Biz Tips Blog: Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips

Next Level Tip: Recession Proof Your Business

As a visitor to my blog, you know I'm commited to your success.

Are you struggling with your business and often too distracted and stressed to think clearly about what is important to do NOW to turn things around?

My mentor, Mike Jay, a Master Business coach, has published an ebook that could help you.

'101 Things to Do to Avoid a Recession' can get you started on the road to recovery with solid tips. This book is full of strategies and tactics that can work for anyone.

If you are:
- struggling to keep your business alive
- too distracted and stressed to think clearly about what is important to do now
- looking for some proven steps to turn your business around
- doing well but want to take the profitability of your business to a new level
- wanting to discover new secrets of developing a thriving business or professional practice

This book is for you!  At only $19.95, it's a tiny investment to get a handle on how to keep your business afloat in difficult economic times.

You can find info here on the Follow Me to A Million site.

Even if your business is NOT in trouble, you will benefit from reviewing the tips in the book. You may learn a new strategy!

Here are some of the things you will learn in this ebook:

Next Level Tip: Customer Relationship Management

I've said it before in previous tips, and I'll keep right on pushing this...it's essential to have a database marketing system if you're doing business on the Internet.  Whether you are a solo professional, work for a small business, do network marketing, it doesn't matter.  You must have a way to capture and market to your prospects and customers.  Period.

Many people are looking for a system to handle their email lists.  With the Ecomincs.com system, not only can you handle high email volume, you can have unlimited lists, autoresponders, and can add
up to 10,000 clients. More can be purchased easily for a high end system.

Not only that, you don't just want an email program, you always want a database marketing system...people you send email to want to get more involved with you and an integrated marketing solution is the answer.

Weird Wins ... in Weird Times

I've spent a bit of time with Tom Peters this weekend.  Well, not in person, but with his new book "Project04: Snapshots of Excellence in Unstable Times."

This is Tom Peters' latest collection of insights, rants and thoughts about life and business.  It's a manifesto of sorts, a call to action for everyone whether you have a job or you are a free agent.

The softcover book ($10 - only available at TomPeters.com WOW store) consists of Tom's 60 TIBs (This I Believe) which range from observations like "Stop doing dumb stuff" to "Your calendar knows all. (You = Your Calendar), to "Change takes however long you think it takes."

In addition you get Tom's Successful Businesses Dozen Truths, Tom's Passions, Tom's "Off-Shoring" Manifesto/Rant and more.

This is a book to dip into and grab bits and pieces.  It's a big WOW book with statistics, calls to action and ideas that may shake you up. Love him or hate him, Tom Peters can make you think about how you are expressing your personal excellence, and what you need to do in order to succeed in a world of global change.

I also found on ChangeThis.com a copy of Tom's 60 TIBs which you can download here to get a good sense of where Tom Peters thinks our world is headed.

Download 2.01.ThisIBelieve.pdf (897.0K)

Next Level Tip: Build a Blog or Website

A web site (by the way, a blog IS a website) is your cyber salesperson for the world and can be hugely instrumental in helping you grow your business, if it is optimized correctly.

Your web site should function in such a way that it attracts potential clients and provides so much value that they request to be put on
your mailing list.  Then, you can send them useful information along with promotion about you and your services. (Key here is sending valuable content with your promotional material.)

Now, I'm not a web site designer, so I won't get into that.  However, I have a lot of experience analyzing web sites to determine what works and how they could be maximized to attract more people to your database (that's the name of the game – everything you do needs to be directed at adding more and more "qualified" addresses to your list).

Is your database growing the way you want it to? It's a numbers game.  The more people on your list to whom you can add value and send marketing information, the more chances you have to increase
sales of your product and services.

If you're a do-it-yourself-er, you may want to look at iPRObuilder for a very complete web building system.  As you know, I'm a blog enthusiast so setting up a blog is also a great, inexpensive and dynamic way to establish a web presence.

Next Level Tip: Read "Purple Cow"

Read "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin to learn how to make your business stand apart from the competition by being remarkable:

"It's a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place."

Yes, it's another affiliate link.  This is a great book, a fast read and will inspire you to consider ways to separate yourself from your competition and take your business to the next level. 

Bonus tip:  All my new clients receive a copy of Purple Cow when we begin our partnership. What do you do to set yourself apart from your competitors?  How do you make your clients and customers feel special?  What can you do that will make your company stand out from the crowd?