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Monday, December 31, 2007

Computer Repair Services and Market Segments


Computer repair services are critical to the industry. As a computer repair services provider, knowing your market segments can help you find customers that need your make this job even easier.

Determining Market Segments

When you are determining market segments, you should think about three factors. Answering three “w” questions - “Who?” “What?” and “Why?” - will allow you to concentrate on clients that are in most need of computer repair services. Creative approaches to marketing and sales will give you a much more targeted customer base.

Who Needs Services?

You can learn more about who the customer you're looking for is by thinking about geography, lifestyle and personality. The customer might live in a rural area or in a strong community. What is the customer's lifestyle? Find out what his hobbies, social activities, television viewing habits and other interests are. Lastly, what is his personality? If you understand a customer's habits, you can custom fit computer repair services to his needs.

What Kind Of Services?

If you offer computer repair services, think about pricing, delivery, packaging and features you will offer. Then help fit these with the needs of each market segment. Some segments might want a very cost effective repair service, while some might rather pay extra for additional features and benefits. If you know what each client needs, you will be able to deliver the best services.

Why Do They Need Services?

Computer repair services are most needed by those that lack knowledge of technology. Occasionally, however, clients might have computer knowledge but lack the time to deal with them personally. You should know what is causing each segment to seek your assistance so you can best satisfy specific needs.

Learning more about your market segments should be the primary focus when you are deciding how to offer computer repair services. Becoming intimately familiar with who the customer is, what services he needs and why he needs them will create a satisfied customer and good business.

Copyright MMI-MMVII, PC Support Tips .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.

What Are Bad Credit Debt Consolidation Services?


The way most Americans are buying almost everything on credit it is very easy to get into a situation of bad credit. As per research, an American has, on an average, eight credit cards, and with such a bonanza, it is very easy to lose track of the expenses you incur along with payments you make. People easily forget to correlate their incomes with their expenditures. When such a thing happens, you are in deep trouble and may need the services of Bad Credit Debt Consolidation services.

A variety of credit card companies, offer a variety of cards with tempting offers, and this is the beginning of your downslide. You should sign up for only that particular credit card that meets with your requirements, and keep track of all your purchases and make your payments in FULL, every month. You are bound to get into a very bad debt situation, if you only keep on making the minimum payments.

What Debt Consolidation Services Do

You wake up one day to the fact that you are in deep debt. This is where the Bad Credit Debt Consolidation services come in. Such services do not only provide debt consolidation loans but offer other services to get you out of your bad debt.

Bad Credit Debt Consolidation involves sitting with experts who help create a plan to reduce your debts. They help you make a monthly budget after listing all you debts, and knowing about your total income. They help calculate what minimum amount you can afford to payback every month, and you have to ensure that you stick to that plan.

All Bad Credit Debt Consolidation services will advise you to stop using your credit cards. This stops your bad debt from getting worse. Your only option is to stick to the plan, where your Bad Credit Debt Consolidation plan has reduced your numerous payments to one monthly payment. This is your only hope to stay out of bad debt.

4 Easy Tips to Establishing Prices for Your Lawn Care Services


Providing quotation to prospective clients is an important aspect of a lawn care business. If you are new to the lawn care industry, you'll need to do some serious research before you can come up with a pricing model for all the services that you provide. Here are 4 things that you should keep in mind when establishing the prices for your lawn care services.

Know how much to charge per square foot

This is the basic factor in your pricing model that determines whether your business will be profitable in the long run.

Here is a quick way to generate some idea on how much to charge. Measure your lawn size and then call up a few reputable lawn care companies and ask for their quotations. Taking this a step further, you can ask a few of your friends to do the same and then get the feedback from them. You will have a good idea on the various pricing for different lawn size and help you determine the acceptable price range for your services.

Once you have an idea on how much to charge, set up a pricing schedule based on the type of service performed per square foot. For example, you may charge $3 per square foot for mowing and $1.50 per square foot for fertilizing. Most lawns various from a few hundred square feet to a few thousand square feet. Thus it is more convenient to set your price in terms of per hundred square feet or per thousand square feet.

Bring this pricing schedule with you whenever you meet up with your clients. It will make you look more professional and increase your credibility.

Do not quote or bid blindly

When your customers call you up to get a quotation, remember to ask for the dimension of their lawns. Do not quote off the bat blindly. Give them an initial estimate of the cost and tell them that the final pricing can only be determined after you have surveyed the site.

Try to meet up with your client and survey the actual site together. You will have a better picture on how much to quote and provide your client with a more accurate pricing. The other advantage is that you can pitch additional service at the same time. Try to pitch in a few other services like aeration, fertilizing and other add-ons but do it with a soft approach.

