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

Testimonials & The Recommendation Age: Your Clients Will Market for You

Your marketing must be done through your customers.

Business has gone through many changes over the years. There was the Agricultural Age, the Industrial Age, the Information & Technology Age.

We now have so much information and easy access to information that businesses must recognize consumers are in the Recommendation Age. Your clients will base their decisions on the recommendations of others.

They have to because the Advertising Age has left them untrusting of marketing hype.

There are a few methods that have proven to be very effective in the Recommendation Age: Word of mouth, and social networking where people share information with their network of people online and through testimonials.

Something we teach our clients is how powerful testimonials are to create leverage, credibility and increase revenues.

For example, in the course we are doing with our colleague, Kathleen Gage, The Law of Action 2.0, we have received some wonderful testimonials. Now, we could think to ourselves, "Isn't that wonderful people are pleased with what we do."

Or, we can share this information with potential clients who may be thinking of taking the course, but have not yet made the decision.

Here's what Coach Eva Gregory said on our blog post Social Writing: Don't ignore networking sites:

Consultants: Are you ready for a Google search on your name?

"How can I best use the internet to sell management consulting services?" - Tim Wilson, Northborough

This question was submitted to us on our webcast teleseminar about The 5 Traps of Internet Marketing. It's a good one because it can apply to any business that provides services, coaching and consulting.

If you're in any kind of business where people aren't buying tangible products but hire you for your knowledge and expertise, you've got to demonstrate your intelligence, your personality, and your values. Traditionally this is done face to face. Most consultants also rely heavily on word of mouth.

But these days most everybody who hires consultants will do a Google search on your name to get background information and find out more about you. Having a strong web presence means you control your brand and your message.

5 Traps of Internet Marketing: Listen Up!

News flash: we've just released the audio recording of our teleclass The 5 Traps of Internet Marketing.

Quite frankly, I think we delivered really valuable stuff about what you need to know when you use the Internet to market your business.

The Blog Squad and Kathleen Gage spoke for over 90 minutes about the traps people fall into, and more importantly, 5 truths about what you really need to know. We give 3 tips of free or low cost resources you can use to get started with your online marketing.

Plus much more...there are even a couple of bonus reports available for free!

Here's the link to listen and learn:
www.actandattract.com/replay_06.html

3 Biggest Problems for Internet Marketing

According to our recent survey, the biggest problems of people trying to market their business online are:

1. Converting leads to sales
2. Managing an online marketing system
3. Prioritizing time, energy and money for best results

We asked the question, "What is your greatest challenge with Internet Marketing?" through SurveyMonkey.com to thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs through our email lists, Facebook, and blogs.

We also asked them their number of years working online:

1. 44% worked online under a year
2. 34.3% had been working online 1-3 years
3. 27.1% had been working online over 3 years

We also asked, "If resources were not an issue and you could learn only one thing about Internet Marketing and making money on the Internet, what would it be?"

5 Internet Marketing Traps Video

While at the Publishers Marketing University last month, Kathleen Gage and I took the opportunity to shoot a quick video inviting you to our free teleseminar on the 5 Internet Marketing Traps that can Derail Your Business. You'll see that we did not prepare a script for this!

You can learn the truth about marketing on the Internet when you attend our free teleseminar on Tuesday, June 24: 5 Internet Marketing Traps that Can Derail Your Business.

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Internet Marketing Video: You Need Products

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Internet Marketing Video: You Can Buy Success

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