Category: Grow a Home Business

    Real-Time Marketing: What Is It and What Does It Mean for Your Business?

    Real-time marketing is marketing that happens as real-time events occur, with the basis being the real-time event and the goal being to gain awareness, build your email list, or drive sales of a specific product or service. While it’s not technically planned, you have to invest in the technology and potential services needed to perform real-time marketing that gets results.

    Use Facebook, Twitter, forums and even comments on blog posts, as well as other social media to gather the information that you need to conduct real-time marketing information regarding your industry on your target audience. All of these can be very helpful to your business and increase your bottom line exponentially.

    * Engage Your Audience – Using real-time marketing efforts and listening to social media for conversations your audience is having will help you engage better with your audience in real time.

    * Improve Understanding of Your Customers – By monitoring the chatter among your customers within a forum or group, you can get a deeper understanding of what your customers need.

    * Deliver More Relevant Content – The understanding you develop can help you improve the type of content you create overall, not just in real time but planned content too.

    * Connect Better with Customers – This understanding helps you connect better with customers in a way that makes them feel important and understood.

    * Create Innovative New Products – Your new understanding of your customers and the audience will enable you to create better products and services truly designed just for your target market.

    * Get More Leads – Deploying real-time marketing efforts will help you get more leads because you will find ways to get your products or services to relate to what is happening right now.

    * Improve Conversions – When your audience feels as if you really know them and share their values, they will be more likely to make a purchase from you.

    * Grow Your Business – All of these activities will ultimately help you grow your business faster than you may have thought possible. Any one of your real-time marketing campaigns can become viral.

    Using what you know about your audience, the current news in the industry and the daily happenings around the world, and how it can relate to your audience will help your business grow faster. The result is that not only will you make more sales, but you will also create more products that are extraordinarily relevant to your audience.

    This happens because with real-time marketing you always have your ear to the ground and are monitoring the mood of the audience as well as the news of the times and how it can relate to your products and services. You not only send out information that connects your products and services with what is happening today, but you can actually create new products and services based on the information that you gather. It’s a win-win for your business and your customers.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags:

    Top Virtual Assistant Task Requests

    When deciding whether or not to become a VA, it can be helpful to know what skills and tasks are in demand right now. This list will change as time moves forward, but it can give you a good idea about what is in demand right this moment.

    * Infusionsoft Experts – This is a marketing and sales automation software that combines CRM, email marketing, lead capture and e-commerce all in one. It’s very in-depth software that requires a lot of understanding and knowledge about client sales cycles and product cycles. You can get training on this software from their “Official Infusionsoft University”.

    Links:
    Infusionsoft – http://www.infusionsoft.com/
    Official Infusionsoft University – http://university.infusionsoft.com/

    * Bookkeeping Experts – In most cases this is more of a local service, but if you have had certain training and licensing like EA training, you can do books for anyone in any state. This is a much sought-out service and if you truly understand independent contractors and small virtual businesses, you’ll be swamped with clients if you offer this service.

    Link to EA training – http://irsexams.com/

    * Ontraport Experts – This system promises to allow a small business to run like a huge business from one dashboard. The features are endless but it handles CRM, marketing, payments, partners, automation, publishing, and more. You choose what you want it to do. They offer training of their own too. You can become certified through their training system so that you can offer this to your clients.

    Links:
    Ontraport – https://ontraport.com/
    Training system – https://ontraport.com/partners-get-certified/

    * Social Media Marketing – A social media marketing assistant can do a lot of things for a client. This includes keeping their social media profiles updated, writing, crafting, and creating (or managing those who do) and updating social media posts for different clients. There are a lot of tools available to help you automate these things for your client, for example Hootsuite.

    Link to Hootsuite – http://www.hootsuite.com/

    * Pay-Per-Click Marketing – Experts are needed badly in the PPC space. A PPC expert would help organize, plan and implement a pay-per-click advertising campaign for a variety of clients. You would either do it all or manage a team who helps implement what you plan. And yes, you can get certified at the Online Marketing Institute in PPC.

