Archive for November, 2007

Press Release Profits:
This is a complete system that shows you exactly how to write and distribute a press release to get noticed by the media….potentially saving your hundreds or thousands of dollars in advertising costs.

The course includes an in-depth interview with Alice Seba (who started her online career as a press release writer), study guide, sample releases, video critiques and more.

You’ll learn how to:

- create a great hook or topic for your press release

- write a press release that makes you and your company look great, without sounding like an ad

- build your own media list- creative ways to get publicity…and a bunch more.

Grab your copy and stop paying for expensive advertising!!

You may have heard of the saying, “If you don’t ask for it, you’re not going to get it”. Well, if you want to know what your customers want, ask them! An “Ask Campaign” is a marketing strategy that you can use time and time again to create (and sell) more products and services.

If you have a website devoted to the topic of scrapbooking and are thinking about creating an information product, but are not sure what your customers are looking for, you can set up an ask campaign with the question, “What is your biggest question about scrapbooking?” or “What is holding you back from completing your albums?”, or any other question that you can think of.

You can send out an email to your mailing list, asking them to take part in your survey. You may want to dangle something free in front of them, such as a small report. You simply include a link in the email to your survey page, and then they fill out the questions. Once they have submitted the questions, you can have an autoresponder set up to send them a “thank you” email with the link to the free report.

As you read through the responses, you will notice that some questions get asked many times. Those are the questions that the majority of your visitors want answered, and those are the topics that should be included in your information product.

You can create anything from a special report to an ebook to a teleseminar using this method. You may want to take some time to create the written information and then hold a free teleseminar (and record it). Have someone “interview” you. You can give them the list of frequently asked questions and simply go down the list of questions together. You can do this on a conference line and open the telephone lines at the end of the call in case any of the guests have questions.

You can let your guests know that you have created an ebook or special report on the same subject and that you are going to record that night’s call and include it as a special free bonus for those that buy the special report or ebook. You can even announce the landing page URL on the call and start receiving orders before you are even done with the teleseminar.

An “Ask Campaign” can help you figure out exactly what your customers want. This will save you the time of researching various projects, only to find out that they want information on totally different topics. By using this marketing strategy, you are able to deliver the information they want, plus they will enjoy the fact that you took the time to ask them what they wanted.

Sweetie Marketing is an approach to Internet marketing that will help you grow your business without stepping on anyone’s toes in the process. Here are a few ways to grow your business as a sweetie.

Start out by being honest. Unfortunately, there are a lot of slick websites that promise big things and barely deliver. Be honest to your potential customers by letting them know exactly what you have to offer. And if someone comes to you for advice, be honest and let them know what you like about their product and what you would change.

When you are just starting out, you will undoubtedly be asking a lot of questions. Show your gratitude to those that help you along the way by letting them know you appreciate their kindness. If possible, try paying that kindness back by helping that person with something they need assistance with.

Helping other people will help you in the long run. Even if you are just starting out in your home business, a day will come when someone with less experience than you will come to you and ask for help in getting started. Perhaps they will want to know which autoresponder you recommend or advice on writing an ebook.

If someone asks you a question and you know the answer to it, tell them. Unless the answer to their question happens to be a top secret project you are working on, giving someone a bit of information isn’t going to hurt your business. Who knows? The person you are helping may one day become wildly successful and recommend your products to all of their customers.

Building relationships and networking is essential when it comes to business success. Work to build real relationships with those you meet. Rather than just strategizing about the benefits you will receive from the relationship, think about ways you can help that person.

Some people will take your help and not give you anything in return. Let that roll off your back. The majority of people will respond by helping you in some way. For example, if you meet someone who, you feel, would be a great business partner for another one of your friends, introduce the two of them. Their joint venture could be a great success, and they will find a way to repay you.

When you act in a considerate way and treat others how they should be treated, people will respect you as a person. They will want to do business with you because they know that you will only be acting in their best efforts. They will also feel good about recommending you and your products and services to people they know. This, of course, will further promote your business and help you achieve more success.

If you have been researching information about starting a home business, you may have read about the importance of a business plan and why every business needs one. If the thought of writing out a complex document intimidates you, you may be surprised to learn that a one-page business plan is sufficient for many businesses, especially when the business is new.

To keep things simple, you can start out by writing a mission statement. Your mission statement will describe the reason your business exists. Your mission statement can help you create your business brand and should be incorporated into your marketing materials.

Some questions to ponder when writing your mission statement include:
* What is my business?
* Why does my business exist?
* Who wants the product or service I offer?
* What can my product or service do for them?

Once you have created your mission statement, you can start writing out your business objectives. Your business objectives are the things you want your business to accomplish. A sample objective would include “to increase my business revenue to $20,000 per year”.

The next step is to write out your business goals. To be effective, your goals should be clearly defined and realistic. You should also set time limits on your goals rather than leave them open-ended.