Cheapest isn't always the best

As a new business owner, it is unwise to set a high price for your lawn care services. However, it is equally unwise to be the cheapest in the industry. Being too cheap can raise doubt about your personal and business credibility. Pricing your services somewhere in the middle or a notch above the average is a good starting point. Once you have proved that you are really professional and able to consistently provide a high quality of service, you can justify charging a higher price.

Do not attempt to undercut your competition with low prices. Entering a price war can hurt your business profitability and you will have a hard time staying afloat with a low profit margin. Instead, try to add value to your services without any price reduction. For example, you can provide a free soil analysis as part of your standard lawn care package.

Know your business costs

As a business owner, you need to be fully aware of all the costs involved in running your business. Your cost of doing business will depend on your business size and the type of services provided. The basic costs will include mower acquisition and maintenance, fertilizer spreader, measuring wheel and other tools required for your business.

You should also factor in the time you used for running the business. This means your personal labor cost. Unless you have an assistant, you will have to do the administrative tasks yourself. These administrative tasks include scheduling jobs, handling customer queries and complaints, preparing invoices and mailing them out and many others. The more time you spend on these administrative tasks, the less time you have to service your clients.

To grow your business, you probably have to advertise and this can constitute a significant portion of your business cost. You will have to spend time crafting up a sales message and researching good advertising sources. Put in some form of tracking mechanism so that you know which advertising sources are giving you a good return in investment and eliminate those that are not effective.

With these four tips, you should be able to come up with a good pricing model that will allow you to stay profitable and compete fairly with other lawn care companies. By consistently adding value to the services you provided, you will be able to build a large loyal customer base that will keep you in business for years to come.

Do You Blame Your Prospects When Your Products Or Services Are Not Selling As Well As You Would Like?



This kind of attitude is not unique to high-tech firms, but it was definitely a dominant theme one day last week when I was a guest at a discussion group for technology companies selling into health care. There was a fascinating discussion about what is happening in health care and how technology is changing the landscape in this rapidly changing environment. Yet, despite these great opportunities, there was a lot of discussion of how prospects in this industry don’t really understand what is being offered by these technology firms, there was much complaining about their un-willingness to take risks and in general it sounded like the customers were to blame for a lot of the problems these firms were experiencing. It sounded to me like many of these firms had got it backwards. They had fallen in love with their products instead of their customers. It’s not your customers’ responsibility to understand what you sell and how it could help them, it’s yours. This is one of the most fundamental principles of marketing. These firms didn’t understand their customers’ needs as clearly as they should, and as a result blamed the customers when the sales didn’t materialize. The only way to sell is to start from the prospect’s side. If you don’t, you’ll generally get the same result as these unfortunate firms. Starting from the prospect’s side means you can’t pitch a solution simply because you think it is a good idea. Or talk about how wonderful you or your products are. No one cares and there are hundreds of firms who offer the same undifferentiated “stuff” you do. You have to stop talking about yourself. We’ve all been trapped by people like this at social events. In that environment it may be difficult for you to get away, but not so for the sales prospect, they will just ignore you. You have to remember no one wants to be sold, so you have to approach it from the perspective of serving the customer. A good mindset is “You Matter. Your well being is important to me. Let me see how I can help!” This mindset forces you to focus on the customer first and for your firm to become the champion of your customers and prospects ultimately making certain you are their most trusted supplier, because you leave them in a better condition than when you started. From this position it is much easier to gain acceptance of your ideas. So how do you begin this process? The first step is to convince your prospects to give you their attention. The only way you can do this is if your marketing messages speak to their desires, frustrations and fears. You must convince them you are worth spending time with or that your web site is worth visiting. You have to be different than your competitors. If you are saying essentially the same thing, you become indistinguishable in the crowd. A good headline for a letter, brochure or web site is a good start…but it is not enough. You have to have substance that will keep them involved with you, either reading your letters, listening to your suggestions or reading what’s on your web site. You can only do this if you provide value. Not simply that you have a great product or service, but how you can help them solve a problem. Good products are a table stake in business and bad products don’t stay around very long. The moment prospects no longer perceive value, you lose them. There are too many competing messages out there, to expect them to listen to you any longer than it takes them to decide you are worth listening to, or to cut and run. Testimonials are critical for new products and services. Social proof is very effective in encouraging undecided people to move forward. Few people want to be pioneers unless the risk is very low. The newer the product, the greater the perceived risk! You have to find ways to remove the risk, if not; you may have a great product or service that never sees the light of day. It may even be necessary to work free on occasion in exchange for testimonials, if what you have is unproven. Think of it as a marketing cost. You also have to convince prospects that what you offer is at least good value, but better still a bargain. You do this by making dramatic comparisons with the current situation and presenting this information in a compelling way. Finally, you have to make it very easy for them to buy. You can do this with extended payment terms, limited offers to early adopters, guarantees and other incentives. Only when you demonstrate in believable ways that you have your prospects’ interests at heart and are intent on helping them make the right decision, will you reduce the resistance to your products and services.

