Virtual Assistance Business Briefs » marketing

How to Create a Simple Marketing Plan

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:15:31 +0000

Many of you broke into a sweat after reading the title, didn’t you? Many don’t have a plan because they believe it’s too hard, too time consuming, or they just don’t know where to start.

Creating a good marketing plan doesn’t have to be overwhelming, or costly, but it will save you time and help you achieve your goals.

Start by identifying:

· Who is your ideal client?

· What do I have to spend?

· Where can I reach my ideal client?

Establish your ideal client profile by looking at your current clients and who can afford to buy your product or service? Then identify the best ways to reach them.

Your marketing budget should minimally be 10-15% of your yearly sales. Start simple, and make changes monthly or quarterly as you begin to see results. Be realistic and flexible. Having a budget will allow you to visualize and expand upon your program throughout the year.

The plan itself will have a number of options to consider. Here is a list of some marketing aspects to consider in your plan.

Print advertising (including Yellow Pages)
Direct Mail
Email (include eZines and Blogs)
Networking (Chamber participation/membership)
Sponsorship
Trade Shows
Article Writing
Speaking
Referrals
Social Media

While some of these items will have little to no cost, including them in your marketing plan will help you stay on track and implement each segment as needed.

When putting together the actual marketing piece, remember to include a ‘call to action’. It could be a coupon in a direct mail piece, or a ‘free’ offer at the end of a speaking engagement. Just make sure you have different calls to action in each piece so that tracking success will be a breeze.

Check in quarterly to see how each segment is performing and make adjustments as necessary throughout the year to make sure you are getting the biggest bang for your marketing buck!

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or contact her at info@accbizsvsc.com

How to Create a Simple Marketing Plan is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Are You Like a Salmon When Looking for New Clients?

Jeannine Clontz — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:53:03 +0000

In my former life, I was a purchasing agent for a seafood company. This time of year reminds me of the salmon runs. During the summer months, many wild salmon species take the journey back to their birthplace to spawn and ultimately end their lives.

Their upstream journey is a challenging one, swimming against rugged rapids, leaping over rocky waterfalls, traversing fish ladders, avoiding fishermen nets, and staying clear of hungry bears. When they finally reach their natal stream they are ready to spawn. This is an amazing and focused journey calling them to do what comes naturally.

Some of us make such a journey to find new clients, or maintain those we currently enjoy. Nowadays we have to think outside the box with our marketing and face the challenges of competition, less disposable income, overcoming objections, and differentiating ourselves by creating benefits clients simply can’t live without.

On the flip side, I’m looking for the clients who are like the salmon – the clients who will go through the upstream battle to find the most professional support, the BEST level of service and technology to create the ‘can’t live without’ message that reaches that ideal client who helps them grow their business during tough economic times.

There are only a few ways to grow a business, no matter what the economic situation:

· Find new clients

· Sell more to current clients

· Raise prices

Finding new clients is probably the most expensive way to grow your business, but one that can certainly yield great results if you have the right plan and consistent implementation.

So where are you in the life cycle of my salmon story? Ready to look for those clients who are willing to swim upstream to get to your product or service? And are you willing to leap over rocky waterfalls and traverse rough waters to find the most professional support you need?

Whatever you decide, increase your marketing time and investment if you want to grow your business, or take a chance you’ll get left behind.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA). ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing support and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. Find the perfect VA by downloading her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or herFREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, send a request to: service@accbizsvcs.com. For more information visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Are You Like a Salmon When Looking for New Clients? is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: business goals, business growth, Business Tips, find new clients, marketing, Marketing Tips

Five Ways to Grow Your Business to Six or Seven Figures!

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:50:50 +0000

Ever wondered how your competitors generate six and seven figures incomes? As a professional in your field or niche, you face many challenges when marketing and promoting yourself to achieve six and seven figure incomes.

