Marketing Daily Tips

There is a big payoff in being different. When you accept “what is” you place yourself in the category of “sameness,” and people don’t buy sameness. Why should they? They can do sameness themselves. If your prospects aren’t seeing the value you offer, you may be coming across as the same and not daring to be different.

Dare yourself to be different in promoting yourself, your services or your products. It doesn’t matter if you are an employee, independent professional, student, or executive, being different pays off.

Take the challenge and step out of “sameness” today. How you play it doesn’t have to be in big, small counts too. Take the dare. Dare yourself too! Begin before getting out of bed with these questions: Who, what, when where and how can I be different today?

* Here are some Dare-to-be-Different guidelines for promoting yourself differently:

* Say different things about yourself. Emphasize something only you can do.

* Think differently. Focus on today — the here and now. Forget about yesterday and what did or did not go right or how tomorrow has to be better. Today is all that counts.

* Sound different. Listen to your heart and speak from there.

* Look different. How about a scarf or mismatched socks? A different hairdo? Looking different will make you feel different.

* Sell your services differently. Share a story that increased your wisdom with someone today. Maybe you aren’t a writer — then write that story.

* Offer something different. Offer options that others don’t. Present the options differently.

* Guarantee something different. Back up your services in a way that others don’t.

* Target differently. Pursue a different niche in the market. Give yourself space to think about a different market and what you can offer them. Find a solution that links your product/services and their needs.

* Communicate differently. Get your messages across in a unique way. Write your e-mail responses differently. Change your signature line. Write ten new voice mail messages and change the message every day.

* Follow-up differently. Surprise your clients with the way you stay in touch. Write a thank you note to a client. Send a small thinking of you gift. Forward them something fun and unexpected.

* Walk differently. Walk from a place of abundance. Feel abundance radiating from the inside out. Others will notice it immediately.

Dare yourself to be different!

Discover how being different makes a difference. See what new things it attracts to you — Law of Attraction. You will discover the most important secret of self-promotion: your differences are your diamonds. Your differences are your prosperity.

Believe in that secret and you will discover the magic of reaching a higher level of personal achievement, income and success than you ever thought possible. You are going to love the experience.

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Before you can market, you need to know who you are marketing to. Who is your customer? How will you market? Will you cold call, mail, set appointments or employ a walk in approach? Be careful with the walk in approach as many businesses do not permit soliciting. You might just want to drop off information and follow up with a telephone call.

In order to determine who your market is look at your business plan. How did you define your average customer? What was your estimate of total market size? What territory did you intend to service? You might want to make a table for the following: Product/Service - list your product(s) or service(s). If you offer a variety of models or types, list them separately. This will more clearly define your market. The more specific the answers to these questions, the easier it will be to determine a marketing plan. What marketing techniques did you delineate in your business plan? Are you using them, and if so, how effectively?

One of the best ways to determine what works best is to look at your competition.

What is your competition doing.? How are they marketing? What services do they offer? How do their prices compare to yours? Some of the ways to determine this information is to talk to prospects who are now using your competitors products or service. Ask them, “How can I offer and deliver the same things my competitors do - or better?” Obtain and study your competitors literature, for example, promotional materials that outline price, what services they offer, products they are selling, etc. Keep all the materials obtained on your competition and update this information on a quarterly basis. If there is a industry publication that contains information on your competition, subscribe and read it. You may be surprised to find stories that reveal important information on your competition. Attend trade shows, exhibits, and conferences for your industry. Read the local papers and papers in the area your competition is located. Ask your customers what they like and dislike about your services or products.

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2000

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Do sales come from your ezine regularly? How many well-written articles do you submit per week to Online ezines? How often do you send thank you’s and follow up messages to your different email groups?

If you answered not many, then you need to re-evaluate. The answer to online success is the same as traditional success–promotion, promotion, promotion.