The Honeymoon Stage of Trucking Courier Services and What Every Customer Must Know


A lot of in-city trucking couriers will service a new customer to death in the first few months of their business relationship, but once they feel that they are safe and secure with that customer, they begin to take them for granted and start providing shoddy service. Some couriers believe that since there are so few local courier express companies with a fleet large enough to service their clientele that they no longer have to worry about competition or they simply no longer care. If you feel that your delivery service is leaving you with a rotten bill of goods, then you are not alone. Please keep reading to learn how you can keep the honeymoon stage alive or find a way to exit what has truly become a dead marriage.

As a customer you may feel that you were once the prize, but you are now despised. Once the honeymoon period is over, you may realize that your courier company is slow to pick up or slow to deliver your goods. This bad service attitude often happens once the courier realizes that the new customer doesn't need their service as much as they had thought they would, hence they are not making much money from them. On the other hand, a courier company that treats all of their customers alike does not care if a customer spends $20 per period, or $2000; they will treat each customer with the utmost respect and provide the same level of service while remaining friendly, courteous, and thoroughly professional at all times.

Unfortunately, plenty of drivers (and courier express services) will often be aloof to customers when they do not feel that they are making much money from them. Conversely, a reputable courier company will impart their exemplary customer service standards to their drivers so that they will, in turn, consistently treat the customer well by demonstrating that they are happy to be there and are sincerely thankful for the opportunity to service them regardless of the amount of business that is being generated.

One thing of special note in this particular discussion is this: couriers that provide broader services than simple parcel delivery do not really make money on the parcel delivery side of the business due to equipment costs, commercial insurance, registration, monthly payments for vehicles and equipment, maintenance, fuel, taxes, etc. The most profitable part of their business comes from the calls that include heavy freight, those that fill their decks, and on rush services. You know that you are dealing with a dependable courier company when they are just as willing to move the small stuff as they are the large freight orders.

So, now that you know about the problems faced by customers who use in-city trucking courier services, how can you ensure that you won't become just another pretty face? Truthfully, there is no guarantee that your new service provider won't drop the ball but there are some steps you can take to remedy a deteriorating situation including:

1. Contact your current courier service and let them know that you are dissatisfied with their service. Keep track of problems including if a driver has been rude or if the company has been displaying a pattern of showing up late or holding back on deliveries.

2. Start shopping for a new courier service. This is easier said than done, but if you convey to a new company that you expect nothing less than exemplary service from them and that you plan on holding them accountable to their promises, then you are less likely to be disappointed later on. If they don’t agree to your terms in advance, then simply move on to the next courier.

3. Expect to pay a decent rate for good service. Sometimes the customer is partially at fault when dealing with a new courier service as they'll demand discounts or demand a rate that matches the unreasonably low rate of a competitor. As the saying goes, "you get what you pay for" only invites shoddy service later on as the courier company looks for different ways to trim their costs, perhaps at your expense. Of course, this is not an ethical practice on the part of the trucking courier service, but it is not entirely unexpected either as someone within the company may have felt pressured to give to you their lowest rate without being able to back it up with an adequate level of service. Either way you lose, so if someone offers you a rate that is well below the industry average, you can expect service problems to crop up later on.

Finally, if your repeated request for an improvement in service falls on deaf ears, then you have little recourse but to shop elsewhere for a new trucking courier service. Changing couriers is by no means a small ordeal for a larger company as there is a lot of work involved with changing couriers, including familiarizing the company with your products and special requirements, getting to know the new company’s drivers and company staff, and contacting all of your vendors to call the new courier for their deliveries instead of the former courier. In the end, once the switch has been made to a new courier service, only regular communication can ensure that the relationship stays fresh and that no one takes the other for granted. Much like a successful marriage is dependent on open and honest communication; a customer-courier service provider relationship will only thrive if both parties are interested in seeing that it succeeds.

International Cell Phone Services


If you are one who does a lot of international traveling, then you will want your clients to be able to reach you from wherever you might be in the world. But what are some of the options you have when it comes to maintaining your current level of cell phone (telefone celular) services worldwide? Do you have to buy a new plan? Do you have to pay outrageous rates? Just what is available?

First of all, the country where you live is very important when it comes to international cell phone (telefone celular) services. Most of the countries have one standard in cellular communications known as Global System for Mobile Communications or GSM. However, the United States did not follow the GSM standard and allowed competing wire carriers to develop their own standards. So, if you are coming from the United States and want to get cell phone coverage in another part of the world with your existing equipment, you probably will not be able to do it.

