Home Business Success

Join us for an evening of networking and learning how to increase sales in our businesses!

Che Brown will be sharing with us “How to Profit in Tough Times”.

Che Brown is President of Partners in Learning, a global sales training company, which teaches sales professionals how to make sales with less effort. Che shares winning sales strategies on how to close deals and put cash in your pocket by mastering the basics of selling, using sales scripts, and advanced sales techniques to increase sales and long-term profitability.

Don’t let the current state of the economy deter you from building your business.

Admission is FREE but you must RSVP to attend.

For more information and to RSVP visit http://www.howtoprofitintoughtimes.eventbrite.com

a

How to Profit in Tough Times Business Women Networking Event

Website Marketing- Dramatically Increase Your Conversions with a Clear Call to Action
by Donna Gunter

One of the things I often notice on websites is that I’m not sure where to go or what to do when I arrive. There are those websites that are simply online brochures that tell me all about the features of a product or service, but don’t ask anything of me. There are other websites that give me a headache, as they try to send me in too many directions at once. When faced with too many choices, I become overwhelmed and ultimately leave the site without taking any action.

How do you get your visitor to stay on your site and convert to a prospect? By presenting one clear call to action on every page of your site.

Do you want the visitor to listen to an audio clip? How about signing up for your email newsletter? Do you want the visitor to call a toll-free number and listen to a message? Would you like them to subscribe to your blog updates? Do you have a free ecourse that you’re offering to your visitors? Don’t be shy about telling your visitor what to do. Most people don’t want to have to think when they arrive at a site (myself included), and are more than happy to follow whatever directions you provide and actions that you outline.

For owners of service businesses, I strongly believe that the most important call to action that should appear on your site is asking your visitor to get on your email list. This information becomes the gold in your marketing funnel. You begin to build a list in this fashion, and can email your contacts on this list on a regular basis with special offers, new programs, or just news updates.

The primary way that I capture someone’s contact information is through my email broadcast service, aWeber, which offers me the coding for a subscription form that I can place on any page of my website. Once they have opted in to my list, they begin to receive my email newsletter, as well as emails about special offers, sales, and other pertinent news about my business.

Too many times I hear my clients lament that they’re getting traffic to their websites, but the phone isn’t ringing. I think it’s pretty unrealistic for you to expect a visitor to buy from you immediately upon “meeting” you via your website or becoming acquainted with your service, unless you offer a very highly specialized product or service that visitors cannot obtain elsewhere. Think of your own buying habits. I’ll bet that you fall in the 7-10 “touches” category that marketing experts say is needed in order to get someone to purchase what you’re selling. What do I mean by a “touch”? It could be an email newsletter that you send out regularly, a direct mail postcard that you send, a phone call that you make, or a lunch date that you set. It takes roughly 7-10 contacts (touches) for someone to begin to get to know you, respect you, and like you enough to make the decision to buy from you.

If your offer is compelling enough, 1%-3% of the visitors to your website will convert, or take the action you want them to take. What constitutes a compelling offer? Once upon a time, it was simply an invitation to subscribe to your email newsletter. However, it seems that everyone is writing an email newsletter these days, and with the levels of spam growing increasingly larger day-by-day, a free email newsletter is no longer as enticing as it once was. Instead, offer a free giveaway that provides a solution to a problem that keeps your visitor up at night. Make it compelling enough that your visitors doesn’t hesitate to give you his name and primary email address.

To be effective, your call to action needs to prominently displayed on your homepage, not hidden mid-way down the page in a paragraph of text, or “above the fold”, to borrow an old newspaper term. In this case, your call to action, should be the first thing a visitor sees when arriving at your homepage. In some cases, you may want to have the call to action appear on every page, making it crystal clear to your visitors what action you want them to take.

What compelling piece of information can you offer visitors to capture their names and email addresses? Once you have that info, what is your plan to follow up regularly? Creating a clear call to action on your website, along with an effective follow-up strategy, will measurably increase your sales. Isn’t that we all want from our businesses?

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com.

For more free website marketing strategies to build your business visit Home Business Success today!

a

Website Marketing Strategies-Dramatically Increase Your Conversions with a Clear Call to Action

Tips for Writing Great Website Copy
by Mercedes Aspland

For most websites, the aim is to sell something, whether it be a person, business, opinion or idea. In order to do this your website needs to be written in a certain way. The aim of this article is to give you a few tips on how best to write the copy for your website.

