Maximum Benefit of a Marketing Plan Strategy

You know the importance of marketing your business. You may even have written a marketing plan and are now implementing it. But is simply marketing your business going to bring you the results you need? Doyou have a way to measure the success of your marketing? If your marketing isn’t successful, do you know how to find out where you went wrong?

These questions are some of the important reasons why you need a properly set-up marketing plan strategy. A marketing plan strategy will help you gain maximum benefit from your marketing. It goes a step beyond a marketing plan.

A marketing plan describes the activities you are going to do to promote your product or service. A marketing plan strategy establishes the basis for your marketing and provides the goals for all your marketing activities. It gives you a tool you can use to define your market, position yourself, and increase your sales.

Here are some of the things a well thought-out marketing strategy will tell you. This information will help you gain maximum results from all of your marketing efforts.

* Describe your business and your objectives. This is where you will write down what your business does and what product or service it provides. You will also consider what the goal of your business is. When you have established your goals, you will be able to choose marketing activities to help you reach those objectives.

* Describe your products or services. This describes what you do and how you provide your product or service. It is important to understand exactly what service your business provides so you can tell others about it effectively. This may seem obvious, but many business owners can’t describe exactly what it is they do. Including this in your marketing plan strategy will ensure that you understand what you do and why it’s important, and can relay that information to others.

* Profile your target market. Who are you providing your product or service for? This will tell you who you should be marketing to. Research your market to find out what appeals to them about your product. This will help you market it to them effectively. Learn everything you can about your market so you can speak their language and make sure your marketing is appropriate.

* Know your business’s role in relation to your competition. This will help you understand your unique position in the marketplace. Find out how you’re different than your competitors, whether it be stronger or weaker. You can use this in your marketing to make yourself stand out from the competition.

Your marketing plan strategy will provide the goals for all your marketing activities and help you reach them. It will also simplify your marketing, because you have done your research ahead of time. For these reasons, a marketing plan strategy helps ensure that you gain maximum benefit from your marketing.

So who is right? Are forums a timewaster or a great place to network?

The answer is both.

An online forum is what you make of it. Say you visit your favorite marketing forum and end up getting drawn into discussion after discussion without having much to show for it – then it’s safe to say you’re wasting your valuable time.

On the other hand, if you visit a forum for a specific period of time each day and spend that time wisely – sharing tips and discussing interesting topics for example – then it’s safe to say that forum is a great contribution to your business.

Many valuable friendships and joint ventures have been made through online networking forums. The key, like with most things, is to use moderation and common sense.

Here are a few of the most common pitfalls of online forums and how to avoid them:

1# – They can be negative places. Sometimes you can visit a forum, get dragged in for two hours and leave feeling uninspired and even depressed. The truth is, when you visit an online forum you don’t always know who you’re dealing with – this is the anonymity our online world offers us. Unfortunately many forum regulars can be quite negative and even downright nasty.

To avoid this trap, visit forums that inspire you and make you feel good. If you leave the forum feeling you have gained something and feel ready to get back to work on your business, then it’s likely a good place to spend time in.

#2 – You can get sucked in to meaningless discussions. While it’s okay to make friendships as well as network, you really don’t want to spend half of your day talking about non-business related topics (not while you’re meant to be working). It may be fine to contribute an answer or two, but keep your end goal in mind at all times – are you there to simply socialize or are you there to network as well?

To avoid this trap, use your time wisely. Be friendly and contribute to the informal chitchat from time to time, but don’t make it the emphasis of your time at the forum. If you apply this rule from the start, it’s easier to avoid this trap. It’s a lot harder to switch back to being more business-like after you’ve been very socially chatty and informal for a while.

#3 – You give more than you get. It’s good to give back; there is no denying that. But if you spend a lot of time on forums helping others and not achieving much in return yourself, then you may want to ask why you’re doing it in the first place?

There is nothing wrong with helping someone from time to time. But not to the extent that it takes away from your own work.

To avoid this trap, give out a few helpful nuggets of information here and there and include a link back to your website for further information. For example, if someone is asking a lot of questions about search engine optimization and you’re an expert, give them a few tips then direct them to the search engine optimization section on your website for further help.

Most forums will allow you to do this as long as you have been helpful and provided information in your original post. At the very least you can include a link back to your website on your signature line.