So let’s get back to our options for international cell phone (telefone celular) service. It is important to understand that the key issues to having effective international cell phone service is that you must have a phone that will handle the frequencies plus a service that is compatible within the country you are communicating from. If you have a phone set that handles GSM service, then your phone will be compatible in at least 212 countries worldwide, as far as hardware is concerned. The only other item you will have to be concerned with is the service plan.

The GSM frequencies operate worldwide typically at 900 MHz but more and more the cell phones (telefone celular) are operating at 1800 MHz. There are some GSM phone services in the United States and Canada but they work at 1900 and 850 MHz and therefore are incompatible with the rest of the world. That is why more and more we are starting to see tri-band phones being sold that are compatible with both international and North American GSM frequencies. The Nokia 3220 is a good example as it will handle both the 1800 and 1900 MHz frequency bands.

But what about the international cell phone (telefone celular) service? If you get one of the tri-band phones you can get a SIM card that can be used in multiple countries. These SIM cards are somewhat like pre-paid phone service. You put the card in your GSM-capable phone and have international roaming coverage from wherever the card is valid.

When choosing an international cell phone SIM card for your GSM phone, there are things you should consider when making a decision on which SIM card to buy. First, what is the initial calling credit (how long before you have to recharge)? Of course you should know the rate structure of both the incoming and outgoing calls. Next you should make sure that your phone and SIM card you are purchasing will be valid for the countries you intend to travel.

Since you are not going to be global roaming with your home cell phone (telefone celular) service, you will want to let everyone there know how they can reach you by your new number. You can also change the greeting on the voice mailbox of your regular home cell phone service telling your callers your new access number while you are out of the country.

While you are using SIM cards that will be exchanged or replaced, make sure that you save everything (phone numbers, memos, notes, etc.) into your cell phone (telefone celular) handset and not the SIM card. If you save any information on your SIM card, then the information will be unavailable whenever you exchange for a new card in another country.

Financial Services Marketing Insights: A Marketing Compass


What we now call “marketing” began long before the name was coined. In the mid-1800s, traveling salesmen dressed “snake oil" and other tonics in fancy packaging and extolled their virtues to a gullible public. New marketing applications soon proliferated in the belief that marketing could make many new things possible in virtually any business situation. For more than a century, implementation, experience and ultimately strategy have helped marketing evolve from crude beginnings into today’s sophisticated practices.

Consumer product firms have been the pioneers in the marketing field and have taken the undisputed lead as the creators of marketing’s best practices. While sophisticated marketing techniques have spawned consumer giants, most financial services firms had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the era of sophisticated marketing.

The Advancing State of Financial Services Marketing

Financial services marketing has, however, evolved rapidly over the last decade. As a result, the very nature of the marketing function in financial services firms is undergoing a dramatic modification as more attention is paid to marketing-driven processes that impact the entire firm. Our observations suggest that the more progressive financial services organizations are currently going through an intellectual and practical transition that is forcing the reexamination of the role of marketing within their firms. Many have begun to realize that financial marketing responsibilities include not only developing the firm’s mission statement and key messages, but also defining its business focus, relevant differentiation, competitive advantages and value proposition.

At the same time, however, a number of financial services marketing directors must engage in long-term turf battles with other departments before they can implement worthy financial marketing initiatives that will help accelerate the achievement of corporate goals. In many financial organizations, the persistent problem of differentiating financial marketing from sales still remains largely unresolved. In addition, some financial services marketing directors must still enlist substantial management support just to maintain equilibrium and obtain the opportunity to accomplish even limited objectives.

Focusing on the Customer

Peter Drucker, a sage of the financial marketing discipline, discussed customer defined value almost 50 years ago. During the last decade his concept of a customer-centric focus has become part of popular marketing literature and is now the guiding principle of financial marketing. Drucker’s fundamental mandate that ‘the customer’s interests must come first’ can be summarized by the following statements paraphrased from his extensive writings:

  • The only valid definition of business purpose is to create a customer.
  • What the business thinks it is producing is not as important as what customers think they are buying; what customers consider to be value is decisive.
  • Every business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.
  • Marketing is your whole business as seen from the customer’s point of view.

While easy to articulate, customer-centric practices are difficult to implement in most financial services organizations. Obstacles include a prevailing product-push mentality, a focus on short-term profitability, under-investment in financial marketing activities, and the lack of solid market intelligence about the needs and wants of target markets. We believe, however, that in the future the most successful financial services marketing organizations will be those that make Drucker’s principles their own through extrapolation, adaptation and creative application. As effective financial marketing evolves to a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary activity, successful firms will create a culture of customer orientation throughout the organization and incorporate advocacy for customer welfare in all corporate decision-making.

