Article Writing to Help Promote Websites
A great many new business owners, especially those who do not own a whole lot of article marketing background, have the swell idea that getting a great many links for their sites is a fine tactic. That’s not really a hundred percent correct because building links, when done wrong, can plunge your sites. There are a wide variety of ways to build back links to your online site, and so far, the benefits of article marketing far surpass other link building methods.
Some webmasters generate links by posting their sites to thousands of online directories. With such a large number of links out in the world wide web, it’s almost a sure thing for search engines to seek out your links and index your sites. But that’s pretty much it. There are very few benefits that’s worth mentioning. Other webmasters like to post on forums and blogs to build links. This is a much better link building method because it allows the owner to communicate with others on the websites. Human beings will see respond to the posts, see the links, and click through to see what your business has to offer. This is a pain staking process. It takes a great deal of time to post on forums and blogs, and it takes even more time for other bloggers to remember you and your sites. The expert Internet Marketers usually choose article marketing over all other link building methods for a few special reasons. First, article marketing allows them to get their message out there very quickly. By generating great articles, they let the readers have a preview of the products and services that they have to share. If readers want to research more on the subject, they can always click the links in the author bio boxes and visit the author live site. Besides direct traffic and higher search engine rankings, this method is also easily scalable. There’s a snowballing effect as more and more articles get submitted and approved by the article directories. If done regularly over a few months, readers will inevitably learn to trust the writers more as can see for themselves the quality of the information that’s put forward by the article marketers. It’s tantamount to having your own website or blog for customer communications, except that now you have hundreds of routes. Article marketers know how to use this method to let others see themselves as gurus in their field. There’s no need to mention, those who are not implementing article marketing will certainly lose in the long term because the Internet is all about traffic. As these quality information get indexed by the search engines and syndicated to hundreds of other sites, the publishers will get a great amount of traffic. With a a lot of traffic coming to their websites, guess who is going to eat up the market in the long run? It doesn’t take someone very smart to answer that question. If you’re not into article marketing yet, I highly suggest that you look into executing this method immediately. Do it for a couple of months. Write and distribute five articles each day, and if you don’t see some expected results, you can always junk the plan. But chances are, you’re more likely to get hooked once you see the tangible advantages.
Visit affiliate internet marketing website to find out more about affiliate internet marketing. Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/article-marketing-articles/article-writing-to-help-promote-websites-889247.html
Get the Most Out of Your Current Customer
Get the Most Out of Your Current Customer
The customers you already have could be your biggest lead source, and you may not even realize it.
Keywords:
Sales, marketing, loan officer, mortgage, leads, telemarketing, skills, training, blog, selling, internet mortgage lead
The customers you already have could be your biggest lead source, and you may not even realize it.
Think about it this way, every customer you have, most likely has brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, and friends, so why not tap into it.
Here are a few ideas to draw leads out of your current customers.
1. Whenever you come in contact with one of your customers, give them two of your business cards, and tell them directly that one is for them and the other is so they can refer someone to you.
Send them greeting cards on their birthday and on holidays with the same approach, this will keep you in their thoughts and they will be happy you were thinking of them.
2. Once you have closed the sale with a new customer, be sure to send them a thank you to let them know how grateful you are for their business.
However, don’t send it to their home, send it to their place of employment. By sending it to their place of employment, all of their co-workers will want to know who sent it and why. So now your customer will be forced to tell all of his co-workers all about you! And don’t forget the business cards.
3. Every three months designate some time out of your evening, lets say about an hour or so. Put together a list of customers names that have become new to you in the last three months. Give them a follow up call to see how everything is going, and if they have any questions you could possibly answer for them. While you have them on the phone, inform them of the second reason you are calling, and that would be to see if they had anybody in mind that they could refer to you.
If they say no, than thank them and tell them to have a good evening. Don’t say things like “are you sure?” Or “would you like to think about it?” Just thank them and hang up.
Believe me, this technique works, for every twenty customers you call, at least one will refer someone to you.
Your current customers are by far one of your greatest referral sources, so don’t think of them as statistics only, go after more of their business, and that of their friends and family.
Financing Your Business with Receivable Factoring
Financing Your Business with Receivable Factoring
Do you own a growing business? Are your clients taking up to 60 days to pay their invoices? Learn how to finance your growth with receivable factoring.