As we’ve helped more and more professionals grow their business through traditional and Internet marketing and social media, I’ve found several underutilized ways to entice the world to sit up and pay attention to my clients and their offerings. Here are five ways you may not have considered when looking to expand and grow your business:

· Create and submit press releases (not many people regularly promote themselves through the press)

· Drill down your niche into a market that ONLY you can fulfill (create a uniqueness about your product or service)

· Create eBooks, whitepapers, and audio/video products to sell online and off

· Create a Joint Venture opportunity – find someone else who could benefit from a partnership in marketing to each other’s lists, and splitting the costs of print and Internet materials

· Speak or write articles to your target audience and capture their contact info through giveaways to expand your marketing list

Adding one or more of these options to your marketing efforts over time will help you to increase exposure to your products and services. These options provide a great opportunity for word-of-mouth and referrals, the most cost-effective ways to grow your business to that six or seven figure goal.

So what ‘outside-the-box’ marketing options have you tried lately? Please share your challenges and ideas by leaving a comment below.

Five Ways to Grow Your Business to Six or Seven Figures! is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: ebooks, joint venture, marketing, niche, niche marketing, press release, speaking, write articles

Build Email Marketing Trust Through Appearance (Part Two)

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:13:56 +0000

Last week we looked at building trust in our email marketing campaigns by creating a recognizable ‘from’ line to our messages; optimizing the copy that is viewed through the preview pane; and encouraging subscriber communication. This week we complete the process with three more tips to polish your email marketing appearance.

4. Include full contact details in your footer.

Publishing your company’s full contact information allows your subscribers to trust in what you have to say. People are more open to content from credible sources and showing that you are a real company (with a registered name, mailing address, and contact numbers) will enhance your credibility. Including these details in your footer also creates accountability for everything you say in your emails.

5. Match email design to your brand.

The design of your emails should be consistent with all other materials you use to promote your business online. While you don’t need to copy your website’s design and layout down to the last detail, it is best for you to match your emails to its theme, colors, and graphics. This will help extend the trust you’ve built through other promotional activities beyond your email marketing campaign.

Once you’ve created a design that suits your image, use it consistently in all your emails. Doing so will continue to build trust through branding and recognition. You may consider showing a sample email to new subscribers so that they become familiar with the look and know what to expect. Once they receive your email, they will be more likely to read through it.

6. Email design doesn’t need to be fancy.

Some email marketers get so caught up designing their emails that they forget to focus on functionality. While the use of fancy code can make your emails look flawless, they will appear far from perfect if not in good working order and will do nothing to gain respect from subscribers. They need to look professional and work properly for subscribers.

To produce a successful email marketing campaign and gain trust from subscribers, you need to make sure that the design you use will work and does not appear broken, leaving subscribers feeling you don’t really know what you’re doing.

For this reason, make sure your emails render properly in at least the major email clients. You should also make use of proper alt attributes (an alternative text description for images that displays before the image is loaded) in case the images get blocked.

Appearance plays a huge part in gaining trust from your subscribers. As long as you keep these tips in mind when planning your email marketing campaign, you should be able to establish your reputation as a trustworthy and credible source of relevant information.

Please share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA). ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics. For her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or herFREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com. Find out more at www.VAbizcoach.com or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

Build Email Marketing Trust Through Appearance (Part Two) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: email marketing, email marketing tips, Internet Marketing, Internet Marketing Tips, marketing, Marketing Tips

Build Email Marketing Trust Through Appearance (Part One)

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:21:18 +0000

Appearance is everything, even in the success you can achieve through email marketing. Your branding, and the trust you gain through recognition, is gauged by the appearance of the messages you send to subscribers. The design you utilize, projects your quality and distinction.

Many email users consider commercial messages as spam partly because they look like spam. Marketing messages sent out with little attention to branding, layout, and design details will likely be considered spam and quickly ignored or deleted. To avoid portraying this image and to gain trust from your subscribers, you need to pay attention to the appearance of what you send out.

Here are my tips to help you build trust through the appearance of your emails and, allowing your email marketing campaigns to achieve success.

