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How I Am Marketing Local Business Profitably By Anticipating Eager Buyers Shopping For What I Offer

2011 February 13
Great Customers Come From Marketing Local Business

Great Customers Come From Marketing Local Business

It’s no secret. Times are tough, job security is a thing of the past and there’s no free lunch. Never let it be said that you’re outdone and victimized by circumstances, right? You’re at the helm of a viable small business and you’re determined to make this work — er, determined to succeed! But, times have changed and marketing local business is not at all what it used to be. Nobody’s calling from the Sunday Classifieds or yellow pages. Few are answering telemarketing calls. Even you probably don’t open too much direct mail.

Marketing Local Business Is More Than Internet

Top it all with these young techies with their rocket science tales get-rich-quick on the Internet. Do you really believe that an award winning drop-dead beautiful website brings revenues in your door? Can it be true that simply appearing on Google Page One, whether pay-per-click or “free,” guarantees that online visitors will grease your palm? Where is common sense? You’re a consumer, too. Look at your own consumer behavior — do you buy from the first automaton that shows up on your phone or screen?

Marketing Local Business In A Consumer Paradise

What is the secret to marketing local business today? Whereas, ten years ago we still paid attention Sunday football commercials to see the latest features of the 2011 Chevy Malibu, today consumers don’t care to be told what’s available. The world is, indeed, your oyster. When you have a need, fill it. When you crave, seek satisfaction. When you are in pain, relieve yourself. The Internet is for consumers the universal mail order catalog. It is so easy to simply search for what you desire, shop it from thousands of vendors everywhere in the world and buy it when you are ready. This is a buyer’s world, a consumer’s paradise.

Inbound Marketing Local Business Is Not Intrusive

Inbound marketing local business is unlike any intrusion marketing. Render yourself findable and prepare to tell your story just like you do face-to-face:

  1. Anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer. This is the inescapable first and necessary step. Drop that silly idea that your market is everybody in the world. Your very best customer has a specific personality. Before they buy they have a problem. When you fully understand the problems you solve best, then you know very well those best prospects with whom you ought to speak. More to the point, now you know exactly how they are searching for their solution.

Marketing Local Business Offers Solutions

  1. Put your company in front of them everywhere they look. One foot in front of the other — you learned that and toddled. Only after you fully understand how, what, where, when and why they are searching … only then can you know exactly where to stand to be seen. Offer them a sip of water to quench their thirst. Allow them to see for themselves that you have a solution to their problem. Be found by standing directly in front of your best prospects.

Court Prospects While Marketing Local Business

  1. Court them, nurture them and never let them forget you. Once found, they have ample opportunity to get to know you. Marketing local business online makes you a publisher. Carve your best stories into the Internet. They will be there available to be heard forever. Although, you cannot know if you and a prospect met at the right time. You may not be a good fit for each other. They may not appreciate your business model. Respect them and allow them to get to know your company.

Great Customers Come From Marketing Local Business

It’s so easy online to facilitate the gathering of wonderful customers and prospects in your virtual place of business. Honor them and encourage them to openly discuss the solutions to real problems that you offer. When time is right the right prospect will step forward and convert into a great customer. Inbound marketing local business means that they found you, they partook of your hospitality and many of them like what they found enough to ask to buy from you.

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How Targeted Sales Leads Made Me Realize Who Are My Best Customers And Why They Do Business With Me

2011 February 11
When Would Targeted Sales Leads Want To Be Pain Free?

When Would Targeted Sales Leads Want To Be Pain Free?

Targeted sales leads are critical to your business. During hard times wasted time is far more expensive than during easy times. Right now, you need to know who among your prospects will further your goals of prosperity. Your problem is deciding with whom to spend your sales time. How can you simplify this essential process? Here are five questions you must answer to quench your dearth of targeted sales leads:

Targeted Sales Leads Are Your Buyer Personae

  1. Who are your buyer personae? The biggest problem with business owners is that too often they focus on the wrong thing. Close your eyes and imagine the very best customer you have. You know, she came to you out of the blue, she’s loved everything you’ve done for you and she’s referred other customers to you, too. Think about this carefully. If you had ten more customers just like Lisa, what difference will that make in your bottom line? Why, then, are you laboring so long and hard on Tim whom you begged to buy, he’s always demanding order changes and he hasn’t had a good comment about you to anybody ever?

