lasts three more days!

You get the idea.  If you don’t ask for the sale, you’ll rarely get it. So ask. Just be nice about it.

Personalize Subject Lines

Today you can personalize your subject lines in your emails with your subscribers name as well as the name of your topic of the newsletter. This is a great thing to do because your email will stand out from the other generic “sent to all” emails that your subscribers get by the hundreds.

This probably works best with those who have already done business with you.  Generally, for your “first level” email list you will get more subscribers, if you only ask for their email address.

Call Out Inactive Subscribers

I don’t mean to yell at them, but specifically mention inactive subscribers and tell them what they are missing by not participating, reading, or buying your product. Ask them how you can do better, tell them you value their feedback and ask for their feedback.

Yes, I know if they aren’t opening your emails already, this my be a challenge.  However, you could word your email subject line to hopefully grab their attention.

Sensationalize Subject Lines

Create subject lines that are different from your ordinary subject lines that mention something personal, or speak directly to the targeted segmented list and you will see more opens, and hopefully if you’ve worded your email right, more action.

One way to get an idea of the headlines that have worked for your email list is to check your autoresponder stats.  You can track which emails have received the most “opens” and use those as guides for your new headlines.

Test.Test.Test

You’re probably learning that in this Internet marketing world you must test, evaluate, and test again each campaign and this includes your email marketing to your subscribers whether they are prospects or clients. If something is not working, or not working good enough, change one small thing, then evaluate it again. Eventually you will hit upon the secret sauce that makes your PayPal account really happy.

What Next?

Evaluate you email marketing strategy and see which of these tips is missing.  Make the need change and let us know how the change improved your open rate.

But while you’re still here, what email marketing strategies have you tried that have work well or maybe you’ve tried one of the ones above, what would you add? Please share below.

7 Email Marketing Tips That Get Your Emails Read Everytime is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

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1. 3 Direct Marketing Tips to Get Your Emails Opened Everytime
2. How to Increase Your Sales with a Business Newsletter
3. Video Marketing Tips: How Video Marketing Can Work for You

Lindsay has helped out with a couple of recent guest posts, go check them out if you haven’t had time yet.

Is A Social Media Strategy Worth Your Time?

How Social Media Marketing Can Find New Customers for Your Business

She built her social media strategies business not because she was looking to provide a service, but because she was being sought out and teaching the same principals to small business owners and entrepreneurs.  Lindsay has build a successful business helping business owners manage their time and saving money by maximizing social media to grow their business.

So, I have asked Lindsay to give a a little background about herself and how she has helped her clients.

Lindsay, Tell Us a Little About Yourself

I work with small business owners to help them develop strategies to market themselves online. Even though I didn’t know it at the time, my experiences in a variety of corporate jobs gave me the skills I needed to prepare me for my latest endeavor.

As a strategy consultant, I advised Fortune 500 companies on their strategies, using analytics to evaluate new markets and developing plans to launch new products. After consulting, I worked at a .com company evaluating website analytics, optimizing sales and developing pricing strategies. I also spent time consulting with nonprofits and learned how to bootstrap with limited resources while living and working in a 3rd world country.

Now, I use the skills I developed to help small businesses navigate the often confusing world of social media and online marketing. Social media represents a fundamental shift in the way we communicate with each other and opens up significant opportunities for businesses, but especially small businesses.

How Can Social Media Help Small Businesses?

Traditional advertising like print media, TV and radio isn’t an option for small businesses that don’t have large marketing budgets. Social media offers them a low-cost solution to establish their brand online.

Before social media, small businesses and solo-preneurs had to spend countless hours networking to establish their expertise and find new clients. Social media removes many of the barriers to connect with people online and allows small businesses to broadcast their expertise through blogs, social media and their own websites.

Even though social media can help small businesses, busy business owners may feel overwhelmed and unsure where to start. Each social media network has it’s own etiquette. And even those who just use social media for personal use notice that it’s always changing with new features, layouts and uses.

What Do You Do For Your Clients?

I keep up on all the social media trends so that my clients don’t have to worry about missing out on the latest announcements and changes. Through my consulting, I noticed that many of my clients had the same questions, wanted to learn how to do the same tasks, and had the same needs. I was starting to feel like a broken record as I taught them how to market their businesses online.

And that’s when it struck me. If all the clients I worked with in the Denver Metro area had the same questions, business owners in other cities, states and countries probably had similar needs.

That’s why I created a membership program to teach small business owners everything they need to know to market their businesses online. Using an online program, I can reach more business owners who need help figuring out how to market their businesses online.

Tells Us About Your Membership Service

The program covers all the social media networks and has topics that range from beginner (e.g. how to make your LinkedIn profile 100% complete) to advanced (e.g. how to create a custom Facebook Page).

The screencast videos are easy to follow along and allow you to pause the video while you work on your social media. In addition to tutorial screencasts, I cover social media strategy topics that will help you leverage social media and grow your business.

And the best part…
New content is added each month so you can stay up-to-date with all the latest trends and changes.  Members save time every month by having everything in one spot and strategies on how to leverage social media marketing in their business.

One of my favorite parts of my job is when a new client starts to understand the potential that social media can bring to his  business. My hope is that more small business owners will have these “ah-ha” moments as they start to explore the many uses for social media through this membership training program.

Lindsay’s Offer to Smart Marketing Small Business Subscribers

First, Linsday’s inviting everyone to visit her site for updates on the popular social media platforms.  She offers free insights to help you leverage social media to build your business.

Second, if you’d like regular updates delivered to your inbox sign up for her email newsletter.  You will also receive Lindsay’s great guide to Social Media Marketing for Small Business.  This guide covers 7 key ways to save time and money with social media.

Third, to spot wasting your valuable time keeping up with all the social media changes and grow your business by maximizing these free marketing tools, then take advantage of Lindsay’s Social Media Marketing for Small Business program.

She’s offering 15 members of our community 20% off the regular membership, which is already very affordable at $25.00 per month. There are only 15 spots available for the discounted $20 per month membership for our entire community.

To get the 20% discount, click here and enter Coupon Code: SmartMarketing
(as shown below)

Lindsay’s clients have seen a great return on investment and she is confident that you will too. Sign up today and start seeing great results from your social media marketing efforts!

Thank you Lindsay for your time and partnering with us.

Lindsay has agreed to be a regular author here at Smart Marketing Small Business and share the latest social media strategies for small business owners to maximize their efforts and get super results!

- Theresa

PS: The Social Media Marketing for Small Business program is a monthly membership program and you can discontinue your membership at anytime. No risk just the great feeling that you’re getting more done in less time!

Sign Up for Social Media Marketing for Small Business Today!

Smart Marketing with Lindsay Hunt: Leveraging Social Media is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. How Social Media Marketing Can Find New Customers for Your Business
2. Is a Social Media Strategy Worth Your Time?
3. Maximizing Your Social Media Marketing ROI

If you’re a business owner who never gets to rest, then it might be time to start looking for some effective time management strategies like contractors to whom you can outsource various aspects of your business.

There are many benefits to outsourcing for both you and the contractor, you may not have considered upon first glance. One reason is that, on the books, outsourcing looks like an expense, but in reality, outsourcing is a very lucrative investment.

Big business knows the value of effective time management and that outsourcing works, this is why they do it. It’s proved time and again that having an entire call center on site does not pay, therefore many businesses that take orders outsource their order processing to a firm that only handles order processing. In addition, some businesses also outsource order fulfillment and even their entire manufacturing process and focus only on marketing and product development. Other firms even outsource those items.