1. Make sure the ‘from’ line is recognizable.

Recognition is important in gaining trust from subscribers. This makes it crucial to use a recognizable name in your ‘from’ line. Use your real name, an online alias, or organization’s name, product or service. Obviously, you should choose whichever name your subscribers are most likely to recognize as well as respond to positively.

2. Optimize the preview pane.

Apart from your sender and subject line, what appears in recipients’ preview pane is what many people first encounter. The content seen through the preview pane, helps recipients decide whether or not they want to read the entire message. To keep your subscribers from ignoring or deleting your emails before receiving your message, make sure that what appears in their preview pane is recognizable and attractive. Try using your logo, a masthead, and an attention-grabbing headline.

3. Encourage subscriber communication.

Many Email Marketers use "Do Not Reply" accounts because they don’t monitor communications sent to the address they use to send out emails. This is often used when emails are sent by third party suppliers or email marketing companies.

However, this can be detrimental to the success of your email marketing campaign. You should actually encourage your subscribers to connect with you with comments, suggestions, or questions. By doing so, you gain insights from your subscribers and inspire trust through your interactions.

Check back next week for three more tips for building Email Marketing Trust through Appearance. Meanwhile, please share your comments or questions regarding the design aspects you follow to create success in your email marketing campaigns.

Build Email Marketing Trust Through Appearance (Part One) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: email marketing, email marketing tips, Internet Marketing, Internet Marketing Tips, marketing, Marketing Tips

Subscriber Respect Builds Trust in Email Marketing

Jeannine Clontz — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:37:11 +0000

Respecting your current and potential subscribers is important in building trust through your email marketing campaign. How you collect email addresses and what you do with them will establish the level of respect you’ll provide. Most individuals consider their email address as private so what you do with it greatly affects whether you get to build on that trust or ruin it entirely. Subscribers trust those that show the most respect for their privacy. Here are tips to help you give subscribers the highest level of respect.

1. Set High Permission Standards

Never trick people into opting in. Get clear permission to send out everything you want to through your email marketing campaign. This means you should never pre-check opt-in boxes or trick subscribers with intentionally misleading text (i.e. "Do not select this option if you do not want to receive…"). Before people sign up, provide clear information on exactly what they are signing up for. Let them know what type of emails they will be receiving and how often they can expect them. Another level of confirmation is best. Ask new subscribers to confirm their decision to opt in through a second action, like asking them to click on a confirmation link located in your first email.

2. Be Transparent About Your Privacy Policies

Don’t intentionally publish privacy policies in long legal speak, or small print, knowing subscribers are unlikely to read them. Make it simple for them to discover and understand exactly what you intend to use their data for, and establish the proper level of respect. This means writing your privacy policies in simple language and making it easily accessible. If you trust and respect their privacy and if you really are trustworthy, you shouldn’t have anything to hide.

3. Respect Permission to the Highest Degree

Never rent or sell your list to third parties, even if you feel confident it can’t be traced back to you. People set certain expectations when they submit their email addresses to trustworthy email marketers. Subscribers don’t expect marketing messages from new senders or other things they did not explicitly sign up for. They should receive exactly what you told them to expect. In doing so, you will be recognized as a trustworthy provider.

In email marketing, you need to show subscribers exactly why they should trust you; and the amount of respect you give their privacy is a huge part of creating your trustworthiness. Never try to trick them into opting in for anything they don’t expect or fully understand. Value the trust they show for you as they give you their email addresses.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA). ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics. For her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or herFREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com. Find out more at www.VAbizcoach.com or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

Subscriber Respect Builds Trust in Email Marketing is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: attracting clients, building client relationship, business brand, Business Ethics, business goals, Business Tips, ethical decisions, ethical dilemma, ethics, marketing, Marketing Tips

Small Business Marketing on Twitter

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:27:56 +0000

Of all the small business marketing options social media creates, Twitter presents the most challenges in determining its use to help your company grow. Luckily, you don’t have to be a computer expert or a marketing guru to infuse Twitter into your overall promotional strategy.