Use these easy ways to boost online credibility and sales:

3. Send Follow up Messages to your Customers, Subscribers and Customers

Do you keep email lists by category such as subscribers, potential clients, customers, or teleclass participants?

Talking with many small business people, I discovered many only keep one list, primarily subscribers. While giving my subscribers information once a month, I make it a point to connect with many other groups. Each month or so, I send them some free information, sometimes with a sales message, sometimes not.

How often do you follow up?

The people who hear from you over time develop trust in you. Once they trust you, they are more likely to buy from you than new contacts.

Keep a file of your loyal customers, your potential clients, your subscribers, your teleclass participants, and ePublishers.

To each of these, send a different, targeted follow up email.

Some of the ways in which to get your “name out there” are to call your local television and radio stations, and ascertain whether there is a medium you can get your name in. A very good source are public stations that hold auctions, at which you can donate your services. Talk shows, both radio and television. Do something to get yourself noticed and send it to them. For example, we sent a fax to the television and radio stations that for anyone who was unemployed we would do a typeset resume for only $10. Channel 13 came out and interviewed us, and we were on their 6 p.m. news program.

Send press releases to television and radio stations, in addition to newspapers. Make it short, concise, and eye catching. One tip is to put your picture on the press release. Be sure all the information you want to impart is in the first paragraph.

Contact local newspapers, they love to do articles on home-based and small businesses. We have had excellent success getting both our newsletter and directory published in small local papers. In addition, these releases have also gotten us published in New Business Opportunities, Small Business Opportunities, and Income Opportunities to mention a few. Many of the businesses that we have written press releases for also have reported very good results.

Volunteer your services to non-profit organizations. Give seminars and classes to establish yourself as an expert. In addition, if appropriate to your business, advertise on services like AOL, CompuServe, and Yahoo. We had a flood of responses for both our newsletter and consulting service, by advertising on CompuServe.

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2000

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Do sales come from your ezine regularly? How many well-written articles do you submit per week to opt-in online ezines? How often do you send thank you’s and follow up messages to your different email groups?

If you answered not many, then you need to re-evaluate. The answer to online success is the same as traditional success–promotion, promotion, promotion.

Use these easy ways to boost online credibility and sales:

1. Market and Make your Ezine a Sales Tool

Ezines are one road to sales if you have targeted subscribers who stay with you at least eight months. After four-seven issues, their trust builds and they eventually will buy from you. At the end of your feature article in your signature file include a link straight to your product or service sales letter related to your piece. Entice your ezine readers to go to your site often and stay a while to see new information, so they will eventually become faithful customers.

Many professionals complain that many subscribe to their ezine, but not many buy. Ask yourself why?

Is your ezine list of subscribers a targeted, preferred audience?

Many business people collect email addresses, but fail to categorize them so they can target a particular message and offer.

Be sure to give your targeted audience what they want. If you don’t know who they are, write a short survey of less than five questions to potential readers. Ask them, “What do you want?” Include the answers in your ezine and send a thank you to those who participate.

As a book coach and Internet marketing coach, my ezine may not appeal to free-lance writers looking for work. While my ezine reports news on traditional publishing route, it focuses on self-publishing and eBooks by non-fiction writers.It shows authors how to sell online, much cheaper, easier and make more profit than traditional marketing.

What do you put in your subject line when you send your ezine out?

Did you know that less than 50% open your ezine? Give subscribers a reason to open your ezine. Put the title of your feature article in the subject line followed by a dash and your ezine title. If too long to fit on the line, just include the part that will be recognized followed by ellipses.

How are you building your ezine subscriber list? What do you offer people who subscribe?

This sign on most Web sites turns people off: “Subscribe to Our Ezine.”

What’s the motivation? None. To increase your targeted subscribers include a free eReport or ebook with every subscription. Get a strong testimonial like Dan Poynter’s for The Book Coach Says… ezine: “Filled with useful tips and resources–definitely worth your time.” Place it on your home page. Give visitors a reason to buy.