Below are our top tips for writing great website copy:

1. Research Your Industry

It is important that you really understand what you are trying to sell. If you do not this will come across in what you write. If it is yourself that you are trying to sell it will be easy. However if you are writing the website text for a company you work for then do as much research as possible. Talk to the people you work with and read about it on the internet. Make sure you are the expert!

2. Know Your Target Audience

It is important to know who you are targeting. If you are selling something to the under 25s you may use a completely different writing style to if you are marketing to the over 60s. Find out what your target audience wants and needs and also where they are in the buying process.

3. Write a Catchy Headline

When someone visits a website, if they are not caught in the first 10 seconds they will go elsewhere. The title on your page should be something that grabs people’s attention and gets them to read on. If not, it won’t matter how well written your content is, the chances are no one will read it.

4. Make it Personal

Most people like to read something that they feel has been written for them. So when you are writing, do so as if you were speaking. This helps you to tell your story and makes the reader think the website was written for them. This will increase a level of interaction between the user and the website making them warm to you more.

5. Keep it Simple

By this we don’t mean that you need to write poor English, but your website needs to be easy to read. If people see a long page of text changes are they won’t want to read it. The easiest way to get people to read your content is to include lists and bullet points that people can easily scan.

6. Use Plain English

Don’t write using technical language that the man on the street won’t understand, this will only bore and confuse your users. Write in simple layman’s terms.

7. Include a Call to Action

Remember, if you don’t ask someone to buy they probably won’t. Make it easy for people to buy you and your products or services and they probably will.

8. Testimonials

Wherever possible include testimonials from previous clients. People are much more likely to buy from recommendations so if they can see other people that have been happy with you it will be much more convincing than anything you say.

All the above points may seem fairly obvious and they are but you would be surprised how many people forget them. Remember that writing good copy is easy when you follow the above steps. So what are you waiting for, review your website content and increase your sales.

If you like this article you can find out more information at Dazines - Website Design and web development company London UK

Click here to learn more website copy tips to market your website.

a

Great Website Copy Tips

Develop an Online Payment Processing System
by Regina Baker

There are a number of reasons why your business can’t succeed without online payments. If you place your business online, it is absolutely essential to ensure that you have an online payment system where your customers can easily purchase the products and services that you have to offer.

When you set up an online payment system, you will immediately notice a drastic increase in your overall sales. Here, I will provide you with some basic information on online payments. This will include steps that you will need to take to get this going, as well as some advantages associated with doing this.

Developing an Online Payment Processing System

Developing an online payment processing system can be a challenging task. However, it is one that is well worth the time and the effort. When developing your online payment processing system, consider the following:

1. The very first thing that you have to do is determine how much money that you can budget in each month that will pay for an online payment processing system. Many of these systems will require that you pay a startup fee, as well as a monthly maintenance fee. Be certain that you read the complete terms of agreement prior to committing to having this type of system put into place on your business website.

2. The next thing that you will need to do is calculate how many sales, on average, that your business experiences. This will help you to establish whether you need a simple online payment system or a relatively complex one.

3. When choosing an online payment system for your business, it is absolutely imperative that you invest in an online fraud protection service. If you fail to do this, you may suffer tremendous financial losses.

Advantages of an Online Payment System

When you have an online payment system for the business that you conduct online, there are a number of advantages. The following outlines why your business can’t succeed without online payments:

1. Having an online payment system will allow your customers to pay quickly and conveniently without the hassle of paying by check and money order. This means that you are more likely to experience more sales overall.

2. Having this system in place can actually enhance your credibility as an online business.

3. The speed of the transactions not only satisfies your customers, but it will also increase the speed in which you experience profits as a whole.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many reasons why you should implement the use of an online payment system. Your business cannot be successful without one. If you do not have this in place as of yet, it is important that you get on it as soon as possible. By not doing so, you are distinguishing many opportunities that may await you.

