Posts Tagged ‘Small Business’

Sales Success Is Yours When You Track Your Leads

posted by TheMarbellaSEO 7:35 AM
Monday, May 10, 2010

Sales leads are not typically covered in sales training books or courses as thoroughly as other parts of the sales process such as closing the sale.  The sales process begins with generating leads, so it is important to understand as much as you can about them in order for your business to be as profitable as possible. 

Are you able to name the number of leads you got over the last month? Most people can answer that question with a handful of leads that have high potential or resulted in a sale, but a large number of potential leads fall out of the process, sacrificing possible sales. 

So, what’s the big deal anyway?  The more you know about your leads the more successful your business will be, because generating leads is the first step to making sales.  And, wouldn’t it be worth it to use some of the things you learn about your leads to cut marketing costs or the time you spend getting leads? 

Your first action plan is to create a way to track key information about the ways that you generate your leads.  Here are a few areas to start analyzing: 

1. What is the main venue through which you get your leads? Before a lead becomes a lead, they are only prospects – someone who visits your website or that you meet at a networking group.  Identify your main sources for gathering prospects, such as the Internet, trade shows, networking events, or direct advertising.

2. What “specific sources” do your leads come from? Organic search, PPC, a specific networking event, another website, response to a blog post on someone else’s blog, or a specific advertising campaign are all examples of specific lead sources.

3. Last, what quality would you rank the leads you get from the sources you defined in the earlier steps?  An effective way to come up with this is to assign a percent value to every lead a source provides.  So, if a lead actually results in a sale, it receives a higher percentage value than one that expressed interest but didn’t get past the proposal stage.

Once you know where your best leads originate, you will find you are able to spend your marketing dollars and your time much more efficiently. 

Get more small business success strategies and claim your free white paper: “7 Ways Your Stone-Age Accounting System is Stealing Money From You Every Day … And, How to Get it Back This Year”  to learn about an online accounting program that makes it simple to track your leads and conversion rates.

Internet Marketing Solutions For Small Business – A New Idea

Wow, I’ve just this morning heard about a new programme which I really think is going to make a BIG difference to lots of Internet Marketers who are out here on the internet trying their best to make some money and not really succeeding! I know lots of internet marketers who can’t give up their J-O-B yet, but would love to!

This is going to rock the boat for alot of people!

Because it is a system which uses the skills they already have! Things such as capture pages and autoresponders are something they know about. They have the knowledge that so many others don’t have and now they can profit from that knowledge! At last! This system is going to make everything simple, so they can help local small businesses to market their business on the internet. Wicked!

Because so many small businesses know that they ought to be marketing on the internet, but just don’t have a clue where to start! This programme will help those internet marketers who need to make more money online, to offer their services to small local businesses who have money available for marketing. Its not Network Marketing, nor is it an affiliate programme. It is actually very simple, like many great ideas, but I’m sure its going to create a great stir on the internet when it opens.

This is the latest offering from Traffic Geyser Guru, Mike Koenigs. If you haven’t heard of him or his business, well where have you been? For those of you who do not know, Traffic Geyser, amongst other things gets your videos out to lots of different sites over a pre-arranged number of days. This results in excellent Google rankings for your keywords.

I have been using Traffic Geyser for a few months now, and absolutely love it. I am constantly finding more and more things that it can do for my business. As well as instructional videos, he tells you what to do videos about, suggestions, tips and ideas you would never dream of. I know from my dealings with Mike Koenigs that anything he brings out is going to make serious money for alot of people!

Mike is a real hero for bringing this out; so many small businesses and internet marketers are going to benefit from it! Lets get going!

See this awesome new system now! If you want to check out how Sue ranks so highly on Google without paying silly prices for PPC, grab Mike Koenigs FREE VIDEOS to find out more about Traffic Geyser!!

One of the most difficult, but key components of the Internet marketing process is to design your website to achieve the goals you have set for your business.  But this critical step is usually the one business people skip, or just leave it to their web designer to consider, which can be even more damaging to their overall goals. 