You will want to set out various goals for yourself, such as a one-month goal, three-month goal, six-month goal and a yearly goal. As you achieve these goals, you can revisit your business plan and change things as needed.

After you have established your goals, you can develop your plan of action for achieving them. Writing out your plan of action for each goal will help you focus your efforts and accomplish your goals in the time frame you have set.

You will also want to include some information on how you plan to market your business. Your target market is the group of people you want to promote your business to. By clearly defining who they are, you will be able to make the most of your marketing efforts.

For example, if you decide your target market is stay-at-home moms who home school their children, you will want to seek out marketing opportunities in magazines, websites, and other media that are also targeted to that market.

You can also write out marketing goals, such as how many press releases you would like to send out each month, if you would like to become an exhibitor at an expo, or if you would like to try viral marketing by writing a special report.

Your business brand is an integral part of your business. Your brand is a message that you send out to clients and prospective customers that tells them what you and your business are all about.

For instance, Subway Restaurants have branded themselves as a healthy, fresh alternative to other fast food options. When you walk into one of their restaurants, you see posters and images of healthy, fresh vegetables and whole grain breads. When you turn on the television or radio, you see and hear commercials that feature people who lost weight while enjoying Subway for lunch. And when you flip through magazines you see advertisements with the same marketing message.

Once you have established your brand, it is important to incorporate that brand into all of your marketing materials. This will help you create brand recognition. Potential customers will understand from the get-go what your service or product is all about and past customers will automatically think of you when they are in need of your product or service. They won’t even bother checking out the competition.

The easiest way to communicate your brand to others is to develop a logo or slogan that easily conveys what your product or service is all about. Try to develop something that is simple, unique, and easy to remember.

You should display your logo and slogan prominently on your website. Your website may be the first impression you make on potential customers, and past customers may become frequent visitors.

Business cards are a great way to market your business. There are a hundred uses for them, plus they are easy to carry and inexpensive. Most printers are more than willing to include an image of your logo on your business card. If, for some reason, that isn’t possible, you can still use your slogan as the tagline on your card.

You may also want to consider purchasing some business letterhead. Letterhead is stationary that has your business logo and slogan printed at the top. If you don’t find yourself mailing too many postal letters to people, you can simply buy some heavier weight paper from an office supply store and use your home printer to create letterhead as needed.

Signature lines for your email program work in the same manner as letterhead and can easily be created. Your email program can automatically insert your signature line when you send email. This creates a professional image. You do not have to create anything fancy. A simple line that states your name, business name, URL, and perhaps your slogan is sufficient.

You can also tie your brand into your products. For example, Rachael Ray has built an empire on the “30 minute meal”. One of her television shows and several of her books have encompassed that tagline in their title. And she always features a few 30-minute meal recipes in her monthly magazine.

You will find that some Internet marketers choose to work exclusively with niche marketing. A niche market is a highly targeted group of people. For instance, if you sell cosmetics, a wide target market would consist of people who use and buy cosmetics. A niche market may be people who use and buy mineral cosmetics.

There is a big difference between the two. If you do not carry mineral cosmetics, the smaller niche market will not buy from you. And if you only carry mineral cosmetics, there will be people in the wider target market who will not buy from you.

The reason Internet marketers like to work with niche markets is having the opportunity to be the only carrier of a product that will fit that niche market’s needs. It may take some work, but if you can find a niche and offer a product or service to them, you have the opportunity to sell a lot of products or services.

Start researching your own interests and see what comes up. Or take your target market and find out if there is a product or service that a highly targeted number of them need, but can’t seem to find.

You can use services like Wordtracker to determine which keywords and phrases are being searched the most often. For instance, if your target market is people that home school their children, and you plan on having a niche site about creating lesson plans, you can use the service to see which type of lesson plans are the most sought after.

Not only will you want to take notice of how many searches are being performed, you will want to see how many competing pages there are. Your best bets in niche marketing will be to find a phrase that is searched on a lot, but doesn’t have many competing pages.

In addition to this type of research, you can also set up a campaign amongst your own customers and mailing list and simply ask them what type of products or services they would like to see you offer. This can give you some great ideas that you may not have thought of yourself.

As you start to develop ideas about which niche you would like to focus on, start taking notice of your competition. Study the products and services they offer, the features and benefits of these products, and their price points. This will help you develop your product. What are the things you can improve upon? How can you make your product more unique? How can you provide more benefits to the user or how can you make your product more affordable?

Once you have settled upon a niche and developed a product or service, you will need to develop a website and start promoting your item(s). You can then think of more products and services to offer to this same niche or you can start the process over and find a new niche to market to.

• yellow page ads
• local newspaper advertisement
• message forums for your target market
• real estate welcome packs for new offices
• word of mouth
• yellow pages and other phone book listings
• craigslist.com
• networking and activity in discussion groups
• create a signature on forums and for your email
• business card and brochure handouts
• flyers in your town if looking for local clients