Top Viral Marketing

Archive for January, 2010

Going Local – The Importance Of Local Networking For Your Home Business

For years now one of the golden catch phrases in the home business industry has been going global that term means that youre taking your business beyond your geographic area and into a larger and presumably more lucrative marketplace. Thats a great idea but far too many people are missing the more important first steps that make such a move possible. Introducinglocal networking.

Before you can go global you first have to go local. That means youve got to get your name and your face in front of as many people in your neighborhood and your city as possible. Try to act as though your business is a political campaign and you are facing an incumbent with years of experience and name recognition. The only possible chance youre going to have at beating your opponent or even showing up on the ballot is for people to see your face shake your hand and talk to you about what you stand for. Local networking provides that for you in business.

There are a multitude of likeminded entrepreneurs in your neighborhood guaranteed. In fact your neighbors need the products and services you are selling and statistics show that they would rather buy it from someone close to home than from a faceless web site somewhere on the other side of the world. These folks are much more inclined to do business in a local networking setting than online.

By using local networking outlets like BNI and MeetUp you are opening the doors of your business to people in your community. The majority of these events are free or very inexpensive and shaking a hand introducing yourself facetoface has a much higher rate of interest than an Internet ad. You are personalizing your business and hand delivering it to people who are in your back yard and doing so will see you increase your sales numbers and make a few good contacts at the same time.

These events dont take a lot of time and they are most commonly social in nature anyway. Why not spend a little social time making some local networking contacts that just might be the real key it helping your business go global?

About the writer:  Frank Demming is a Home Business expert who provides other network marketers/home business owners with top notch advice on how to become successful in the Home Business industry. Be sure to visit my website at http://www.DemmingInc.com

Generating Visitors Using Social Media

You’ve spent weeks of your own time or invested a large amount of your budget designing and developing a new website. You’ve researched keywords written pages of SEO optimised content based on those keywords and you’ve ensure that every page has a clearly defined Call To Action CTA and Unique Selling Proposition USP. You’ve added links to buy your products or links to affiliate products and have optimised every inch of website real estate that you possess. The question is what now?

New Site? What Now?

The short answer is that you need to start building traffic. In reality though the answer is more complex than that. Regardless of the techniques you use to build traffic it must be qualified targeted traffic in order for the visitors it generates to prove effective. Poorly targeted traffic that is either too generic or entirely irrelevant for the content of your site simply won’t generate the results you’re hoping for.

Generating Traffic

The truth is that building traffic for a new website can be a long process. Every website should invest at least some time effort and/or money into an SEO campaign. Search engine traffic can be very effective with precisely targeted visitors landing on relevant pages ready to make their way through your buying process. Other options also exist; social websites can be used to generate equally targeted if less responsive traffic. Viral marketing of videos and other content can also drive surf through traffic while helping to further improve your SEO efforts.

Harnessing Social Media

Social media is more than a current phenomenon or a craze; it’s almost single handedly controlling the manner in which the Internet is developing. New websites are being designed specifically with a web 2.0 theme and including various social media sharing functions features and benefits. SMO or Social Media Optimisation is one of the latest forms of online marketing to grab the attention of website owners and online marketers.

The Importance Of Your Website Content

The key to effectively harnessing the social Internet is through the creation use and dissemination of appealing useful and informative content. To some SEOs and marketers this may sound like old hat and in a lot of respects it is but the onus needs to be firmly placed on quality. Poor quality content that offers no relevance and contains no benefit for the reader won’t appeal to anybody and will therefore have no lasting effect on your SMO.

Adding Social Content To Your Site

For your own website consider adding a blog at the very least. Article pages guides blog posts and other content pages should offer readers the opportunity to bookmark share and circulate the information on your behalf. Share buttons can be easily and quickly added to the template of a website so readers that find your information to be particularly useful or beneficial can quickly add a link to your page on many different social media sites. Your readers effectively become your marketers too.

Get Involved In Your Community

Sharing content hosted on your web pages is only a small part of the SMO battle. The most effective and profitable SMO campaign will require you to get involved in the communities that are relevant to your website. Research the social networking and social media sites to find those that are relevant to your website and frequented by your target market. Register with these sites and prepare to get as involved as you can.

A Little Effort For A Lot Of Reward

A little extra time spent becoming a valuable member of the community can translate into greatly improved traffic increased sales and better profits. If you don’t have the time or the resource to manage SMO in this way then look for outside assistance. Your readers and your visitors will do some of the leg work for you but you can’t rely entirely on them to promote your business for you.

About the writer:  WebWiseWords is a professional content writer service offering a variety of website content writing products including effective SEO copywriting services.

Generating Power Introductions

Generating Power Introductions

The Seminar Coach.biz

In the world of sales there are three ways to build your business. The first is to gain new business from existing clients. This is like the old riddle: what came first the chicken or the egg? What I mean is that without a large base of clients living from additions becomes difficult. The second is constantly cycling through leads generated through advertising or that have been purchased from a lead company. While a viable way to build a business the response rate may be low and respondents unqualified. This can be frustrating and lead the less disciplined to failure. There is another way to generate prospects and these prospects are generally qualified. These prospects come to us via referrals or in our case INTRODUCTIONS.