About the Author

Regina has been an online and offline entrepreneur and internet marketer for over ten years. She is a Certified Business Coach at ReginaBaker.com. As Co-Founder of Wahmcart.com a web based ecommerce solution (secure shopping cart, affiliate software, tracking and the follow-up management system) for small businesses, Regina is also a Ecommerce Resident Expert and Founder of ShoppingCartFaq.com, a frequently asked questions website concerning shopping carts, autoresponders, tracking and affiliate management systems.

a

The Importance of Developing an Online Payment Processing System

The Role of Social Bookmarking in Marketing your Website
by Mercedes Aspland

Have you seen the social bookmarking symbols on web pages and wondered what they are all about? The aim of this article is to explain what social bookmarking is and how it can help you to market your business on the internet.

What is Social Bookmarking?

Social Bookmarking websites are those that allow us to keep our favourite sites online rather than in the favourites section of our web browser. The biggest advantage of this to the user is that it means you will be able to access your favourite sites from any computer and even possibly your mobile phone.

The other advantage is that you can use social bookmarking sites to search for relevant topics and find information. For the user this can have a distinct advantage over using search engines. Why I hear you asking? Well the main reason is that search engines rank their result by using a computer program. However social bookmarking sites will rank their sites on popularity, so how useful they are to the user. This will enable you to find the most useful sites in a certain topic as determined by other web users.

Most social bookmarking website will group sites together under tag which are similar to keywords. These are usually broad and so are best used by people that are searching for general topics rather than specific information.

The Main Players

Probably the main social bookmarking sites are Del.icio.us, Digg and StumbleUpon. They all have their different qualities and will be used by different groups of people.

Del.icio.us - This is probably the biggest social bookmarking site and really kick started the use of social bookmarks. This is very easy to use and to integrate with your browser which makes it quite popular. It is possible to make sites either private so that you do not need to share them and also public.

You can search bookmarks of other people and if you like what they do you can add them to your network. This will allow you to very quickly see what bookmarks they are posting.

Digg - This is also a very large social bookmarking website that allows you to set up a full profile giving information about yourself and what you do.

StumbleUpon - One of the most interesting of the social bookmarking sites out there. As with the other sites you can set up a full profile adding as much or as little information about you as you want.

This site works quite well as it allows for a lot of interaction between different users. Not only will you be able to become fans of other user and they fans of you, but you will also be able to make friends. This adds a lot for of the social networking functions that you see on sites like Facebook and Myspace. You can set up your own blog and keep all your friends informed on what you are doing.

Addition features include the ability to have sites that are in your top pics and those that you have just discovered, this give more colour to what you do than on other similar sites.

How to Use Social Bookmarking Sites for your Website Promotion

The first thing to consider is that if your site appears on a social network then it will create a valuable backlink to your website and so help your search engine rankings. On the idea of search engines, it is also worth thinking about the fact that they consider social bookmarking links when raking your site. The more links you have from social bookmarking sites the more popular your site. This says to the search engines that you are more important and so they will take this into account when raking your site.

Also think about the traffic that these sites get and the people that will see your links. You can get valuable traffic coming to your site directly from the social bookmarking websites if you are posting your links accurately.

Now let’s consider the best way to use these sites:

1. Make sure you tag your website and any other relevant pages on as many social networking sites as possible.

2. Encourage visitors to your site to bookmark your site and pages if they like them

3. Get on the social bookmarking sites and network with people who have may be interested in your business.

Conclusion

Social Bookmarking is fast becoming one of the most effective ways to market your online business. When you consider the fact that it is free it is a great thing to get into. I will make one proviso here though, don’t just bookmark your site, include other sites that you find interesting. This will keep people interested in your profile and not just see you as marketing your business.

If you have found this article useful then you can get more information from Dazines - search engine optimization, London UK. Dazines - website design and web development company London UK

Click here to learn more successful strategies for using social bookmarking to market your website.

a

Successful Strategies for Using Social Bookmarking in Marketing Your Website

Look Beyond The First Round Of Marketing
by Janice Jenkins

While what I am about to talk about certainly refers to any type of marketing out there, for this particular article postcards are going to be my primary focus. The reason is because I think they provide a good example of what I am referring to. Still, I do not want anyone walking away thinking this is not going to be true for all advertisements.

The main thrust of what I am talking about here has to do largely with repetition, but more with why repetition is so needed.

