Author: Laura

Can Your Business Benefit From Article Marketing?

Article marketing is one of the most popular methods of promoting a small business – whether you are an online business, a sales professional such as a real estate agent or a brick and mortar retail company. Not only is it easy, it is also low cost and even you can do it!

By writing articles in your area of expertise you are:

Spreading the word to your niche market

Demonstrating that you are the “go-to” person in your field

Creating a body of work that continues to promote you and your product or service long after the article has been published.

Keep in mind other businesses that target your same niche market are looking for quality content to provide to their readers. You can provide well-written articles for their blogs, newsletters or other media that is targeted to their audience.

This could even apply to a competitor! Take for example that you are a real estate agent in your local area that specializes in short sales. You could connect with another agent in another state to share articles that are posted regionally. When you write an article for someone else be sure and include a plug about you and your business at the bottom of the article (this is often referred to as a resource box.) Include a link to your website or blog. They get free content and you get free publicity! Win-Win.

Will article marketing work well for your niche market? If you have valuable advice to give to your potential customer – the answer is yes. If you’re selling a product or service or trying to drive traffic to your website, then article marketing is right for you. It is one of the best ways to boost your search engine ranking, drive targeted visitors to your website and help prospects build trust in you. Remember that before a sale is made, people need to know, like and trust you. Article marketing is a key component in creating trust.…

For More Beneficial Advantages to Your Online Home Based Business, Use an Inbound Marketing System

Legitimate online businesses can gain a huge advantage by making it easier for people to find them through search engines and mediums such as social media networks, so that rather than bombarding potential customers with advertisements, you will actually have them looking for you. The way to do this is be increasing your web presence and becoming well known online. Even though this process may take longer and it does require extra effort from you, it has some long term benefits that make it well worth pursuing.

Here are some of the advantages you will gain from instituting an inbound marketing system:

One big advantage of using an inbound marketing system is that it makes it much easier for you to allocate your resources. In other words you can control where and how people will be able to find your website, for example Facebook or Twitter. This also gives you the opportunity to control the kind of first impression you want to make. This way you can be sure that things are working the way you want them to, and if not then you can quickly change your tactics or make improvements to get the best results from your resources.

Another advantage is that you will be able to determine just how effectively your strategies are working. Let’s say for instance that you have a squeeze page that gives anyone who visits your website from Facebook, and signs up for your newsletter a free e-book. This will help to measure your conversion rates and you can then split test your landing page to get better conversions in the future.

Ultimately the consumer is the person who has all the power because they are the ones who make the decision on whether they want to take action or not. With an inbound marketing system in place you can improve your relationships with your customers and by using social media networks you can actively engage with your customers and be sure that they are satisfied with the product or service that you are providing. By presenting them with the opportunity to find you, instead of you actively seeking them out, you are allowing them the chance to feel that they are in control. This will also give you much happier customers.

Working with this type of marketing system forces you to integrate your various assets including your website, email campaigns, social profiles and squeeze pages. The advantages of doing this can make a huge difference to your company as it creates a central point that it brings all the functioning areas of your organization together.

Finally by integrating all of your digital assets for your home based business your customers will find it much easier to stay in contact with you and you with them, which makes the whole process of selling your products or service a more pleasant experience. So from this you can see that …

Methods for Effective Sales Collaboration

Business collaboration is nothing new. It has been in the business world since times immemorial. However this has gained a priority in the recent times, as more and more, people are merging two businesses to create an innovative and improved enterprise. This is helping both the businesses to garner more customers and the owners are becoming successful in their endeavors.

During the First World War, it has been found that work councils came into being in the 1940s. This was mainly popular in the engineering and technical departments in an organization. Collaborations in the world of business can be both intra and inter organization. The collaboration can range from the simple kind of partnership to funding of crowds to the complex situation of starting a multinational company. The collaboration between the team members also helps in the prosperity of the company.

Some of the methods that can be used for effective sales collaboration are as follows.

Team Lead:

Team leader is one of the most important people for the creation of effective collaboration both for online work as well as for the offline work. They are the ones who know how to build relationships with the partners or the employees for the effective working of the company. This is the reason why Bill Gates, Steve Jobs are well known as great team leaders who could lead their company from the front.

Dream Team!

The second element is a dream team which can support the team leader in his actions to make the team strong and independent. One has to be devoted to the idea of the product or idea and committed to the success of the other team member. Selecting individuals with the right attitude, skills, commitment level is very helpful for a team leader in making a good team.

Broadband Connectivity!

It is very essential to have a good and a reliable internet connection. In recent times, a major chunk of the work is done online. This is the reason having a reliable internet connection helps a person much. Web based applications, sending emails, management platforms, online editing documents or even blogging for the company will require the help of a good internet connection. Therefore, one must ensure that their internet connection is reliable and can work properly.

Sales Collaboration Software:

There is a number of collaborative software available in the market which you can install for completing the work fast and quickly. One can simply register and create an account with the help of which the person can coordinate work online using the project management software. This will quicken the pace of your work and you can select as per your needs.

Hosting Server

A good hosting server is essential for a company that will be working in collaboration. Account security levels, scalability, and downtime statistics are some of the elements that one must check before selecting the hosting server for their company.

Deploy these methods for increasing the effectiveness of Sales collaboration …

Marketing a Small Business Online – Crucial Step to Improve Your Business Online Marketing Efforts

Marketing a small business online is not that difficult when you break it down to small easy steps. Many small business owners do get overwhelmed in the amount of work they do for their day to day operations. But when you step back and develop a step by step approach it just makes it much easier for you to progress your marketing efforts. Small business online marketing is wide open for search engine optimization. Most of the local small business market is not utilizing the certain techniques to improve their web site results. Now picture your business on the top of each search engine results for your given keyword. Imagine how many free referral and product sales this can achieve. There is one critical thing you can do that will prime your business for a hostile takeover in your market. 

The most important part of marketing a small business online is to list your business on the local search engines. Google, Bing, and Yahoo all put out results for existing local businesses in your area. A quick search for “Accountants in LA” can show several hundreds of listings of accountants that are in the city of Los Angeles. Everyone knows that the Yellow Pages is not what they used to be. More and more people are using the internet to find products or services. Now imaging if you business was listed on top for accountants in LA. Off course assuming you’re in the accounting business. But go ahead and give it a try. Put your kind of business as the keyword and end it with “in your City”.   Replace your city with the city you live in. What are the results? Was your business listed? 

Let’s face it; marketing a small business via the Yellow Pages is becoming less and less common these days. Phone books just get tossed in the recycle bin every time I get them in my house. It is just a fact that I can find information much faster by using the internet. More people are getting online than ever before. Internet access is just the way television first got started; eventually everyone will have at least one in their household. 

Google, Yahoo, and Bing are slowly taking over your local search engine results page. It is time to ensure your small business is primed and ready. Visit the websites and find out how to get your business listed right away. I have been doing it for clients and some have gotten it listed into Google in less than 48 hours. The other search engines, Yahoo and Bing, take a little longer. For one thing Bing mails out a confirmation letter to your business mail box. …

MLM Opportunity – How to Be One of the Top Five Percent That Succeed and Thrive

It is a well-know statistic that 90-95% of all new businesses fail within their first year. This is no different when relating to an MLM or network marketing business opportunity.

What will set you apart from the crowd and allow you to not only succeed but thrive when so many before you have tried, given up, or flat out failed?

If you’ve been in the network marketing business for any amount of time you’ve probably heard about or been told to develop your “why”. Your “why” basically summarizes your motivations for joining your MLM company in the first place.

A strong why can help you remain centered and strong when struck by adversity. It gives you motivation when you are tired and inspiration when you’re feeling stuck.

I like to think of your why as passionate purpose.

So do you have a personally crafted, written down passionate purpose for your MLM business opportunity?

If yes, great! But I’m still going to suggest that you finish reading the article and go through the following exercises/questions.

If no, then now is the perfect time to develop this crucial piece of network marketing business success.

Most of the time people’s “why” centers around an income goal. For example, “My why is to make $5,000 per month so I can quit my corporate job.” Or “I want to get to the executive level so I can get the company car.”

And I say….Boring!! Ho-Hum. Is this really inspiring? Motivational?

Nope!

Let’s expand the possibilities and change your “why” to passionate purpose.

Passionate purpose is what makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning absolutely ready and on fire to begin the day.

Passionate purpose keeps you strong and steady in your business endeavors no matter who laughs at you or says no.

Passionate purpose keeps you holding your head high and inspired even when half of your team quits and joins the latest super-juice company.

So how do you dive past your normal “why” and connect with your passionate purpose?

Well, it’s going to take a little time and some soul-searching. Make sure you have at least 10-15 minutes to begin the exercise, a pen and of course some paper.

Ready?

Answer the following 5 questions as quickly as you can. No deep thinking, just initial reactions.

1. What gets you really excited? Or what do you love to talk about with anyone that will listen?

2. What huge problem would go away if you suddenly had unlimited money?

3. What problem scares you the most that money can’t solve?

4. You’ve been told that you have to start a charitable organization. What would it be?

5. List 5 reasons why you would start this particular charitable organization.

Put your answers away for at least a day. It is essential that you give yourself some time between answering the first 5 questions and finishing this …

The Unique Features Of Customer Relationship Management Software

Customer Relationship Management Software normally abbreviated as CRM is a special application properly designed to help a business organization or company in managing all data that are associated with its clients. Aspects covered include sales, marketing, ongoing follow-ups, support services and so on.

The CRM software is known for its wonderful features tailored to meet the needs of any business organization. Listed and discussed below are some of the vital features.

Multiple User Environments

The CRM software application comes with unique multiple user environment which allows every member of your organization to communicate effectively. Each member is allowed to have access to the schedules of the other members connected. This encourages effective network connectivity.

Sale Force Automation

This is another wonderful feature of the CRM software. It could be in form of Marketing Automation which enhances connectivity among marketing departments of the company making use of the software. This feature makes various marketing processes easier by automating repetitive tasks. Most consultants and marketing employees of the company benefit from the feature as they are given the room to specify various criteria and outcomes for all kinds of tasks and processes. The software interprets and stores the processes perfectly thereby reducing human error in the organization.

Effective Data Backup System

It’s always a tragedy to lose vital data in a computer network system by any means. The Customer Relationship Management Software has an effective hourly data backup feature that prevents data loss. You’re sure to retrieve all your data anytime as they are automatically secured through the back-up system each time an operation is being carried out.

Document Sharing

The CRM software also allows document sharing among all the members of the organization who are connected through the application. Each member can easily have access to other members’ document. This enhances perfect communication in the organization and also ensures quality output production.

Wide Range of Reports

The software allows wide range of reports in diverse manners. It supports proper email Marketing Automation and reporting without any hassles. This enhances the connectivity of all members using the software. Time is also effectively utilized in the process.

Indeed, the CRM software has other unique features such as contact and lead management, import and export functions, customizable knowledge base and so on. It also has features that support outlook express and other likely applications. Your company stands the opportunity of changing level digitally when this software is properly installed.

Finally, you can always go for the best type of CRM software application for your company. You can go for the locally hosted version which demands your constant control and management. You can equally go for remotely hosted version which is usually hosted by the CRM Company that provides the service to your organization. This last option is usually the best version since, the responsibility of managing the technicalities software rest on the shoulders of the CRM service provider.…

Ensuring Successful Marketing Automation Solution Implementation

Usage of marketing automation solutions can streamline sales and marketing operations to a great extent. However the implementation of such sophisticated solution presents complexity and common pitfalls that can be avoided with some marketing automation software implementation best practices. In fact efficient operation of such solution depends largely on advance preparation as the automation technologies go from purchase to getting put to work.

Following logical steps in implementing marketing automation solutions

Firstly it’s important to define the business problems and then work through the solution. Setting milestones and defining the metrics to track the progress and to measure the benefits of using marketing automation solutions is the next logical step. Today social communities are widely exploited by organizations for marketing purpose, but very few of them actually use them to the best of their advantage to promote their offerings. Hence it is essential to understand how these social media channels work and how people use these channels before jumping into it. Determining your social goal and using analytic tools to measure and monitor the social activities over time is the key to successful social media marketing.

Technology aspects to consider while deploying marketing automation solutions

User adoption is critical in running the solution effectively. Therefore go for solutions with more intuitive User Interface (UI). In fact many marketing automation vendors are customizing their applications to suit specific user roles. It should be remembered that even if the solution is endowed with powerful analytic tools, it could tantamount to nothing if the user is unable to properly handle it. Organizations must make it a point to invest in training and education before starting to use the solution. A clear idea about operational changes and other forthcoming changes in strategies, processes will put the employees in a better position to make more efficient use of the marketing automation solutions.

Statistics show that an organization can typically save as much as 20% of total sales and marketing costs by organizing and automating key sales and marketing processes. Better co-ordination between sales and marketing teams to convert maximum number of leads into winning deals is possible only though the use of a framework that will establish standard definition for lead qualification, lead scoring, build joint teams to facilitate consequent sales enablement and include provisions for reporting. Additionally design your campaigns keeping both and marketing and sales team in the loop. For example a well-structured offer for a new service or product might drive a potential customer to contact the sales people for more information. So if your sales team is not conversant with the offer they might end up painting a picture of incompetence.

The next important thing is to find an executive sponsor who understands the value of marketing automation solutions and the need for process changes to keep the project aligned with organization’s strategy and portfolio direction. Likewise the solutions implementation should be also aligned with the company objectives.

Conclusion

Because of recession and economic downturn …