I choose not to use the word referrals. This term has saturated the consciousness of our clients. Some may go as far as to say that the word referral has a negative connotation. Most people typically come into contact with the word referral when they visit their doctor. When the medical issue becomes escalated they are referred to a specialist. On the other hand most people come into contact with the word introduction at parties during business etc. My point is that introductions occur in every day life and most people are comfortable with this term. This article will cover what I feel are the 10 Golden Rules for Generating Power Introductions.

10 Golden Rules

Generating Power Introductions

Have the COURAGE to do and be something different.

The first step to adding a new wrinkle to your business is to allow yourself to be fearful. However do not let the fear paralyze you. Taking action in the face of fear is called courage. The scope of your business relationships is directly correlated to the amount of professional courage you possess.

Create memorable and valuable EXPERIENCES.

When clients are asked about their feelings regarding a product or service they refer to the experience they have had with the people associated with the product or service. One of the most powerful ways to secure a client for life is to provide that person with a memorable experience. This is what separates one commodity or intangible from another.

VALUE is only received when VALUE is perceived.

Many sales people expect that their prospects can easily identify why they should purchase the product or service being offered. Why not? Did they not drink the same Kool Aid that the salesperson drank? We sometimes pummel our prospects with features which sometimes can be abstract in their minds. This abstract feature is only a value in your eyes. One of the greatest obstacles for the presenter is taking abstract features and bringing them into real world benefits to the client. I call this taking an idea from NASA to the Kitchen Table. One of the most effective ways to do this is to show the prospect or audience how the Feature will impact them at their level and become a Kitchen Table Value.

SEEK opportunities for INTRODUCTIONS.

Some salespeople get unsolicited introductions from clients. It is generally accepted that 20 of your book will provide unsolicited introductions. It is also generally accepted that 60 will provide them if given the right circumstances. Seek introductions from the 60 of your book not yet providing you with introductions. Of course you will run into the 20 that will never give referrals but at least you will know who they are. Do you have the courage to face NO?

CREATE opportunities for INTRODUCTIONS.

Make it easy for the 60 willing to give you introductions. Create events and activities where they can bring friends and colleagues. If you build it they will come. Sound familiar? Seminars are a great way to create your field of dreams.

People dont CARE what you know unless they know that you CARE.

If you are not participating in community and charitable events that benefit others you are missing out in one of the most rewarding ways to build your business. I have seen producers double and triple there business by making the right contacts. Many of these contacts have come from people who deeply like the producers. So how can you generate like with a large group of people? Become a visible activist in a cause you genuinely care about. Those supporting that cause become your ally.

DEVELOP and PROTECT your PERSONAL BRAND.

Howard Schultz the chairman of Starbucks once said Customers must recognize that you stand for something. I suggest that you make that something a trait that would lead them to doing business. Are you the responsive and responsible business person? Or are you the flightly unorganized Snake Oil salesperson? Your answer carries little weight it is the answer provided by your clients and prospects that matter. If you arent confident in their responses then you have a branding issue.

You will receive 1/3 of the INTRODUCTIONS YOU MAKE. The people who become clients are 2xs more likely to INTRODUCE YOU to others.

It will become crystal clear as to why it is important to create an introduction based business. By providing introductions during networking events you will create a flow of introductions back to you. The clients generated from introductions are more apt to provide continuing introductions to you.

REWARD INTRODUCERS within COMPLIANCE guidelines.

Once you have received an introduction reward the one who introduced you. The reward should be given whether or not the prospect becomes a client. The gift should be tasteful and very visible. I am not against the thank you dinner however after the meal has been eaten and the wine drunk who else will know of what you did? I prefer the thank you that keeps giving. A gift that the introducers friends will see and ask about is my preference. A round of golf for four client and three friends four theatre tickets etc. makes for an effective thank you gift.

CREATE an INTRODUCTION KIT.

No one is better suited to sing your praises than you. Clients can give you an introduction but it is not likely that they can sell you. Help your clients to sing your praises by providing them a kit that spells out why a prospect should do business with YOU and your company. The kit should include not only your services but also professional introductions you can make to provide a onestop solution to the prospect.

Remember: 60 of your clients are willing to introduce you to their friends and colleagues. Make it as easy as possible for them to make the introduction that can change your professional life. We are all six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

John is the founder of The Seminar Coach.Biz. He lives in Tampa Florida with his wife and three boys. John has been helping financial professionals break through the barriers of mediocrity for over 15 years. He can be reached at jlombaforcelife.com.

About the writer:  John is the founder of The Seminar Coach.Biz. He lives in Tampa Florida with his wife and three boys. John has been helping financial professionals break through the barriers of mediocrity for over 15 years. He can be reached at jlombaforcelife.com