Forums can be a great addition to your business success or a complete time-wasting exercise. It’s ultimately up to you how you use your time and if in doubt keep the old saying in mind – “time is money.” Are you using yours valuably?

A Favicon

Have you ever visited a URL and wondered what that little symbol was on the left hand side of the browser bar? It’s a favicon and you can generate one to help brand your website and your business.

What is a Favicon Exactly?

Favicon stands for ‘favorites icon’ and they’re little icons or graphics associated with a website and generally positioned to the left of the URL in your browser bar.

Generally favicons come in a few basic sizes including:

* 16×16,
* 32×32,
* 48×48,
* 64×64,
* And 128×128

So How Do You Get These Little Icons to Attach Themselves to Your URL?

Well the easiest way to get one is to first use a Favicon generator. These handy little tools will help you convert an image, or your logo, into a favicon. You can also create your own favicon from scratch by drawing it with an icon drawing program.

The new icon will be saved as favicon.ico. From that point you will save the icon on your computer.

Next, upload the saved image to the root directory of your web space. If you have a webmaster, send them the image so they can upload it into your root directory.

The last step is to add a line of HTML to the header of your web pages. You’ll want to position it between your <head> and </head> tags.

It’ll look something like this.

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”http://www.yoururl.com/favicon.ico” />

This identifies your favicon to web browsers so they can display it whenever someone visits a page on your website.

The last step isto visit your URL in your browser and make sure the favicon is there. If not, double check your html for errors.

So Where Can You Find Favicon Generators and Icon Drawing Tools?

There are many free generators available online. Simply search using the terms “favicon generator” and you’ll find a number of them. And if you want to draw or create one yourself from scratch simply search for “favicon drawing tools” or “icon drawing”. If you have Photoshop, you can use Photoshop to create a favicon too.

The one I use is FavIcon from Pics 2.0. Not only can you create standard icons, but you also have the option to make an animated favicon. The other cool thing they have is a validator tool. It makes it super simple to make sure you installed everything correctly.

Adding a favicon to your website is a wonderful way to brand your business. And it’s simple and easy to do. Have fun with it, research other favicons on your favorite websites and your competitors and get creative.

Overcoming Procrastination

One of the biggest challenges to being self-employed and owning your own business is getting over time management procrastination. It’s just so easy when you’re the boss to let things slide until it’s an emergency and you must absolutely get the task done. Here are a few tips to get out of this habit and start being productive today, not tomorrow.

Challenge yourself to something achievable but challenging. Sometimes we procrastinate because the task seems too large to manage. For example, you have an information product to create and just don’t know where to start. Rather than putting “create information product” on your task list, break the project up into several smaller steps. The first one could be, “Outline information product” or “Choose title for information product.”  These smaller, more attainable goals are easier to accomplish and don’t feel as if they’re looming over your head.

Reward yourself (with a day off). Work hard, play hard is the cliché, right? Well take advantage of it. Make a to-do list at the beginning of the week and promise yourself a day off, where you do something fun, when the list is complete.

It’s easier to commit to this reward if you involve other people. For example, if you make an appointment for a massage on Friday, well you had better have your task list done by Thursday night or you’re going to have to cancel on your masseuse and she’ll never book you an appointment again for cancelling at the last minute. You’re making yourself accountable.

Identify distractions. Find out what you procrastinate with. Do you watch television? Run errands? Surf the net? Determine what distracts you. Spend a day or two working, or procrastinating, like you usually do and simply take note of what you do other than work.

Eliminate distractions. Once you know what you’re using to procrastinate then it’s time to get tough. Eliminate the distractions. For example, if you find that you often let household chores deter you from being productive, schedule a time for household chores. Give yourself thirty minutes at lunchtime to get a chore list completed and then go back to work.

Use tools to help you. Time-tracking tools, both online and off, are great for helping you stay on task. You can for example use something as simple as an egg timer. Set it for thirty-five minutes. Work for thirty-five minutes and when the timer dings, give yourself ten minutes or so to stretch, walk around the block, put away the clean dishes or something other than work and then go back and set the timer again.

Get creative with these tools and ideas and use them to help you stay on task and stop procrastinating.

Five Article Writing Tips

Writing and creating content for your website is perhaps the single most important marketing and business-building strategy available to online
business owners. However, in addition to simply creating content, you want to have your articles read. Articles that are compelling pull the visitor into your website where they’ll continue to search for more valuable content. They will begin to not only remember your website as a source of good content but also as a reliable business.

