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

Build Marketing Momentum: Three Keys to More Profits

This is a guest post by Sydni Craig-Hart of www.SmartSimpleMarketing.com.

Most service professionals know that they need to market their business consistently to get great results. But knowing and doing are two very different things. It can seem challenging to market consistently when you're so busy serving your clients, running your company, and trying to take care of and enjoy the other aspects of your life.

Without a doubt, effective marketing requires your time, energy, and consistent effort, but not to the point that it becomes draining for you. It actually should be really easy - and it can be! Once you build momentum and get the right systems in place, you'll find that your marketing runs like a well-oiled machine. It will support you in filling your practice with ideal clients. You'll also create more visibility for the solutions you offer, and generating the income you need to enjoy the lifestyle of your choice.

Then you might be thinking, "that all sounds great, Sydni, how do I do that?" Let me answer that question for you.

Coaches and Consultants - Are you building the business of your dreams?

 Starting your own consulting business can be exciting, rewarding and a little daunting. I know because I've done it a few times and 98% of my clients are coaches or consultants. Nothing beats being your own boss, creating and controlling your own destiny.

And it can be confusing and overwhelming, especially when you're starting out.

You may wonder how you label yourself (coach or consultant)?

How do you position your business and expertise?

How much do you charge for your services?

Should you have products and how do you create them?

And how the heck do you market your business (a biggie!)

In the last 15 years that I've had my own online marketing consulting business, I've worked with a lot of new coaches/consultants as well as many who are established and it seems they all struggle with building their online platform. They're great with clients, their expertise is undisputed but no one can find them on the Web or their online presence is weak and confusing. What I've discovered is that many don't have a solid foundation on which to build their online presence.

My friend and colleague Kathleen Gage is committed to changing that. She's just released a free report (no optin) about how to start and build a coaching and consulting business. I've read the report and can honestly say I wish I had had a document like hers when I was starting out.  It's like a roadmap for building a coaching business. Kathleen has also produced three free training videos to complement the report. She's an amazing teacher and delivers value over and above what you usually get for free.

The report and the training videos augment a free telesummit coming up February 23 and 24...New Horizons Telesummit for coaches and consultants. You can get a free pass to attend and, yes, there are options to upgrade based on how much access you want.

Each of these opportunities - the report, the videos, the telesummit - are designed to guide you through the maze of the steps you must take to build a thriving business. I'll be teaching a session on How to Build Your Business and Dominate Your Niche with Social Media.

Looking at the list of presentations, there are quite a few that are focused on online marketing and social media. There's a reason for that...it's critical you know how to use the Web to position yourself so you can get found by your ideal client. Period.

Read the report, watch the videos and register for the telesummit. You'll be glad you did.

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Do You Have a Plan for Your Social Marketing?

 

(Listen to the 2:57 min audio of this post.)

Building a visible presence on the web takes not only consistent action, it also requires that you are constant...constant with your content production on all platforms. 

You know, if somebody lands on a site that has not been updated in a few weeks or months, it's like going into a shop with no stuff on the shelves, dirt on the floor and broken windows.

In order to stay constant, what do you do? You need to start with a plan. If you're haphazard about your activity it shows. So here are a couple of things to think about when developing your plan:

What is your message?

Who do you serve?

What do you want them to know about you and your business?

Once you have those questions answered you create a schedule and plot out how you're going to educate, entertain, and engage your community with your content.

When Life Gets Crazy - How to Connect with Your Lists When you Don't Have Time To

It's a crazy time of year with various holidays and year-end business planning, tax planning, promotions, wrap-up of 2010 projects, and gearing up for 2011 projects. How do you keep up with it all and maintain your connections?

In today's guest post, Nicole Dean offers three ways to stay connected with your peeps even when you're busy. Nicole is a very smart gal. I've had the pleasure of meeting her at a couple of NAMS Workshops where she is one of the top draws for her down to earth and savvy presentations on how to create a successful online business. She's so popular, I've never had the time I would like to have a long chat with Nicole. Maybe in August...

I digress. I offer today's guest post by Nicole because I'm sure - I know - you can benefit from her smart tips about how to stay connected with your peeps when life is crazy (be sure to check out the video below if you aren't clear about PLR)...

When Life Gets Crazy - How to Connect with Your Lists When you Don't Have Time To

by Nicole Dean

Life is madness. At least in my house it is. People are always asking me "Nicole, you have 2 kids, 2 dogs, you take in foster dogs, have a husband who you actually like, and you run several very successful online businesses. What in the HECK?!"

I think there's a compliment in there somewhere.

The things that I do in my business every day fall under four areas...

1. Growing my List and Connecting with my Readers
2. Increasing my Traffic
3. Building Relationships on my Own Blog
4. Developing my Products and my Other Offers (like PLR stuff, and private coaching and consulting)

Anything that doesn't fall directly under those four areas must be put aside until I've tackled those.

Now obviously, I could write an entire report about this, so in this post, I'll focus in on your mailing list.

What Are You Planning for Your Professional Development in 2011?

I've been reviewing events and programs I am considering for my own professional development in 2011 (mostly working more with my coach and attending mastermind weekends). I realized there were a couple of events that I'm part of that you may want to add to your own professional development calendar. Check out the details in my audio invitation (5:43 min) to you...

[NOTE: I originally recorded a video invitation but the audio quality was terrible and out of sync. Not sure what happened but in the interest of time, decide to do redo it as audio.]

Here are links to the events mentioned in my invitation:

Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop (NAMS5 and NAMS6 two for one special deal good until December 31.)

Publish Your Ebook Today with Amazon's Kindle (free webinar replay - if you join Daniel Hall's Real Fast Book program - $7 for a 14 day trial - you'll get a private invitation to join my bonus webinar on how to use a blog to promote and sell more books.)

Stay tuned for info about the outstanding business blogging education event coming up in February. I'll be sending an email with details on December 27. You won't want to miss this if you're ready to take your business blog to new heights.

In the meantime, I invite you to get 7 free tips on how to boost your visibility on the web. The more visible you are to your target market, the more opportunities you'll have to serve them.

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