The primary reason is because people are not always going to be as inclined to take something in the first time they see it. Say you send out your first batch of custom postcards. Now, most people when sorting through the mail go through the same process as I do. I sit down with my pile of mail and divide things up into two separate categories including the junk mail and the mail I need to save.

Each piece of mail initially only gets a passing glance, just enough to figure out whether or not I need to save it, and once I know my answer it gets put in the right pile. For the junk mail this means that I will only glance over at it before throwing it away. Yes, some postcards are going to be able to grab my attention in that first glance, but the majority of them are not.

Is this a fault of the postcards; not at all, because very few things will be able to grab my interest in such a short period of time. A perfectly fine color postcard is only going to get a passing glance along with all of the others before getting dumped in the trash.

This is why having more than one wave of custom postcards is needed. The first time I glance at it I will take in some specific details of the postcard, even if I am not putting much thought to it. That means the second time I get a postcard from the company I will take in a little more, and then a little more again.

Eventually I am going to start remembering the postcard and the company who sent it. Eventually I am going to stop to look more at the postcard to see what it has to say because it has made it through my mind enough to be well remembered.

This is what you have to keep in mind when you do your marketing. People are not always going to give you as much attention the first time you send something, but that does not mean you are not getting through to them. After enough repetition they will remember who you are, and you will see your sales go up accordingly.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Custom Postcards

Click here for more tips for marketing using custom postcards.

a

Postcard Marketing Tips

Join us for a day of business networking, sisterhood and learning how to de-stress by Overcoming the Superwoman Syndrome!

• Are you always putting the needs of others before your own???
• Do you feel there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get things done???
• Are you tired of being a SUPERWOMAN???

If so, this workshop is for YOU!!!

In this workshop Danette Boone, President and CEO of D. Boone & Associates, a consulting organization that provides educational training and development on women’s wellness will share with you the characteristics of the Superwoman Syndrome and how it affects us on physical, psychological, and interpersonal levels. You will learn how to identify the syndrome, determine if you or someone you know is affected by it and how to overcome the Superwoman Syndrome!!!

Click here for more information and to RSVP today!

a

Business Women Networking Events- Overcoming the Superwoman Syndrome

Let Your Competition Teach You
by Colleen Davis

Many new business owners view their potentially heavy competition with a look of apprehension and fear at the prospect of going up against such well established companies.

I mean, you’re entering into an industry that already has several companies claiming their stake in the marketplace. How are you supposed to challenge them when they not only have more experience than you, but also have an established customer base?

My point isn’t to scare anyone away, but instead to point out that there are ways to succeed, and the first way is to let that very competition give you some good lessons.

One of the hardest parts of marketing is often figuring out what it is that your customers are looking for. You need to be able to give them something they want and give it to them in a format that they’ll enjoy and be attracted to. Figuring out what those messages and formats are can be hard for a new company, which is why you need to just step back and look at your competition.

They’ve already done their research. If they’re getting color poster printing done you need to go out and see what those full color posters look like. Doing so will automatically give you a number of effective details.

The first is the type of images that people like. The second is the type of messages that resonate with the customers. And the third is the format that works to draw them. I doubt the company just picked color poster printing at random for their marketing. They chose this after some solid research that said this type of marketing would be effective.

Look at every kind of marketing all of them are doing, along with the differences between each company. Are some companies putting a strong focus on customer support while others are emphasizing low prices? Now you’re not only seeing what works but also seeing how the companies are competing.

Okay, so you have all of this information now, but what do you do with it? Just copying the others won’t work, so instead you have to then take what you know about them, and figure out some way to improve upon it. Is there something they aren’t saying, something that doesn’t seem to work as good as it could? Ask some customers about what they think of the store and their marketing.

Now you not only know what your market is like, but you know what areas the competition is lagging in. This gives you a potential edge when you start up your own business, allowing you to grab a portion of the customer base they aren’t completely satisfying.

Getting a foothold in the market can be a challenging task. Take the time to look at your competition, and make sure you know exactly how you can improve upon them.

For more information, you can visit this page on poster printing and full color posters

Click here for more Sales Marketing Strategy information for new business owners.

a

Sales Marketing Strategy for New Business Owners

Network Marketing – You Just Must Have Your Own Website
By Audrey Okaneko

For as long as I’ve had an online presence I’ve had my own website. This is in addition to any company generated website I might also have.