Keywords:
factoring, invoice factoring, factoring company, receivable factoring
Do you do business with commercial or government customers? If you answered yes to that question, that means that you are also used to waiting up to 60 days to get your invoices paid. One of the most challenging facts of doing business with big companies is that they pay slowly. Sure, they pay all right – they just take their own sweet time to do it.
But you have expenses that you have to pay now. Suppliers need to be paid. Payroll must be met. This creates a big challenge for small and medium sized businesses.
Is the solution a business loan? It seldom is. They are hard to get. And when you get them, your hands are tied until the loan is paid off. With loans, you can only get one at a time. So if your business grows and you need more money, you are out of luck.
If your biggest headache is slow paying customers, a better solution is to factor your receivables. Receivable factoring provides you the necessary financing to pay employees, suppliers and taxes. Above all, it provides you with peace of mind by eliminating (or at least minimizing) your financial worries.
Receivables factoring works on a simple premise. Your invoices are valuable assets that can be financed. Basically, the factoring company advances you money for your slow paying invoices and waits until your customer pays. Of course, they charge a small fee for this service. This is how it works:
1. You do your work, as usual. You bill your customer but then submit a copy of the invoice to the factoring company for financing
2. The factoring company provides you an immediate advance on 70% to 90% of the invoice (there is a 10% to 30% reserve). You can use that money to meet payroll and pay expenses
3. The factoring company waits to get paid by your customer
4. Once they are paid, the transaction is settled and the factoring company rebates any reserves
As you can see, factoring gives you immediate money for your slow paying invoices, enabling you to run and grow your business. Qualifying for factoring is really easy. The biggest requirement is to do business with credit worthy customers. So, if your customers are good (but slow paying), you can finance them.
Receivables factoring is a great tool to finance your business and grow it to the next level.
How to Create Your Own Small Business Press Kit
How to Create Your Own Small Business Press Kit
Press kits aren’t just for the press. They’re a great marketing tool to let everyone know all about you and your small business. But what’s in a press kit? Find out in this short article.
Keywords:
how to create a small business press kit, brochures
In last week’s article, we talked about why your small business needs a press kit. Because they’re not just for the press, I prefer to call them small business information package. To recap, you need a small business information package to augment your business card, which has only limited information about you and your company.
Your small business information package is the printed materials to give or send to prospective clients to tell them who you are, where you are, how to contact you, what you do, how to buy, and why to buy from you instead of your competition.
This week, we’re going to discuss what you should put inside your information package. For all intents and purposes, anything that promotes your company can go inside it. Some of the more common things include:
• Business card
• Small business brochure
• Letter of introduction
• Product or service review
• Price list
• Press releases
• White papers
• Recent articles written by you or about your company
• Biography of key officers
• Flyers, coupons or direct mail pieces
• Information pamphlets
So, let’s talk a bit about each. And let’s start with the big one—your small business brochure. Your small business brochure can stand alone. If you decide not to have a complete small business information package, at the very least, create a tri-fold brochure so you have detailed printed information to give clients.
If your prospective client reads only one thing in your whole information package, it will most likely be your brochure. Why? Because it captures the reader’s attention better than any other item in your information package. Most of your other items will be letters, articles or reviews. They’ll look good, and they’ll all match because they’re on your letterhead, but they won’t jump out at your readers like your full color tri-fold brochure will.
So, you want to make sure it’s the first thing people see when they open the front cover of your information package. If you can capture their interest with your brochure, they’re more likely to read the rest.
The first page of your small business brochure should have your business name and logo, and possibly a photo or some graphics. Make it colorful. Make it interesting. Add a slogan or motto on the front that will make people curious as to what’s inside. You don’t want them to just look at the front cover and put it aside!
Inside, try to introduce yourself and review your product or service briefly. If you can, keep the introduction and review to the length of the first inside page or so. Adding a few graphics or photos throughout the whole brochure, together with informative text helps keep your readers’ interest. And, make good use of your headings, remembering that most readers will scan from left to right, stopping at graphics and headings, and sometimes reading the last paragraph.
Now, this part is important, and is possibly the biggest mistake most small businesses make with their brochure—at least some of the other two inside pages could be better used to show prospective buyers how your product or service can benefit them, rather than to describe your product or service features.
I cannot stress this enough. Too many times small business brochures are used simply to talk about you, your company or your product/service. Most of your readers simply won’t care who you are, what you do or how you do it. What they really care about is how you can benefit them. How you can save them time or resources. How you can make their lives just a little bit easier.
Often, the last outside page of your brochure summarizes the inside pages, or lists products or services in point form. You could even add a price list, if you have one.