    Link to PPC training – http://www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org/course-certifications/paid-search-certification/

    * Online Marketing Manager – Being a manager is a little move up, and if you have the chops you can do it. As a marketing manager, you’ll plan and organize systems so that your client’s team or your team can implement the plan. Of course, you can get certified as an online marketing manager too.

    Link to training – http://www.pamivey.com/services/online-marketing/

    * Google Analytics Expert – Some businesses need people who know how to set up Google Analytics, and understand how to make goals and set up everything in an expert way. You can learn how to use it through various training programs and then become a Google Analytics Certified Partner.

    Link to becoming a partner – http://www.google.com/analytics/partners/listing/service

    * Events Expert – An events expert is good at planning either online events or offline events (or both if you want). Usually you’ll need experience using webinar software like Adobe Connect or GoToMeeting. There are many others, but you should find one that you like and become a true expert using it, and then promote that service.

    Links:
    Adobe Connect – http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html
    GoToMeeting – http://www.gotomeeting.com/

    These are many VA tasks and project requests that you will be asked to do that you do not offer. It’s up to you whether or not you want to offer it. Be careful about moving outside of your niche but, if your ideal clients are asking for something, you should highly consider offering it.

    Categories: Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    Tips for Creating Spectacular Product Demos

    Product demos can be in person and online. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing it at an in-person B2B event or if you’re doing it online for an online event – the steps are very much the same for creating spectacular product demonstrations. And, it doesn’t just happen by accident. You have to plan for spectacular.

    * Build Credibility – Before you even plan your first demo, it’s important that you’re always building credibility for your brand. You can do this via social media, your blog, interviews, press releases, advertising and more. You want people to know who you are, and what your product is about before they even see your demo. You especially want them to know that you’re a credible person who is authentic and trustworthy.

    * Introduce Yourself – It’s important that you always introduce yourself and anyone else who is part of any demo. People want to know why you are the right person to conduct the demo and why you’re the one they should listen to.

    * Explain What Your Demo Is About – Never just jump into the demo. Always explain what you’re going to tell them, or show them, before you get into the body of the demo.

    * Define Your Message – Choose one of the most important things about your product or service that you want to show for the demo. What is the one thing that you want the viewers to leave knowing?

    * Tell a Story – Coming up with a theme and a story to tell that moves your demo along is a great way to conduct a product demo. You can tell the story of why you created the product, or you can tell the story of one of the successful users of the product.

    * Script It – Don’t rely on your memory to tell the stories at first. Write out a script for your demo and practice delivering it. Don’t worry if you don’t get every word right as long as you get the gist of the story correct.

    * Find the WOW – There needs to be something within the demo that makes the audience says WOW that is really awesome and spectacular. Try to use your imagination about how you’ll unveil the new product in a creative way.

    * Use Technology – Don’t shy away from technology. This is especially important if your product is an intangible. Use every ounce of tech you can find to help you make your products feel tangible to the audience.

    * Get Ready for Issues – Always expect things to go wrong. Tech might not work; the audience my not be co-operative; you trip over your words. It’s all okay and can happen to anyone; just let it roll off your sleeve and keep going.

    * Prepare Answers – Offer a Q & A time for live events. For recorded events, try to anticipate the questions that people will ask and answer them in the presentation. You want to dispel any problems your audience may have with your answers.

    * Wrap It Up – Always offer a conclusion by going over the benefits again and asking for some action to be taken by the audience.

    * Practice – It’s imperative that you do a run through, especially for a live demo. You want to go over each and every part so that you know how to use the technology properly, plus you feel more comfortable saying the words.

    * Test Everything – Don’t assume that everything will work as stated. Test all the technology, preferably in the location where you’ll do the demo.