Targeted Sales Leads Are In Pain

  1. Where is the biggest pain of your best buyers? I don’t know about you, but as I learn to search and find what I want on the Internet — when i want it — I respond less and less to offline media. When I have a problem I search for a solution. When I’m in pain I seek relief. At that moment I’m searching, I’m no more interested in features than advantages. Show me something that benefits me, that solves my problem, and I’m interested in you. When I’m an eager buyer and you’re my pain relief, I’m prepared to buy from you.

Targeted Sales Leads Value Pain Relief

  1. What are the consequences of no pain relief? It’s true. You and your prospect may not be in the right place at the right time. Your company is not a great fit for every prospect. Not everybody is suitable to your business model. In fact, nobody cares about your business — except you. You, however, have the solution to their problem. If they do not buy from you now, the pain remains. Address that pain. Sometimes the problem is inconvenient, but not painful enough … yet.

Do Targeted Sales Leads Need You?

  1. Why do they need what you have? Once you identify five or seven compelling reasons for your prospect to alleviate their pain, the rest are mostly terms. Do they see you as pain relief? How are your conversations going? Are they comfortable confiding in you? Become a trusted authority and confidant and targeted sales leads will come to need you. Every relationship begins with a single conversation. The secret to business success is to parlay each new conversation into a succession of conversations, eventually converting your best prospects into great customers.

When Would Targeted Sales Leads Want To Be Pain Free?

  1. When would they like pain relief? Hence, the crux of the matter. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink. Everybody follows their own clock and their timing many not be yours. Nurture them, give them free advice and information, keep their interest and they will follow you until they buy. Once they see you as the solution, all that is left to decide is time. When the consequences to delaying pain relief are small, they will wait. Again, your matter is holding their attention and building great customers.

Value Your Targeted Sales Leads

There’s little doubt that targeted sales leads are critical to your business. During hard times you cannot afford to waste your time chasing poor prospects. Dead end leads have no value to you nor your business. Your problem is deciding with whom to spend your sales time. Targeted sales leads simplify this essential process.

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Ten Ways Local Small Business Marketing Will Drive Eager Buyers To Your Door Day In And Day Out

2011 February 9
The Price Is Right For Local Small Business Marketing

The Price Is Right For Local Small Business Marketing

As if succeeding at small business weren’t hard enough simply making ends meet, local small business marketing can be quite perplexing, too. When you’re small, so is your budget. Eager buyers are shopping for solutions to their perplexing problems. So, where are they if they’re not here in your office? Here are ten local small business marketing tips to attract their attention.

Buyer Personae Love Local Small Business Marketing

  1. Know your buyer personae. Who is your very best customer? Who is she? What does she do for a living? Where does she live, hang out and shop for groceries? How will she know the best solution to her problem? When you know your best customers exceptionally well, exceptional customers will come to you.
  2. When you know your best customers, it’s little wonder that pleasing them, too, is so much easier. One size never fits all. When you’re shipping to customers perfectly suited to your products and services, meeting and exceeding expectations is the norm. Match your offering to those who need it most and you’re guaranteed to-die-for word of mouth accolades for your local small business marketing.
  3. Local Small Business Marketing Builds Networks

  4. Regardless your small, medium or large company, networking is at the center of gathering targeted sales leads. Your local chamber of commerce is the logical first step out in your community. Who knows better what your business needs to succeed than other successful business leaders in your neighborhood? Sharing local referrals with them logically leads to reciprocal business.
  5. In the online world, LinkedIn.com is the world’s largest professional network. It has numerous groups and categories with local focus eagerly seeking local solutions. Best of all, every Fortune 500 company’s executive management is represented on LinkedIn. Prospecting is as simple as participating in groups where local prospects hang out online.
  6. Local Small Business Marketing Uses Social Media

