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Are you ever frustrated or hesitant when you talk to prospective customers because you can’t readily explain why they should come to you rather than go to your competitors? Sure, you might have your 30-second elevator speech, but then they ask you that dreaded question, “So what makes you different?” Then, all those self-doubts creep in, and you just aren’t sure what to say. Differentiation can boost confidence–yours in yourself and that prospective customer’s confidence in you!

– Dif-fer-en-ti-ate v. tr. To perceive or show the difference in or between; discriminate. –

In business terms, to differentiate means to create a benefit that customers perceive as being of greater value to them than what they can get elsewhere. It’s not enough for you to be different–a potential customer has to take note of the difference and must feel that the difference somehow fits their need better. (Other words that mean virtually the same thing: Competitive Advantage; Unique Selling Proposition; or Value Proposition.)

As you are building your business, you can use differentiation to attract more customers. Once you have momentum, differentiation allows you to charge a higher price because you are delivering more value to your customers. Make a point to evaluate and adjust your differentiation methods at least annually.

The various methods of differentiating your businesses fall into four general categories:

Price Differentiation

Focus Differentiation

Product/Service Differentiation

Customer Service Differentiation

Price Differentiation

Differentiating on price is probably the most common and easily understood method. HOWEVER, for Solo Entrepreneurs, caution is in order. On the one hand, potential customers might expect a lower price from you than from your larger competition because they perceive you as having less overhead, etc. On the other hand, cheaper prices can evoke perceptions of lower quality, a less-stable business, etc. And if you compete on price against competitors with deeper pockets, you can price yourself right into bankruptcy. Be creative with this differentiator by competing on something other than straight price. For example, you might offer:

- More value–offer more products or services for the same price.

- Freebies –accessories, companion products, free upgrades, and coupons for future purchases.

- Free shipping, etc.–convenience sells, especially when it is free!

- Discounts–includes offering regular sales, coupons, etc. (see cautions above)

Focus Differentiation

For Solo Entrepreneurs, this is the most important method of differentiation, and in many ways, the easiest. Why? Because as a Solo Entrepreneur, you simply can’t be everything to everybody, so you must pick a specific way to focus your business. Once you have done that, you have an automatic advantage over larger companies because you can become more of an expert in that one field –and you can build close relationships with key customers that will be hard to duplicate. For example, you might differentiate yourself through:

- Location–take advantage your closeness to prospective customers.

- Customer specialization–be very specific about what characteristics your customers will havefor example, racing bicycle enthusiasts or companies with a spiritual conscience.

- Customer relationships–know customers really well, form partnerships with them, and get them to speak for you!

- Affinity relationships–associate your product/service with a well-known person or organization.

- One-stop shopping–offer everything your target market needs, in your area of expertise.

- Wide selection (within your niche)although this one may seem to be the opposite of focus–the key is to be very specific in one dimension and very broad in another.

Product/Service Offering Differentiation

How much you are able to differentiate your product or service offering will vary based on what type of business you are in. For instance, if you are in a highly regulated business, your options may be limited. Explore a totally new market or type of product or service, however, and the possibilities abound. The key to successful differentiation in this category, again, is to know your customers, really, really well. Talk to them often, and you will know what they need most and be able to offer it, long before your competitors know what is happening. For example, your product or service could stand out in one of these ways:

- Quality–create a product or service that is exceptional in one or more ways. Examples: Lasts longer

- Better

- Easier to use

- Safer

- New/First–be the first one to offer something in your location/field.

- Features/Options–offer lots of choices, unusual combinations, or solve a problem for a customer in a way no one else does.

- Customization–as a Solo Entrepreneur, you may be able to more easily handle special orders than big, mass-market competitors.

Customer Service Differentiation

Have you noticed how customer service seems to be out of vogue these days? This situation makes excellent customer service a great opportunity for differentiation and another natural advantage for Solo Entrepreneurs that already know what’s important to their customers. Build your reputation on making customers feel really good about doing business with you. Works great with referral marketing, too. Examples:

- Deliver fast–next day, or one-hour–make it faster than customers think possible.

- Unique channel–offer a service over the phone or Internet instead of in person or in their office rather than yours.

- Service-delight customers!–it may seem expensive to offer exceptional service–but it pays off in word-of-mouth advertising.

- Before/during/after-sales support–provide technical or other support to customers using your product. You might use joint ventures to provide that support–but customers will perceive it as being from you!

- Guarantee/warranty–offer 100% money-back, or free replacement parts.

- YOU–offer yourself, your unique blend of talents and skills, to attract customers. Make sure they get access to you, too!

Keys to Successful Differentiation:

- Know your customers, really, really well.

- Pick a blend of differentiation methods that, in the eyes of your customers, truly sets you apart.

- Talk about your differentiation in terms of customer benefits.

- Tell everyone about what differentiates you–often.

- Keep your differentiation fresh by listening for changing customer needs.

Copyright 2002-2003, Terri Zwierzynski, Accel Innovation, Inc.

Terri Zwierzynski is dedicated to the success of lifestyle-inspired Solo Entrepreneurs. She is the CEI (Conductor of Extraordinary Ideas) at http://www.Solo-E.com and the author of 136 Ways To Market Your Small or Solo Business. Terri is an MBA honors graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill, and has been working with solo entrepreneurs since 2001. You can reach Terri at http://www.TerriZ.com

Find more articles like this at http://www.Solo-E.com, the lifestyle-inspired online learning and connection community. Visit now to receive a free copy of our special report, The Four Secrets of Solo Entrepreneur Success, plus a complimentary 30-day membership.