With the financial services industry currently going through a transformation, management’s challenge is to provide the leadership to displace the status quo and create a culture of opportunity. Early adaptors who apply the concept of “integrated marketing” on an organization-wide basis will not only develop a customer-orientated culture, but also create opportunities for innovation, improved performance and incremental profitability

Comprehensive Keyword Research Services Improve Search Engine Marketing


Keyword optimization involves proper keyword selection and placement based upon comprehensive keyword research.

Many website owners get frustrated with search engine marketing due to poor results. The biggest search engine marketing mistake is made right from the start. That optimization mistake: implementation of search engine marketing optimization of the wrong keywords.

You have to crawl before you can walk. The crawling stage of search engine marketing is just that slow, boring and overwhelming. This stage of optimization provides very little short term results. In the long run though, it is the single most important step. If you target the wrong terms you will get traffic without conversions. If you target terms that have high competition you will get very little traffic due to high competition. Both are equally a waste of your search engine marketing resources.

So how do you get the right search terms? There are many keyword bidding tools and websites that show the top paying keyword. Some are free keyword services and others are paid comprehensive keyword research services that you can use.

So this is easy? I just search for a comprehensive keyword research tool and pick one. There are several problems with this approach to comprehensive keyword research.

  • It costs money to enlist these keyword services
  • There is a learning curve to all new keyword research tools
  • It takes practice to target your audience and think laterally to get the best business keywords for your search engine marketing campaign
  • How do you know who your competitors are?
  • It takes a week to produce top paying keywords that drive target traffic.

Why does it take a week? When the keyword research process is performed at its best the following steps are taken.

  • Identify your top business products and services
  • Identify your top Internet competitors keywords across the top ten search engines
  • Use your keywords to stem new keywords and phrases
  • In the 100 or so keywords and phrases into keyword tracking service to find another 500 hundred keywords
  • Use powers of research, reasoning and deduction to capture the top 200 keywords
  • Take a day off – yes, take a break and come back and look at the whole process from different angles to ensure that you are on track and that you have every possible niche term.
  • Use analytic software to compare the keyword effectiveness index (KEI)
  • Select best terms from the above keyword research process.

So what do I do about my search engine marketing keyword research? Enlist a professional that has years of experience in comprehensive keyword research, which identify your business keywords.

http://www.search-optimization.com/marketing.html

What is your time worth? What would you do to get your website traffic with high conversions? We have comprehensive keyword research service packages starting at $500 dollars that will produce quality online business keywords, traffic analysis and link competition reports. As an added bonus all data mined will be turned over to you for use in your other search engine marketing arenas. This data includes but is not limited to:

  • Current link popularity
  • Search engine saturation
  • Current Internet competition
To contact us is free, not calling could cost you. http://www.search-optimization.com/

3 Marketing Mistakes Web Site Designers Make When Selling Their Services


1) They don't have their own domain.

If you knew that you were going to the primo networking event of the year, would you bring business cards printed with your neighbors telephone number? Heck no!

So why would you waste your time and energy building a reputable web site design firm, under somebody else's domain? Somewhere down the road you'll eventually get your own URL, so start your business the way you want to finish it.

It costs just $8.95 to register your own domain with GoDaddy.com for a year. Reliable hosting service can be had for less than $20 a month.

I gleefully pay $18.95 a month for my service, and they include all sorts of neat perks. That's just 5 bucks a week, less than a dollar a day. If your biz isn't worth a $1 a day investment, then you should be looking for an alternative line of work.

2) They don't offer any indication of their price range.

Even if you don't want to give up the entire farm, always give your sites visitors some sort of indication of what your prices are like. This way if your design skills match what they're looking for, they have an idea on whether they can afford your services or not.

The best way to do this, is to simply give a price range on your 'Request a Quote' page. Here's a brief blurb that you can use:

"Each web site we design has unique elements specific for that particular company. Therefore we do not have set prices. However, just to give you some indication, our rates for complete site design basically range from $250-$10,000, depending on the complexity of the job.

If you'd like a precise quote for your Web site, please fill out the following form."

3) They use cool techie terms to motivate the prospect.

Let's say I'm relatively new to the Net, and I'm looking for a decent site designer. Somehow I stumble across your little home on the web. Your site looks good and it loads fast.

Then I and click on the link that describes your services and you have something like this:

"We use Java, Javascript, CGI-BIN and Perl programming, Cold Fusion, and DHTML to build your site."

Duh! I can barely figure out how to configure my e-mail filtering program, and now you're giving me a cold rundown of your technical capabilities. Assuming I'm not a technophobe, you're still bombarding me with too much techno-babble!