When you take the time to strategically plan the outline of your new website or an upgrade of your current one, not only will you achieve a website that will show off your business in the best way, but one you will be able to add and edit content easily, and probably most important will help to achieve your overall business goals.  Below are a number of steps to follow while planning your new website:

1.  List all the information about your product or service that a visitor to your website might be interested in knowing.  Using the website for a school, for an example, you would probably discover that visitors would be looking for information on the staff at the school, classroom size, attendance numbers, and sports programs.  Take the time to brainstorm as many areas related to your product, service or industry that someone might be interested in when visiting the website.

2.  Take on the role of your website visitor.  Visit some websites and review them as if you are in the market for the services those sites have to offer.  As a potential customer, what are the things you like and dislike about each website you visit?  Are you driven to take action?  How easily can you find what you are looking for? How many times do you have to click to find what you are looking for?  Take notes on all this information with the purpose of making your own website as visitor friendly as possible.

3.  Investigate to find out the keywords your visitors will most likely search for to find your website. You don’t need to invest in expensive search tools, Google has a free keyword tool that is adequate for this purpose.  Enter a general phrase related to your product or service, such as “coffee filters” and other related keywords will appear.  Your visitors already have questions about these things.  Knowing this, you can plan your website content to answer their questions up front. 

4.  When planning your new website, make sure to keep in room to grow.  Don’t be lured into a website format that won’t let you expand easily to add new content pages or products.  You will find that building a great website is a constant work in progress. 

5.  The final thing to keep in mind is that you want to be able to control your new website, rather than be at the mercy of your web designer to make even the simplest of changes.   Today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment demands new and fresh content added to your website often, and the old fashioned sites that rely on a web developer to make changes just won’t work anymore.  Your new website should be on a platform that lets you add content quickly and easily.

Your website is most often one of the biggest marketing expenses your business will encounter.  It is critical to take the time to plan a new website that is compatible with your business goals. 

Marty Dickinson is the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for over 10 years. His specialty is Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors. Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

How To Make A Business Profitable

posted by TheMarbellaSEO 10:30 AM
Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Just because you don’t have a good education or the job experience does not mean that you have to be stuck doing something that you do not want to do. If you have enough determination you can start your business. This will give you the right amount of flexibility. It will also allow you to do exactly what you want to do with your life.

The simplest way for you to get started is to try and make money online. A lot of people tell you do this and there is a reason for it. There aren’t that many start-up costs and all you need is something good to sell. You might not get that many orders initially but the possibilities go on forever.

If you advertise well, you can start to make money really quickly. You can also start off by doing a part time thing, and then once the business starts to take off you can make a larger commitment to it. You can sell scarves, crafts. Whatever you want.

Most people do not want to risk their full time job for a business they aren’t sure will even take off. This is how you can turn your business into a home income opportunity. By working from home you can get rid of buying a specific place to work and you can build confidence in your business and also get a client list.

This way you can start to make money at home and save up for when you want to get a bigger place. You can also start to build up a client list and confidence in your business. This will be good for you, since it will give you a reason to quit your job if your business becomes extremely successful.

If selling things is not your style, try to make money blogging. You will be able to write pretty much anything you want to write. If you get tons of hits on your sites, it will attract advertisers. The greater the amount of hits the more money and advertisers you will get. If this is the type of job you want you should try and research what market you want to attract and other things like that. This will help you find a starting point.

Businesses may seem really difficult, but it’s not too big of a mystery how you can be successful at it. If you are committed and passionate about it, the venture will be successful.

My most challenging part of copywriting to sell something online has always been the task of writing benefit statements. But, other than a good headline, to sell visitors to your service, product and ideas you need great benefit statements.

All of the other parts of copywriting such as good headlines, price offers and stories were much easier for me than finding good benefit statements. But creating a benefits list drove me crazy; that is until I learned how to come up with one or more benefits every minute.