  7. Apparently, Social Media is here to stay. Facebook, for example, is the third largest country in the world and its membership has twice the population of America. Keep your business page up-to-date with events, new offerings and encourage your customers to contribute opinions and share referrals online.
  8. Twitter is a mystery to many small business owners. How much can be said in 140 characters? The key is listening, listening and more listening. However, when you hear somebody comment on you and your brand you need to respond. Give thanks for kind comments. Appreciate the customer service opportunity to solve problems quickly when you hear about them.
  9. Local Small Business Marketing Is Continuous Improvement

  10. In business, learning from your mistakes and duplicating success are vital. At the end of the day, the purpose of your business is to profit by satisfying human wants and needs. As you get better at building strong relationships with those whose problems are best solved by what you offer, you will succeed at attracting more of those best customer.
  11. Continuous improvement means getting better and better at solving customer problems. Continuous improvement is also getting better and better customers, many of whom will refer you to others in need. The best possible local small business marketing results in great customers standing up in public and testifying to the greatness of your relationship.
  12. The Price Is Right For Local Small Business Marketing

  13. Don’t sell yourself short. Price is rarely the real reason a prospect goes elsewhere. When you provide enormous value to eager buyers shopping for your solution, price is no object. It’s not the pain as much as it is the consequences of not relieving that pain that matters.
  14. So, what is your benefit to your customers’ painful problem? How do they value that benefit? How much will it cost them to forego your solution? When you’re in front of your ideal buyers, yours is the perfect solution. Solve their problem and you’re a savior.

Local small business marketing is all about exchanging the right solution at the right price. Driving eager buyers to your door day in and day out is easy once you stop trying to sell to everybody. Anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer and local small business marketing puts you everywhere they look.

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If You’re Marketing Your Business Online, You Can Double Your Leads & Triple Revenues In Ninety Days

2011 February 5
Marketing Your Business Online Increases Sales

Marketing Your Business Online Increases Sales

OK, admit it, marketing your business online or offline is not the most interesting topic, is it? Working with your best customer on a great job that turns out perfectly for all of you is interesting. Summer golf tournaments and family vacations in Cancun and your sister’s wedding are interesting. Marketing your business is not quite there, it’s usually something more of a chore than interesting. So, what are you doing here reading this?

Is Marketing Your Business Online Or Offline Working?

Are you sitting around waiting for new customers to walk in your front door handing you money? Is that plan working so poorly that you’re bored to tears with nothing else to do but read this blog post? O, I’m sure it’s not that bad. After all, you could be pestering your receptionist instead, telling her a better way to file last month’s bills. Instead, you’re here looking for answers, right?

The Marketing Your Business Online Question

Answers to what question? If nobody’s reading your yellow pages to find you and call you and come on in, where are all of the new customers finding where to go to buy? Well, the Internet is teeming with consumers young and old. Google statistics pronounce that there are over four billion searches conducted every single day. More than one billion of those daily searches are by eager buyers looking to buy something locally. When would you like to be introduced to some of them? Of course, Google is not the only game in town. Facebook membership is the third largest country in the world, behind only India and China. According to iStrategyLabs, the number of Americans age 55 and over using Facebook grew nearly 59% during 2010. Do you think any of them are going to buy what you offer?

One Marketing Your Business Online Clue

Let me give you one simple yet priceless clue that you can take away from here and implement all by yourself this afternoon. ComScore reported more than 175 million unique American viewers in October 2010 watching an average of over 900 minutes of online video. In 2009 Cisco predicted that by 2013 video will be 90% of all Internet traffic. Video is here, video is popular and video is boosting brands of everyday businesses just like yours. Don’t believe me? Google four words: ‘san diego trial attorney’ — how many trial attorneys do you think there are in San Diego? Look closely at the top two results. The first result was put online nearly five years ago, and the second nearly three years ago. The search engines recognize that Internet users want to watch videos. Video is everywhere: on our smart phones, in stores, on television and everywhere on the Internet.