A better way to handle this situation is to tell me 'why' I'll need all this razmatazz that you're offering. Give me benefits on why Java is a good thing for my site, and not in my coffee cup. Tell me 'how' DHTML is going to make my life easier. Make believe I'm a client who has more than enough money to spend, but needs a little hand holding to understand all the technical terms.

The Single Most Effective Marketing Strategy to Get Clients and Marketing Professional Services





The Single Most Effective Marketing Strategy to Get Clients and Marketing ProfessionalServices TheBookYourselfSolidAlways-Have-Something-to-Invite-People-to-Marketing-Strategy is simply the most effective marketing strategy on the planet for the professional service provider.

Your services have a high-barrier for entry. They are rather intangible and expensive (whether you think they are or not) to a potential client. Especially to someone who has not used the kind of services that you offer or to someone who has, but did not have good results with other service providers. Unfortunately, that does happen and you have to manage for that.

People hate to be sold but they love to get invitations. Don’t you? What if I could virtually eliminate your need to sell with this one solution? Would that be exciting to you? I bet it would. In my first year of business, this one strategy literally doubled my income.

When I use The Book Yourself Solid 7 Core Self-Promotion Strategies: Networking, Web, Direct Outreach, Referral, Keep-In-Touch, Writing, and Speaking, instead of trying to sell something through these efforts, I use these self-promotion strategies to create awareness for the solutions I offer to the very specific urgent needs and compelling desires of my target market by making a compelling offer that has no barrier for entry.

Remember, it’s, "who knows what you know" that's important when attempting to Book Yourself Solid. Do you realize how many more clients you could be serving if they just knew what you had to offer? That you had the solutions to their problems, the answers to their questions, and the keys to their salvation?! Alright, maybe I’m getting carried away. But in order to promote yourself, your services and products, your ideal clients need to know what you know on a deep and meaningful level. They need to know that you have loads and loads of invest-able opportunities that are based on their urgent needs and their compelling desires. The best way to do this is to have at least one compelling offer that has no barrier for entry.

I’ve been offering a free tele-seminar every Monday at 12pm Eastern for a while now that helps people think bigger about who they are and what they offer the world (it’ll also help you get more client). I even gave it a name. It’s called The Think Big Revolution. Every week I come to this conference call (which can hold hundreds of people at a time) with a topic that will help those who call in think bigger about who they are and what they offer the world. Sometimes the topics are specifically related to getting more clients and sometimes they are related to other principles and strategies that will help the callers be more successful in business and in life.

But here’s the thing - membership is free And I invite everybody that I meet to join. I’d like to invite you. I bet you’ll love it. And if you don’t you won’t come back. It’s simple. You get an opportunity to participate in something that should add great value to your life and test me out at the same time. And for me, well, it’s fantastic because I don’t have to “sell” anything. I can offer really great value to the lives of potential clients and customers at no risk to them. And then they have the opportunity to ask me for more business help if they are so inclined. There are tons of ways that you can set up this type of ‘always have something to invite people to’ self-promotion strategy. You are only limited by the lining of your imagination.

Oh, if you want to join the Think Big Revolution go to www.ThinkBigRevolution.com and sign up there. See how easy that was? No selling, just a generous invitation.

Of the 93% of my clients who successfully book themselves solid each and everyone one of them used this strategy. And by the way, when I started doing these calls about 6 people came to the call each week. Now, there are over 5000 members of The Think Big Revolution.

Are you starting to get how the ‘always have something to invite people to offer works’? The value you add in your offer meets the needs and desires of the people you serve. This no-barrier-for-entry offer is the first stage of the Book Yourself Solid Sales Cycle. Then as you continue to build trust over time by offering additional value and creating awareness for the services you provide, you’ll attract potential clients deeper into the sales cycle; closer towards your core offerings.

Search Engine Marketing – Exclusive Services


Get your site exposed. Are you ruining your own campaign?

Marketing is not something to be forgotten when delving into an online business. Marketing is in fact just as, if not even more important today in promoting a website than any offline business. So what does it take to market on online business? Well, it’s the newest strategy on the market and it’s called Search Engine Marketing.

In the same way a business would choose an advertising company to lead an advertising campaign, an online business should choose an online advertising company to lead their search engine marketing campaign. Effective marketing requires the experience and expertise of professional advertisers. For a website, this means knowledge and understanding of the internet, and more importantly, of search engines. Search Engines dictate the way people shop online.

A search marketing company is the best way to get your site some online exposure. There are a great number of tasks to get a site ready for search marketing. Keyword research, placement, and selection are all an essential part of targeting your market. Search marketing companies have the tools and the technology to select the best keywords and keyword phrases for your audience. Other important considerations for site include overall website design and theme. There are many factors in design that can affect the way search engines rank a website.