There are many reasons why a website of your own is a must:

1. The URL - When you have your own website, you’ll have a URL that is www.yourdomain.com. This URL can be anything you choose. You can have your name, www.yourname.com. You can have something related to the products you are selling such as www.typeofproduct.com. There really are no limits on what you choose. This URL can be put on business cards, used in online profiles, used when you write articles and much more.

2. With a website of your own, you have the option to offer something other than your company products. You can offer ebooks. You can offer affiliate products. You can even accept advertising from those who want the traffic you receive to see their ad.

3. You are able to add as many pages as you want. With a company website, you are limited to having only the pages they allow you to have. If you want a special page, you can’t do that on a company site. With your own domain you can have whatever you want. An example would be a testimonial page. These are great to have. Not all company sites have space for this. On your own site you can create a testimonial page.

4. Company URL’s are very often not picked up by search engines. When you have a website of your own, you can optimize each individual page for the search engines. You can research keyword terms and then build pages according to what is being looked for in the search engines.

5. If for any reason the company goes out of business, you still have your website. With some minor changes, you can offer a different product and your website will still be listed in the search engines, in your profiles and on your business cards. Your website is yours and you won’t have to “start over” with a new website, just to make some minor changes.

These are five of the top reasons to have a website of your own when you are a network marketing consultant. Consider buying your own domain and then watch your business grow.

Audrey Okaneko has been in direct sales since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or you can Become a Tupperware Consultant

Website tools to help you get started:
Budget domain names and websites
Small Business Web Hosting
Professional Website Builder

a

5 Reasons Why You Must Have Your Own Network Marketing Website

Women in Business have Unique Challenges Part 1
by Jane Morrison

When it comes to the sexes, men and women in business have different ways of going about it, and techniques for men don’t always work if you are a woman in business.

In my research I’ve discovered the top issues that women need to overcome if they are going to be successful.

The first issue that women have with business is their target market. Most women do not want to limit themselves to one target person or group. They feel that will limit their income and they may be missing someone that could use their services or products.

While that is a valid point, the opposite is true. By focusing your time and energy on one target market you will make the most income. If other people are not in your target market, they will either come in or you will never be able to sell them on what you offer.

I’m reminded of a chiropractor in my business networking group. Each week he would stand up and say his perfect client was “anyone with a spine.” So in trying to think of a good referral for him, the vision was quite broad and all I could think of was the masses - not an effective way to communicate about your services.

Later I met a chiropractor who claimed a target market of being able to help high school athletes, in particular, football players. He himself had played varsity football when in school. Now this got me thinking about my son who played ball and got crunched around, as well as several of his friends, and I was able to provide him so repetitive business based on the vision he painted for me of his target niche.

Of course the same chiropractors could provide services to others, and he did, but he got his customers in the door with one main focus. When you focus your time on your target market you will be able to find them and be in the different places that they are, you will be able to focus your time on marketing your business and you will be able to help them out and build trust with them. This is the best way to make sales no matter what you offer.

Sometimes women don’t know who their target market is. You need to sit down and look at what you offer and who would use it. If you have a product or service that can be used by a number of different groups, you need decide who you want to work with. For example, if you are a business coach, your target market could be men or women. If you enjoy working with women and helping them reach their goals, then your target market would be women in business. With that, you need to put yourself in front of that group. Don’t target a group that you don’t like to work with because all that is going to do is make you unhappy and you won’t reach your own goals.

Deciding on your target market and focusing on that group can be difficult to do. But, it’s something you need to do to be successful with your own business. Women have a hard time doing this because they want to reach out to everyone. Just because you are a woman doesn’t mean you need to help everyone. You need to help yourself and that means you need to focus on a specific target market.

Jane Morrison has been a leader in the field of personal and professional development for the past 20 years. She has practiced success principles with results in her own life and business, and has dedicated her life to teach others. Her clients achieve confidence and skills to live their dreams with prosperous outcomes. Check out www.smartsavvysuccess.com and www.womenconnectionsnetwork.com to find support to live your best life.

Click here for more Marketing Ideas for Successful Women in Business

a

Successful Women in Business Know Their Target Market