    * Get an Assistant – If possible, hire an assistant to help during the demo, especially with the technology, so that you can focus on the demo instead of troubleshooting.

    Product demos are par for the course today for most events, whether online or offline. People want to know what they’re getting, and the best way to do that is to give them an out-of-this-world product demo.

    Categories: Events, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    How to Create Better Word-of-Mouth Marketing

    Word-of-mouth marketing is the oldest form of marketing that exists, and it’s still very effective. In fact, one of the best ways to get more clients for any business owner is to increase your word-of-mouth marketing efforts. People trust hearing from those whom they know, or respect, or have other connections with more than they trust a specific type of advertisement.

    1. Ask for Referrals – If you want your current customers or contacts to give you referrals, it is important that you tell them that is what you want. The more you tell your contacts that you want them to recommend you to others, the more likely they are to do it.

    2. Provide Sources with Details – A great way to ensure that you get the right type of referrals is to tell your customers and contacts exactly what type of clients you are looking for. That way they can be sure to tell the right people about you and your products and/or services.

    3. Be a True Resource – The more you can offer to everyone you come into contact with, even if you cannot service them directly, the more you’ll be seen as a resource to others. They will then trust enough in your skill to recommend people who can be your actual clients.

    4. Provide Incentives – There is nothing wrong with providing some incentives to your contacts to recommend you to others. You can do it before or after the fact. Some people have successfully given coupons and discounts to those who have recommended them, with great results.

    5. Promote Testimonials – Ask for testimonials from your currently satisfied clients to share with your social media followers, website visitors, and within your sales pages. Once you receive a testimonial there are many ways in which you can use them to get more business.

    6. Build a Community of Customers – One way to really catch your word-of-mouth marketing on fire is to build a community of customers who can speak with authority to your awesome services.

    7. Create an Affiliate Program – A really fabulous way to create momentum in your word-of-mouth marketing is to open an affiliate program for customers only. They are the ones who can really speak to the level and quality of your services you offer.

    8. Network Strategically – Many people with whom you have casual contact through networking events can be a wonderful resource for referrals. There are many networking groups that you can join to help you get the word out.

    Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best forms of marketing available and one of the least expensive. All you have to do is live up to your reputation and continue to under promise and over deliver so that your clients are thrilled by your products and services enough to keep the word-of-mouth going.

    Categories: Customer Referral, Expert, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Improve Your Income with Masterminding

    A mastermind group can consist of two or more people working together for a specific purpose. Masterminds can be formal and informal, but the most effective are formed in a formal manner. When two people bounce ideas off each other, they come up with things they never would have on their own. The same can be said for adding more to the group. It is better to keep a mastermind group small, though, as it’s easier to manage.

    Through masterminding you will get:

    * Answers – If you’ve chosen a group well, you will be with people with different skillsets and experiences, and who are not competitors. This will help you get answers to whether or not what you’re doing is working or can be improved.

    * Ideas – Spending time throwing out ideas on paper alone works well, but when you have someone who is responsive to throw those ideas at, the results will be improved upon exponentially.

    * Experience – Where you may be lacking, another member may have ten years or more of experience. For example, if you wanted to learn how to source products to add products to a service-based business, someone who has a product-based business can be the perfect help.

    * Skills – Even though your peers in the mastermind won’t actually be doing anything directly for you in terms of tasks, they can introduce you to people who have the skills you need, based on their experience. Of course, sometimes they may offer to help physically and you may even end up forming partnerships.

    * Insight – Often, other people looking at your business can offer insight that you never considered. You can show each other your sales pages, product ideas, and more and get feedback from someone who will be honest.

    * Connections – It’s said that your income is the average of the five people closest to you. When you make more connections, you increase your opportunity to raise your income exponentially. The shorter you can make the degrees of separation from where you want to be, the better.

    * Accountability – Another reason you’ll improve your income with masterminding is the accountability the meetings will provide to you. Whether you meet with your mastermind group weekly or monthly, you’ll have to admit whether you met your goals or not.