Another way to build ezine subscribers is to submit articles online to opt-in ezines. When you get published your article will be seen by at least 15,000 ezine subscribers looking for information. You can send to 15 or more of these each time.

Many Webmasters and other business people who subscribe will see your professional article and want to post it on their Web sites or in their own ezine. Why? Because they need fresh content for their site and ezine. They want and need your information. While the list changes you might try article_announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. What great publicity for you! It’s so powerful, my site got to #1 in Google and 35 other search engines in just eight months after submitting 30 plus how-to articles.

You can also submit to Web sites directly such as Marketing-Seek.com. When people see your articles, they will see the link to your Web site and visit, even buy. This viral marketing spreads the word fast and wide. It listed your coach’s URL on 4500 other web sites.

Submitting these how-to articles increases new subscribers from 10-25 each time you send. You can see why I’m sure to submit at least one article each week.

2. Submit Articles to Ezines and Web sites

After seeing different articles by you, your audience from the opt-in ezines and other Web sites will take advantage of your benefit-driven signature file, take you up on your free offer, visit your site, subscribe to your ezine, and eventually buy. Each time you submit an article, like me, you can boost new sales $50 to $100 a day.

Read articles on “How to Write a Publishable Article,” “How to Write an Article Fast,” “How to Submit Articles to Ezines and Web sites.” Remember, the trick to promoting yourself and your products is giving away free information. It’s like tasting chocolate cookie samples at Mrs. Fields. Visitors will be more likely to buy after they experience a piece of you.

Keep your articles categorized too. At first, I submitted random articles. Then I realized 20 years of coaching experience could be put into six categories:

- Writing/Publishing- eBooks- Online Promotion- Web Marketing/Promotion,- Offline/Traditional Marketing- Under 500 words

Like me, you can offer these categories and a new tip category by auto responder to specific audiences who want specific kinds of information. They appreciate the categories and the easy way to receive promotional articles. To receive over 100 articles on these categories go the web site link at the end of this article.

For the largest profits and connecting with people so they will want your product or service the two best ways to promote online are:

- Write a sales-oriented ezine and send regularly- Send weekly how-to articles to your opt-in ezines and their publishers

Together they work beautifully to make you well known on the net.

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Articles submitted to online publishers bring your site new visitors and increase your ezine subscribers. You can also get these benefits by submitting your articles to top Web sites that not only promote your products, but also your services.

Here’s how to get your articles on Web sites that have 1000-500,000 visitors each day.

1. Run a search on the top search engines to find the top ten Web sites that need your content and will gladly post your articles. Try Alta Vista at: www.altavista.com or Google at www.google.com.

2. Use this great shortcut to find sites your articles will fit with. Instead of searching for “product marketing” or something that is targeted, use the keyword “business” without the quotations. Type in “business” in the blank “search for” box, then search. You will have several million Web sites that are about business.

Next, replace the keyword “business” with two words: “submit article” then click on the box just below the “search for” box and click where it says: “Search Within these results” Now, do that sub-search and see the pages that allow you to submit business articles. Reaching these sites gives you great publicity as it helps increase your credibility.

3. Visit the Web sites to see their layout and whether or not they have a regular ezine that needs tips, excerpts, or stories. Notice the different article categories to see where your work fits. Check to see if they want new content in the article format. On some sites you can even see how many hits your article produced.

4. Submit two or three well-edited articles at a time to save time and effort. Submit one or so articles each week if possible. When you practice writing regularly, your articles improve. When you submit excellent articles full of useful, unique information, you will start to be known as the expert Online. You’ll love it when people want to use the articles they see on one site for their own.

5. Submit these articles and get listed regularly by the search engines. The key words in your articles attract new visitors and potential clients and customers to your Web site or email address.

Get ready for web marketing. This proven way will bring you many rewards: new clients and new customers. You’ll also become a household name in your field.

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