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But who’s growing your business while you’re busy tending to your clients’ needs? What are you doing to attract and maintain a steady stream of qualified, motivated prospects? How do you find and keep interesting clients who pay you what you’re worth? Like most professionals, you may not be able to answer those questions because the answer involves marketing.

Sure, referrals can be a decent source of new clients, but they’re only one approach in a system of balanced strategies for guaranteeing you’ll have many desirable clients for as long as you wish. It doesn’t matter how many referrals you get, if you don’t know how to build and extend the potential relationship that each referral represents.

As a Smart Person, you have lots of options at your disposal for attracting more clients to your firm. And they don’t have to include the expensive things that spring to mind when you say “marketing,” such as slick brochures, advertising, or direct mail.

However, your professional expertise alone will not differentiate you in a crowded marketplace?nor will it bring clients to you. You’ve got to let them know you exist and help them understand why you’re different ? why you are uniquely qualified to address their needs. This is called positioning. It takes some thoughtful, creative work to nail this first, most important step in attracting more clients.

Once you’ve determined your positioning, you have four more major steps that will bring clients to you and your firm: packaging, promotion, persuasion, and performance. Each step requires that you are able to communicate with your target client audience in a variety of ways that they can understand ? in their need-based language, not your expert language.

In a nutshell, here are some of your strategies for each major step to attract more clients:

Positioning: niche, specialty, specialness, reputation, unique competitive advantage, client-centered worldview, saying no, commitment, no Plan B, congruence, self knowledge, re-niche

Packaging: knowledge-sharing, articles, reports, surveys, web sites, slide decks, CDs/cassettes, videos, books, mini-books

Promotion: knowledge-sharing, speaking, writing, networking, referrals, newsletters, e-newsletters, letters, postcards, calls, teleclasses

Persuasion: listening, diagnosis, openness, curiosity, visioning, education, presentations, asking, recommending, assuring, sharing

Performance: competence, solutions, results, keep promises, manage expectations, intelligence, creativity, guarantees, thank you’s, commitment, walking the talk, innovation, persistence, integrity, generosity, alignment inside firm, staying in touch, management competence

Chances are, you’re on a learning curve in one or more of these major steps. Even if you’ve been in business for years and have built a successful firm, taking your practice to the next level means setting new metrics, ensuring your niche hasn’t grown stale, and learning new ways to reach that next stage in your firm’s growth or maturity.

For larger firms, maybe now it’s time to pay attention to how your firm delivers on your brand promise ? do principals, management, and staff really “walk the talk” of what you promise in the marketplace? Or are you, like many professional service firms, a cobbler whose children have no shoes?

Or perhaps you serve “internal clients” inside of a very large organization, and need support or buy-in for the services your department offers. You can put these principles and strategies to work for your work to get noticed, get invited, attract positive attention, and get buy-in.

So what’s a Smart Person to do to attract more clients? Here are some suggestions:

Raise the role of strategic marketing in your practice to a conscious level. Get it on the agenda and apply your smarts to it, just like you do with any other crucial aspect of your business.

Create a niche for your practice ? you cannot be all things to all people. However just because you enjoy working with a particular market or prefer a special approach, it doesn’t mean your target clients will. You need to understand the difference between a good niche and a bad niche, and strategize accordingly. Lynda Falkenstein’s NicheCraft is an excellent source of ideas.

Position yourself to others through their worldview, not yours. Instead of saying, “I’m a strategy consultant,” start with “I help (Fortune 500) companies (increase market share).” Obviously you’d tailor the statement to fit who you help and what problem you address, but you get the idea. For tons of information on how to get this right, Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing is the guru on what he calls creating an “audiologo.”

Develop a system of marketing strategies that both attracts new clients and helps you retain the ones you have. Start with the metrics of what you want to change or improve in your practice and tie the system to driving those metrics.

Develop an action plan that translates your marketing system into specific tasks, with real assignments, deliverables, and deadlines.