    * Support – Win, lose or fail, your masterminding will provide a lot of support to you. Not only that; you’ll feel really good supporting others too. One of the things humans need to feel successful, outside of money, is to help others.

    All of these things can improve your income if you put the things you learn into action. You’ll learn from your peers what you are doing well, what you can improve on, and come up with new ideas you never thought of. Thus, you’ll increase your income faster than you would without masterminding.

    Categories: Mastermind Tags: Tags:

    Nine Ways to Create Buzz about Your Business

    Creating buzz about your business means that you do something to get people talking about you and your business. Today, creating buzz about your business is important, especially as there are so many people to compete with. But, if you can set yourself apart in this way, you’ll win a lot of new customers. Here are nine ways to do that.

    1. Send Out a Press Release – Press releases are still viable and important ways to get buzz about your business, even in this day of social media and blogging. Press releases should be sent out to your contacts every time you have something newsworthy to share.

    2. Create and Share an Infographic – Infographics are long, pictorial graphics that tell a story about the data and information that you have. These are great ways to encourage sharing, especially if you include data that is relevant for your audience that they’ll enjoy.

    3. Release a Free eBook on Kindle – Having a book launch with a free Kindle book is a great way to create buzz. Ask the people who download the book free to give you a review and feedback, which will help move your book up on the list that Kindle recommends to people.

    4. Create Viral Videos – While you might not be able to just willfully create a viral video, if you create regular videos that are of interest to your audience then one of them is bound to resonate enough to go viral. Videos get shared more often than text, so you’re off to the right start when you create videos.

    5. Have a Facebook Contest – Contests are great way to create buzz about your business. You can have them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, your blog… however you want. Just follow the rules of the platform and make sure your prizes are relevant to your audience.

    6. Conduct a Blog Tour – A blog tour is where you plan to place a guest post that is original to the place where you put it, and which is about something you’re promoting. The way to set that up is to contact people to join the tour and allow you to post your information on their blog.

    7. Host a Webinar or Teleseminar – These are great ways to build your email list and get buzz about your business. A good way to do it is to ask other people to do them with you. That way you all promote to your own email lists too.

    8. Start a YouTube Channel – A YouTube channel can be almost as good as having a television show if you plan out the content you want to do, post content on a consistent basis, and try to be as professional as possible.

    9. Connect to a Charity – You don’t want to do charitable things just because you want to create buzz. But, if there is a charity that you like, you can donate a percentage of proceeds all the time to it, or you can have yearly sales where all proceeds go to the fundraiser.

    If you want to create buzz about your business, using social media is a great way to do it. Try these different ways and see what reactions you get. Keep doing new things as often as you can to keep the buzz going.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags:

    What a Virtual Assistant Does All Day

    A day in the life of a virtual assistant varies with each VA and their niche. A VA can have a very flexible schedule if they have set it up that way. But for the most part, a VA will do the same things each day based upon their business. Some examples of what a VA might do are below.

    Depends on Their Niche

    In truth, what a VA does all day will greatly depend on their niche. Some VAs keep track of their work by using a system like FreshBooks.com to track time, and some bill by project. Some do administrative work and others do other types of projects like event planning. How a VA structures his or her day is dependent upon how they set up their own business. Some of the things a VA can do each day are:

    * Take incoming calls
    * Update websites
    * Update social media
    * Research
    * Reply to email
    * Data entry
    * Book travel
    * Write content
    * Manage others

    As you see, what a VA does each day is diverse. But, as guidance on what a VA does all day you might just consider a specific niche like “administrative.”

    The VA might get up in the morning and take care of his or her family before sending them off to school. Then once the bus comes, they might get a cup of coffee and go settle in front of the desktop computer to check email for an hour or so, then move on to checking social media for 30 minutes or so. After that, the VA may look at the calendar to see what’s on the schedule for today.