The next several items in your small business information package are all written on your letterhead, and the sky’s the limit as to what you can use.
You could put the letter of introduction just behind your brochure, or you could include it outside the information package cover if you’re mailing it. Usually this is just a short, one-page letter introducing yourself and your company, and thanking the recipient for taking the time to look at your information package.
Your product or service review could be long or short, depending on what you’re offering. This is not the place to stress benefits, but simply to list and describe your services or products. You can combine a product or service review with your price list very effectively.
Include any press releases about your company, and articles written by you or about your company. If you don’t have any, don’t worry. You can write some specifically for your information kit. Include announcements of your grand opening, for example, or a new line of products, or your new location. Or write an article about one of your products or services.
White papers are becoming increasingly popular. Are you an expert in a particular area? If you are, you might want to write a white paper to include with your information package. A white paper discusses specific business issues, products, technology or other such topics. It usually summarizes information about the topic, and then suggests a proposal for action, referencing research data to justify the reasons for the action. It explains your topic in terms most people can understand, with the goal of educating consumers and marketing your product or service. White papers help establish the writer as an authority.
The biography of your key officers is basically a resume. Include short one-page biographies of key officers to highlight areas of expertise and level of experience in your industry.
Fliers, coupons and direct mail pieces can also be included in your small business information package. Fliers and coupons emphasize current specials or discounts. Here’s a few tips. When you’re thinking about specials or discounts, try to create a sense of urgency with them by making them time- or quantity-limited. And, consider the 10/10 rule, which theorizes that people are most likely to buy when they see discounts of 10% or $10. Or, better yet, offer something extra free.
Recent direct mail sales letters can also be included. There’s simply too much to say about them to really give justice in this short article, but some things to remember are: to stress benefits, create a sense of urgency, the 10/10 rule and a bolded P.S. including a call to action.
Keep direct mail sales letter simple and relevant. Be enthusiastic, know your product, use your imagination and understand your target audience. Establish trust and credibility. Include testimonials. Give free nuggets of information. And, just like in your brochure, write your direct mail sales letter for how people will read it, scanning left to right, and stopping at graphics and headlines, and the P.S.
Now that you’ve gotten all your information package items written and printed, it’s time to put them all together. You can buy covers in your company colors and have your logo and business name printed on them. Put your business card in the front slot and your information in the inside pockets, making sure your brochure is the first item they’ll see. Then send it out, and sit back and wait for responses you’re sure to get!
How To Prepare for Cold Calls When Resistance is Likely
How To Prepare for Cold Calls When Resistance is Likely
Simply dialing the phone does not give a person the right to take someone’s time. Promising or hinting at some value they could get does.
Keywords:
cold calls, cold calling
Many sales reps look at ads, direct mailing pieces, catalogs, the Internet, anywhere there’s advertising as sources of prospects. This is wise. But I find so many of these people ill-prepared for what they inevitably hear on calls. Here’s an example of what I received.
Caller: “Hello, this is Bill Jones with Video Recorders. I saw the ad for your Getting Through to Buyers video program, and we do video duplication.”
“Uh-huh.”
He became flustered at this point, probably because I didn’t say, “Oh, you do video duplication? Where should I send my master copy; you can do mine.”
“Uh, I’d like to talk to you about doing yours.”
“Look I’ll save you some time. I selected my existing company after evaluating quite a few. They have a very good price, quality is fine, and service is great. I have no reason to even consider looking around. Even if I did, I ordered enough to last me the rest of the year.”
“Oh, OK. Keep us in mind.”
Yeah, sure.
Analysis and Recommendations
So you might be thinking that I gave this guy an iron-clad objection that was impenetrable. And you’re right for the most part-when it comes to getting a sale on that call. However, he undoubtedly runs into that same objection quite a bit, so I’m surprised he hasn’t learned to use something that won’t totally slam the door so suddenly in his face. Here’s what I would do in his situation:
Call Strategy and Preparation: If I were placing this call, my Primary Objective would be to get commitment that the prospect would use my service the next time they duped tapes. Although that wouldn’t be achieved on a majority of the calls, it’s always best to aim high. After realizing on the call this wouldn’t be reached, objectives in descending order would be: to get commitment that I could at least bid on their next job, and if that wasn’t met, to get agreement that they would at least keep us on file as a back-up supplier in case their existing duplicator for some reason no longer met their needs, or if they had other future projects coming up.