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is a web-based social networking site that can be utilized to send relatively brief messages (140 characters) to acquaintances, family members, friends, or to the overall worldwide Internet community.

Common Uses

There are numerous application options for Twitter, but mainly its uses include, news, resources, and communications. For example, LA Firefighters employ Twitter to keep the community abreast of potential fires and other emergencies. In addition, news agencies provide up-to-the-minute news updates using Twitter, While companies and public services utilize Twitter more and more, most utilize Twitter to keep family and friends updated on their current activities.

Marketing Your Business On Twitter

A Mass Media Outlet

If you run a business, Twitter can be utilized to publish news and updates about your specific products or business. The biggest overall value involves posting a clickable link to a complete article or press release allowing customers to "discover" the material via Twitter. It’s especially popular for B2Bs looking to build brand awareness and relationships. Proper etiquette is essential to effectively market on Twitter. Overt advertising can alienate followers and usually serves to create bad feelings among potential consumers.

An Internet Bulletin Board

An ideal forum to promote sales or special events, Twitter keeps customers updated on specials and new items. When promoting your business on Twitter, keep in mind that it’s designed for conversation and timely news. Make sure that you post in a personal and conversational manner and don’t subject followers to blatant advertising.

Instill personality Into Your Brand

Twitter is a wonderful option for giving your brand name its own unique voice. Successful Twittering reveals your personality and individual flair, creates a considerable difference in your overall success while increasing your Twitter followers. Followers create value when using Twitter as a marketing platform for your small business.

Client Support

When using Twitter, you’ll immediately discover its conversion benefits. Twitter allows you the opportunity to talk to prospects and potential consumers, while also responding to your followers. Demonstrate to your following that you would like to engage with them to create optimum client support and tell them that you are a trustworthy, personable individual.

Small Business Marketing on Twitter is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: attracting clients, building client relationship, business goals, Business Tips, creating a marketing plan, Goals, marketing, marketing a business, Marketing Tips, twitter, Twitter tips

The Basics of Email Marketing Implementation

Jeannine Clontz — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:50:53 +0000

Email marketing has proven to be an effective option for businesses of all sizes and shapes whether that business is based online or not. Start up businesses looking to increase exposure and sales are looking to email marketing as a viable option to add to their overall marketing strategy.

Developing your database of prospects and email addresses is the main focus in outlining an email marketing campaign. You should begin by making sure you have current email addresses for your clientele. If not, encourage them to provide it with some sort of incentive by email, on your website, or perhaps on their next invoice. Your email marketing list should be constantly growing and evolving.

Offer some sort of a report or article in exchange, ask them to provide survey input, or request they join your email distribution list. Be sure that you leave the door open for them to opt-out at any time, even though doing so may initially disappoint you, it’s far better to focus your efforts on those who have an interest in what you have to offer. Be sure your offer entices people to sign-up by making the offer relevant to your target market. Not all people respond favorably to email marketing; give them the option to opt-out without taking it personally. The incentive is one of the best ways to capture new names to your distribution list.

When you begin sending out your marketing emails create a good balance. Don’t bombard your clients and prospects with too many emails, as this will often cause them to opt-out. Instead be consistent by sending your messages the same day and time each week or month. Consistency is the most important part. People will gauge your reliability against the consistency of your marketing efforts. Create and follow a schedule so that your subscribers will know when to expect a communication from you.

Remember, people who opt-in to your email distribution list are interested in you and your offerings based upon what you’ve offered them either by having already experienced your product or service, or by the interest you created with the offer you made to capture their contact information. Keep in mind that it could take as many as seven connections before a prospect begins to recognize you and up to twelve times before they feel they know you well enough to actually initiate a sale. Set realistic expectations and keep sending quality email communications on a regular basis and you will see a great return on investment.