Website hosting is another important key to search marketing. Exclusive search marketing services include a complete analysis of your hosting account to ensure good service. If your hosting partner causes your site to be down frequently, it can be detrimental to your search marketing campaign. If your site is down when a search engine comes to visit, this can be bad news. It’s also important that you have all day access to your files to work on the site. Most importantly, there may be banned sites on that hosts IP address, and this can cause the search engines to automatically ban your site also.

Once your site design and hosting are up to par, search engine marketing dictates a vigorous campaign to market the site. Advertising consists of tactics to increase the visibility of a site, to get it noticed in more places by more search engines. A search engine marketing company will submit the site to major search engines, and other sites used by search engines to rank sites. Once a site is submitted, it must be maintained carefully and monitored frequently to assess rankings.

The industry of the internet and the search engines is changing everyday. To make a business successful, it has to keep up with the ever changing trends. A company with exclusive search marketing services can help a business meet its goals and reach success. With marketing a website, the guidelines are specific and the results are real and the success of a business is not worth gambling with.

How To Capitalize From Search Engine Marketing Services


There is a new age in Internet marketing upon us and it lies in the search engines. Search engine marketing services are quickly becoming the most popular and effective way to market your business online and to secure valuable contacts with clients from all over the world. However, since this is becoming such a large industry, there are many providers of search engine marketing services and some are better and more trustworthy than others. Therefore, it is important to conduct a proper investigation of the company that you decide to use for your online marketing campaign.

The first thing that you should consider when choosing a company for your search engine marketing needs is their track record. Be weary of a company that has just recently started because they might not have the experience to give you the service that you are looking for. Although they might promise that they can give you the same service that a more established company could, they may in fact just be trying to secure your business. Since this is a fairly new enterprise, there are a lot of fraudulent companies that are just looking to capitalize on this industry. Also, there are some companies that aren't fraudulent but just aren't able to provide the service that they say they can. Although the basic premise of search engine marketing services is quite simple in nature, experience is the key in order to get the best possible results for your business.

Just as in any other industry, word of mouth is always the best way to discover which companies can be trusted and which cannot. So if you know someone who has used one of these services in the past, then it is advisable to ask them about their experiences with a specific company and see if that company would be able to fulfill your needs as well. Another way of finding the perfect company for your needs is to conduct proper research. A big mistake that many business owners make, is taking everyone at their word. Any company that has a good track record should not have any problem with putting you in touch with one of their past contracts so that you can find out about their experiences with the company.

It is also a good idea to never take testimonials at face value. Often, testimonials on the website are simply concocted by the owner of the company and do not accurately reflect the opinions of the actual customers. However, testimonials can also be true, so it is important to research effectively. Upon conducting all of the necessary research and you decide that the company is trustworthy, it is still not a great idea to shell out a whole lot of money up front. There is no way to be sure that they will come through on their word and actually increase your search engine potential. Perhaps hiring them for a smaller project at first may be a better idea. That way, you get to experience their customer service first hand and also be able to see the results. If you are pleased with the results and the level of professionalism and service that you received, then you can have the piece of mind to hire them for a larger contract.

Search engine marketing services can be incredibly beneficial to almost any business and can vastly increase your online availability which in turn will increase your customer base. And with a larger customer base, comes larger profits. Just remember to do your homework, so you are certain to get the best value for your money.

Simple Marketing Strategies for Your Business, Products or Services by Women


There are several marketing strategies to fundamentally build a business. The strategies are simple but not always easy. However, if they are coupled with vision, vigor and a little tenacity, both business and life can be enjoyed with ease and results produced with velocity.

Remember as you read these strategies I never said it would be easy, however I did say, it "can" be done with ease AND velocity with the right energy going in the right direction.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you will have to address what I called the "human condition." A lot of people "struggle" in business and they want somebody, anybody to tell them what to do and how to do it. Frustration kicks in and you want to quit. I know. I was one of the ones who "struggled". It was very frustrating at times and "hard" until, one day it just wasn't.

When I first thought I understood the strategies, I'm about to share with you, my first reaction was "I already know that". I knew they worked but the truth of the matter was my bank account did not reflect that I really "knew" them or better yet understood them or "implemented" them. I'm sure you've experienced thinking you know something but your results prove otherwise, right?

Again, the thing that will get in the way is the "human condition", your barriers, road blocks, and what you think you already know. Be aware of the barriers and road blocks as your read these.

Here are several strategies I have used in the past that have worked well in all of the businesses I've been involved in:

Vision : Having a clear vision reflected in the marketing of the business.

Ideal Client : Identifying the "Ideal" Client.