Commit to and put a system in place to keep you on track and motivated as you work through your plan. Build non-billable time into your business model dedicated to marketing. A rule of thumb is at least 20% of your firm’s time should be allocated to marketing.

Get expert help and resources for any of these suggestions, including implementation. For many professional service firms, this requires getting away for a day or two of focused thinking and discussion among key people. When you consider that stakes, it’s well worth the time and effort.

There are actually two more “p’s” in marketing. Intelligent, effective marketing requires a great deal of patience?and the ability to see this not as a series of transactions completed in a few weeks or even months, but as a relationship-building process with your current and future clients over time.

Marketing really is a life-skill and something to learn as one of your core competencies as an educated professional. Now that’s being smart!

References

Argyris, C. “Teaching Smart People How to Learn,” Harvard Business Review, May-June 1991.

Falkenstein, L. NicheCraft. New York: HarperCollins. 1996.

Middleton, R. “InfoGuru Marketing Manual.” Action Plan Marketing. 2002.

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Writing articles can do all of these and more. You can vital get exposure for your web site, or the product / service you are promoting by writing articles.

This will not happen over night, but if you write one article a week the number of links you can build up for your site will grow steadily, and each one of those links helps you
become more visible on the internet, helping your potential customer base find you rather than your competitors.

Why go the all the trouble of writing and submitting an article, well these are some of the benefits of submitting articles

Increased number of back-links to your website
You can targeting different keywords and key phrases
Ge links back to your site from your article content
Authoritative back-links – establish yourself as an authority on your product or service
Increase traffic to your website
Increase your search engine position

Why we need to Write and Submit Articles?

1. Free advertising
Promoting your web site by writing and submitting articles is the best way of creating more visibility for your website, product or service. It is free to do and all it takes is your time to write the article. How often do you get the chance to advertise your business free of charge and at such length?

2. It isn’t hard to write an article about something you know as well as your own business
Writing an article about your business is not that hard, after all you talk to your customers about every time you have a conversation with them, so why not make a few notes about the these conversations and then turn it into an article.

3. Increase the links to your website
Once you have published your article you will immediately gain incoming links to your site making it more visible on the web and in search engines, an article about painting equipment from an artist would be considered to be highly relevant by the search engines.

4. Establish yourself as an expert
Giving your opinion and views, especially when backed up by facts and figures set you up as an expert in your field.

5. Articles last longer than adverts
Article you have published in directories will be around for a long time, so an article you wrote two years ago comparing the qualities of different oil paints will still be driving traffic to your website today.

6. Multiple links from one article
Articles also encourage others to promote you and your website by using your article, including the link to your site, on their web site, or blog, another way to increase traffic to your site

And did I mention that it’s free!

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If you are in the hospital or medical area, you may spend several time in your medical scrub uniforms than out of them. You require scrubs that are easy to use for long time, but also scrubs that make you feel good about yourself while you are working, and ill-fitting medical scrub uniforms will not fit the bill. Some medical professionals have one go-to brand that they know fits best, but other people may have a harder time discovering that complete fit in nursing scrubs.

Do you know online is one of the best place to find the perfect Scrub clothing ?

Shopping Online for your medical uniform is the great option of styles, colors and sizes available for buy. You will be able to shop the total choice of uniform scrubs useable from all makers in a fraction of the time it would take to visit the local uniform store.By admitting some minutes to acquire the correct measurements, you may find that perfect set of scrubs that you have been looking for.

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To make a business endeavor a success the people behind it must be good in communication. It is the idea of what you communicate and how to communicate that matters. Good communication is thus, the link that connects business and clients. It is also the controlling factor that links all types of businesses.

One of the most effective ways to communicate about any business is the use of promotional materials like postcards, business cards, posters, flyers and the likes.

Let us discuss the significance of the first item. Postcards are usually rectangular shaped piece of paper or cardboard with the significant details of the business on it.

Why are they popular to businesses? The ultimate reason is to make a sale. However, before a sale can take place there must first be familiarity with its products and services. With regards to this aspect, postcards can be used. Be sure that postcards have retention value in order for customers to easily recall them. As a result, it will drive them to buying or subscribing of your products or services.