Marketing Your Business Online With Video Is Easy

The most watched videos are not Super Bowl commercials. Video is ideal for marketing your business online, because online video can be simple, easy and inexpensive. If you can make a Powerpoint presentation, you can do a simple voiceover, add background music and convert that into a great video marketing piece. Affordable video cameras are everywhere, too. Plan to tell your story online just as you would eyeball-to-eyeball with your best customer. Tell us how you solve problems for real people and how that has changed their lives for the better. Every company has something fascinating, unique or funny that put into a video people will want to share. You do, too.

Marketing Your Business Online Increases Sales

See? Marketing your business online is an interesting topic, isn’t it? Make marketing your business more interesting than a chore. If you’d rather sit around waiting for new customers to hand you money, then you better start being found by eager buyers searching for what you offer. After all, you could be pestering your receptionist instead, remember? You can double your leads and triple revenues in ninety days by marketing your business online with video.

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Give Me New Sales Leads That Immediately Convert Into Loyal Customers & I’ll Burst Through Doldrums

2011 February 2
Call New Sales Leads To Action

Call New Sales Leads To Action

Are you a business owner in desperate need of fresh new sales leads? Leads are the lifeline of just about any business. No matter what market you’re in every business owner knows that there will be dry spells from time to time. But we’re living in very tough times. Business is tough because unemployment is depressing, many are losing their homes in droves and people just generally aren’t lining up to part with their money.

New Sales Leads Are On The Internet

Although, there may be many answers to this problem, for the purpose of this article we’ll discuss using the Internet to generate new sales leads. Do you think that the Internet is just a fad? What can this crazy caprice, this virtual amusement park for kids and geeks have to offer your local small business? How can this haven for spammers, hackers and Amazon.com stimulate your business’ economy? Simply said, the Internet is where eager buyers are shopping for what you offer. Right this minute they are shopping online and they are going to buy from somebody. How much of that business do you want?

Can New Sales Leads Find You?

So, what’s the secret to producing new sales leads on the Internet? First, your business must be found. You must be found by eager buyers. You must be found where eager buyers are looking. Anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer and everywhere they look you can be there. Furthermore, the more people are shopping there, the more targeted sales leads will enter your sales funnel. If you want a lot of leads, make sure you’re offering something in great demand. This combination of great demand and being found everywhere those demanding are looking is critical to success.

Respect New Sales Leads

Second, treat your visitors like the honored guests they are. Once found, be worthy of their visits. Consider what’s interesting about you and your company. Why do existing customers like to do business with you? How are you unique? Tell your story online and leverage your interesting and unique business character. Never talk about services and products again — instead, focus on eager buyers and how you can solve problems for them.

How can you push the envelope of what is tried and true in your market? Remember, your guests are visiting because they want a solution to their problem. How can you benefit them? Tell them about benefits and they will stay; otherwise they will go elsewhere. Give them valuable and relevant information and you grow in credibility. If it’s easy it’s already been done and it’s no longer valuable.

Call New Sales Leads To Action

Third, at the height of your guests interest, ask them to take action. Think about how information spreads online. What valuable content can you offer totally free? Think in terms of spreading ideas — not generating leads. Make your content easy to find and consume.

In exchange for a little information about your guest, you offer them an opportunity to receive more valuable information. Take them to your squeeze page where they give you permission to continue this relationship. An eBook, consultation and samples can nurture their interest until they’re ready to purchase. Every company has something fascinating, unique or funny that can be turned into a video that people will want to share. You do, too. As long as you hold their interest they’re not going to buy elsewhere.

New Sales Leads Cure Doldrums

Don’t be in desperate need of fresh new sales leads. Leads are the lifeline of your business, too. Great new customers always cure the doldrums. Still think that the Internet is just a fad? This crazy caprice, this virtual amusement park for kids and geeks also offers salvation to your local small business. Simply said, the Internet is where new sales leads congregate when they are ready to buy.

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Who Else Wants Extraordinarily Successful Online Marketing For Small Business?

2011 January 27
Online Marketing For Small Business Succeeds

Online Marketing For Small Business Succeeds

Success and survival are not the same thing. Times are truly tough today and small businesses everywhere are scrambling for survival. Online marketing for small business is a success opportunity that Internet publishing platforms offer individuals with something to say. Commit whole-heartedly to communicating with your online audience and this success can be extraordinary. Listening to many of my clients has convinced me that they have compelling stories to tell. Given a targeted audience these small business owners are effective closers and the audience loves them. How, then, can you attract that just right audience?