With today’s advanced technology, it’s easy to outsource almost every aspect of your business even if you’re a solo entrepreneur running an business from your kitchen table.

Outsourcing can help you save time and money and below are 5 ways to benefit from using contractors.

Maximize Your Efficiencies

This can be summed up by saying that you should do what you do best, that makes you the most money, and let others do what they do best and makes them the most money. If you are earning money as a Life Coach, why should you involve yourself in writing, bookkeeping, data entry, sales page creation, bookkeeping, affiliate management, and other positions that do not bring in as much money as your core product, in this case coaching? If you outsource the tasks that aren’t earning you the most money you’ll free up more time to make more money doing what you do best.

You Lack the Skill

In your business you’re not going to be able to do everything and know everything so sometimes you have to seek out an expert. If you’re not a web designer then learning web design might be outside the scope of your expertise, leave the web designing to the experts. Of course you should tell the web designer what you want the website to do, and look like, but outside of that, let it go and let the expert do what they do best and you go on your way and do your thing. You’ll both be a lot happier. By outsourcing something you lack skill in you’ve actually added that skill to your repertoire even if you’re not doing it yourself because you have a source that can get the task done.

Grow Your Business

The fact is, as a solo business owner, if you don’t outsource eventually your business will not be able to grow further. If you’re happy with working your fingers to the bone and never getting any sleep, and having your spouse angry at you for not spending enough time with the family every day, then that’s fine. However, if you want to have a good quality of life and grow your business using effective time management techniques like outsourcing, at least the mundane everyday tasks that you dread doing the most, will help you grow your business.

Return on Investment (ROI)

While a contractor appears to be an expense on the books, hiring a good contractor is a real investment. Not only will you save time allowing other people to do things they’re good at while you do what you’re good at, you will see an increase in your over all income if you use the time saved wisely.

Think of it this way: If you currently earn $75.00 performing your core work function for your business, and you pay a Virtual Assistant $25.00 an hour to perform a task that does not earn you money (data entry, calendar management or other tasks) that frees up another hour for you to earn $75.00. This is a net increase of $50.00 for your business every hour you free yourself up to perform your core money making function. When you break it down in this manner outsourcing is not only effective time management but it’s produces a great ROI.

Create More Joy

If you’re not getting enough sleep, and you’re working yourself to death, you are not enjoying life to the fullest. Think back to why you started your business. Most people started their business to have more time with family, more flexibility, and to earn more money. Via outsourcing, you truly can have it all. You can spend a day at the park on a beautiful day while your Virtual Assistant completes important tasks for you. What could be better than that?

What Next?

Take a moment and analyze your activities and make a list of tasks only you can do and a list of tasks you can outsource.  For instance, maybe you can outsource some of your email marketing or your social media marketing activities.  By contracting an assistant to do these tasks you’d free up more of your time to find more ways to provide solutions for your market.  When it come down to it effective time management isn’t just about using your financial resources it’s about being able to serve your market better.

Effective Time Management: How Smart Business Owners Get More Done In Less Time is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Why You Should Outsource If You’re a Small Business
2. Outsourcing Your Online Business – The Value of Investment
3. Social Media Strategies: 5 Time Saving Tactics to Start Today

Social media marketing can save small business owners money and time while boosting their customer engagement like never before.

There are a variety of ways to save time and money with social media marketing, but let’s focus on one that is relevant to all businesses. Social media can help you find new customers or clients for your business.

Traditional Marketing vs Social Media Marketing

Traditional media (TV, radio, print advertising) only allows for one-way communications between businesses and customers. The business broadcasts its message to customers and customers read, hear or view what the company wants to tell them.

Media has evolved with the Internet and now allows customers to have two-way communication with businesses. Customers can write blog comments, email businesses and interact with them electronically. Businesses have the opportunity to respond in the same way.

How Social Media Marketing Helps You Connect

Social media represents another evolution of media that allows not only two-way communication between customers and businesses, but lateral communication that lets customers communicate with each other. This peer communication between customers helps your business find new fans and customers who previously didn’t know about you. It’s word-of-mouth advertising taken to a new level.

In traditional word-of-mouth advertising, Jane tells John how much she likes the Mexican Restaurant on Main Street and then John becomes a customer and tells Joe and Joe tries the restaurant the next week.

Social media marketing works the same way, only when Jane loves the Mexican Restaurant, she checks in on Foursquare and then proceeds to Tweet to her network of 200 followers to tell them they should check it out. John sees Jane’s tweet and decides to try the restaurant. He posts a picture of the amazing margarita he’s enjoying at Happy Hour on Facebook and 500 of his friends see the post and consider visiting the restaurant.

Social Media Marketing is Word-of-Mouth on Steroids

Before social media, word-of-mouth recommendations didn’t scale very well. The communication might reach a few friends, family members or co-workers before stopping, but the amount of people it reached was limited. Social media marketing takes word-of-mouth and multiplies it, allowing you to reach more people faster.

Why is word-of-mouth advertising so effective? It’s based on relationships. Peer-to-peer communications are powerful because you trust the people in your network when they recommend something to you.

Social media marketing allows the public to spread your content and message for free. They spread it because they want to and because they can. It is the ultimate form of word-of-mouth marketing that allows you to increase your reach and find new customers by creating raving fans out of your current customers.

How You Save Money with Social Media Marketing

You save money by reducing your spending on traditional advertising, which is expensive and difficult to quantify the results. As a result, your customer acquisition costs decline. You save time because your customers spread the news so you don’t have to!

Do you still think you don’t have time for social media marketing? How can you NOT have time for it? Social media isn’t just a passing fad, it represents a shift in the way we communicate with each other. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to engage your customers and save yourself time and money.

What Next?

If your business isn’t engaging in social media marketing, now is a great time to start.  If your business is already using social media are you maximizing your efforts?  Are you where your target market “hangs out”?

About the Author: Lindsay Hunt helps entrepreneurs and small business owners get the most out of their social media strategy by teaching them how to use these tools for maximum visibility. Need some tactics on how to spend less time and make more money with social media, visit Lindsay’s website and remember to sign up to receive her free e-Book, 7 Ways to Save Time and Money with Social Media.  You’ll learn 7 crucial strategies to maximizing your social media plan and grow your business!

How Social Media Marketing Can Find New Customers for Your Business is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Is a Social Media Strategy Worth Your Time?
2. Social Media Strategies: 5 Time Saving Tactics to Start Today
3. Maximizing Your Social Media Marketing ROI

A few tweaks in your business newsletter can increase your sales tremendously!

There’s a huge difference between a “one sale” business and a “relationship business.” Though there are exceptions, by and large the most successful are relationship businesses.

These are businesses that have established trust and credibility with their users. In fact, many of these businesses have so much credibility that they’ve cultivated “super customers” – people who would buy any product put out by that company.

How is This Done?

One way is by having a stellar newsletter. Having a great newsletter can increase your conversion by as much as eight times, propelling your business to the next level.

The Difference in Conversion

Most people generally get between 0.5% to 2% conversion on “cold” traffic (i.e. PPC, article marketing, etc.) if they have a very good sales letter.

In other words, if you took that traffic and sent it directly to a sales page, between 1 in 200 and 2 in 100 will buy.

On the other hand, what would happen if you got their email address instead?

Marketers have found that an email subscriber to a high-quality list can covert as high as 8% over the course of the subscriber’s lifetime, how’s that for an increase in sales?