Here are five article writing tips that will help get your articles read:

#1 Compelling headlines are a must. Your headline is the first thing that your visitor or reader will notice. It must grab their attention by appealing to their emotions, making a promise, offering a benefit, inciting controversy, arousing curiosity or stating something newsworthy.

#2 Your article’s layout is very important. How you present your content may very well be the next most important factor in getting your article read, right behind your headline. Articles that are heavy with long paragraphs are often skipped. Not because the reader isn’t interested in the content, they’re just not interested enough to spend the time reading the article for value.

In general, people tend to skim when they read online, and an article that is difficult or cumbersome to read won’t be read. Instead, use shorter paragraphs, short sentences and formatting like bold type, bullets or numbers, and subheadings to help your reader make a decision to read your article.

#3 Your intro paragraph is next in line in importance to getting your article read. It should be short and to the point, yet still compelling.  Your intro paragraph is used to set the stage for the rest of the article. It’s where you let your potential reader know what you’re going to tell them.

#4 Photos, graphics and illustrations come next. For some reason we’re attracted to content with images. Maybe it’s because it breaks up the content or maybe it’s because a few good images can help you tell your story. If you can include relevant images in your content, it will draw the eye of readers.

#5 Credentials is the last tip. Sometimes a website visitor does two things: they read the headline and then they scan down to see who wrote the article and if they’re qualified to talk on the subject. This is particularly important if you’re publishing articles on websites, blogs and ezines that are not affiliated with your business website. Create a bio paragraph that puts you in a good light and boosts your credibility and authority.

Getting your content written is half the job, getting it read is the other half. And in addition to these top tips, it is of course essential that you market your content with a variety of marketing and traffic generation strategies.

Self-Motivation Tips

Developing self-motivation is something you may not have thought about before you started to work from home. Most work and life structures have been set up to provide motivation from an outside source.

For example, if you work at a job outside the home, instant motivation would be provided by the fact that you are working in a monitored environment where there is not much other to do than work. And so you work.

When you go to school, instant motivation is provided by a teacher who checks to make sure you have done your assignments.

But when you work from home, you don’t have an instant motivation source on tap. In fact, if you have your own business, it may be time to learn a whole new set of skills you haven’t used previously.

The good news is that self-motivation can be learned. It’s not something that will come naturally to all of us, but with a little work and time you can develop it. Here are some tips to help you get started.

#1 – Be strict with yourself. Set a work schedule which means when you sit down to work you are working. Be firm with yourself and don’t get distracted by any other activities. If it helps, set a timer to ring once your work time is finished. It’s also important to try and work at the same time each day so that you can form a work pattern where both your body and mind are prepared to work.

#2 – Finish one thing before moving on. Ideas and creativity are the fun part of running a business but the other more mundane tasks need to get done as well. If you start a new project, see it through and don’t stray from it. Avoid the lure to move on to another more exciting project. This can lead to you taking on too many things at one time and not completing anything to its full potential.

#3 – Know what you want. It’s difficult to develop self-motivation and direction if you’re unsure about what you’re working towards. The first step for anybusiness should be to write out a clear business plan and goal plan on paper. This is your new business map and will serve to keep you on course and moving in the right direction.

#4 – Reward yourself. It’s easy to let our smaller achievements go unnoticed. But keep in mind that starting a running a business is a big achievement on its own. Take a little time to reward yourself for a job well done. If you finish a big project, treat yourself a meal out or that new book you’ve been looking forward to.

Small rewards can lead to increased motivation by giving us something to look forward to and strive towards.

If you’re lacking a little direction or self-motivation, don’t beat yourself up. Take comfort in the fact that it may not be something you’ve had the chance to develop previously. And use the tips above to start instilling a pattern of motivation in your mind.

Get Targeted Traffic To Your Site

Website traffic is good; in fact for many business owners, driving traffic to their website is their primary business – building traffic. And while traffic may be all well and good, what you really want is targeted website traffic. You want the people visiting your website to be potential prospects. You want them to be future customers, not tire kickers or looky loos.

Here are seven effective strategies to guarantee targeted website traffic.