Any basic sales course will tell you that features don’t sell a product or service, benefits do. Knowing the truth to that, I started to take a closer look at what benefits really are. I discovered they are really just action items in disguise, agreed? As an example, you “build” muscles or “create” more time. If that is true, how bout starting each benefit statement with an action verb? The process goes like this:

1.  Alphabetize a long list of action verbs.

2.  On your computer or desk, spread out the list so you can see the whole thing
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3.  Beginning with the letter A, read each verb aloud and come up with a descriptive sentence about your product or service that includes the verb.

As an example, “Accelerate” is the first verb on my list.

So, I might say that my product helps to “accelerate” fingernail growth.

4.  Keep writing benefits as long as you are able and don’t quit! You will be able to pare down your list to only those that give the best punch later. You don’t need to stop to think if you are writing duplicate phrases down either, now is not the time. Just keep an open mind and write down any benefit statements that come to mind about your product or service.

5.  Now you organize your benefit list in order of priority from most important benefit to last.

I’ve used this process not only for creating benefits lists, but also for writing articles, such as “35 Reasons Why a Blog is Better than a Traditional Web Site for Your Business,” or “50 Ways to Kill a Perfectly Good Seminar”.

Use my list of verbs or create your own and start creating your killer benefit statements in just 20 minutes. Most of the time, you won’t need more than a great list of 20 benefits.

Marty Dickinson is an entrepreneur and the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for 15 years.  He specializes in Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors.  Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

Probably the most critical part of Internet marketing for your business is organizing your website so it will achieve your overall goals.  However, most business people ignore this critical step, or leave it to their web designer to take care of, which can often be even worse. 

By strategically planning your new website or an update of your existing website, you will ensure you have a marketing piece that showcases your business to its best, allows you to be in control of ongoing content updates, and achieves the goals you have set for your business.  Below are a number of steps to follow while planning your new website:

1.  Write down on a piece of paper everything you think the visitors to your web site might want to know about your product or service.  For example, visitors to a school’s website would probably want to know the attendance levels, size of the classrooms, information on staff members and what sports they can participate in.  Try to list every possible topic about your industry, service or product that a visitor to your new website might be interested in knowing.

2.  Take on the role of your website visitor.  Surf the Internet and visit various sites offering similar services, then review them as a potential customer would.  As a visitor, what do you like and dislike about each site?  Are you driven to take action?  Can you find what you are looking for fast? How many different pages do you have to click through to find what you want?  Take notes on all this information with the purpose of making your own website as visitor friendly as possible.

3.  Research to find out what keywords your visitors might search for. You don’t need to invest in expensive search tools, Google has a free keyword tool that is adequate for this purpose.  Type in a general phrase such as “high school” and see what other keywords come up.  Your visitors already have questions about these things.  With this information in hand, you can plan your website to feature content that answers people’s questions. 

4.  Make sure to plan your website to grow.  Avoid websites that can’t be easily expanded to add more pages or products.  A website is not static, but rather should change constantly to meet your customer needs. 

5.  Finally, make sure your website is easy to control, so you don’t have to rely on your website designer to make even the smallest changes.   Today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment demands new and fresh content added to your website often, and the old fashioned sites that rely on a web developer to make changes just won’t work anymore.  You need a website platform that will allow you to add website content fast and simply.

Usually, a new website is one of your business’ largest expenses.  Make the most of your investment with a new website that supports the goals you have set for your business. 

Marty Dickinson is the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for over 10 years. His specialty is Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors. Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

Probably the most critical part of Internet marketing for your business is organizing your website so it will achieve your overall goals.  Yet, most people completely bypass this important step or, worse, just turn the whole project over to a website designer to handle. 