In other words, instead of going for the first sale, when they go for the long-term relationship and have the chance to sell over time, they often get astronomically higher conversion rates.

What Constitutes a Good Newsletter?

It’s simple – a great newsletter is one that answers your user’s question. It’s a newsletter that provides value and gives more than it takes.

If your users are there for financial information, give them financial information. If they’re there for the latest funny video, give them the latest funny video. Whatever they’re there for, give it to them in spades.

Avoid over selling. In fact, the best way to build credibility and reciprocity is if you limit your selling to about 10% of your email real estate.

The 90/10 Rule states that your emails should contain 90% high quality content and 10% sales pitch.

Using Newsletters for Quick Conversion Boosts

One final way newsletters can help you boost your conversions is by using one-time-offers (OTOs).

Marketers often find that by presenting OTOs they can boost drastically their conversions for a short period of time.

For example, a marketer might put a limited time on a product, or just limit the number of products they’ll sell.

The scarcity drives people who wouldn’t have otherwise bought to purchase the product.

What Next?

These are just some of the reasons why building a newsletter is so crucial. Even without using OTOs, you can boost your sales by as much as eight times just by having a newsletter. If you’re not doing it already, now is the time to start.

Schedule some time this week to find a few areas you can tweak your newsletter marketing. Maybe start by looking at your “Open Rates”.  Which topics do your subscribers seem to respond to? Now consider focusing more on these topics and see how your subscribers react.  If you still continue to get a good percentage (or maybe an increase) of “opens”, then you might be on to a problem that is worth offering a solution to either by creating one or offering one as an affiliate.

The key to finding the best strategy for your business is to test different methods and track which changes get you the best response.  In no time you should be seeing an increase your sales from your direct marketing campaign.

How to Increase Your Sales with a Business Newsletter is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

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1. How To Grow Your Business: 5 Ideas to Increase Sales
2. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business
3. How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 1

Small business owners are busy people (but you already know that, right?) who can’t waste time with a social media strategy that doesn’t work.

You don’t have the luxury of delegating work to human resources, marketing specialists, technical development teams and financial analysts. You simultaneously juggle all these balls while managing your business strategies and planning for the future. When someone approaches you about adding social media to your business, you typically have one response–”I don’t have time.”

If social media is just another ball to juggle, then you’re right. You don’t have time for it.

Here are 3 ways to make sure you’re getting the maximum profit from your social media strategy.

Set Clear Goals

Most business owners who think social media is a waste of time aren’t clear on what they’re trying to accomplish with it and haven’t set clear goals to help them focus their time and effort.

If you don’t know why you’re using Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, you’ll get lost in a flurry of tweets, updates, videos and profiles. If you don’t know how to build your network and connect with your customers, you’ll become frustrated when you spend time on sites only to gain 15 fans. If you spend all your time watching what others are doing and don’t take the time to be social, you won’t develop an engaged community.

Taking the time to set goals for your efforts will help you measure your progress and focus your time so you don’t feel like you’re wasting time without seeing results.

Use it as a Valuable Tool

But what if I told you that social media isn’t just another business function to manage? Would you believe me if I told you that it could save you time? And what if it didn’t just save you time, but money, too?

Sound too good to be true?

It is if you approach this tool the way many businesses and self-proclaimed “social media gurus” do. These experts create profiles and expect customers to find them. They use social media as a traditional form of media to blast out sales pitches and promotions. They fail to engage with their fans and followers. And perhaps worst of all, they try to manage social media as a separate function instead of integrating it into their business strategies and finding ways to use it to make current business operations more effective and more efficient.

Test and Tweak

Social media strategy isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. There is no one way to use this business tool. The way each business uses it will depend on the specific strategies and goals of the organization.

Every business needs to evaluate which platforms best fit into its strategy. For example, Twitter might work great for some and not for others. If you’re using social media to promote your business and aren’t seeing any results, then it’s time to reevaluate, tweak, and move forward with your new plan. Testing your strategies will help you see what works well and what doesn’t.

You may have a small company or a large company, your customers may be other businesses or consumers, you may be virtual or have a physical location, whoever you are and wherever you are, you can integrate a social media strategy into your business to save you time and money.

What Next?

Take some time this week and evaluate your social media strategy and identify the areas where you’re getting the most customer interaction. Is this also the area that is most profitable for you? If not consider evaluating your social media strategy and focusing more on the platform that brings you the highest profit.

About the Author: Lindsay Hunt helps entrepreneurs and small business owners get the most out of their social media strategy by teaching them how to use these tools for maximum visibility. Need some tactics on how to spend less time and make more money with social media, visit Lindsay’s website and remember to sign up to receive her free e-Book, 7 Ways to Save Time and Money with Social Media.  You’ll learn 7 crucial strategies to maximizing your social media plan and grow your business!

Is a Social Media Strategy Worth Your Time? is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Social Media Strategies: 5 Time Saving Tactics to Start Today
2. Maximizing Your Social Media Marketing ROI
3. How to Create a Successful Content Marketing Strategy

How to Grow Your Business: 5 Promotion Strategies That Work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skIq38RVCWs

Transcript – 5 Promotion Strategies That Work

Cross-Promote Products

Set up a cross-promotion agreement with another business (or more).  Allow them to sell your product as a back-end product to their existing customer base.

For example, the other business’ product should be related to your product or service. Otherwise it may not sell that well to a different target audience.

Bundle Products

Sell your product in a package deal with other web businesses.  You can both advertise it and split the profits.

For example, if you are selling tennis rackets, maybe you could partner with a tennis ball business and package them together. It’s a win/win joint venture deal.

Offer Rental Options

Rent your products out for a set period of time.  It’s like selling but you get the products back to rent again. You could make more profit in the long run renting your products or services.

For example, many business owners have less of a budget to work with and would rather rent than buy something and only use it once.

Product Subscriptions

Allow people to subscribe to your products.  It works best when selling information products, services or memberships.

For example, you could charge members per week, per month, per quarter or per year. It will bring in secure residual income. Plus you can sell your subscribers back-end products for single sales.

Offer Lease Options

Allow people to lease your products.  It’s like renting them but they have the option of buying at the end of the lease.

For example, if you were leasing out computers, the customers would pay you a monthly fee. If they returned the computer at the end of their lease, you could lease it out again to someone else, or even sell it.

The Goal

The How To Grow Your Business series is to help you maximize your marketing efforts and minimize your marketing time to achieve a big business-boost. Ultimately, to help you have more time to do what YOU enjoy!

Please share below, if you have already tried any of these promotion strategies and any tips for success, thank you.

How To Grow Your Business: 5 Promotion Strategies That Work is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 2
2. How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 1
3. How To Grow Your Business: 5 Ideas to Increase Sales

Every online and offline business operates through a series of practices. Practices are essentially systems you’ve established to accomplish something for your business.

For example, when someone sends you an email inquiring about your products or services, what you do with that email is considered a practice.

How you communicate your practice is considered a policy. Many businesses publish a number of their policies.

For example, a return policy or a privacy policy.

A policy could even be as simple as how quickly you answer business inquiries.

For example, on our Contact page we state “Emails are usually are usually answered within 24 hours.” This let’s everyone know that their email won’t be sitting in a inbox that is never checked.

When you maintain good business practices and policies, you retain customers and they’ll refer you.

5 Criteria Evaluation

There are essentially five criteria a policy or practice is evaluated by. Business brands are shaped by how these are communicated and how customers react when they are enforced.