Tell Online Marketing For Small Business Stories

Regular, honest and compelling content creation is critical to success. Story tellers consistently share their opinions and thoughts online and rise to thought leadership in their particular niche. Thought leadership? What differentiates you from your competition? What is your unique selling proposition? If you want to be different you must lead; otherwise you are a follower lost in the masses. The leader of the pack is interesting because she is out in front of the pack and all eyes are on her. Speak and the pack listens intently. Call them to action and many will convert into the best customers you ever had. The best customers refer others to you and will stand up in public and testify to your leadership.

Build Online Marketing For Small Business Communities

Build a community around your brand, both your personal and your business brands. Perhaps, the most striking thing about online marketing for small business is the simplicity. Allowed yourself to be yourself. Once you stop intruding on people trying to convert them to buyers — you know: “Buy ME!” and “Give ME Money!” — what else is there to do?

One of the greatest features of the Internet is that you can publish your story in your voice, at your pace and it stays available until I need to see it. Give me relevant information in the format I want to receive it. I will pay attention to you. Create curiosity. Build a compelling story. Tell me just enough to get me to come back next week … same time, same place. Nurture me and my interest. Allow me to come to want your service and I will come to you as an eager buyer sooner or later. Inbound marketing brings eager buyers to you at the moment they are ready to buy.

Share Online Marketing For Small Business

Create triggers that encourage people to share. Basically, there are five types of Internet sharing:

* Video;
* Image;
* Audio;
* Text;
* or a combination of the four.

Be different. Instead of clubbing prospects over the head and stealing money, give them something to take away from meeting you. Give them something for free. Social media is “social” inasmuch as it shared among its users spheres of influence. We social creatures share valuable information in our social networks, especially information about great deals. If you give me an informative eBook or consultation, in my mind its value increases with its free-ness. I will happily share my find with like-minded friends. How is this different from a referral?

Online Marketing For Small Business Succeeds

Tell your interesting and compelling story to an audience that wants to hear it. We will clamor for it Inbound marketing rules are dead simple. Social media and inbound marketing have leveled the playing field and put in your hands exactly the same tools as the biggest corporations in the world. Sharing your story with the world on a consistent and honest basis you can become a thought leader and create a community of followers around your brand. Online marketing for small business is a success opportunity for those with something interesting to say.

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If You Are Marketing Local Business You Can Double Your Best Sales In Ninety Days Or Less

2011 January 24
Free Publicity Marketing Local Business

Free Publicity Marketing Local Business

How does your business survive without local buyers shopping for what you offer? Marketing local business may seem daunting, that you’re at a big disadvantage to the big boys. You probably don’t have an online shopping cart and you create great customers eyeball-to-eyeball. Unlike international behemoths like Amazon and Target, you have a service area issue. Although, you’ll service buyers who travel hundreds of miles to you, your ideal customer lives within a 10 or 50 mile radius. Is this your business?

You’ll be excited to hear that you’re not limited in the ways you can market yourself locally. Yes, I know, most business owners don’t specialize in marketing. This whole advertising thing has become a sinkhole for money you’d rather reinvest back into the business. After placing a few ads all over town, putting your company listing in the yellow pages and networking with your Chamber of Commerce and Lions Club, you’ve probably run out of advertising ideas. Times are tough, traditional advertising is more expensive and, near as you can tell, your return on advertising budget approaches zero. On top of everything else, Dorothy the yellow pages rep and Toto the local SEO geek are pestering you to get online, saying all you need is to be numero uno on Google and a million website visitors. That’s it — nothing more — right?

Not.