By strategically planning your new website or an update of your existing website, you will ensure you have a marketing piece that showcases your business to its best, allows you to be in control of ongoing content updates, and achieves the goals you have set for your business.  Below are a number of steps to follow while planning your new website:

1.  Create a list of anything your website visitors will want to know about the product or service you are offering.  For example, visitors to a school’s website would probably want to know the attendance levels, size of the classrooms, information on staff members and what sports they can participate in.  Brainstorm every possible topic someone might want to know related to the industry, product or service your website will be offering.

2.  Take on the role of your website visitor.  Visit and review some websites similar to the one you will offer as if you were a potential customer.  As a potential customer, what are the things you like and dislike about each website you visit?  Are you inspired to take action from the website?  How easily can you find what you are looking for? Are there a lot of pages to navigate through to get to what you are looking for?  With the goal of making your website as easy for potential customers to use as possible, note all of this information down for future use.

3.  Do keyword research to find out what visitors will be searching for. You don’t need to invest in expensive search tools, Google has a free keyword tool that is adequate for this purpose.  Enter a general phrase related to your product or service, such as “coffee filters” and other related keywords will appear.  These are the things your visitors already have questions about.  Knowing this, you can plan your website content to answer their questions up front. 

4.  When planning your new website, make sure to keep in room to grow.  Don’t be lured into a website format that won’t let you expand easily to add new content pages or products.  A website is not static, but rather should change constantly to meet your customer needs. 

5.  Plan a website that you can control, rather than be at the mercy of a web designer to make even small changes to your website.   Old fashioned websites that only a web developer can change do not work in today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment that demands new content added regularly.  You need a website platform that will allow you to add website content fast and simply.

The investment by your business into a new website is a large part of your marketing budget.  It is critical to take the time to plan a new website that is compatible with your business goals. 

Marty Dickinson is the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for over 10 years. His specialty is Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors. Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

My most challenging part of copywriting to sell something online has always been the task of writing benefit statements. And, second to the headline, the benefits are what sell people on your product, service, idea or even political opinion.

In comparison, the other parts of copywriting that people might find challenging, such as stories, headlines, and great price offers were easy. The benefits list always drove me crazy; until I discovered the secret to creating one benefit or more per minute.

You may recall from Sales 101 that benefits are what sells your product or service, not features. Knowing the truth to that, I started to take a closer look at what benefits really are. They are just things that help you take (or not take action), right? For example, you “lose” weight or “make” money. If that is true, how bout starting each benefit statement with an action verb? Here’s the process:

1.  Alphabetize a long list of action verbs.

2.  Display the alphabetized list of action verbs on your desk or, even better, view them on your computer screen so that you can see the list in its entirety
.
3.  Begin with the first verb in your list that begins with the letter A and read the verb out loud and make a sentence out of it that describes one benefit of your product.

For example, the first word in my list of verbs is “Accelerate”.

So, I might say to myself that my product helps people to “Accelerate your learning speed by     getting true hands-on training with every command”.

4.  Write as many benefits as you can and don’t stop! You can cut out those that don’t have as much impact later. You don’t need to stop to think if you are writing duplicate phrases down either, now is not the time. Just keep an open mind and write down any benefit statements that come to mind about your product or service.

5.  Now is the time that you will prioritize your list from most important to least.

This process has worked for me to write great benefits statements, as well as when coming up with article ideas for my blog, such as “35 Reasons Why a Blog is Better than a Traditional Web Site for Your Business,” or “50 Ways to Kill a Perfectly Good Seminar”.

Use my list of verbs or create your own and start creating your killer benefit statements in just 20 minutes. Usually, 20 benefits is more than enough to create great sales copy.

Marty Dickinson is an entrepreneur and the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for 15 years.  He specializes in Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors.  Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

It is next to impossible for a business, speaker or author to operate at their full potential without using Internet marketing strategies as part of their overall plan.  Despite this, while many people use the Internet for their own personal needs, they are confused how they can actually use it to benefit the sales of their own products or services. 

You may share the confusion of others as to how Internet marketing strategies can work for you and where to begin. 