The criteria must be:

1. Fair and Reasonable: Additionally, if you state a policy or a practice you must follow through on it. For example, if you say a client can return a product within thirty days, you must honor that agreement.

2. Communicated Clearly: Your practices don’t all need to be published on your website. However, they should be communicated clearly when it’s a relevant time to do so. For example, during your shopping cart procedure a customer should be made aware of your return policy. They should also be made aware of your return policy when you thank them for their order and/or when you ship or deliver the product.

3. Effective: Your practices should help you accomplish your goals. They should also support and enhance your customers’ overall experience with your company.

4. Transparent: Your policies and practices need to be clear and easy for your customers and prospects to find and understand. A good place to either link to or have the policies is on your “About” page or website footer (which is where the Smart Marketing Small Business policies can be found).

5. Legal: They need to be legal so you and your customers are protected under the law.

One of the most common practices is your data collection practice and subsequent privacy policy (As an example here’s the Privacy Policy for Smart Marketing Small Business). People want to know how you collect their information and how you protect their privacy. When you make this information readily available on your website and its communicated clearly, its fair and reasonable and you follow through, you’ll keep customers. It strengthens your relationship with them.

Business Practices Offer Business Benefits

Each practice you create and put into action becomes become part of your business. When your business practices support both you and your customer, your business will run efficiently and effectively. When you miss something along the way, you risk losing customers.

Good Business Practices Support You To

• Communicate effectively

• Motivate loyalty

• Enhance word of mouth

• Spur positive reviews and feedback

• Generate testimonials

• Operate efficiently

• Profit consistently

When you respect your customer through your business practices, they’ll return again and again. It’s one of the best ways to establish long-term success through customer loyalty.  Customer loyalty means your business has positive brand marketing!

What Next?

Take the time to review your business practices. Do they support your customer to have a fantastic experience? Do they support your success? Are they fair, legal, communicated effectively and honored?

Get More Customers with Good Brand Marketing is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business
2. How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 2
3. Why a Full LinkedIn Profile is Important

How to Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjsJa6oKCBU

Transcript - How to Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now

Ask for the Business

Advertise your web site with banner ads that stand out and include a call to action. You must grab people’s attention and get them to click.

For example, you could have flashing lights like they use for movie signs. Another example, you could use “Click Here Now” or “Click Here To Visit”.

Get Their Attention

Use pop-up windows or advertisements on your web site. They grab your visitor’s attention because they jump right out at them.

For example, you could use one to get people to subscribe to your free e-zine. Another example, you could offer them a surprise bonus for buying in the next few minutes with a timer counting down.

Study Other Sites

Buy Internet strategy books, e-books, private site memberships, etc. Study and learn strategies and web site promotional ideas as you can.

For example, take notes either while you’re reading the e-book, or afterwards. Write down a list of tips you could apply or use for your own business.

Analyze Your Ads

Analyze all your promotional efforts. Concentrate on the ones that work and drop the ones that don’t. Don’t waste your valuable time.

For example, if you have an affiliate program that hasn’t made a sale for two months, drop it or test a different ad. You want all of the ‘real estate’ space on your web site making some kind of profit for your business.

Encourage Community Participation

Get the most from each one of your visitors. Ask them to subscribe to your e-zine, participate on your message board, bookmark your site, etc. One of the most effective ways to persuade people to do anything is to give them a freebie or strong benefit for taking the action you want them to.

For example, “Get 4 Free Profitable E-books For Subscribing To My E-zine!”

The Goal

The How To Grow Your Business series is to help you maximize your marketing efforts and minimize your marketing time to achieve a big business-boost. Ultimately, to help you have more time to do what YOU enjoy!

Please share below, if you have already done one (or more) of these strategies and any tips for success, thank you.

How To Grow Your Business: 5 Ideas to Increase Sales is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 2
2. How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 1
3. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business

Offline marketing possibilities are all around you and a business card is one of your best tools.

Many small business owners and entrepreneurs order business cards, then they never hand them out. Amazing isn’t it? Why waste money on business cards if you’re not going to use them. Even if they are the “free version” you still pay postage, so why not give them out to appropriate people.

Here are six proven strategies to follow when using you business cards as offline marketing tools:

Keep Them With You Always

Get a nice carrying case, get one for your cards so they are simple to find in order to give out, and also get one to house cards given to you. If you have a nice case for both sets of cards people will be impressed that you’re not going to lose their card and will be less likely to ignore yours.

Insert One in Every Mailing

Every time a letter, a bill, or other information leaves your office or home put a business card in. Usually someone, a gate keeper, opens the mail and you never know when what your business card says will attract them.

Ask For Other People’s Cards

Always ask, in every chance meeting, if an acquaintance has a business card. There are two reasons: It gives you a chance to give you theirs, and  every contact you make, even if they’re not interested might know someone who is.

Give Out Two at a Time

Give everyone you give a business card to, two cards, and ask them to pass the second one on if they ever have the opportunity. Tell them to write their name on the back and you’ll give them a discount off your service or you’ll know to send business their way too if they’re referring you. Tell them if they ever need more, just ask.

Talk to Strangers

Always talk to people in front of you in line, or in back of you, or at the bookstore, or before and after meetings, mixers, etc. there are a lot of times you can strike up a conversation naturally. These are always networking opportunities. Ask them what they do, and listen. They will generally ask you too, then you can exchange cards.

Follow Up

Once you’ve given and received  cards make sure to follow up with them. Most cards have email addresses, send them a friendly email, which of course has your signature to your website. Likely they’ll click it, and join your mailing list if only out of curiosity at first. If appropriate don’t just say you’ll “do lunch” with someone you meet, actually do it. Likely it will have to be you that initiates it, so go to it.

Final Thoughts

The point of a business card is two-fold:

1. to provide your information and
2. to be remembered.

Be creative (to a certain degree) with your business card there are lot of offline marketing strategies. Try to create a business card that is creative enough that someone is interested when they read it. Today it is not very expensive to have very artistic and effective cards made that truly get the word across of what you do. Remember there is a front and a back to the card. This little card needs to help the receiver remember who you are and what you do for a long time. So, remember next time you’re out, there are lots of chances for offline marketing and a great tool is your business card.

What other creative ways have you used business cards in your offline marketing? Please share your most successful strategy below, thanks.

Successful Offline Marketing With Business Cards is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. 10 Ways to Market Your Online Business Offline
2. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business
3. How to Create a Successful Content Marketing Strategy

How to Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bO0pmDsSgk

Transcript - How to Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies to Create a Great Business Reputation

Rotate Ads

Change your ads regularly, so your prospects could get bored seeing the same ad all the time. Statistics show people usually see the same ad 7 times before they actually buy. Just change your marketing content enough to keep it from being over-exposed.

For example, if your ad said. “FREE Quick Marketing E- book!”, you could change it later on to “FREE Fast Marketing E-book!”

Positive Experience

Lower the chances of negative word-of-mouth marketing by creating goodwill.  You’ll always have customers who are dissatisfied. Try to please them as much as possible.

For example, you could give them a refund, discount, a free product, a coupon, a rebate, etc. Just be polite and stay calm if they are angry or frustrated with your business.

“Buy Early” Bonuses

Create urgency by giving people a deadline to order. However, it’s very important that you stick to your deadline and don’t regularly change it.  Your customers will catch on and your ability to create urgency will be lost.