#1 PPC ads. Of course, not all PPC ad campaigns generate targeted traffic. You have to study your prospects and design keyword-specific ads that send traffic to a web page related to the ad. For a website about dog training where they have to dig to find your potty training information, you’re not sending the right kind of targeted website traffic to the right place. Send them directly to your potty training product page.

#2 Classified advertisements. Use the same advice and strategy as with PPC ads above.

#3 A squeeze page, opt-in list and targeted email messages. A squeeze page is essentially a way to capture the email addresses of people who are actually interested in receiving your information. True, they may be after your giveaway but that’s okay – they’re still a qualified prospect. Once you have their email address, you can begin sending them informative, entertaining and slightly promotional messages, all of which are designed to send them directly to your website – targeted website traffic.

#4 Article marketing. Article marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate targeted website traffic. When you publish quality content, and it gets published online on article directories and republished on other websites, you’re reaching a wider audience. The link(s) in your article and in your bio box can all send targeted traffic right back to your website. The more articles you publish, the more targeted traffic you generate. It’s a simple equation.

#5 Blog and guest blog. Use the same advice and strategy as with article marketing above.

#6 Socialnetworking. Social networking can send tons of traffic to your website simply because people are curious about you and your business. However, if you’re strategic about your social networking strategy you will occasionally include links to your website with attention-grabbing posts or headlines. The result: targeted traffic.

#7 Comment on blogs and forums. On most forums and blogs when you participate and comment you can post a link to your website in your signature. This does generate curious folks who just want to know “who said that?!” However, when you participate in forums and blogs that are relevant to your website and industry niche, you’re sending targeted traffic to your website.

You can also try unique approaches like posting reviews on websites and directories for products related to your industry and include a link to your website in your review profile, for example reviewing on Amazon.com. You can post answers on Yahoo! Answers and you can post videos or podcasts on directories and drive traffic to your site much like you would with article marketing.

There are a number of creative ways to drive targeted traffic to your website. Targeted traffic is where the money is. Analyze your traffic-generating strategies and tactics to ensure you’re sending the right kind of traffic to your website.

Home Based Jobs

Many people want the opportunity to work from home. However, they’re not inspired by the ‘freelance lifestyle’, which does offer some challenges. What work at home opportunities are available? Here are some options to consider:

* Direct Sales – Direct sales puts you in the driver’s seat without the risk. A direct sales associate is someone who sells a company’s products or services and works on a commission basis. Tupperware, MaryKay and Discovery Toys are popular direct sales companies; however, because the business model is so successful you can find a direct sales company in just about every niche.

As a direct sales person, there is a low start-up cost, usually just the cost of buying a few products to market at home parties. Most of the time direct sales companies provide their associates with a bevy of marketing materials and everything they need to succeed.

* Medical transcriptionist – Medical transcriptionists essentially take doctor dictated recordings and transcribe them. This isn’t as easy as it sounds because a medical transcriptionist will need to know and understandmedical terminology. Many medical transcriptionists work on tight deadlines and have a degree or certification in the field.

* Customer Service – A number of companies around the world outsource their customer service to work from home contractors. You’ll need a computer and to go through their customer support training, and of course be right next to your phone during your contracted hours. There are work from home customer service scams, so if you’re interested in this opportunity you’ll want to contract with a reputable organization. Research them before you sign on the dotted line.

* Data Entry – Like customer service and medical transcription, there are work from home data entry scams. However, this can also be a legitimate option. The key is to do your homework on any organization you’re looking into or considering applying to, and never send anyone money to get a job.

* Telecommuting Opportunities – In addition to the standard work from home opportunities or direct sales opportunities, you may be able to transition your current job into a work from home or telecommuting situation. Many positions from an office manager to an attorney can be telecommuting opportunities. If you’re already gainfully employed and want to transition your job from an office one to a telecommuting one, create a plan and a proposal that will benefit your boss and other employees before you present it to them.

Many times it’s easier to gradually ease into telecommuting by working from home one day a week at first. As you prove to your boss that it can work, you can add days. The key, however, is to be extremely productive on those work from home days.

Where can you find telecommuting and work from home jobs? Here are some suggestions:

- Check your local job postings and regular job sites

- Approach your employer

- Visit websites where work from home jobs are posted (be scam savvy)

- Contact companies you want to work for with a cover letter and a resume

Working from home doesn’t have to be a pipe dream – it is possible. With the right research and planning, you can live the life you desire.

Hmmm...