The process for Internet marketing success is almost exactly the same for every business, author or speaker, and hasn’t changed in almost 15 years!  The problem is that most educational resources on Internet marketing tell you a piece of the process without identifying where on the timeline it falls or how it fits into the rest of the process. 

Don’t get hung up on the bits and pieces before you have established your P.T.A., the foundational steps needed to be successful in Internet Marketing:

P:  Plug-In

Examine where you currently fit in the Internet marketing process and “plug in” at that point.  Is this your first experience with Internet marketing?  Or do you have some knowledge, but can’t seem to tie it all together?  Identify where you are, then plug-in to the tools and resources available to you to meet your particular needs. 

T: Team-Up

Probably the most critical to a small business owner, speaker or author, is t o find a team that can help make the Internet Marketing process happen.  The success of your business relies on you being out doing your thing, not sitting at a computer trying to learn everything there is to know about Internet marketing (unless you are, actually an Internet marketer by trade).  And most people’s strategy of hiring a random website designer from Craigslist or oversees just because they don’t cost much rarely works. 

What you are looking for in outsourced help is someone (or a group of someones) who are interested and sensitive to your unique business and concerns, and who has a wide range of expertise in Internet marketing.  Since your business is always changing, you will benefit from forming a dedicated team now that will grow with you over the years and has the technical expertise to plan your business strategies for now and into the future. 

A:  Accelerate

If you get a website for your business or service without fully understanding the entire Internet marketing process, you will never be able to fully implement the last step, and accelerate your Internet marketing plans to success.  Learning a bit of this and a bit of that will have no result until you have plugged into your place in the process and found a team to help get you there.  Once you have done that, your business success from the Internet will start to fly. 

Marty Dickinson is an entrepreneur and the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for 15 years.  He specializes in Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors.  Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

Probably the most critical part of Internet marketing for your business is organizing your website so it will achieve your overall goals.  But this critical step is usually the one business people skip, or just leave it to their web designer to consider, which can be even more damaging to their overall goals. 

The process of carefully planning the outline of a new website or upgrade to an existing website will secure for you not only a vehicle to show off your business in the best light, but also one that you are able to control the process of updating content, and, most importantly, achieve your business goals.  Below are a number of steps to follow while planning your new website:

1.  Create a list of anything your website visitors will want to know about the product or service you are offering.  For example, visitors to a school’s website would probably want to know the attendance levels, size of the classrooms, information on staff members and what sports they can participate in.  Take the time to brainstorm as many areas related to your product, service or industry that someone might be interested in when visiting the website.

2.  Take on the role of your website visitor.  Visit some websites and review them as if you are in the market for the services those sites have to offer.  As a visitor who is genuinely interested in your product or service, what are the good things and bad things about each site you visit?  Are you driven to take action?  Can you find what you are looking for fast? How many times do you have to click to find what you are looking for?  Note all this data down with the intent of making your new website as easy for your visitors to use as possible.

3.  Research to find out what keywords your visitors might search for. You don’t need to invest in expensive search tools, Google has a free keyword tool that is adequate for this purpose.  By typing in a general phrase such as “exercise video”, other keywords will come up that are related.  These are the topics that people are searching for already.  Knowing this, you can plan your website content to answer their questions up front. 

4.  When planning your new website, make sure to keep in room to grow.  Stay away from website formats that can’t be expanded easily to add products and new pages.  A website is not static, but rather should change constantly to meet your customer needs. 

5.  The final thing to keep in mind is that you want to be able to control your new website, rather than be at the mercy of your web designer to make even the simplest of changes.   Successful Internet marketing today relies on a dynamic website with fresh content added often, and having an antiquated website that only your designer can change will just not work anymore.  It is to your advantage to plan a website platform that will allow you to add content quickly and simply.

Usually, a new website is one of your business’ largest expenses.  It is critical to take the time to plan a new website that is compatible with your business goals. 

Marty Dickinson is the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for over 10 years. His specialty is Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors. Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

 
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