For example, tell people if they order by October 1, they will get a discount or free bonuses. This will create urgency so they don’t put off buying. Another example, “Order before 8:00 p.m. EST and get a second product of your choice for free!”

Reassuring Guarantee

Give customers peace-of-mind by offering a money-back guarantee. The longer the guarantee, the more effective it will be.

For example, it could be a 30-day, 60-day, 1 year, or lifetime guarantee. You could also offer them double or triple their money back or a set amount of money back, like $25. You could also allow them to keep the product if you can afford to do that, even if they ask for a refund.

Repair Assistance

Increase customer satisfaction by offering a free on-site repair service for products you sell. This is convenient for people because they won’t have to send it away for repairs and they won’t have to be without the product for a long period of time.

For example, you could also offer them free shipping, if they have to send the product to you to get repaired.

The Goal

The How To Grow Your Business series is to help you maximize your marketing efforts and minimize your marketing time to achieve a big business-boost. Ultimately, to help you have more time to do what YOU enjoy!

Please share below, if you have already done one (or more) of these strategies and any tips for success, thank you.

How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 2 is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 1
2. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business
3. Video Marketing Tips: How Video Marketing Can Work for You

Each week, on Friday, we’ll cover 5 marketing strategies you can put to work for your business.

Strategies Will Focus on 5 Areas

1. Increase Leads
2. Increase Sales
3. Increase Visibility
4. Increase Referrals
5. Increase Trust

What You Can Expect

Running a business takes a lot of time and effort, you know this already.   The goal here at Smart Marketing Small Business is to help you maximize your marketing efforts and minimize your marketing time to achieve a big business-boost.  After all you didn’t start your own business so you could be working all-day, every-day.

The goal of this series is to help you have more time to do what YOU enjoy!

What Next?

At the end of each video there will be an Action Step for you to take.  If you need help or want to bounce some ideas, we’re here for you – just send an email with your question.

How To Grow Your Business: Tips 1-5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX5ZIY7HA3Q

Transcript

Affiliate Program

Multiply your marketing and advertising efforts on the Internet by getting others to help you market your products or services. You can accomplish this by starting an affiliate program, using viral marketing or both.

For example, you could start an affiliate program and give your affiliates customized e-books with their own affiliate links to giveaway. When your affiliates sell or provide free information to their subscribers they include your giveaway. This helps them provide more value and it will market your services as well – a win-win situation.

Test Headlines

Increase your ratio of visitors who purchase your product(s). Get in the habit of testing. A good place to start is with your headlines, offer a stronger guarantee, add testimonials, etc.

For example, one month you could have your headline say, “How to Lose 5 Pounds in Two Days!” and the next month use, “Lose 5 Pounds In Only 48 Hours!” Just see which one pulls more orders per visitors. Make sure not to change too many variables at once, to keep your results tractable.

Free Newsletter or e-Zine

Find out who are your strongest leads for buying your product by offering a free newsletter or e-zine. Visitors who are very interested will subscribe to a newsletter or e-zine to receive more helpful information.

For example, once they have subscribed, it’s your responsibility to continue to provide valuable information. Once you have established a relationship where your subscribers know, like and trust you, then you can provide premium solutions. Just make sure your e-zine has enough original, helpful content to keep them interested.

Partner

Team up with your competition or complementary service providers by starting an association for your specific industry.  It could lead to a profitable partnership for you and them.

For example, you could give all the members graphic links to place on their home pages. This would increase your membership and business exposure.

Internal Communication

Publish an e-zine for your employees, affiliates, and partners. This could motivate them to do a better job or keep them advised on where your business is headed.

For example, you could include articles about products you’re working on, marketing strategies you’re thinking about, customer service examples, being more productive, getting along with other employees, employee successes, etc.

The Goal

The How To Grow Your Business series is to help you maximize your marketing efforts and minimize your marketing time to achieve a big business-boost. Ultimately, to help you have more time to do what YOU enjoy!

Please share below, if you have already done one (or more) of these strategies and any tips for success, thank you.

How To Grow Your Business: Marketing Strategies That Work Now 1 is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business
2. Video Marketing Tips: How Video Marketing Can Work for You
3. Social Media Strategies: 5 Time Saving Tactics to Start Today

Social media marketing is no different and maximizing your ROI means that the money or time (because frankly — time is money) that you spend on your social media should be giving you a payoff of some sort. The pay off may be monetary or some other form such as making important and useful contacts. The important thing about ROI is that you must determine in advance what you expect social media to do for you.

The Problem

Most people who use social media don’t track ROI at all. They might track dollars spent, but they do not factor in their time spent at all. Even though they spend an exorbitant amount of time on social media there is no accounting for it. The sad fact is if the time spent isn’t planned out, and mapped out with specific goals in mind, much of that time is not productive.

Since marketers are not studying the impact of their social media marketing, they’re not aware that they might simply be wasting time. Time suckers exist in every business, but social media, like long phone calls, can be the biggest time suckers in your business if you allow it to be. If you need encouragement not to waste your time, then study the ROI of any time you spend on any activity in your business.

The Solution

There are ways to maximize your ROI when using social media. One way is to maximize your time spent on social media by the strategic use of automation tools such as Social Oomph. You have to be aware that some types of automation can be detractors while some can add a lot of value. Which ones add or subtract are truly subjective issues that you have to study within your own organization.

Various types of automation for social media enable you to create content once and distribute throughout all your channels. There is also automation to schedule posts on blogs (Hootsuite is a popular choice), even plugins that enable a publisher to publish and schedule many posts with a push of a button. Other types of automation actually respond to new people, such as auto tweets to new followers (Social Oomph), and auto following on Twitter as well as constant re-tweets and re-sending of the same messages at different times throughout the day.

The Takeaway

The important thing to remember is to value your time first and foremost. Then, make sure you are creating value for the other users of social media as you choose which forms of automation you use. Automation will keep you from wasting time.

There is absolutely no reason to spend time posting the same link to the same new blog post or article over and over again across all your social media channels. But, there may very well be a reason to thank people “in person” for following you, or “liking” your page, or commenting on your blog posts. After all, social media is social at the heart, and you can’t be social if you’re not participating and being social.

Make it a practice in your social media marketing strategy to send out a “Thank you” to new followers.  Also, thank those who promote your information.  Remember you’re ultimately encouraging behavior you want repeated.

What are your favorite tools to maximize your ROI with social media? Please share below.

Maximizing Your Social Media Marketing ROI is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Social Media Strategies: 5 Time Saving Tactics to Start Today
2. Video Marketing Tips: How Video Marketing Can Work for You
3. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business

So you’re debating whether or not to make a video help sell your product or service.  You hesitate because you put yourself not just a little “out there”, but a lot “out there”. If you’re nodding you’re head in agreement, I’ve got three words of advice: “Just do it!”

It doesn’t matter if you have the latest software or a top-of-the-line camcorder. It doesn’t even matter if you’ve made a video before. The truth is, teens and pre-teens are uploading home-made movies to YouTube every day and getting views that would make many marketers drool with envy!

There are 3 main video marketing tips to making a video that gets views:

1.  Keep it real.

Your honesty and enthusiasm are what will help sell your product or service not whether or not you can out-direct Quentin Tarantino.

2.  Promote it.

Create a buzz. You can bet that’s what the “kids” are doing, telling all their friends, announcing their masterpiece using YouTube’s “Share” feature, talking about it on Facebook, leaving comments on other similar or related videos in their YouTube group.

3.  Make it interesting.

It can be as flawed as all get out, production wise, but if it’s interesting, even if you have to stand on your head and juggle with your feet, it will get views.