It’s true, as we learn to search and find what we want on the Internet – when we want it – we respond less and less to offline media. As consumers, we have definitely changed the ways we shop and buy. We no longer sit around waiting to be told what to buy and what’s available for purchase. Million dollar Super Bowl commercials are mere entertainment now, so why spend wheelbarrows of money on traditional and ineffective advertising? Get with the times, marketing local business benefits greatly from the following tips:

Marketing Local Business Online

Anticipate eager buyers shopping for you online and everywhere they look you are there. Remember yellow pages? Similarly on the Internet, there are directories that catalog local companies by location, by advertising and by customer reviews. These local online directories are quickly becoming popular resources for buyers to find local companies. Little to no cash gets your company listed in these directories. Advertise your company in as many locations as practical to gain maximum exposure. Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local, MerchantCircle and Yelp are but a smattering. There are also industry, thematic and cultural directories, too.

Free Publicity Marketing Local Business

It’s always vital to announce your business organization, activities and events to your community on a regular basis. This is more than simply telling everybody that you’re still in business. Survival and success are NOT the same thing. New products and services demonstrate that you’re interested in and responding to your customers’ evolving needs and desires. Your blog, Facebook, Twitter, MerchantCircle and even LinkedIn are great places to post your news. Press releases, news releases and media announcements are easier and cheaper done now than ever before. There are many sites online catering to your PR needs. When eager buyers see that you not only have what they’re searching for, but you also have an even newer model, they’ll likely tell their friends about you.

Marketing Local Business Customers Love Coupons

Consider the fact that people love to save money — don’t you, too? — coupons can create great customers. You don’t have to worry about complicated sales pitches, just offer them a discount for trying you out. Instead of direct mail or printing fliers, save yourself the distribution expense and publish coupons on the Internet. With billions of searches on the Internet every month, be creative and put your promotion everywhere your eager buyers are looking. Try mentioning a coupon in your blog post, experiment with QR codes people will scan with their smart phones and consider social media. Internet sites like Groupon, Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and MerchantCircle are only the tip of the iceberg. Get them in the door and you have the opportunity to create another great customer!

Can your business survive with local buyers? Yes and marketing your local business online is easy and fun! You’re not limited in the ways you can market locally. By marketing local business effectively you can double your best sales in ninety days or less.

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How I Targeted Sales Leads And Burned Down The House With Sale After Sale To Eager Buyers

2011 January 21
Targeted Sales Leads Burn Down The House

Targeted Sales Leads Burn Down The House

Wanna hear a story of how one entrepreneur easily attracts targeted sales leads and creates a sales inferno? There’s no rocket science in duplicating this story and its success. If qualified leads are a means to your serious business growth in 2011, this is an outline of examples.

Share Your Story With Targeted Sales Leads

Reread the first line of this article. I bet you’re pretty good with your story. Put a good business owner eyeball-to-eyeball with a qualified prospect and odds are good they will hammer out a deal. Great stories have long been among the most effective sales tools. Why? Stories are an effective way to establish rapport and to build a relationship with your prospect. Take great care in crafting your story about you, your business and products and service. Your story adds personality, depth and substance to your brand. Good, bad or otherwise, you are building your brand in the prospect’s mind and what she remembers when you part is her brand recognition.

Your website, social media and other interactive online gathering places are opportunities waiting for your story. A big difference between the Internet and offline media is the window of opportunity. Tell your story in a journal article, tell your story over the phone, tell your story at a seminar — how long is your story available to be heard? Next month’s journal has new stories. Only those on the other end of the phone line can hear you. When you and everybody leave the seminar, your story leaves, too. Tell your story in a blog post, tell your story on Youtube, tell your story on Facebook — now, anybody any time can stumble across your story … today, next month or ten years hence.

Give Targeted Sales Leads Reason To Return

Even better, divide your story into chapters and publish them over time. Cliff hangers work on television and they’re great for breaking your story into bite-sized pieces. This will keep those most interested coming back time and again for more and more and more of your compelling story. Consider also repurposing your story properties into different online media such as video, podcasts, audio, articles, blog posts, etc. Some of your best prospects prefer video, some prefer audio, some prefer text … some may digest it all. Furthermore, syndicate each of these various story properties across multiple sites. Remember Hansel and Gretel? The more bread crumbs you scatter across the Internet, the more likely that a great new customer will find one and follow it back to you.