I just wanted to let you know about a couple of changes I have made for the new year 2010.

First off, I have changed this blog from a Nofollow to a Dofollow and I have added the CommentLuv plugin for wordpress.  What does all that mean for you?

WordPress 1.5 and above automatically assigns the nofollow attribute to all user-submitted links (comment data, commenter URI, etc).  This was done to discourage comment spam.

As described in the Google Blog:

From now on, when Google sees the attribute (rel=”nofollow”) on hyperlinks, those links won’t get any credit when we rank websites in our search results.

Basically, by removing the nofollow tag, I am telling the search engines that they should follow your link, because it is an authoritative website on the other end.  The commentluv plugin gives you an additional link if you are a blogger.  This second link will go to your latest blog post.  This can help you with page rank with google.

I am using the NoFollowFree plugin to disable the nofollow tag in my comment section.  At present I have set the number of comments to 2, so as not to give the “drive by commenters”, the same love as a regular reader.  You have lot’s of control with this plugin such as how many comments by an author are made before the no-follow tag is disabled. It supports many different languages and also has a top commenter’s side widget you can use.

The best way I have found to discourage spam comments is to use a captcha in my comment area.  I am using the Conditional CAPTCHA for WordPress plugin.  It’s the one thing spammers have not been able to write a script for so that they can automate their spam.  I apologize for the inconvenience, but to be honest, I just don’t have the time to go through all the spam comments to figure out which one’s are legitimate.  I have better things to do like building my online business.

Last but not least, you no longer have to give your name and email to receive the free reports listed in our “Free Reports” category.  You will be able to read them directly in .pdf form.  If you would like to download them for future reference, or to use as your own giveaway report, just save the report by using the save button at the top of the .pdf.  Relatively simple.

Have a Really Great 2010,

Mona

Common mistake #1: Operating without a plan

Planning and having a business plan are your primary roles as an entrepreneur. In fact, business experts recommend you spend at least 25% of your time as a business owner planning. To begin a business without a plan, and to continue without analyzing and changing your plan as you grow, is a sure way to struggle to succeed. It’s like heading out for a drive and not knowing how to get where you’re going.

So what’s the cure? Plan! Start with a business plan that outlines your audience, competition, vision and mission, product or service and marketing strategy. Once you have a plan, schedule time into each and every week to plan your business. Analyze what’s working, what isn’t and where you’re going to go from here.

Common mistake #2: Managing your business instead of leading it

As asmall business owner just getting started, it makes sense that you may be the one person who does everything. However, as you grow that practice isn’t going to continue to make sense; you’re going to run out of hours or end up eliminating tasks that are necessary to grow your business.

You don’t, for example, spend all your time invoicing and bookkeeping if your time could be better spent coaching clients and bringing in profits. Leading your business means knowing that it’s better to focus on your specialized skills and hire or outsource to others for their specialized skills. Leading means building a team of people to help you grow your business rather than trying to do it all yourself.

Common mistake #3: Not having a system

The most successful entrepreneurs have a system that keeps them productive. It may be something as simple as using Outlook to prioritize your tasks and then not closing the door to your office until they’re all completed. It may be something more complicated. The point isn’t what system you use – that’s going to be personal to you – the point is to have a system that helps you stay organized and productive.

Common mistake #4: Overextending yourself

It’s so easy to have your fingers in too many cookie jars. When you start experiencing business success, you want more – it’s only natural. So you start other businesses, you launch new products or services and you partner with others. Unfortunately, all this activity pulls your focus in many directions. The result is that you’re only able to devote a small part of your attention to each project rather than your full attention to a single project, and that affects your success.

The cure? Make sure, before you take anything new on, that you can devote your full attention to the project and give it the focus it deserves.

Common mistake #5: Trusting the wrong people

Trusting the wrong people doesn’t mean you’re susceptible to scammers, it means that you’re putting your faith and commitment into people who are not going to help you grow your business. This includes partners, employees, contractors and even services.

Mistakes That Stifle Success

Before you take any steps to forge a relationship with anyone, assess whether it’s going to help you grow your business, set goals for the relationship and establish measures to track and evaluate your success.

If you’ve already made one of these mistakes, not to worry. They’re survivable and may even lead to bigger and better opportunities. Don’t be hard on yourself. Mistakes means you’re actually pushing yourself and striving to achieve your goals, and that in and of itself is a wonderful thing.