(And if it’s interesting enough, it may go viral!)

Here are some solid tips to help you get started.

The Most Importing Tip For Making a Successful Video the First Time – use a Storyboard or Rough Script.

If you’ve never made one before, chances are, you’re going to either ramble on, using up precious seconds and rambling will tip your video firmly over into the “boring” camp or miss out vital information.

Using a storyboard or rough script will help you:

• Stick to the point
• Include everything you need included

If you are a “visual” learner, use a story board.

Scribbled thumbnail sketches (‘stick people” are fine) showing each point in “frames” (think of it as a comic book page).

If you do better with lists, use a rough script.

This is not the sort of script you read word for word, doing that would ensure you ended up with a “wooden”, deadly dull video. Rather, just a reminder of the key points you need to include (such as your call to action, and website URL).

Shoot your video, edit, upload to YouTube and promote.

The important thing to remember in all of this is yup, you got it:  “Just do it!”
Have you done some videos to promote your business?  Please share below how it helped to give your business a boost.

Video Marketing Tips: How Video Marketing Can Work for You is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business
2. 3 Direct Marketing Tips to Get Your Emails Opened Everytime

Social media strategies are a double edge sword, they can help your business in so many ways, yet they can consume you, too.  So, here are 5 quick time management tips you can do to start saving time today!

Saving time on social media is imperative if you want to escape time wasters and time suckers. By setting up a system you can avoid many of the distracting games, gossip, and out and out worthless parts of social media. There is a time to play games, but it’s not while you’re at work. Even though you don’t have a boss looking over your head, the time wasting will catch up with you if you don’t get a handle on it.

Plan for Success

If you have no road map to your destination you’re not likely to make it. Sure, sometimes people accidentally hit the lottery, but most of the time success comes from careful and thoughtful planning. Don’t set out blindly for a hit or miss effort. Instead, make a plan and stick to it, adjusting as necessary.

Implement Automation

Social media automation is a great way to save time. There is no good reason why you should not schedule automatically new posts, new articles and new information across all your social media. There are many tools available that do a great job. This will enable you to use your social media time more wisely in conversation with your potential clients rather than just pushing information to them.

Schedule Your Time

If you set up automation you can then carefully schedule your time for using social media for being, social. Imagine that! The automation of updating friends and followers of blog posts will create time for you to actually read other people’s tweets, re-tweet good information, and to actually participate. The trick is to schedule the time, and stick to the schedule.

Outsource

Yes, you can outsource a lot of aspects of social media. A virtual assistant can set up all your automation. She can also keep track of your metrics, and alert you to important tweets or buzz that you need to address in a blog post or in a direct message to someone. A good long term virtual assistant can even answer your direct messages for you when needed.

Turn it Off

You read that right. When you’re off work, turn off your business social media. When you are doing other work, turn off your social media completely. There is no reason to have it on 24/7 because that will only serve to distract you from money making tasks. There are better ways to monitor social media with automation and RSS feeds.

With proper planning, implementation and perseverance your social media efforts can and will pay off to bring you more traffic, more business, and more success than you ever thought possible. The important thing to learn is to control your time since that is your most important asset. If you can do something else that earns you more money, do that instead, while using tools that let you continue with using social media strategically.

How do you budget you time with social media? What other social media strategies have work great for you?

Social Media Strategies: 5 Time Saving Tactics to Start Today is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

As an business owner, you already understand the need to provide your target market with helpful and useful products and information that they can rely on. As an established business owner, you also understand the importance of developing a sense of trust between you and your customer base, because at the end of the day, they will continue coming back and making future purchases if they know that you are someone they can trust.

As the central, or at least very important, piece of your content marketing strategy, information products require three main ingredients, or the three “R’s”:

Research

Before you can put together a truly useful and informative product, you must do perform some research. Of course it all starts with an idea – an idea you have developed through getting to know and understanding the needs of your target market. But an idea will only get you so far. You will have to research the ins and outs of that idea. From who it applies to, to what it entails, why it is important and how it works. Research is a key ingredient for any information product and is the one thing that all other aspects depend upon.

Reliability

You can’t create a reliable information product if you haven’t done the research. (That is why research is so important.) A reliable source – such as yourself – only becomes known as reliable if you put forth information others have put to the test, and know to be true. If your customers know they can rely on you, they will continue to buy your products and better yet, they will also tell others about how valuable your products are. One of the best forms of advertising is word of mouth, because no matter how much money you invest or how much time you spend on trying to market your products, one bad review can ruin everything you have worked for. So work hard to make sure every review is a great one.

Resources

You will want your information products to become known as valuable resources, not just marketing fluff. In order to create the most reliable products (which, again, you have surely researched) and gain the reputation of providing quality work, you will have to do your due-diligence in ensuring all of your “i’s” are dotted and “t’s” are crossed. Once you have done that, and are confident in your work, you will hopefully become known as a reliable resource, rather than a good idea. The goal is to become an authority within your niche and if you can do that, you will guarantee continued success.

If your information products are built upon the foundation of the three “R’s”, you will quickly realize in increase in sales. Why? Because they work. Because if you care about the quality of your work, so will others. Consumers are smarter than you think and they will recognize a well-researched, well-written, and well-composed information product when they see one.

Research, reliability and resources. Repeat.

That is the recipe to create successful information products in your content marketing strategy. Don’t create yours without it!

How to Create a Successful Content Marketing Strategy is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

Many online business owners create profiles on Linkedin, but never actually finish making them, or do anything with them.

If you really want to be successful in your business it is important to not get distracted by “shiny object” syndrome. Instead, try to focus on what works, and do what works, very well. One of the networking sites that really works is LinkedIn.com. This is a very professional business networking site that can be very useful for an online business owner to use.

Give People an Idea of Who You Are

However, if you don’t fill out your profile all the way, no one will really know what you can offer them. The profile on LinkedIn.com has every aspect of your business, your education, current and former employment listed. When you open a account, fill out a complete profile. Include your education, your experience, and very importantly, a professional profile picture.

Do You Want to Be Taken Seriously?

Like with your resume, use professional action words to describe what you do. Include links to examples of your work. Include as much as you reasonably can and most importantly, be yourself. Do not try to be anonymous on LinkedIn.com. If you’re anonymous and do not have a good picture and a completely filled out profile you will not be taken seriously. Think about it, who do you want to do business with? Someone who hides who they are, or someone who is open about who they are? Who are you going to trust?

Get Your Recommendations Lined Up

As part of your profile try to get as many recommendations as you can from former employers, clients current and former, and colleagues. Having this type of information will fill out your profile and make you more interesting to people who are searching profiles for possible business partners. It looks good if you also give recommendations to people you’ve worked with.

It’s a Place for Connections After All

It’s also important to add people to your connections. The more impressive your connections the more impressive your profile will be to potential clients or JV partners. As an online business owner LinkedIn.com is one of the most useful of all the “social media” marketing channels that you can use because it is so professional in nature. You will be taken seriously if you make LinkedIn.com the hub of your social media marketing.

So, what about you, are you branding yourself for maximum business results? How has this platform worked for you? Has it helped you get better qualified leads? Please, share your experiences below.

Why a Full LinkedIn Profile is Important is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

Selecting an outsourcing contractor can be a little scary, if you don’t know what to ask or watch out for. So to help you get started on the right foot, follow these best practices to help you have a successful first experience.

