Are You Losing Business Because You’re Honest?
by CB on Mar.09, 2010, under Marketing Plan, Marketing Your Business
It’s not an uncommon situation for B2B service providers: you spend hours consulting with your prospective customer, get that prospect to put his inked pen to the contract, and then it all goes south. Seemingly, at the very moment your prospect will retain your services, his phone rings. On the other end of the line is a slick salesperson who promises the world and plants the seed of doubt. Next thing you know, your prospect is on the fence between the rosy world of dreams and the real world, where your business operates.
The world of Web marketing seems, at times, like auto repair or psychotherapy: the customer is at the mercy of the service provider. When the service provider says you need a new timing belt or six months of biweekly sessions, you may not have the know-how to doubt the diagnosis or the recommendation. In Web marketing, sales people routinely diagnosis your problem as poor search visibility and recommend expensive and unnecessary solutions to get you “to the top of Google.” (continue reading…)
Are Your Small Business Contracts Valid?
by CB on Mar.05, 2010, under Managing Your Business
SmallBusinessNewz published a great video explaining the factors that must be included in any valid contract.
The contract documents an agreement between two parties, usually you and your customer or you and your vendor. Contracts serve the important function of defining who does what in the relationship. For example, you build a Web site for XYZ Company, and XYZ Company pays you for that Web site.
Your contracts should include these elements:
- Identification of the parties to the contract
- Mutual consent between or among the parties of the contract
- Definition of the actions being agreed upon
- Consideration (what you get for what you do)
Protected: Review: Article Post Robot Distribution Tool
by CB on Mar.02, 2010, under Marketing Plan, Marketing Your Business, Reviews
7 Cheap Ways To Get More Traffic To Your Web Site
by CB on Mar.01, 2010, under Marketing Your Business
- Get bloggers to talk about you. Approach bloggers in your niche and ask if they’d be interested in writing about you and your company. This is like pitching a story idea to your local newspaper; make sure you have an angle that would appeal to the blogger’s audience. You could offer to write up the content for the blogger and to link back to the blog. Alternatively, you could buy reviews through SponsoredReviews.com.
- Pay for pop-unders. Pop-unders, which you can get from VisitorBoost.com, can drive loads of traffic to your site for a very small investment. We’re talking like $50 for 10,000 users in the U.S. The drawback is that you can’t really target this traffic very well, so make sure you are directing visitors to a compelling landing page. Test it out with a small investment first to see if the traffic will result in additional leads or sales.
- Distribute free press releases. Try OnlinePRNews.com or PRlog.org for free press release distribution.
- Trade banners. Join a free banner trade program, such as WhamBanners.com. The trick here is that you need to have traffic to get traffic. If you have more than one site, show the banners on your high traffic site to get traffic for your low traffic site. This allows you to broaden your exposure beyond your existing site network.
- Get active in online communities. Join online communities that are relevant to your business. Put your link in your signature block and start contributing useful and relevant insights to the conversation. Also try searching for questions relevant to your business niche in Yahoo! Questions, and put your link in the resource box.
- Start tweeting. Twitter can drive traffic to your site if you are patient and respectful of the community etiquette. First, make sure your site link is in your profile. Then start tweeting daily and get proactive about following others. Search profiles and conversations to find people in your industry and follow them. Follow back those who follow you. Tweet free advice and quotes, and retweet interesting stuff published by others.
- Try uber-targeted Facebook ads. With Facebook pay-per-click advertising, you can get super specific about who gets to see your ad. A more specific audience base means a higher cost-per-click, but it also means fewer clicks. In the end, you aren’t likely to end up paying very much–and what you do pay for should be some nice, prequalified leads.
Service Businesses: Time To Start Qualifying Your Clients?
by CB on Feb.25, 2010, under Managing Clients, Marketing Your Business
When you establish a service business, you generally start out by taking whatever work you can get. That can mean working for less than you’re worth, or accepting projects that are excessively risky–such as those for clients who won’t sign a contract or who refuse to give you a deposit for the work. If you must choose between sitting in your office idle or working under less-than-desirable conditions, the latter option sometimes has more upside.
But there will come a time when you have to stop taking those projects. And it will be hard to do. The entrepreneurial spirit often drives us to take on everything and anything, for fear that all work will dry up tomorrow. Resist that urge. The future of your business depends on it. (continue reading…)
Coaching for Your Home-based Business
by CB on Feb.21, 2010, under Franchise Opportunities, Reviews
The Internet may be a land of opportunity for entrepreneurs, but most newbies still need a map to help them find their way to success. The best “map” comes in the form of real-world instruction that entrepreneurs can easily implement, and then refine according to their own objectives.
If you’ve tried to find this type of instruction, you’ve likely found yourself wondering how to tell the difference between scams and legitimate opportunities. Believe it or not, there’s an easy answer to that question, and it lies in your expectations. No business system you buy or invest in will make money for you. At the end of the day, you still have to do the work, solve the problems, make the adjustments and persevere through challenges.
Said another way, the service providers that offer to help you make money online are educators, not miracle workers. You still have to be the student and put the lessons into practice.
Take the Maverick Coaching Plan as an example. (continue reading…)
WebProNews Asks: Do You Really Need A Website?
by CB on Feb.17, 2010, under Marketing Your Business
This week, WebProNews published an article that poses this startling question: does your business really need a website? If you’ve recently put money into your online presence or even thought about putting money into your online presence (and who hasn’t??), this question might catch you off guard. You might find yourself thinking, wait, do I? What am I really getting from my site anyway?
Don’t start second-guessing every web decision you’ve ever made. Because yes, you do need an online presence.
Phew. Glad we resolved that. The real question is, what kind of web presence will best support your business growth? You may not need the conventional brochure site that was the first choice just five years ago. You may find it easier to meet your online objectives with a simple blog, message board or a Facebook page.
The key, of course, is to know what your objectives are. What do you want your Web presence to do for you, specifically? The generic answer is that you want it to make you more money, but how? Do you want the opportunity to engage new and existing customers when they’re not in your store? Do you want to widen the breadth of your reach? Do you want your site to brand you as an expert in your field? Only after you can identify specific objectives are you ready to develop and implement an effective web strategy.
The aforementioned article discusses different strategies available to small businesses and also why it still pays to have a site. Get the full article here.
Six Ways to Identify a Crummy Freelancer
by CB on Feb.15, 2010, under Hiring Freelancers
This is the fourth article in our series about working with freelancers.
Sometimes, things just don’t work out the way you expect. Even if you interview a dozen freelance candidates, check references, and pour over work samples, you can still end up with a professional who isn’t compatible with you or with the project objectives. You should, of course, be taking steps to protect yourself from these situations: test out freelancers on smaller projects first, and obtain the contractual right to pay the freelancer for work completed and part ways, even if the contract is not 100% complete. These steps are important, because you really don’t know an individual’s working habits until after the project begins.
At that point, you can and should start watching for these freelancer red flags: (continue reading…)
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