One common mistake I made was limiting where my business can be found. By publishing content only on my website I was dependent on the search engines to find enough of it before they ranked me high enough for me to be found. It’s easy to promote your story to a larger audience by writing guest posts on other blogs, participating in forums and webinars, being interviewed online and contributing to social media Q&A. Your story reaches an audience you wouldn’t normally reach through your website alone. In the case of online interviews, you have the opportunity to answer questions and focus on your solutions to real problems in the real world.

Targeted Sales Leads Are Searching For Solutions

Highly targeted sales leads are interested in you because they have a problem and they come to know that you have a solution to their problem. They are interested in you and your company to solve their problem. What can you do for them?

Let your story tell them how you have solved similar problems for real people. Tell them how your customers have benefited from your product and service. These case studies build credibility and kindle the first sparks of trust in prospects. Outline the struggles you went through, the experiments and the successes you’ve had with great customers. Give away How-To articles that help people with the basics. Mention similar situations that might also benefit from what you do best. Refer to testimonials and endorsements made by your best customers regarding this success.

Targeted Sales Leads Are Hot For Your Story

How easy is it to attract targeted leads online and create a sales inferno? There’s no rocket science in telling your story to eager buyers. Put you eyeball-to-eyeball with a qualified prospect and odds are you will close the deal. All you need to burn down the house is to gather targeted sales leads around your bonfire and tell a great story.

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Secrets Of Local Small Business Marketing – Funnel Eager Buyers Through Your Sales Funnel In Droves

2011 January 18
Diversify Local Small Business Marketing

Diversify Local Small Business Marketing

Local Small Business Marketing Thinks Big

The first secret of local small business marketing is to not think like a small business. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your brick and mortar business made you money even if none of your employees showed up for work and your door never even opened? Do you sometimes have nightmares of your company shutting down because your referral system dried up and blew away? If you answer yes to either of these questions, then you must consider the benefits of building an inbound marketing system to anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer and everywhere they look you are there. Instead of tossing and turning at night, with these cutting edge methods of marketing your local business you’ll sleep like a baby and your company will thrive. If the old saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” applies to you, you may want to consider a total overhaul. Changing your marketing strategy can mean the difference between reaching new record sales highs or shutting down and filing for bankruptcy.

Imagine for a moment marketing in a way that targets your best customer in her natural environment. Offer her valuable information that she’s already seeking for free. Imagine she’s so delighted by what you’ve given her that she returns time and again to pay you for what you do best. Sounds like a dream does it? Unfortunately for many businesses stuck in their ways, that is all successful business will ever be — a dream. Let’s face it, the profits of traditional marketing tactics — yellow pages, newspaper ads, telemarketing, etc. — are drying up and blowing away. Where did all of the customers go? Yes, the economy is dragging; but, we all know, consumers are still consuming. So, where did they go?

Local Small Business Marketing Prospers Online

The second secret of local small business marketing is to stake your claim on the Internet. Why the Internet you may be wondering? The Internet is where consumers gather to search, to buy and to share their experiences with other consumers. Web searchers are becoming more sophisticated everyday. Everyday, more and more people search the Internet to find and buy more and more. As we learn to search and find what we want on the Internet — when we want it — we respond less and less to offline media. Literally, billions of searches are conducted every singe month by eager buyers looking to purchase locally. More to the point, when was the last time you flipped through your yellow pages?

Diversify Local Small Business Marketing

The third secret of local small business marketing is to diversify your online promotional portfolio. Ten years ago, it was extraordinary simply to publish your online business card. Woo-hoo! You were on the Internet and everybody was so proud and excited and everybody told everybody that your business is on the Internet! Today, your online business card is a fossil. Nobody cares about your company, except you. What have you done for me lately?

Promote your company on interactive social media sites like Facebook and YouTube. It’s no longer enough to trumpet your features and advantages to the world. As we learn to search and find what we want on the Internet we respond less and less to intrusive messages. I am a consumer and when I’m in the market for a new thing I will search for it. What’s in it for me? When I find your interesting product or service, I’m going to ask my online brothers and sisters about you. I’m going to check you out on LinkedIn; and then I’m going to do the same for your company. I’m likely to watch your and your competitors’s videos and read all of the articles I can find published online. How many fans Like your fan pages and Like your blog posts?