Another reason is to follow up on customers. At first sight, the postcard may not get the goal of the company thus, it needs considerable amount of follow ups. Retention is the key factor to yield forthcoming sales.

Third reason is to update regularly. The details of the business might have change with time and strategies thus, we have to consider these changes and come up with an updated version of rush postcards.

After the updates and the usual hi’s and hello’s to the customers, the next thing to do is to check out its affectivity to the sales world. This phase may be called ‘checking out customers’. Moreover, postcards are needed to be sent in order to refresh the customers of your products and service especially the latest ones.

Postcards are powerful marketing tools that can convey message through its colorful, clear and striking images and crisp texts. Full color postcards are the most effective type of postcard used by businesses. This is because of its enigmatic effect on the eyes and emotions of the viewers. Try to capture it in your postcards as well. All you have to do is place moving pictures and texts that way, you can very well catch and seize your viewers decision so as to be favorable to your business!

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There is probably a major problem lurking on your sales page right now. And it could be hurting your profits.

Experts agree that one of the most important factors in a successful website is credibility. This frequently translates into the credibility of the site owner. People are more likely to buy from somebody they believe in.

Is your website as credible as it could be?

People judge credibility by many subtle factors. Does the design of the site look professional? Is the site well written? Are there typos and grammar errors strewn throughout the site? Is the author believable? Does the author have experience in this market or with this product? These are all important factors.

We also know that a strong guarantee is a key part of a successful sales page. Taken one step further, the reader needs to believe he will actually get a refund if requested. And herein often lies a major inconsistency.

Look at your sales page and ask yourself: Who is standing behind the product? What do you provide for contact information?

If there is only an e-mail address, or worse yet, no contact information at all, then you do not have a believable guarantee.

If you want someone to believe that you stand behind your product you need to be reachable. Put your complete contact information on your web site. I’m not just talking about an e-mail address. Consider adding your snail mail address and even, dare I say, your phone number.

At first, I worried about using this approach. I feared getting calls at all hours of the night. I worried about getting overwhelmed. But, I reasoned, I could always remove the phone number if it became a problem.

Turns out, having my phone number on the site is a blessing. I have made dozens of sales because I have been available to answer one or two simple questions from a prospect. I now look at each telephone call as an opportunity to help someone solve their problem and, frequently, earn their business.

I have received numerous comments from customers saying that one of the reasons they purchased is because they can tell there is a “real person” standing behind this business. The fact it is, I only get about one or two phone calls a day. And my sites have thousands of visitors every day.

In summary, take a look at your own sales page or contact page with a critical eye. Do you look like just another anonymous web site? Or is there a person there; ready, willing and able to help. The answer to these questions may have a lot to do with your conversion rates.

At the very least, test putting your phone number on your web site. Even if your web business is part time, with a good voice mail system you will sound professional and you can return phone calls when you are able. Try this credibility improvement. And see if it doesn’t improve your sales.

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Writing is a passion. It is a profession. It is a craft. It can be a hobby. It can also be a marketing tool. How? If you have a business and your aim is to get the word out about you, one way to go about such task online is through article marketing.

Marketing Strategies
If you own a business, whether it is a startup or a big company, you would always think of ways to promote your stuff. This is the main reason why creating web sites are popular these days. More and more people are getting hooked with how the cyber world works wonders.

If you own a web site, the next thing that you will think about is how to drive traffic to it. Just like how you do it offline, you have to reach out to your target market and lead them into clicking your URL.

Article Submission Sites

With the advent of many credible article submission sites on the web come entrepreneurs who are seeing opportunities open for them to speak out and pique the interests of their potential clients.

And how do you go about this?

1. You create good contents. What does this mean? For example, you are a printing company who caters to business people and professionals. You offer postcards, business cards, brochures, newsletters and the likes. When you write the articles, you will not only think about ways to design your postcards, you will go and direct the material to your target market. You can write an article about ways to design your postcards to help your food business.