    Then, the VA will work on each client, usually in blocks of time devoted to one client at a time instead of trying to switch back and forth between clients. After each client he or she may take a break and get lunch, or go for a walk, or to the gym or for a swim. Whatever they want to do is based on their schedule.

    At 3:30 PM the children may come home, so the VA stops work and devotes their time to the children, and perhaps cooks dinner, does laundry and other household duties. Some VAs then go back to work when their partner is home. Other VAs run their business during business hours from 8 to 5 and hires someone to help with their kids. It’s up to the VA how he or she chooses to run their own business.

    Works on Their Own Schedule

    A VA gets to choose their schedule, based on deadlines that are set with their clients. They might work 8 hours straight or they might work 4 hours; it’s up to them and how they want to run their business. Which brings up the point of how you choose your niche. The answer is to choose a niche that will accommodate your needs in terms of time and how you want to work.

    Categories: Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    How to Gain More Qualitative Feedback from Customers

    It’s very important to get as much feedback from your customers as possible. Sometimes it can be difficult to ask for the feedback but there are times when you should. If you’re not getting natural feedback then do what you can to get more. Feedback can help you make your products and services better, as well as help you identify gaps in your product offerings.

    * Follow Up Often – When someone buys a product or uses a service, it’s important to give them an opportunity to tell you what they think. Most people will not just naturally give feedback unless they are super mad about something. Using email to follow up with customers is an excellent way to get the information that you seek.

    * Send a Survey – Once a customer has purchased from you, another way to find out how they felt about the products and services is to send a short survey to customers only. Ask the right questions so that you can get a lot of emotionally-based information from them.

    * Start a Customer Only Forum – You can use a message board system, or you can even start a customer only group on Facebook. This will help you get a lot of interesting feedback simply by watching and observing how the customers themselves interact and talk about your products.

    * Ask for Comments on Your Blog – When you post something on your blog, be sure to actually ask for comments that help provide insight into how customers are using your products. You can even make blog posts or video blogs to expand on various comments.

    * Ask for Product Reviews – If you really want reviews on your products and services, ask directly for them. Give them a link to your review software on your website, or send them to your business LinkedIn profile. Alternatively, you can ask them for a review with a picture and offer them a link to your website in exchange.

    * Have a Contest – Yes, you can have a contest that will help you learn more about what your customers think of your products and services. Ask for video reviews or blog posts to be written about your products and or services. You may be surprised by what they say.

    * Ask Them How They Use Your Products – A really interesting thing to do is to ask your customers to tell you what is their favorite way to use your product. You may learn new uses for your own products or services that you had not considered.

    The more information you can gather from your customers, the better. It’s not always going to just come naturally. You need to make it easy for your customers to tell you what they think about your products and services, by offering them easy to fill out surveys that are short and to the point, with open-ended questions too.

    Categories: Customer Referral Tags: Tags:

    Online Reputation Management: What Is It?

    You’ve likely heard of Olivia Pope – the fictional character who fixes everything on the top-rated TV show Scandal. Something embarrassing is threatened to come out and she does what needs to be done to cover it up or spin and change the story to something more positive and flattering.

    Online reputation management might not be as dramatic, but it’s very much the same type of thing. There is information about you and/or your business out there that you’d rather not be made public, but it shows up on search engines and now you need to bury it.

    Don’t worry; you don’t have to be as diabolical as Olivia Pope’s “family” to bury negative information online. There are ethical ways to manage your online reputation. Not only that – these are things you should do anyway if you want to be run a successful business today. Let’s talk about the different types of information that can be found online about you that you want covered up or buried.

    Images You or a Friend Posted

    Sometimes when we are young, or drunk, we do things that are regretful. If you have posted the image you can remove it, but more than likely someone downloaded it and saved it. You’re essentially out of luck. You can email anyone you know who has the image and ask them to delete it. Then, ask your friends and family not to post certain types of images of you in the future.