Preliminary Information: He knew nothing about me when he called. He could have asked the person who answered the phone here about who we now use, how many we typically order, what we pay, and any other qualifying information which would have better-equipped him for the call.
Opening Statement: He gave no reason for me to even listen. He may as well just said. “Well, I’ve finally called you, so I guess you can start using us now.”
Simply dialing the phone does not give a person the right to take someone’s time. Promising or hinting at some value they could get does.
I would have listened to this: “I’m Bill Jones with Video Recorders. We specialize in top quality video duplication, and now work with quite a few training organizations. Depending on the price you’re now paying and your level of satisfaction with the quality and service you’re getting, it might be worth it for you to take a look at a bid we could do for you. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if it would be worth your while to talk about it.”
I would have been more likely to answer questions at this point. However, even if I did retort with the same objection mentioned earlier, he could have picked up on it and used it to ask more questions. For example, “I see. What price are you paying?” If that resulted in a dead-end, a last resort question to at least try and accomplish the last chance objective would be, “What plans do you have in place for a back-up supplier, if for example, you needed a large quantity in a hurry and your supplier wasn’t able to accommodate you for some reason?”
Determine if parts of your call process are similar to this one. Analyze every step of the process, determine your own strengths and enhance them, and shore up the weak areas.
How To Overcome Negative Thinking In Selling
How To Overcome Negative Thinking In Selling
Creative selling is an individual accomplishment.
It embraces you and the power within you to think and create.
These qualities and attributes are individual, and no one
but you can develop them.
Cut loose and free yourself from all negative thinking, from all petty restrictions and all pygmy notions and all corroded resistance. Negative thinking retards you and holds you back.
Open up the channel to positive thinking, and let the creative power flow through.
…
Keywords:
selling, negative thinking, positive thinking
Creative selling is an individual accomplishment.
It embraces you and the power within you to think and create.
These qualities and attributes are individual, and no one
but you can develop them.
Cut loose and free yourself from all negative thinking, from all petty restrictions and all pygmy notions and all corroded resistance. Negative thinking retards you and holds you back.
Open up the channel to positive thinking, and let the creative power flow through.
Cast out all your doubts and uncertainties.
They are of no value. Turn the power and dominion of positive thoughts on all your doubts, worries, and dreads. Start to develop the power of creative selling, and expect nothing but results.
Rejoice and be glad that you have the ability as well as the opportunity to sell. It will be a thrilling experience to sell and serve. You will find that you feel like a new person.
You will feel like starting anew every morning. What seemed a burden and a task will became an interesting and profitable adventure.
In the attributes of latent ability and creative power the men and women who sell have undeveloped resources to make the economy of this nation hum with unlimited prosperity, spin with increasing activity, and furnish more ofthe good things of life to a greater number of people for many, many years to come.
With new and better products coming into the market every day, and with new wants and new needs being uncovered almost hourly, everyone who sells or who prepares himself to sell has an unparalleled opportunity to partake of all the good things of life and share in an inexhaustible abundance.
Opportunity is not only knocking on your door, but it is ringing the door bell, urging you to avail yourself of the greatest aggregation of untapped wealth and prosperity that this nation or any nation has ever known. The potentialities of selling are greater today than ever before. Greater, too, are the rewards of selling. So – JUST DO IT.
Use Super Tech for Business Excellence Part 1
Use Super Tech for Business Excellence Part 1
Joel Barker, visionary author of Future Edge, paves a road to excellence for the future. Is your company doing this? Is your competition doing this. This article, in the first paragraph, details the 3 required traits.
Keywords:
erp, manufacturing software, sales teams, business, small medium business, sales software, crm, customer relationship management, sales tools, sales management
The paradigm Shift in Electronics and Industrial Sales
A Paradigm is a set of rules and regulations that does two things:
1. It establishes and defines boundaries.
2. It tells how to behave inside the boundaries
Instill 3 Traits for Excellence and Super Abundance
Joel Barker in his book Future Edge, lists 3 traits; a culture of excellence, innovation and anticipation as the three. He says not one, not two, but all three must be present. A culture of excellence is first and this excellence must permeate from the initial product design to the after-sale product support. W. Edwards Deming was a leader in promoting excellence in the area of TQM or Total Quality Management.
The second key is innovation. Innovation is the way you gain a competitive edge. Innovation joined with the excellence culture is a powerful one two punch. This is not enough for sustained market leadership however, and there is one elusive skill that must be added to the mix.