Building Authentic Relationships : Building "authentic" relationships that foster who "you" are.

Strategic Referral Partners: Identifying who they are and intentionally building a "nurturing" relationship with them.

Client Referral Strategy: Implementing a client referral program that ignites an interest in referring business.

Promotional Event: Designing and creating a promotional event that interest the "ideal" client.

Strategic Alliance: Identifying partnerships that inevitably create alliances where we both win.

Email Campaigns: Creating email messages and campaigns that make a lasting impact on your client.

Business Networking Groups: Identifying best practices for maximizing a networking group.

You must first and foremost have vision. Vision is the basis from which you will operate. It is the foundation of your every move, your every action. Without vision, whether in business or in every day living life, one might find themselves lost, living in hope to produce a result or find yourself producing results with a lack of fulfillment or peace within.

Vision must be first.

A Few questions you might take time to answer are:

What is it that you want to accomplish?

Why are you in business?

What is your true motivation?

What is your heart's longing for the business?

What is the future of your business?

What is the result of your business fulfilling all of its goals?

And ultimately, what is "your" vision of the business?

These are just a few questions to begin your thought process of identifying a vision.

I'd highly recommend you have one for yourself first and use that vision, if it fits for your business.

Remember, you don't have to be in business alone or struggle to make it successful. You must "implement" the strategies channeling the right energy and the right direction.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

How to Hire Providers of Internet Marketing Services


Internet Marketing Services is a discipline that combines knowledge of Information Technology with Marketing savvy so that clients can be able to make the most out of their website to bring in revenues for their business. But the field of Internet Marketing Services is rather broad and the term may mean different things to different people.

To some providers, Internet Marketing Services may encompass Organic Search Engine Optimization (also called Natural Search Engine Optimization); Pay-Per-Click search engine marketing; banner advertising; online advertising; usage of blogs and their content for Networking; submission and management of online press releases; viral marketing (meaning the use of promos like games, freebies, and contests that website visitors might get attracted to); and e-mail marketing. Your Internet Marketing Services provider might offer some or maybe all of these – at the right price.

Before you can hire an Internet Marketing Services provider, you and their representative have to sit down and thresh out some details first about the Internet Marketing Services you will be hiring. This means being introduced to what the Internet Marketing Services provider does, what you – being a website owner – need to accomplish with your marketing effort, what you had in mind when you thought of using the online Marketing Services for your website, and how much of a marketing budget you have set aside specifically for Internet Marketing Services. Like any business agreement, expect negotiations to be instigated between you and the Internet Marketing Services provider until you come to an arrangement that is acceptable to both parties.

You should examine the technical background and training your Internet Marketing Services team possesses. Are they familiar with consumer research? Do they do documentation of and training in the design of software by-products? Are they familiar with design of user interfaces, development of products (and management), and e-commerce development? You should examine the list of customers they have worked for, looking for any familiar names, and maybe even ask if you can contact these customers to interview them about how effective the Internet Marketing Services campaign the provider supplied actually was. Like the saying goes, get it straight from the horse's mouth.

Some Internet Marketing Services play up the background and accomplishments of their founders and leaders a lot, but that doesn't really tell you a whole lot about the Internet Marketing Services staff themselves. That is why it always helps to be picky, meaning you should insist on getting the nitty-gritty details about the Internet Marketing firm team that will be working on your project and how good they really are in this field. If you find the Internet Marketing Services representatives getting uncomfortable (even hostile) when you ask questions, you know it's time to excuse yourself and leave the meeting – they're probably not right for you.

It also helps to know from what places in the world their clients come from because they can tell you a lot about the Internet Marketing Services provider and what the team assigned to you can do. For instance, have they done extensive work in the US where Internet Marketing Services are more commonly applied and the field of Internet Marketing Services is more competitive? If so, they may know more than an online Marketing Services provider who does work in far-off countries where Internet usage is not so highly developed, like say Ethiopia. Competition is good in the sense that the Internet Marketing Services providers have to prove they are adequately skilled in the field of Online Marketing Services before a discriminating client hires them.

Experience counts for a lot too. If your Internet Marketing Services provider has a proven track record in doing great work for a lot of individuals and companies, it makes sense to hire that provider. But if your Internet Marketing Services company is just starting out in the business, you need to gauge the discount price they might be offering against the level of skills they actually can bring to the table. Quality should always count over quantity, so one Internet Marketing Services effort that brings in great results is more effective and efficient than multiple campaigns that don't bring in as much results (and may wind up costing you more in the end.) Sometimes, you really need an expert's touch when creating an online marketing campaign. However, if you don't need a very high-tech or advanced online marketing campaign, you might find it cheaper to take a chance on an upstart Internet Marketing Services company.

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