Implement these simple guidelines to kick-start your email marketing campaign and monitor its success by tracking your results. Email marketing is a cost-effective option to grow your business.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA). ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics. For her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, send a request to: service@accbizsvcs.com or visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, www.VAbizcoach.com or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

The Basics of Email Marketing Implementation is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: email marketing, marketing, Marketing Tips

Getting Referrals

Jeannine Clontz — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:16:34 +0000

Getting referrals takes time and work. Just because you do a good job for your clients doesn’t mean they’re going to naturally send you referrals. Attending networking events and making connections with people who could potentially provide you with referrals isn’t automatic, either.

Just like everything else to do with your business, it’s hard work! But it doesn’t have to be drudgery. Once you start asking for and listening for the openings to make a request, it becomes a habit that will help you expand your business and increase profits.

A big part of it is your mindset. Are you excited about your products and services? Do you express excitement when talking about what you do? Is there a smile on your face? Do you think about the many potential clients searching for your products and services and how you are the best option to solve their problems?

Are you confident when you are speaking to a client or friend about passing along a referral (do you even ask?), and when your client or prospect is speaking are you focused on them and being a good listener? Are you making eye contact?

These are all great ways to prepare yourself to ask for referrals. And don’t forget to provide them, too. Find someone that fits a need for this person that is not in your expertise, or suggest their products/services to someone else, and be sure to let them know you referred them. Nothing helps solidify your relationship better than reciprocating.

Create a basic script for asking for referrals and practice it until it is second nature and flows naturally. You’ll be surprised at just how many great prospects are out there just waiting to find you if only you would ask.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA). ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing support and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics. For her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, send a request to: service@accbizsvcs.com. For more information visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, www.VAbizcoach.com or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

Getting Referrals is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: business growth, marketing, Marketing Tips, Networking, networking tips, referrals

So What Do You Do? Five Steps to An Infomercial That SELLS!

Jeannine Clontz — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:04:19 +0000

Did that title give you pause? Many people struggle to answer this question. Sometimes referred to as your elevator speech, or infomercial, having a smooth and easy to understand response will really go far in helping people to know who you are and what you have to offer.

Here are five things to consider in crafting your 60-second infomercial:

1. Who is your target market? While I can open my informercial by saying, “although I have clients in almost every industry…” – you still want to focus on your niche or target market to help people think of who they know that could benefit from your services. If you’re still not sure, analyze your current client list and see if there is a particular industry, or type of client that seems most logical to your offerings.

2. What problems does your target market have that you can solve? Keep it simple. Come up with one or two things – don’t overdo it – less is more!

3. How do you solve these problems? Again, don’t come up with a laundry list of products/services, just enough to whet the appetite so they’ll want to find out more.

4. Mention something specific that speaks to results, like: ‘many of my clients say their sales increased at least 20% as a result of working with us’.

5. End with either a memorable tagline, or a question – like – ‘is that something that might be of interest to you or someone you know?’

Once you have it setup, print it out and practice it (and time yourself) several times until you have it pretty well memorized. You don’t want to come off sounding too scripted, but you will need to get comfortable with all the aspects so that you’re sure to hit all the points you need to in your time allotment.

Once you have this mastered, you will want to cut the content even more, for a true elevator speech – which is usually only 30-seconds in length.

Finally, especially if you attend networking events regularly, you will want to have several different versions for answering the questions numbered two, three, and four above. This gives people the opportunity to hear more about the additional services/products you provide. If you only talk about one specific product or service, they’ll believe that’s all you offer and you could be leaving potential sales on the table.

With a little bit of work, and practice, you’ll have the perfect 60-second infomercial that helps people immediately recognize what it is you do, and who they need to refer to you. Word of mouth marketing is the most cost-effective way to market your business. The infomercial is the best tool to close the sale!

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA). ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing support to busy entrepreneurs. Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics. For her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, send a request to: service@accbizsvcs.com. For more information visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, www.VAbizcoach.com or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

So What Do You Do? Five Steps to An Infomercial That SELLS! is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: marketing, marketing a business, Marketing Tips, Networking, networking tips