This way, you already are capturing a niche market. These people will be interested with the products that you are offering. They will be more interested if they will get a view of how they would be able to utilize such tools. And the perfect avenue for you to do so is through the good and functional contents that you make available for these people.

2. Take time to fill out your Resource Box

When you submit articles to directories, they allow you a space to have your author’s biography. No, this doesn’t mean that you have to brag that you are a good looking, 40 something, with bank savings. You are not looking for a partner. You are looking for clients.

To do this right, include your name, your web site address, a tag line or your business’ unique selling proposition and a call to action for your readers. This is the venue where you will promote your own stuff and lure them to click on your links.

Now do you understand why it is important to create quality contents for this purpose? People must trust that you can deliver what you have promised. They don’t know you. But in establishing your name as an expert in the field where they need help, they will learn to appreciate you and may later become interested as to what you are offering them. You cannot achieve that with crappy articles.

If you don’t have the knack for it, you can always hire freelancers to do the job for you. This way, you will be able to provide article marketing to submission sites while you reap the benefits of such move through time.

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For those who are not hugely familiar with it, Google sandbox is one of the most successful search engine optimisation tools available and the purpose of it is to monitor both new sites and spam sites that are being searched for within Google. The best way to think of it is like a monitoring system to ensure that not every site is displayed in the top pages of Google so easily. New sites in particular will usually spend several months in the Google sandbox stage, whilst Google monitors their trustworthiness and strength. There is no exact time period which a website will stay within the sandbox, and even better news is that there are a few strategies you can adopt to make Google favour your new website more and spend as little time as possible in the sandbox.

At seoconsult.co.uk we have a good understanding of what makes Google sandbox tick, which is why we have put together some hints and tips which will make any new sites get through the sandbox stage a little easier and quicker. There are a few basic elements of search engine optimisation which are the most crucial in Google sandbox; these are mainly primary keywords, internal links and fresh content.

Strong and original keywords are the key. It is tricky to get your keywords right in some instances as one factor that is picked up within sandbox is keywords which are very frequent or highly competitive; however these are often necessary if you are going to get ahead of your competitors. Trying to adapt key phrases to make them more original and bespoke to your business is one of the best things you can do to combat this problem.

Rather than just having one or two good links to your website, ensure that the internal linking structure is strong. Think of your website as an all or nothing situation, there is no point having a very robust homepage with good links to it if there is poor navigation and linking structure between the rest of your pages. Internal pages can let a website down, so do not make the mistake of ignoring any element of your site as this can be detrimental to SEO results.

Lastly, fresh content is of course one of the most favoured things within any web page. Anybody undertaking any form of web optimisation will no doubt know the importance of content as one of the prime SEO resources, and this is even more important when you are starting out with a new website. Throughout the first few months of your new site being launched, keep on top of your content and update and post new content wherever possible. Article and blog pages can also help with content and with these also increasing links to your website it can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

When you are writing article or news items you will need to source information from other resources. Whilst this is fine to do, do always ensure the actual content you post is your own and written in your own words to avoid any duplicate copy accusations.

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At clickconsult.com we know many people who have started up their own website and online business, only to discover all the hidden things that they did not even know about. Anybody working in the world of web development , or those who are familiar with it, will have a fairly good idea of the amount of work that is involved in setting up an online business, but unfortunately a lot of people do not.

Believe it or not, the blog pages of a website are one of the things that are often neglected. In the back of a person’s mind they probably know it will come at some point, but little do they know that it needs to be set up as soon as is physically possible. Unless a person is clued up on web optimisation then they are likely to hire a search engine optimisation company to assist with the building of their website, so imagine their horror when amongst all the meta tags and keyword selection they are told they need to add plenty of blog articles to their site too.