This skill is anticipation. Anticipation is the clear vision that steers your organization. The skillful application of intelligence to your data to get to the right place at the right time. This clear view into the future will drive great ideas to ascendancy. If this vision is lacking the organization will suffer. An example may be the The Walkman. Sony started the portable music revolution and Apple has swallowed the market share as a shark swallows his prey. Perhaps Sony could have anticipated changing demand and in doing so, forestalled the end of life for the Walk Man.
The Secrets of Super Technology
The Internet is designed for customer and partner intimacy. Every computer which is connected to the Internet is as close to your computer as your own keyboard.
The principal account manager at the contract manufacturer in China can be right in your own office. You customers and your salespeople can be on the same side of the desk even though the desks are on the other side of the world. Super Tech drives customer relationships closer and closer.
We have lived in an evolving world of high-tech which has permeated every corner of our society. The last 10 years has exploded communication and collaboration applications and we define this as Super Tech. Organizations have not taken advantage of revenue creating tools.
Paradigm shifts change the rules and when the rules change so does your world. Super Tech is simple, on-demand software. This software, aligned to your business process, relishes the power of on-demand collaboration. Super Tech is the key to winning in the market place; easy to use powerful on-line software that will change the way business is done and will change the way products are sold.
Part 2: “How Low Tech is Killing Innovation”, is next…
Warning: Objects Within Your Browser Window Are Smaller Than They Appear!
Warning: Objects Within Your Browser Window Are Smaller Than They Appear!
Is your internet window showing objects (companies) that seem larger than they appear? I think so. The Internet not only has allowed us to market to the world but it also has allowed many companies to hide their true nature and size.
Keywords:
Is your internet window showing objects (companies) that seem larger than they appear? I think so. The Internet not only has allowed us to market to the world but it also has allowed many companies to hide their true nature and size.
Some Consumers Want To Work With Large Companies:
Many companies out there try to make themselves seem larger than they appear and sometimes they do this on purpose. There are consumers out there that feel more comfortable going with established companies that have a team of employees and (apparently) have more responsibilities to their employees and clients.
Other Consumers Would Rather Work With Smaller Companies:
Then there are other consumers out there that can’t stand working with big companies and would rather work with the little guys who treat every customer like they’re family.
The problem lies with the misconception about how large or how small your company really is. See, if you give an appearance online that you’re a massive company when you’re not, this might actually backfire on you once people call for your products or services. People don’t like to be misled in any way, shape, or form.
Smartads has 5 people involved with us on a daily basis. We are not a team of 1 but at the same time, we aren’t a monster company either. Our contact pages reflect this as well.
Do You Have 10 Email Accounts Online That All Go To One?
It’s when you go through a companies contact page and they have an entire directory of emails listed for different departments that ALL, and I mean all go to the same person. It would look something like this….
For customer support email: support@bogussite.dumb
For technical support email: techies@bogussite.dumb
For advertising email: ads@youknowwhat.com
For general inquiries, don’t even bother!
See where I am going with this? I can understand if you like to separate your email accounts because of the volume coming in but, ironically, if you list over 5 “live” email accounts on your contact page, I’ll bet you’re getting a ton of spam as well!
Exploit Your Size To Appeal To The Right Clients:
Don’t try to hide your company’s size just because you’re a small business enterprise; exploit it to those who are looking to do business with specifically smaller companies. I can understand if you have the need to separate your email accounts, try having an online form that responds to a drop down menu which in turn sends the emails to different accounts on it’s own.
If you don’t like the fact that your business is a one-man band, hire someone to answer your calls for you. In fact, try out someone at home (family or roommate). They are a lot cheaper anyway. At least you can free up some time, and seem more professional from a client’s point of view.
The whole Point Is This…
Just because we can hide behind our computer’s to attract better, larger fish, it doesn’t really mean we actually need to. You might hurt your business more if you try to “act as if” or promise to make something work which you know you don’t have the resources for.
Raise Your Prices To Make More Money, Don’t Raise Your Curb Appeal:
You don’t need to look big in order to attract more money, sometimes the simpler answer works better. Try raising your prices to see whether or not this will actually deter consumers (Yes, there is a risk) but, if you try to appear larger than you actually are, you’re already risking a great deal.
Be true to your business and you will attract clients that are true to you. “Thoughts are things” really takes affect online because consumers can’t relate on an emotional level, they can only compute what they read and what they see. If your website gives consumers a false statement, your business will not profit from this method of promotion, but will only be hindered from your mistakes.