Be Clear

When you first start communicating with a potential outsourcing contractor set very clear objectives because if you don’t know what is going on and how to write out exactly what you want done, your contractor will not know what to do either. Make sure that you allow the contractor to ask questions if they are confused about what you want done. Ensure that both parties understand expectations.

Compatibility Issues

There are times where you bring a team member on and your personalities just don’t mesh. It is important to give every new contractor an introductory phase in order to figure out if you can work together. Usually thirty days is enough to determine if you can work together well or not. Alternatively you can give every new contractor a small project to complete on spec, with a clear due date. If they do it correctly and on time, and you get along well then you know you’ve found your outsourcer.

End Product Focused

People to whom you outsource are business owners too and you cannot micromanage the entire process. This is especially true when you are not paying hourly wages but rather are paying by project. If you micro manage the process, you will end up paying much more if you go outside the parameters of the project. Not to mention the fact that most outsourcers will not want to work with you if you are going to take up more time than they bargained for in negotiation, if you want someone at your disposal, hire an employee.

Communicate Clearly

You need to be clear within yourself what you want completed and be able to communicate it effectively in order to hire a great service provider. If you’re a poor communicator do not expect a service provider to read your mind. If you don’t tell them what to do, they’re not going to do anything. Give them clear tasks to accomplish, with clear projects with parameters and you’ll have a smooth experience.

Money Issues

The saying “you get what you pay for” is true most of the time, and it is especially true when it comes to hiring service providers. Whether you’re hiring a web designer, a Virtual Assistant, or a content provider be willing to pay them a fair wage for the time they are spending on your projects. Of course, there are times early on in business where you cannot afford a fair wage, therefore you may have to settle for lessor quality or be okay with editing the English of a non-native English speaker who is otherwise a good writer.

Get References

Ask for references from your service provider. If they have testimonials on their website, contact the people who left the testimonial and ask them about the service provider. If you are taking a chance on someone who is new at working remotely, you can still speak to former employees or people who can vouch for them as honest individuals. There is nothing wrong with using someone who is new, but do expect to have to spend a certain amount of time allowing the provider to work through their own issues with learning how to manage a project and a client.

What else would you add to the list? Please, share some of your best practices below.

6 Outsourcing Best Practices for Service Providers is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Duplicate Yourself by Outsourcing
2. Outsourcing Your Online Business – The Value of Investment

Don’t Over Sell

If every last email you send to your subscribers is selling something they will be trained to know that and if they’re not in a buying mood they’ll just click “delete” or worse “spam” after weeks of over selling.  I’m not saying don’t sell, I’m saying, pull them into your funnel don’t flood them out.

Pique Curiosity

Creative and personalized subject lines can go a long way to getting people to at least take a look at your email. But be careful, do not lie in your subject line, nothing can make a subscriber madder than opening what promises to be an interesting email only to find yet another sales pitch. However, be creative and pique the subscribers’ curiosity but do it in an honest way so that you build trust.

It’s All in the Timing

If you are not sending your emails at the right time of day then they can become hidden with all the other email that your subscribers receive each day. People get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of email, they will quickly scan subject lines, if nothing is interesting, they click away. Avoid this problem by sending your emails at the right time.

If you know your niche and you should, you should also find a way to find out the best time for them to read your emails. You can try different times of the day and check your metrics to find out the best times for your subscribers but depending upon your niche you can also make some educated guesses on when they might be at their computer reading email — THAT is the time you want to send it.

What patterns have you noticed in the frequency of your emails being opened? What email campaign was particularly successful for you? Please, share email success (or misses) below.

3 Direct Marketing Tips to Get Your Emails Opened Everytime is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

Offline marketing used to be the only way to market a service business, or any other business.  Face-to-face marketing seems to be something that has been cast aside with so much technology at out finger tips.  So, go back to basics, chances are that the people you connect with will be so surprised at your effort that you’ll stand out…in a good way.

Here are 10 ways to market your knowledge offline.

1. Be an Expert

Make sure everyone knows your expertise so that you can be a resource to them. Do not keep your online business a secret from your offline friends, family, and contacts. Talk about it, educate them, and before you know it you’ll be the expert that they come to when they realize having an online business is real.

2. Be a Speaker

Find your local speakers bureaus, sometimes maintained by your local library, your chamber of commerce, local businesses, nonprofits and universities and find out how to offer your speaking services. Create a “one sheet” which is just what it says, one sheet of paper that gives information about you as a speaker including your photograph, what you talk about, your fees, and products. Do a search on “one sheet” to discover what should be on this important marketing document.

3. Teach a Class

If you have a college degree you can usually teach at your local college or university on an adjunct or part-time basis. Being a college professor will definitely give you “street cred” in your local community, and out of your local community. This is something you can add to your websites immediately. If you do not have a degree, you can still become a Lecturer when you own a successful business. Call your local university, college, community college, or the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in your area for more information on how to get started.

4. Contact the Press

If you have a good story to tell, send the press a tip. If you have certain news people that cover different types of news on your local channels, send them a brief summary of your story. Have friends send links to your story that you’ve told online. You might be surprised that sometimes they have slow news days and need to fill the space. In addition, make sure the press knows your expertise too, and make sure they know you have an open door policy to make comments on issues surrounding your expertise.

5. Network

Go to after 5 chamber of commerce meetings, business women meetings, meet ups that are in your area and rub elbows with a lot of people, making sure that they know your business, your expertise and your name.

6. Send Out Press Releases

Whenever you have something wonderful to announce send out a press release and make sure it gets into the right hands. Target your press release blast to the right people, because otherwise, they will just toss it. If it gets to the right people, you’ll be surprised at how many will be printed.

7. Advertise Locally

There are many local advertising and marketing opportunities for the online business to use off line. There are local magazines, local papers, placemats, bathroom ads, grocery cart ads, local “coffee news”, and more. Find these opportunities and use them. Usually the cost is minimal. Additionally, many of these local venues need content, you may be able to get free advertising by offering local content. Your info will be in the byline, much like online article marketing.

8. Business Cards

Buy them, make them look great, and use them. So many online business owners purchase business cards and never give them out. Probably because they often never leave the house. So order some, and get out of the house and network.

9. Volunteer

Helping others is an excellent way to market your online business offline. Many organizations need volunteers, board members, sponsors, and participants. Leave no stone unturned. Volunteering locally will establish good will and trust both online and offline.

10. Advertise on Your Car

You can purchase either magnetic signs for the side of your car or window decals that give a website or phone number for people to call for more information. This is a great way to market your online business offline and get the word out wherever you go.

Have you tried any of these methods? Which ones have work really well for you? Please, share below.

10 Ways to Market Your Online Business Offline is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Outsourcing Your Online Business – The Value of Investment
2. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business

Benefits of Leveraging Technology

Internet marketers and online business owners who leverage technology to their advantage are the ones who understand that for every contractor they bring into their team, they are investing in their business. Every task that can be successfully outsourced to an expert can bring a huge return on investment (ROI) in terms of time gained for yourself and your family. In addition, there will be a monetary ROI for each and every service provider with whom you contract.

Think of it this Way

If you can earn 160.00 per hour, doing what it is you do that brings in money to your business, but you’re spending time doing tasks that can be accomplished for $25.00 or even $100 dollars an hour, you’re not investing your money or your time wisely. Why not spend more time doing whatever it is that you do that earns $160.00 per hour, and less time doing what can be done less expensively by someone else. Not to mention that when you outsource to someone who is an expert the job will be done faster and better without you!