Local Marketing Is Effective

Are you still thinking like a small business? What if none of your employees showed up for work and your door never even opened? What if your nightmares came true and your business dried up and blew away? Inbound marketing anticipates eager buyers shopping for what you offer. Changing your marketing strategy can mean the difference between reaching new record sales highs or shutting down and filing for bankruptcy. Local small business marketing is effective online because it funnels eager buyers through your sales funnel in droves.

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Secrets Of Marketing Your Business Online: The Easiest Way To Be Found Everywhere Eager Buyers Look

2011 January 15
Marketing Your Business Online Is An Opportunity

Marketing Your Business Online Is An Opportunity

So, you have a business and you’ve finally taken it online. Everything is ready to go. The website is up and looking to win a trophy! Forms are working and email, too. You hired an extra hand to answer the phone and greet newcomers in your door. All your best features and advantages are bulleted and bold. You spent a load on all of this, including that SEO guy who said all you’ll ever need is 1st place on Google.

But, where are the new customers? Everybody everywhere promised you, Build it and they will come! Yes, it’s true, you’re really Google numero uno for a keyword you wanted. And, it’s also true that you’re getting a bunch of online visitors showing up on your homepage, at least for a couple seconds. What more can you expect? Darn it! Where are your new customers? Is this Internet marketing thingy all hogwash, only a cruel hoax, a costly scam?

Nobody seems interested in your website or your business or what you have to offer. Sure, you have the gosh darned prettiest website in the world — you shelled out lots to make that happen! You have pages of content full of information about your products and, yet, your website fails to make sales. Where, then, have you gone wrong? Marketing your business online is critical for any business, small or big. Unless you tell the world about it, until you are found, how is anyone supposed to know?

Targeted Leads Come From Marketing Your Business Online

How you market online is key to filling your sales funnel with targeted leads that convert to great new customers. The Internet has not so much changed marketing as it has transformed the way we consume. As we learn to search and find what we want on the Internet — when we want it — we respond less and less to offline media. Therefore, anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer and, when they search, everywhere they look you are there. Ergo, it’s crucial that your business is found on the search engines; but, that’s more a factor of what they type than what you want them to type.

Once you’re found by eager buyers searching for you — what then? Think about your own searches and buying patterns. Suppose you search for a four-slice toaster. Google, for example, presents a search result page with ten “organic” results. Each of these includes a headline of up to 60 bold characters followed by a description of up to 160 characters. Has that ever sold you then and there? Of course not! You start at the top, numero uno, and decide among the ten which to click and follow the link. Follow that link — whither? If it takes you to my homepage and you need to search again for four-slice toasters, how likely are you to continue and buy from me? Rich, rewarding and relevant content remains king. When I give you exactly what you expect after following my link, are you more or less likely to become my customer?

Make Marketing Your Business Online Drop Dead Simple

Once I’ve got you, targeted lead, on my site and you find what you’re looking to buy, how can I make it drop dead simple for you to buy from me? If you are confused, if you don’t instinctively know what to do next, if I don’t simply ask you to take that next step, what’s to keep you from simply slipping away? At this point, marketing your business online draws a play from the age old offline playbook. Conversion is a function of your Call-To-Action, plain and simple. Once you’ve found what you want and I make it simpler to follow my yellow brick road than wander off into the jungle, this is where great new customers are made.

Marketing your business online is about four decisive factors:

  1. Targeted Leads
  2. Relevant Content
  3. Call-To-Action
  4. Conversion

Marketing Your Business Online Is An Opportunity

Once you know your buyer personae, it’s easy to give them what they want. Follow relevant, compelling content with a simple and clear request, whether that be call me, come in for a demonstration or sign-up for our newsletter. If marketing is about relationships and every relationship begins with a single conversation, then conversion is more about continuing a good conversation with a great new customer. Marketing your business online is about the opportunity for unlimited conversations.

Call Now
Answer Marketing Your Business Online Question: 612-235-6060

Call MDS Resource For Special Offer Now: 612-235-6060