A good web design and search engine optimisation company will offer you assistance in writing copy or offer you some writing contacts; however with all the other costs involved and the fact that you do not have an up and running business yet, more often than not people decide to tackle this first step alone. If you are not used to writing blogs then it can seem a little daunting and one of the hardest things is coming up with topics. In this scenario, you would probably find the first five or ten quite straightforward, but then you still have to find another thirty topics to write about. This is when the panic sets in.

There are a few simple ideas to work to when coming up with blog and article topics. These obviously differ depending on the nature of your business, but the basic ideas can remain the same. Products are an obvious one and this can be a really good way of ticking off ten or twenty blogs if your product range can accommodate it. When writing about specific products remember that you are writing for a consumer not from a technical side, so rather than write that a bed is made from a specific wood and has solid butt joints, write about how it can be a beautiful addition to any guest bedroom. Using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can also help get your blogs out there to more readers.

You need to decide if you are writing to your audience on a personal level or a business level. Either way it is a good idea to introduce yourself to your audience and say what you do. You can also include customer service procedures, company background and any frequently asked questions. Of course you will have separate pages for these, but including them in a blog to start with is a good idea.

Always update your blog regularly and keep ahead of industry news and competitor websites. The initial starting up may seem scary, but this is the main engagement with your customer base and with a blog carefully emulating all of the best bits of your business with some smart writing and web design ,you can truly start to make the impact that you want online.

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Have you ever dreamt of becoming rich using online methods? Then internet marketing with blogging is what you should be are looking at. Here you will find some of the important things you would need to fulfill your dreams.

Niche Market And Traffic

To gain maximum profit, you would need people coming onto your blog from all over the world. You might end up getting nowhere if you don’t know how to go about making your blog successful. To begin with, find your niche market. Offer free resources and a wide range of topics for the readers of your site. To promote your product using internet marketing with blogging, try and run more than one blog. This is not a very time consuming task, as you could have other people do the maintenance and posting.

You have to know how to drive traffic onto your site. It is traffic, which will mainly turn the sales into profits. The more visitors you have on your blog, the more are the chances of it getting successful. If your efforts to use internet marketing with blogging are not successful, and you are not able to generate money, then you would eventually stop. Because we don’t want this to happen, you have to try all means to optimize traffic on your blog.

Things To Keep In Mind To Get Traffic

? Increase conversation with your visitors, by writing fresh content.
? Update your blog regularly and keep adding content on a weekly basis.
? Keep the content informative, short and sweet.
? Give an opportunity to people to comment using Stumbleupon, reddit and dig.
? Maintain a sign up box in the bottom or in the corner block for people to gather more information.

By the above-mentioned methods, you will be able to maintain a profitable blog.

Some Do’s

Always remember to use fresh and useful information as part of your marketing plan. Through this, your readers would be able to provide you with more profit. Build trust by keeping freshness, honesty, and professionalism as your key ingredients. A blogger should have strong persuasion power in order to use internet marketing with blogging. You must be able to build an image of the product on the minds of the visitors.

Do have a constant flow of fresh marketing ideas. Your ‘comments’ section would surely have many new ideas which you can use. Using correct and eye-catching keywords would bring an increase in addition to the traffic. This in turn would also help you climb up in rankings on the search engines. Using internet marketing with blogging is not so difficult after all, if you optimize your efforts.

For those who have concentrated into blogging, internet marketing would seem a quick and easy tool to make income. With some amount of patience and extra effort, even your blog can go a long way in helping you realize your dreams. Go on, try and use internet marketing with blogging and make good money.

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When you are trying to make money through promoting articles and affiliate links, you will need a good, simple, and easy to navigate website to put them on. There are two ways that you can accomplish this: you can try to do it yourself if you have any web design skills or you can hire someone.

Doing it yourself, unless you were a pro to begin with, can be difficult for some. You will need to read many tutorials and it may take some time to get going. You could also risk having a site that looks very badly made and thrown together. It is also important (for visitors and search engines) that your site is easy to navigate, which may be a problem if you do not know what you are doing.

Making a Do It Yourself website can be hard, but if you accomplish your goal, maybe you will learn so much that you can write a few articles on it to add to a new DIY niche site!