Maximizing Your Efficiencies

In business, this is called — maximizing your efficiencies. If you’re a fabulous life coach imagine how many more clients you can take on if you’re not entering data, editing websites or sales pages, or editing content for article marketing.

If you run a successful online business of any kind, you can probably make a list of activities that you could outsource to others that will cost less than your hourly rate. If so, you can use the time more efficiently by doing more of whatever it is that you do best and let others do what they do best. You’ll create a more powerful and profitable business if you view bring on contractors as an investment in your business rather than an expense.

For Example,your hourly rate is $160.00 for doing what you do. You hire a Virtual Assistant to take care of posting all blog posts and article marketing articles for you for 10 hours a month. Now this is off your plate. Now you have 10 more hours a month to earn $160.00 – $25.00 per hour, this is a net increase of $135.00 per hour for 10 hours, which can increase your monthly gross income by $1350.00.

That’s an excellent return on investment and can’t be beat in any other way. Even if it takes you an hour a month to communicate with your VA you’ll still be ahead by over $1000.00 per month. The truth is, the monetary increase will become greater the longer your VA works with you. When people do the same task over and over again they will become faster and faster at accomplishing the tasks, so over time that 10 hours of work that you contract with a VA can become worth more than you might imagine depending upon how good the VA is at their work.

Have you outsourced any part of your business? Has it helped you to be more efficient? Please, share how (or how not)?

Outsourcing Your Online Business – The Value of Investment is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Why You Should Outsource If You’re a Small Business
2. Duplicate Yourself by Outsourcing

When you started your online business, you probably did not envision a life of nonstop work, no vacations, and even days where it’s hard to find time to take a shower!

Nope, you likely had many visions of yourself working remotely from your favorite vacation spot or the local coffee shop. If you’re a work at home mom, you likely envisioned yourself working in your air conditioned home office around your family’s schedule, having elaborate dinner ready on the table each and every night, all the laundry done…. You get the picture.

The Never-ending Work

Now that you’re actually doing it, things aren’t going exactly as planned. Sure, you’re starting to see results, and you’re getting a lot accomplished, but the work never ends. You’re never done, and you have a hard time shutting the business off at night and focusing on yourself and your family. You can see a future where the business is earning a lot of money, but you’re no longer sure you’ll make it at this rate.

Yes…It is Possible to Duplicate Yourself

You’re in luck because you can duplicate yourself by outsourcing! Imagine this: Someone else is handling your customer service email, someone else is setting up your sales pages, someone else is adding products to your shopping cart after setting it up, someone else is writing unique content for your blogs and article marketing is handled by someone else, all without hiring a single employee. That’s right! You can outsource many of these tasks and more without hiring a single employee. There are contractors who love doing these tasks for you with whom you can contract.

They will work as “Independent Contractors”.

The Secret Weapon: Independent Contractors

Independent Contractors are available in many countries and at many different prices. Remember, that most of the time you get what you pay for, and you have to determine for yourself whether it’s moral or ethical to outsource outside of our own country. You can’t let other people tell you what is right or wrong in terms of whom you choose to pay to help you with your business.

The important thing is that you invest in your business in a way that lives up to your own ethics and expectations. In addition, interview each person who applies to work with you and make sure that the fit works for you both.

There are laws regarding what constitutes an independent contractor in each country so ensure that you read up on that. In both Canada and America, the law is essentially the same in that you cannot control those you outsource to in terms of whether or not they have other clients, and you cannot provide training, or tools for them to complete the tasks you assign to them. However, please read about the laws in your own country.

How Much Work is Involved?

Outsourcing is very simple and has very little paperwork involved. The contractor is responsible for paying for all his or her own taxes and benefits. This makes for an ideal situation for you because it makes outsourcing as simple as determining which tasks you want to outsource, and finding the contractor in which to outsource.

Have you outsourced work? How did it work out for you? Was it a good investment and would you do it again? Please, share if you had a good (or not so good) experience, below.

Duplicate Yourself by Outsourcing is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Why You Should Outsource If You’re a Small Business

As an online business owner it is likely that you’re conducting all your business activities yourself. You’re handling product creation, product development, and everything in between including all the “paperwork” that goes with every task like bookkeeping.

You probably wish you could get one of those TV remote control devices that allows you to duplicate yourself like in the Michael Keaton movie, “Multiplicity”. Unfortunately, we really can’t duplicate ourselves like that, but there is something close, and even better, it’s called outsourcing!

What Could You Outsource?

There are many things that you can outsource online including administrative work, writing, marketing, customer care, product development, and more. What you want to outsource depends upon your desires and budget. In all reality, you can outsource anything that doesn’t directly need to embody you. For instance, you can’t outsource public appearances, one on one coaching, or very personal blog posts. But you can outsource data entry, keyword blogs, keyword articles, some client service issues, calendar management, affiliate management, web design, graphic design, bookkeeping, and many other aspects of your business.

The Key to Outsourcing

The key is to sit down and take the time to write down what items you would like to outsource, pick items that are simple for you to let go of first so that you can get a feel of what outsourcing is like. Then figure out a budget for outsourcing. Once you have a list of items you want to outsource and your budget then it is time to find someone who will be almost like an extra you. Once you find that person the trick now is to “manage by exception” which means, let each contractor do the job that they’ve been contracted to perform and you spend your time doing the things that earn you more money.

Are You A Micromanager?

If you micromanage your outsourcers bring them onto your team can actually create more work for yourself than you had before. Therefore, it is imperative that you start slow and get a feel for what it is like to let go of various tasks. No one is going to do everything exactly the way you would do it, but everyone has their own expertise, let the experts you hire, be the experts in their arena. If you’re not willing to do that you won’t truly create an environment of duplication. This is not to say that it’s not still your business but you’ll find that if you let go a bit of the creation process you’ll end up with a better product than if you stifle the creativity of your contractors.

How to Keep It Organized

One way to maintain some semblance of control is to create a standard operating procedure (SOP) for each area that you plan to outsource. This manual would include information that you would need to give your contractors such as passwords, sign on information, expectations, and even standard answers to typical questions. Ideally, this file should be housed somewhere where if anyone updates it, it’s updated for all parties, such as Dropbox.com or other online file sharing service. The important thing is to make sure that information is disseminated in as little time as possible so that you can use the time gained to make more money, thus finally duplicating yourself.

Have you outsourced? How did it help (or not help) you? Please share below.

Why You Should Outsource If You’re a Small Business is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!

You might also like to read:

1. Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Small Business

Her 20+ year background in Sales and Marketing is primarily in the pharmaceutical industry. Theresa has also held the position of Regional Trainer in the pharmaceutical industry. In this position she was responsible for organizing training programs and educating new hires and promoted sales representatives on product training, company guidelines, and federal regulations.

In 2008 she took that offline experience and paired it with online marketing strategies to build a consulting business.

Now she helps self-employed service providers to leverage online marketing strategies and accelerate their businesses by applying her sales, marketing, and training experience to the business of online marketing.

Theresa’s goal is to share with you proven smart marketing strategies and solutions; why you should use them; and how to use to them maximize the power of the internet and get the attention of your target market. Basically, smart marketing for the business owner who doesn’t have a Marketing Department.

If you’re a self-employed service provider who needs a Marketing Department, then Smart Marketing Small Business is for you!

Welcome to Smart Marketing Small Business is an article from Smart Marketing Small Business

Smart Marketing Strategies that Produce an Immediate Marketing Boost!