    Comments You Made That Showed a Dark Side

    A customer spouted off to you in a rude way and you just lost it and made some derogatory or defensive comments that do not show your best side or put your business in the best light. If you have the ability to delete your comments that’s a good start, but an apology also goes a long way. If you can humble yourself and tell the person you’re sorry as well as any readers, before deleting, that might be a better course of action due to the fact that you really cannot delete something like that without it causing a stir too. You can bet someone took a screen shot.

    Erroneous Information Posted by a Competitor

    When you see a concerted effort by your competitor to lie about you, and maybe even slander you, you’ll need to choose a course of action that works. In some cases things will blow over if you ignore it. In others, especially when it comes to online slander and bullying, you’re going to need to take legal action. That might at first blow up the situation though, so you need to be sure the law is really on your side before acting.

    You May Need Your Own Olivia Pope

    Ok, hopefully you won’t hire someone who is adept at torture and slashing people’s throats, but in serious cases you may need to hire a firm that specializes in online reputation management and let them take control of managing your online reputation. A firm will help you figure out how you can actually remove things from the net, and how you can bury it in the fastest manner possible while also being ethical.

    Online reputation management can not only be used to manage negative aspects of the net, but it can also help boost the positive aspects of the net. Keeping your reputation intact is really only part of the issue. It’s also important to use the internet to its fullest potential for your business needs. Practicing online reputation management can do all that and more.

    Categories: Reputation Management Tags: Tags:

    Eight Ways to Market Your Biz Online Cheaply

    Marketing your business online inexpensively is a real possibility. You can practically market your business for free if you know what to do. That’s why online marketing is so completely awesome and fun. The barriers to entry are low, and even the learning curve is small. So before you know it, you will bring your business to profit with free or cheap marketing.

    1. Content Marketing

    This is one of your most important marketing weapons in your arsenal. In fact, you’ll use content for all types of marketing including every inexpensive way mentioned below. Content is needed that sells, educates, engages, informs and excites. You need content for all aspects of marketing – up to and including customer relations.

    2. Use Social Media

    Social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ all have a place in your online marketing endeavors. Well, they might. You have to determine which social media networks will work for you and it will depend on your niche and your audience. Where do they hang out? Be there.

    3. Blog Often

    Blogging is a big source of traffic, and in some instances the only source of traffic for many website owners. It’s a great way to get the message out to your audience while not spending much money. You can write the posts yourself or you can outsource. Most people write them themselves when starting out. It can take time to get used to doing it, but writing a post a day can help gain momentum. But you also want to consider doing longer blog posts, less often, to get results.

    4. Remember SEO

    If you are not familiar with SEO (search engine optimization), it’s important to learn. SEO changes constantly and is how you optimize your website for search engines. There is both on-page and off-page SEO that you can do for your business. Learn all you can about it.

    5. Send Out a Press Release

    The good, old-fashioned press release is still a thing, believe it or not. You can still get a lot of value out of sending out free press rereleases if you know how to do it. The trick is to have contacts to which you send the press release directly and not just out to never-never land.

    6. Perfect Your Website

    Your website is your store front, and even if you have a bricks and mortar store front, your website is the store front your customers will likely see first. If it doesn’t look great, why would anyone purchase from you?

    7. Join Relevant Communities

    Communities are a great way to get your name out there. There are communities you can join on Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as self-hosted and owned “inner circles” and mastermind clubs that you can join. They can help you get known as an expert, as well as help you get more links to your website.

    8. Get Listed

    There are directories that are free or inexpensive that you can join to help market your business. Ensure that the directory is niche oriented, and that it is run by a reputable person so that you are listed with other reputable business owners. You don’t want to be on a list that is associated with spam. Your local chamber of commerce is one such list that you can get on for the price of your membership.

    Finding inexpensive ways to market your business online is a great way to get started. But even after you have a great business, you’ll want to keep using these inexpensive ways to market your business.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags: