Get More Clients Online

Step-by-Step Internet Marketing Action Plan to Keep Your Client Pipeline Full

What's the biggest issue small business owners have with marketing?  Paying attention to marketing tasks when they're trying to run their business.  So many times marketing falls to the wayside, only to be resurrected when the client pipeline is drying up.  Frankly, then it's too late to worry about marketing, for no amount of last-minute marketing will help you pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat when you're desperate for clients.

It's only when you decide to integrate marketing into your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly routines that it becomes a habit that you no longer have to think about. So, rather than a hodge-podge of strategies that you change every time you hear of something that sounds more compelling, find the mix of strategies that works well for you in your business and stick to it.  Remember, consistent action yields prime results.

Rome wasn't built in a day.  Neither will your Internet marketing action plan.  Start small, and add in additional strategies that you both enjoy and that make sense for your business.  The strategy that you choose is less important than consistent implementation of your plan.

To help you along, here's what I'm doing on a regular basis to market my business online:

Quarterly Tasks

1. Send out post card to touch base with former clients and customers to remind them to think of me when they need marketing assistance.

2. Write promotional copy for a free preview call or list-building teleclass and have my assistant submit the teleclass description to major event and teleclass sites.  My assistant then creates a squeeze page with an opt-in form for the class. I create the handouts and the call to action or special offer and host the class.

3. Create a new information product (product, sales page, promotional copy for emails) and upload it to my site to sell.

Monthly Tasks

1. Have my assistant update my site's media page with links to new press coverage I've received or press releases I have submitted.

2.  Create a tips-based press release based on the content of one of my articles and submit it through PRWeb.com.  Then, about a week after submission, I have my assistant post the same release on a handful of free press release sites.

3.  Have my assistant pre-schedule a list of quotes or business tips into HootSuite.

4.  Have my assistant request and gather testimonials from my clients, newsletter and blog readers, members of my membership site, purchasers of my products, as well as speaking gig hosts and update my site with those as appropriate.

5.  Review my yearly and quarterly marketing calendar (outlines events, promotions, sales) and update as appropriate.

Weekly Tasks

1. Have my assistant complete my Marketing Dashboard spreadsheet so that I can see my marketing statistics (site visits, ezine and blog subscribers, keyword ranking, etc.)

2. Post 1-2 new articles on my blog. One of these posts is usually a reader-submitted question that I receive from my "ask a question" squeeze page.

3. Write a brand-new, high content "how to" article for my ezine, as well as a business automation tool review and a personal note to my readers.  When I write each of the articles, I also create a 450 character summary for each, a list of 10 keywords for each, as well as the resource box I want to use when submitting my primary article to my article submission service.

4. Have my assistant format and publish my ezine to my list.

5. Have my assistant publish my primary article and business automation tool to my sites.

6.  Have my assistant submit my primary ezine article to my article submission service for distribution on various article directories, article banks, and online publishers.  My assistant also submits this article to niche-specific sites not covered in the automated article submission process.

7.  Have my assistant research questions on Linkedin Answers and note the ones to which I might be able to respond.

8.  Have my assistant create a Powerpoint presentation from an article I have written and submit that presentation to Slideshare and Scribd.

9.  Send out cards by snail mail to current and former clients for their birthdays or to congratulate them on a personal or professional achievement.

10,  Have my assistant create a list of keyword relevant info compiled from Google Alerts and keyword searches on Twitter and forward to me for further action.

11.  Have my assistant scan the listings at Help a Reporter, PitchRate, Blogger Linkup, and Reporter Connection and send a list of possible media inquiries to which I can respond.

12.  Have my assistant social bookmark my blog posts through Onlywire.

Daily Tasks

1. Read 2 of the top 10 blogs to which I subscribe in my industry and post comments as appropriate. When you do this 5 days per week, you will have posted comments on 10 blogs.

2. Review the emails from the discussion lists, forums, Linkedin Groups and Facebook Groups to which I belong and answer some questions and make some comments that add to the discussion.

3. Log in to HootSuite and respond to any @ replies from Twitter, comments on my Facebook or Linkedin status updates, or any direct mail messages in Twitter.  I also respond to any direct Facebook messages within Facebook.

4.  Have my assistant send out birthday greetings to my Facebook friends using the message I have created for the occasion.

5.  Check my Twitter Lists in HootSuite and retweet posts that I think my followers can use and comment on some, as well.  Then I submit 1-2 status updates to all of my social networking sites through HootSuite.

My list has changed pretty dramatically in the last two years, so be prepared to adapt to changing times with your plan. How do I get it all done? I set aside time on my calendar to consistently implement these tasks, and it helps to have a great assistant whom I've trained to carry out a number of these tasks for me. Start to consistently implement your plan, and watch your pipeline fills with new clients.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Introvert Marketing Coach Donna Gunter helps professional service businesses stop the client chase and create online businesses that drive clients to them. Want to learn specific Internet marketing strategies that can be automated to help get more clients online? Discover how to automate your marketing by requesting the audio download of this program, Stop Obsessing About Your Online Marketing and Automate It at ==> http://www.EasyMarketingAutomation.com

Internet Marketing: How to Use Your Website to Disqualify Your Prospects

How many hours have you spent this week with prospective clients who are great at draining your time and energy but can't seem to find the money or desire to hire you? I've had my weeks when the number is larger than I'd like to admit. Consequently, several years ago I implemented one strategy that has been my secret weapon in my client cultivation process -- I use my web site to disqualify as many prospects as I can.

You may be saying, "What kind of addle-brained strategy is that, anyway?" Simply put, I don't want to work with everyone, as everyone is not my ideal client nor in my target market. A business owner who belonged to the same networking group to which I once belonged was completely flummoxed by what he read on my site. He told me that he had never visited a site in which someone very clearly stated who she was, what she does, and with whom she works. Of course, he thought I was very foolish to be so rigid and turn away clients and "leave money on the table." I confidently told him that I didn't mind leaving money on the table, as there was more than enough to go around. He didn't get it then, and probably doesn't to this day.

Deciding to use your website to disqualify prospects is a very liberating experience. Without a doubt, it shows the world that you know and understand your target market, and that target market feels right at home when visiting your site. Those who don't feel at home leave and find another provider who is a better fit for them. When you disqualify prospects, you:

• eliminate the tire kickers who have no intention of ever hiring you;

• create customers who call and say, "When can we get started?" rather than have to be sold on the merits of your service; and

• decrease the number of information collectors who only want to take your time and energy and, and when they have sucked you dry, move on to the next victim.

To best disqualify prospects, I believe that full transparency about your business is key. When a prospect visits your website, she should fully understand all that there is to know about doing business with you, and have no questions about how you work with clients. Here are 8 pieces of information that you can include on your website to make doing business with you as seamless, transparent, and easy as possible:

1. Target market. Who comprises your target market? What gender are they? Where do they live? How old are they? How much money do they make? What do they do for a living? Where do they hang out on- and offline? To what civic and professional groups do they belong? Use as many adjectives as you can brainstorm to describe them. If you can actually visualize this group of people in your head (and personally know people who fit this description), then you've got an accurate portrait of your target market. Describe your target market in enough detail on your site so that members of your target market recognize themselves when they arrive at your website.

2. Ideal client. What are the characteristics of the clients with whom you most enjoy working? What are their beliefs? What values do they hold dear? What industries are they in? What are the traits and qualities of great colleagues/bosses/friends that made them enjoyable to work with or be around? Are there foundational issues that need to be in place before someone is ready to work with you? Sometimes it's easiest to generate this list by thinking of the traits of your nightmare clients. This strategy isn't always foolproof, as many prospects can't objectively judge themselves (i.e. they refer to themselves as "totally involved" in a project when most people might experience that as "micromanaging").

3. Know their problems. What keeps your clients up at night and causes them great anxiety and stress? What are the reasons that they seek your assistance? If you need to get a better understanding of the problems of your target market, set up 30-minute interviews over coffee or over the phone with people who fit your ideal client profile and ask them a series of questions about things you want to know more about that will give you insight into their daily lives. Or, join in and participate in their online discussion lists, forums. or blogs and research the kinds of questions being posted. On your website, convey that you fully understand their struggles and difficulties and have walked in their shoes.

4. Solution to their problems. Once a visitor understands that you work with others like him who struggle with same types of issues, that visitor wants to know how you can help him solve his problems. Do you have a process, method, program, or strategy? Is that solution delivered via information products, a consulting contract, a service call, or a service purchase? Do you offer various ways at varied price points to help your target market solve their problems?

5. Demonstration of your expertise. Prospects want to know that you've successfully helped others like them. Scatter client testimonials throughout your site, or post case studies or before-and-after scenarios to show how you helped others in this target market successfully solve a particular problem. Information-rich content also serves to help you demonstrate your expertise, so don't be timid about telling your visitors what you know by posting articles you have written that showcase your knowledge. Don't be afraid to give away your knowledge -- 95% of your visitors won't be able to do it on their own, and you'll be the top-of-mind pick when they are ready to take action.

6. Post prices. Don't assume your visitors will want to call you to discover what you charge. If there are no prices listed, many will leave and go to another site where fees are listed. Post your fees on your website so that prospects can tell if they are easily able to afford what you charge. Conventional marketing strategy says that you should have a conversation with prospects and demonstrate your value before you talk price. I think that's hogwash, and quite frankly, I don't have the time to have these conversations. Use your website to give your prospects a clear idea of what it's going to cost them to hire you or buy from you.

7. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Are there questions you answer time and time again? Instead of taking your valuable time to do this, create a FAQ page on your site that answers these commonly-asked questions, and provide a contact form for other questions that someone might have.

8. Barriers to enrollment. If you offer a consulting-type service, you may offer a comp consultation to prospects who are interested in hiring you. Many times this session simply turns into a "brain drain" session, and the prospect is there only for what he can get without paying from you. Make sure that your prospect is serious about taking action by making him take some action in order to speak with you. You might require him to complete an online assessment or survey before you agree to speak with him. A fellow business coach requires prospective consulting clients to show up with a check for $1000-$5000 and business plans, marketing plans, financial documents and every other document that is relevant to the project they are discussing. The prospects who balk at this are immediately disqualified, and the coach moves on to the next prospect.

Don't let the task of qualifying prospects drain you of your time and energy. As a service business owner, your time is your greatest asset. Use your website to your advantage and screen out all of those prospects who are not qualified prospects.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Introvert Marketing Coach Donna Gunter helps professional service businesses stop the client chase and create online businesses that drive clients to them. Want to learn specific Internet marketing strategies that get results for introverts? Discover how to increase your online visibility in this free ecourse, Introvert Marketing Toolkit: 9 Strategies to Make a BOLD Impression Online, at ==> http://www.IntrovertMarketingToolkit.com

Automate Your Marketing: 5 Most Effective Automated Marketing Tasks for More Clients and Greater Sales

Having to market your business, whether online or offline, is the bane of existence for most business owners. Too many times you get pulled in multiple directions, trying this and trying that, with no real plan or schedule in mind.  Mired down by the details, marketing is often pushed to the side when the demands become too great and your client load becomes too heavy.  It's only when you need to replace income with new clients that marketing again becomes a focus for your business.

The best way to market your business is to do that continuously. Having a schedule and plan in place helps, as does being able to automate a number of your marketing tasks so that they occur automatically for you.

Here are the 5 most effective marketing tasks to automate in your online business:

1.  Social Networking.  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, oh my!  Who can keep up with all of this?  It's easy
to get lost in the world of social networking.  However, taking a few minutes to link some systems together and then pre-writing content to be uploaded and distributed over time makes it look like you're engaged in social networking more than you actually are. Connect your blog and ezine to your social networks so that anytime you publish a post or an issue of your ezine, your followers and friends are notified. Create a list of useful tips that can be pre-scheduled to all of your social networks over a period of time. Set up your Twitter account to send one of several warm and inviting direct mail messages to all that follow you on Twitter.  Remember, though, that you'll also need to spend at least 15 minutes a day personally networking, as automation can't take care of everything for you.

2.  Social Bookmarking. Social bookmarking is defined as a method for people to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Whole communities develop on places like Digg and StumbleUpon, where visitors avidly search for the latest and greatest info on their areas of interest. With 100+ social bookmarking sites in existence, social bookmarking could easily take up most of your day.  However, there are several free and fee-based services that dramatically decrease the amount of time you have to devote to social bookmarking. Once these systems are set up, social bookmarking becomes much easier.

3.  Marketing Planning.  It's tough to find the time to create a marketing plan for your business with all
the other hats you have to wear as a business owner.  Then, once you figure out a plan, you have to
outline all of the implementation steps and set up and implementation plan. Now there is marketing
software that will let you set your income goals for the year and then design a marketing plan to support
those goals, as well as a step-by-step implementation plan, including all the tasks that must be completed, along with their completion dates.

4. Article Publishing. You've probably heard that writing and publishing your articles on a variety of
article banks is a great way to generate traffic to your site.  In fact, this is the primary traffic
generation strategy I've used for years for my business.  However, there are thousands of article
directories out there, so how do you decide which ones to use?  You can manually submit to the 10 with the highest traffic rankings, but that will still consume a couple of hours of your time.  To get the most bang from your article publishing buck, seek out article submitter software.  What used to take several hours can be reduced to 20 minutes or so when you get your system in place.

5.  Stay-in-touch Emails.  One of the most common complaints I hear from people who search for info online is that they get emails from people from whom they never requested info.  A more likely scenario is that they requested a freebie from a business, and the business did a poor job of keeping in touch with that prospect.  When the prospect hears from the business two months later, for example, she has already forgotten the business, as too much time has passed without any communication.  Sequential autoresponders provide the perfect opportunity for you to automatically stay in touch with prospects for as long as a year after your initial contact with them.  Once you set up a sequential set of automatic followup messages, you can reach out and touch your prospects with very little effort on your part.  Best of all, you remain top-of-mind with them.

The more you can automate, the more you can accomplish, and the more clients and sales you can attract. Take a look at automating these marketing processes and see how your business grows.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Introvert Marketing Coach Donna Gunter helps professional service businesses stop the client chase and create online businesses that drive clients to them. Want to learn specific Internet marketing strategies that can be automated to help get more clients online? Discover how to automate your marketing by requesting the audio download of this program, Stop Obsessing About Your Online Marketing and Automate It at ==> http://www.EasyMarketingAutomation.com

10 Proven Methods to Promote Your Free Client Attraction Device

Your client attraction device, also known as an ethical bribe or free taste, is the information that you give away on your site in exchange for a visitor's name and email address. I call it a client attraction device because it helps to build your list. Unfortunately, just like a product that you sell on your site, your client attraction device also has to be promoted.

What do you need to do to get prospects to discover and sign up for your client attraction device?Here are the 10 most effective ways to promote your client attraction device:

1.  Email signature file.  Offer a link to your client attraction device in the signature file of every single email that you send out. Once you have your email signature file set up, it's the easiest marketing you'll ever undertake. Both Outlook and Thunderbird offer the ability to customize your email signature, as do most online webmail programs like Yahoo email and Gmail. In your signature file, ask people an enticing question, followed by the link to your giveaway.

2.  Targeted domain name. Rather than having a long and convoluted domain name to which you send prospects for your client attraction device, buy a domain name that relates to the name of your client attraction device and forward that domain to the internal page on your site (the one with the long URL) that contains the squeeze page for your client attraction device.

3.  Article resource box. If you do article marketing as a traffic generation strategy, you know that a well-written article resource box is vital to the success of this strategy. List the link to your client attraction device in the body of the resource box, rather than sending people to your site's home page.

4.  Back of business card. For in-person networking, take advantage of the back of your business card to market for you.  So many times the backs of business cards are blank.  Create a 2-3 sentence description of your client attraction device and list that and the link to your giveaway on the back of your business card.

5.  Call to action when you speak. Whether you speak in person to groups or on teleclasses, make sure that your primary call to action is telling the participants how they can pick up your free client attraction device. Give them the URL of your giveaway several times during your talk so that they write it down for later reference or sign up on the spot.

6.  Testimonials. Having your testimonial placed on another's web site is an incredibly effective way to market your business. Rather than listing your domain name in your testimonial, give the URL of your client attraction device instead.

7.  Directory listings. Many chambers of commerce or professional associations offer directory listings to their members. Instead of listing your domain name when asked for your web site address, list the URL of your free giveaway instead.

8.  Discussion lists and forums. Many discussion lists and forums prohibit any type of promotional posts to their members.  However, most permit you to set up a signature file that is appended to any posts that you make.  Include the URL of your clients attraction device in your signature file, and every time you post to the list, your free giveaway is featured in your post.

9.  Blog comments.  It's generally considered poor blog etiquette to add a signature file to your blog comment you make on another's blog.  However, most blog comment programs permit you to list your name and a URL, which then becomes a clickable link on your name.  Instead of your site URL, list the URL to your client attraction device.

10.  Social networking profiles.  One of the best ways to drive traffic to your free giveaway is to list your giveaway URL instead of your web site address as part of your profile at Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. Now, when someone checks out your profile, they'll be send to your giveaway page to opt into your list.

Take a few moments to assess your client attraction giveaway promotion strategy and implement the ones currently missing from your list. Implementing these 9 strategies consistently will significantly increase your list size and add great prospects who may become customers.

This is just a tiny check-list sized example of the powerful and effective list-building strategies you'll discover as a member of OnlineBizU.com, where I teach independent service professionals how to authentically market their online businesses. This one section alone will cover your investment in a membership 10 times over. Interested? Join here.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing for Introverts Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals who are introverts learn how to authentically market their business and get found online without sacrificing their introverted soul.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results for introverts? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

6 Proven Strategies Helping Introverts Easily and Effortlessly Market Themselves

"I hate to market myself" is a very common complaint I hear from many of my clients. Some are introverts, who are naturally averse to self-promotion, while others just don't realize that they also wear the hat of Marketing Director when they start their own business and unhappily discover that they are responsible for getting their own clients and customers.  Trust me, it's imperative that you get over this stigma (or move beyond it), for without marketing, nothing happens.

What are the best ways for introverts to promote themselves in a way that doesn't feel overly promotional?  Here are 6 proven strategies to help introverts easily and effortlessly market themselves:

1.  Stepping into the shoes of your ideal client and target market.  Do you understand what your target market needs and what their problems are?  What about the biggest pain or complaint of your ideal client?  Being able to accurately describe both your target market and your ideal client will help you greatly in understanding them.  Take 30 minutes and jot down some notes about both and see if you can craft your target market profile and ideal client profile.  Once you have created these, your copywriting for your web site, your ezine, and your emails becomes so much easier, because you can create each piece of your marketing content as though you're sitting down and having a one-on-one conversation with a specific ideal client or member of your target market.  What you have to say then feels authentic and not salesy at all.

2.  Discover and use your "profitable essence."  I borrowed this term from visability expert Nancy Marmolejo.  By this I mean discovering what you're brilliant at doing and getting recognition (and money) to do what you do best. Once you figure out what makes you unique, the notion of selling yourself dissipates, as you then find yourself effortlessly doing what comes naturally to you.

3.  Share your knowledge.  Introverts often value knowledge over people, and so what someone knows becomes more important than who someone knows.  Because introverts enjoy research and amassing knowledge, it becomes very easy for introverts to share what they know.  How can you do this online?  Easy.  By writing a new article every week that is published online. Or, by publishing a weekly email newsletter.  Perhaps you offer a value-packed giveaway from your web site that entices visitors to sign up on your list. Or, you offer much of what you know about a topic on your authority web site.

4.  Teach what you know.  Introverts may not realize that skills that they have are unique to themselves and aren't a skillset that everyone possesses. Once realizing their uniqueness, many introverts like to teach others about what they know.  This might mean delivering your signature speech at in-person association meetings, or perhaps holding a teleseminar or webinar and presenting your information online. Or, perhaps you seek out opportunities to be interviewed where you set the tone of the interview by providing a list of questions to be asked.

5.  Seek out for 1:1 opportunities.  Introverts function much better in small groups or 1:1 than we do in crowds. So, seek out opportunities to speak 1:1 with someone.  Perhaps you answer questions on an online forum or ask others to submit questions to you.  Or, you request prospects to set up 20-minute strategy sessions with you so that you can get a feel for what they might need and you can demonstrate to them what you can offer to them.

6.  Network selectively.  Yes, you can network as an introvert, but not all networking opportunities are created equal.  The key here is finding groups in which you feel comfortable. 

One of my favorite networking groups held monthly meetings where there was a guest speaker on a relevant topic.  Part of the meeting entailed being seated with 7 other women where each of us got to deliver a 60-second elevator speech to the others seated at the table.  If we wanted to know more, we passed our business cards with a note on the back to a particular speaker to follow up after the meeting or at a later time.  Each meeting typically involved 2-3 rounds like this, so at the end of a meeting, each of us had a list of people who were eager and willing to hear from us. I loved this group because it structured my networking for me and I didn't have to make idle chit-chat with people I didn't know. 

Another option is to participate in an online social network, like Facebook or Twitter, which gives you the ideal opportunity to connect with like-minded people 1:1 virtually.

Marketing isn't an evil part of business for the introvert.  Think of marketing as an extension of sharing yourself and your expertise with others who desperately need what you have to offer. These 6 strategies will help you successfully market yourself without sacrificing your natural introverted tendencies.

Top 10 Ways to Have a Sale

If you need money quickly or want a surefire way to increase your cashflow, it's time to throw a sale. Having a sale is especially easy to do if you sell electronic information products (available as an online download), as your overhead costs are very low once these products are created.  However, a sale also works if you have physical products that have to be shipped, especially if you want to get rid of older versions of a product (cassette versions, for example), or if you have slightly used products that have been returned (a scratch and dent sale).

There's one key rule to remember for your sale -- make sure your audience is aware that the sale has a time limit on it. Many shopping cart programs permit you to put an expiration date on price specials for products.  If yours doesn't, check out the shopping cart I use, GetMoreClientsCart.

Here are 10 occasions for you to have a sale:

1.  Special occasion sale.  Your birthday,  children's birthdays, wedding anniversary, business anniversary, half birthday, etc. are all occasions in which you can have a sale.  I constantly receive sale promotions commemorating the owner's birthday or business anniversary.  You can even have a little fun with this and create your own special celebratory occasion -- your cat had kittens, your child walked for the first time, your daughter lost her first tooth, you repainted your house.....you get the idea.

2.  National holiday sale.  Those of us in the US might plan for national US holidays like Labor Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day.  All you need to do is consult the calendar and determine the national holidays in your country.  One of my favorite sales I offered a few years ago was one on Independence Day here in the US.  I asked if my readers wanted coaching to help them declare their independence to do such things as finally starting that business of their dreams, change their career to something that gives them joy, creating a new marketing plan for their business that will get results, or reinventing themselves or their businesses. A great online resource to locate holidays around the world is Earth Calendar.
 
3.  Special event day sale.  Do you realize that there are special days to celebrate almost every occasion?  In the month of October alone there are Billiard Awareness Month, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Celebrate Sun Dried Tomatoes Month, National Cookie Month, to name just a few.  The book, Chase's Calendar of Events,  is published annually with the current dates for these special events.  You can learn more about these days at Chase's.  You can even submit information to them for a day that you'd like create!

4.  Seasonal sale.  Back-to-school sales are very popular, as are spring-cleaning sales, winter stock-up sales, and "get ready for summer" sales. Of course, if you have an international audience, those readers on the opposite end of the world from you may not be able to relate to getting ready for summer when it's their winter season, so you might want to use these sparingly.

5.  Brick-and-mortar sales strategy.  Believe it or not, what works in the brick and mortar retail world also works online. It's very common for retailers to hold tent sales, inventory clearance sales, scratch and dent sales or close-out sales, so you can model that type of sale in your online business.  In one of Tom Antion's workshops I attended a few years ago, he talked about having an inventory clearance tent sale and had a graphic of a red-striped tent that went out with his promotion.  The great irony, he explained, is that he has no inventory because the items he had on sale were all electronic downloads.  However, it was one of the most popular sales he had held, as the concept of a tent sale is very familiar to the American consumer.

6.  Across-the-board discount or coupon sale. Give your contact list 25% off or 50% off of everything you sell, or create a coupon code or special link for a sale on certain items.  You can make this coupon or discount available exclusively to your VIP list, whether that's your audience at a conference, your email newsletter list, or your current client base.  Everyone feels special if they're on a VIP list!

7.  Pre-release sale.  Do you have a product that's almost ready to launch, a subscription membership site that's about to go live, or a printed book that's about to be issued?  If so, give your list members the opportunity to buy it at a special price before it's released to the public.  Consumers want to be the first to have the newest information, so give your list members first shot at your newest information.

8.  BOGO sale (buy one, get one free).  What works for Payless Shoes can work for you, as well.  You can offer a buy one, get one free for one of your products, and pitch it so that if one of your customers splits the costs with a friend, they'll each get a full product for 50% off the regular price. Or, they can give the additional copy to a client or colleague. Another way to create a BOGO offer is for all of your same-priced products, i.e. if you buy one for $29.99, you can get any other product priced at $29.99 or less, for free!

9.  Payment plan sale.  I see so many furniture store ads proclaiming, "Interest-free financing!  No payment until some date that's 2 years from now."  If you have higher priced products, you can do the same thing.  Offer to let your customers divide payments over 3, 4, or more payments.  Sophisticated shopping cart programs will permit you to set up recurring billing, so that your client's credit/debit card is charged automatically on the same day each month for the appropriate number of occurrences.

10. Tax-free or free shipping sale. If your state requires you to collect sales tax on your products, offer to pay the sales tax for your customers.  Each August the State of Texas sets the first weekend of August as a "Tax-Free Weekend" for clothing purchases in preparation for sending children back to school. You can create a similar offering in your business, but you'll need to check with your state tax office on the legalities of offering such a sale.  Or, you can offer free shipping if they buy before a deadline you've set, or if they buy a certain dollar amount from you.  Instead of standard shipping, you can also offer to upgrade the shipping to express if they meet certain buying conditions.

Take a look at what types of sales make sense for you, get out your calendar, and integrate them into your marketing plan.  If you have a good sense of when cashflow is tight, a planned sale should significantly boost your revenue.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing for Introverts Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals who are introverts learn how to authentically market their business and get found online without sacrificing their introverted soul.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results for introverts? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Introvert Turnoffs in Internet Marketing

I recently ran across this article by noted marketing consultant, Marcia Yudkin, Marketing to Introverts - Seven Marketing Pitches That Leave Introverts Cold, and was flabbergasted at my ignorance.

You see, just a short few weeks ago, I really had no idea that it was my introversion that made so many of these strategies she details in her article a complete turn-off for me.  I thought it was just my own quirky personality that found so many of these things distasteful, and frankly, quite difficult to try and incorporate into my own marketing.  Consequently, I don't really use any of these strategies into my marketing, except for sharing a bit of personal info in each issue of my ezine.  Just as I have many times before in my life, I thought I was the only one who felt this way until I read Marcia's article.

I find the earnings brag, in particular, to be the most offensive.  When I worked in higher ed, each of  the staff members had an appointment with a financial planner to help us set up a tax-sheltered annuity as a retirement investment strategy.  My advisor, Brian, started off our conversation by pulling out a large binder and proceeding to regale me about his personal investment portfolio, then worth millions.  He was quite proud that he'd done so well, and assumed that this "selling" strategy showcasing his success would convince me that he could do this for me, as well.

However, I was really unimpressed and was pretty off-put by the whole sideshow.  I almost got up and walked out of the room at that point, but knew I needed to set up some sort of supplemental retirement strategy and realized that I'd never do it if I had to go out and find someone else to help me with this issue.  So, I let Brian do so.  He probably thought I was an instant convert of his selling method, when, in reality, he was a convenient option for me because I was working 80-hour weeks at the time. :)  In another year or so, I moved all of my funds to another company with a financial advisor I actually liked and with whom I would actually speak regularly.

In marketing to introverts, bragging about how much money you've made by showing screenshots of your shopping cart account (or statements of your portfolio earnings) or an extensive list of your successes (pictures of your McMansion, your sports car, and your exotic vacations) isn't going to convince us to buy from you.  We're much more likely to be swayed by word-of-mouth referrals, or testimonials in online marketing, from others who are similar to us. It's only then that we might be convinced to buy.

Internet Marketing for Introverts: Use Your Gifts to Attract All the Clients You Need

When I began to market my business online, I just started to do things that were pretty natural to me.  I'm a great teacher, so I held teleclasses, and I'm also a great writer and researcher, so I began to write about what I knew.  Holding teleclasses was definitely a strategic marketing move, but not so much with the writing. Once I found my own voice, I wrote because I enjoyed it, was good at it, and got high praise for my efforts.  I never envisioned it as my primary marketing strategy.

What many introverts fail to realize is that they have all that they need at their disposal to effectively market their businesses online.  All they have to do is tap into their quiet gifts, which tend to revolve around writing, researching, and listening, and they are good to go!  However, if you're like me, you may be slow to realize that what you do naturally is a gift and what you know is unique.  For so long, I thought everyone knew what I knew or could do what I do.  It never occurred to me that not everyone was like me.

My big "a-ha" came at a women's networking group to which I actually loved belonging (even as an introvert!).  We were seated at a table of eight, and each of us had the opportunity to give a short introduction of ourselves and our business and to make a request of the other women at the table. My request was that I wanted each of them to sign up for my email newsletter. Much to my surprise, not only did all 7 of my tablemates comply, several of them came up to me afterward and wanted to know how I put together my email newsletter.  I was really puzzled, as I thought, "Wow, doesn't everyone know how to do this?  I've been doing this for years (so it was old hat to me)."  The light bulb went off.  All this "internet marketing" stuff I had been doing that I thought EVERYONE knew about was old news only to me!

Better yet, I really did very little "traditional" marketing to get the word out about my business, i.e. advertising, attending networking events, cold-calling, etc.  I simply published an ezine and wrote about what I knew and syndicated that info online and put it on my web site, and clients were naturally attracted to me like magic.  I never understood until much later that this method of marketing my business was unique yet permitted me to be successful at what I do.  Moreover, it was a very authentic way for me to market my business as an introvert because I freely shared what I knew with others, and that also helped me establish my expertise online.

In fact, because this strategy flew in the face of conventional marketing, I got some critical feedback from the leader of a networking group to which I used to belong.  He thought my web site was odd in that I wasn't really doing a hard sell on my site.  Instead, I just talked about who am I, what I do, my ideal clients, and lots of info about what I know.  He remarked he'd never seen anyone just "put it all out there" and chastised me for leaving money on the table, i.e. turning down sales opportunities coming from clients who weren't my ideal clients.  I told him that I didn't want to work with everyone, as everyone wasn't a good fit, and that there were more than enough clients to go around.  He wasn't convinced, since he'd been schooled in the "old school" of marketing, so we had to agree to disagree.

As I wrote more and more articles and syndicated those to various article banks, I began to get more and more calls from people who wanted coaching from me.  However, these were not like calls I'd had in the past.  Rather than wanting me to "convince" them that they were making the right choice by hiring me as a coach or a consultant, they were ready to get started and just needed to know how to do that, instead.  What they did tell me is that upon discovering my web site, which I now know is called an authority site, they camped out on the site and devoured every piece of information there. Once they had finished going through the site, they then wanted the guidance in how to implement the strategies that I discussed in my articles and thus would call me to find out how to hire me.  This was amazing to me, and required no "selling" at all on my part!

I loved this process, even though at the time I was clueless both about how and why it worked as well as the fact that I'd really designed it to survive as an introvert in an extroverted business world.  I guess I would have to dub myself, "The Accidental Introverted Internet Marketer."  I stayed away from those Internet marketing strategies that didn't "feel" right and stuck to doing those things I could feel good about.  So, my marketing as an introvert meant I didn't have to beat anyone over the head to convince them to hire me.  By freely sharing what I know (thanks to my natural gifts of research and writing), potential clients who value substance over sizzle were naturally attracted to me and were willing to pay me to help them.  And, ironically enough, those clients were my ideal clients!

Then, I took my marketing to the next level in the form of content marketing.  I now share my ezine and articles that I write on my blog, in press releases, in video, on other people's sites, in print and online magazines, in my social networking status updates, and in teleclasses, just to name a few. In this way, I've taken my strength of sharing what I know through writing and multiplied that tenfold just through the creation of an automated marketing system that helps me get the word out about what I do and increases my visibility online without having to bang on doors to get customers.

Don't let you introverted nature hold you back in successfully marketing your business. Turn your introvert advantage into a strong online marketing vehicle for your business that helps you get found online.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:Internet Marketing for Introverts Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals who are introverts learn how to authentically market their business and get found online without sacrificing their introverted soul.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results for introverts? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your
FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

3 Secrets to Overcoming Your Fear of Self-Promotion

You've got your online business up and running at last, and now comes the part you love to hate--promoting yourself.  This is a huge stumbling block for many online business owners, especially those who are introverts or who may have been in a supportive or back-end role in a company and made the magic happen behind the scenes while the limelight fell on their supervisors or other more outgoing colleagues. 

Think about the people in your company who were promoted or left for a better position.  Were they always the "best person for the job?" Perhaps, but probably not.  What they were good at is consistently being the best at the process of getting the job, even though there were others vying for the same position with more experience, greater skill, or greater knowledge (perhaps that was you!).  Many highly qualified and very smart workers are passed over every day for promotions they deserve because they haven't figured out how to promote themselves within their own company.

This fear of self-promotion follows many service business owners into the self-employment world, as well. However, the reality of owning your own business is this:  If you don't toot your own horn, no one else will.  Waiting around for recognition or to be noticed for your skills or talent doesn't work when you're self-employed.  In fact, it's a sure way to quickly run your business into the ground quickly.

So, if you're an introvert or someone who doesn't relish giving yourself regular accolades, how do you learn to promote yourself without feeling that you are bragging or selling?  Here are 3 tips to help you overcome your fear of self-promotion:

1.  Take stock of what you do well and your accomplishments.  Sometimes your gifts and accomplishments are apparent to everyone but you.  It took me awhile to figure out that I had a unique talent in finding tools and resources to automate a business because I thought everyone could do this.  What kinds of compliments regularly come your way?  What have you accomplished that you shrug off as "no big deal?" If you're having difficulty compiling this list, ask trusted friends or colleagues to help you out.

2.  Use your gifts (writing, researching, organizing, listening) to your advantage.  I've never been comfortable at telling people what I can do, but have no hesitation to demonstrate to them what I can do.  This means that I use writing to my advantage to create authority websites full of content useful to my target market, regularly repurpose my content in various mediums all throughout the online world, answer questions on forums and discussion lists frequented by my target market, hold teleclasses or speak at events where I can teach others what I know, and ask lots of questions both when I do a complimentary "get-to-know-you" session as I decide to whether to take on a new client and when I attend in-person networking events.  For networking events, it makes much more sense to me to ask "How can I help you?" rather than starting a 10-minute monologue about how great I am.

3.  Find someone who is doing what you want to do and copy them. Rarely do I come up with an original idea.  I'm ALWAYS modeling what I'm doing based on what someone else has done but adjusting it appropriately for my style and my business. Because I'm a great scanner (easily pick up and retain lots of ideas) and love to find new and innovative strategies, finding great models to emulate is fairly easy for me.  If I really like what this person is doing and think that I can learn much from her, I pay for access to that person, typically through some type of coaching or mentoring program. If I'm unable to get access to someone, I get as much exposure to her as I can in other ways, like by subscribing to her ezine, blog, social networking updates, or enrolling in her teleclasses.

Promoting yourself may mean that you have to force yourself out of your comfort zone, but you can successfully learn how to do this with authenticity and integrity.  Try these three strategies in your business and watch your self-promotion confidence muscles develop and thrive!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>
http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com.

Online Visibility Coaching by Email

1:1 Online Visibility Coaching by Email

I know that the economy has many of your businesses in a tailspin, yet you still need access to experts to help you create marketing and business planning strategies. Now, you've got the opportunity to work with me inexpensively 1:1 to get your most pressing questions answered about how your can enhance your online visibility, get found online, and get more clients than you ever thought possible with this personalized, one-on-one coaching by email.

Here's a quick overview of what you get:

1.) Your own private, personal online email message board where you and I will communicate on a personal, one-on-one level.

2.) Answers to ALL of your questions, like:

• How much should I charge for my product/service?
• Which of these domain names seems the most compelling?
• How do I increase traffic to my blog?
• How can I improve the title for my free giveaway?
• What can I do to increase my ezine open rate?
• What should I include in my autoresponder followup?
• How can I find my target market on Facebook?
• How do I start my own affiliate program?
• What's the best kind of membership site to start?

3) Online Visibility Assessment to help you determine in what areas you need to focus your energy and efforts

4) Full access to the articles, downloads, templates, and audio files at OnlineBizU.com.

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