Here are some hot list-building tips for you to grow your list and your business.

1. Offer an outstanding gift or bonus for subscriptions. Not too long ago, any kind of a free gift or bonus was more than enough to get subscribers. In fact, in many cases, no “bribe” was needed at all! But, as more and more marketers began to send emails and ezines, and as spam increased, prospects began to be more discerning about whom they gave their email address to.

To really be successful in your list-building efforts, you must offer an irresistible deal for subscribers. Sometimes, if people are interested enough in your topic, they will sign up for your ezine or course. But most of the time you must prove to subscribers that you are serious about creating a relationship with them. This means you must provide them with solid content at the beginning, not advertisements. In some cases, this may mean you must offer a free course AND a free report (or some other combination). But do whatever it takes to get that subscriber on your list.

2. Add more opt-in boxes in your sales letter or home page. The best case scenario would be to have your home page be dedicated to your opt-in list as a lead-capture page. But if you won’t, or can’t, do that, put your opt-in subscription box on your page as many times as you can. Ideally, you want it at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom. As your prospect reads your sales page, he or she may become more interested in your topic. Thus, the more times he or she sees your opt-in box, the greater the chance they will leave their email for you to communicate with them.

3. Build your list virally. Write a free report on a useful topic (making sure to put your website in the report), visit the forums, and offer to give your report to anyone who wants it. Marketers will take you up on your offer because good marketers are always looking for good content to share with their lists; they don’t usually care where it comes from. When a marketer gives your report to their list, your website link will be viewed by many who read the report, and visited by many.

If you follow these tips, your list will grow and will become like gold for you.

Kirsten Hawkins is an online marketing specialist from Nashville, TN. Visit www.pageranksite.com/ for more great online marketing tips and webmaster resources.

Competition in the past has embodied such beliefs of “kill or get killed” which has fostered paranoia with many individuals and companies. Our competitive thinking has been to: defend, hoard, knock off competition, defame and win at any cost. A view propagated by Intel’s Andy Grove that, “only the paranoid survive.”

Do we prosper more from paranoia or can we actually prosper more from altruistic behavior by entering into relationships of reciprocation. Moving through the first decade of the millennium finds that we are experiencing trends of new competitive thinking that is largely driven by Internet marketing. Affiliate programs, partnering, free, value creation, and a host of reciprocal marketing strategies are being used for driving consumers to patronize online business.

The operable word for the consumer is “reciprocal.” The consumer is driven by, “I will give you my business in return for value over and above cost and time.” Speed, convenience, quality, accessibility, enjoyment, aesthetics and problem solving solutions are the value creations that customers look for today.

While altruism is surfacing as an edge for marketers there are other influencing strategies that lure the consumer, such as increasing amounts of PR (public relations) coupled with fully integrated off-line, on-line marketing.

Just as magicians or illusionists mesmerize their audience with words and props, we seduce the consumer with an assortment of means and marketing weapons. Integrated marketing plays a vital role for small companies and Multinational Corporations.

Think of your marketing weapons as your magic kit for shaping your message with a multifaceted approach that promotes and elevates your business for high visibility and generates an enthusiastic response in the marketplace.

Before deciding which weapons are best to influence, motivate and capture your audience, don’t lose sight of your primary goal: to sell your products and services.

Planning is essential, however you need to know for what it is you are planning. Yogi Berra said: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you could wind up someplace else.”
Knowing where you are going will have to include the Internet.

The days of not being on-line have gone.

The anatomy of today’s multifaceted approach to positioning requires the integration of on-line marketing into your planning. Business Week’s June 28 cover story concludes: “Any company that relies on the traditional sales force will now have to do some soul-searching.

Companies are finding they need new skills, from logistics and distribution to marketing.” The landscape is rapidly changing for all business. Here are some key points for growing your business.

• Be more targeted in selecting your niche markets.

• Fine more diverse ways to sell goods and services, maintain customer loyalty and confidence while building brand equity.

• Growth of your business may require more altruism in your marketing mix, as evident today.

• PR will play a vital role in the growth of your business. Small and large businesses need to use PR to rapidly define a product concept or brand and for luring consumers.

• PR and technology accelerates direct selling, making it faster and more cost effective to reach customers locally and globally.

• Use media releases for optimizing your marketing campaigns. They can change perception and give instant third party credibility to your launch or re-launch of products and services.

Don L. Price: Author, Sales/Marketing & Positive Change Solution Provider, International Speaker & Mental Fitness Coach http://www.donlprice.com

Invite Don to speak at your next Convention, Meeting or Retreat. Optimize your Power to Succeed with Strategic Performance Marketing/Sales and Success Coaching, for Reaching Higher Performance in Your Personal and Business Life.

– Seminars, Keynotes, Retreats, Consulting —
http://www.donlprice.com

Subscribe FREE to Price on Success e-Newsletter
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Copyright 2006 Nikki Mhlanga

You have built your own website and you are looking forward to start making money on line. But the first thing you will need to have is a lot of traffic.

Advertising your online business and generating traffic to your site can be challenging and expensive, especially when you are still starting in internet marketing.

If you are on a tight budget, you will need to know about various relatively inexpensive ways of generating targeted traffic so that you get the word out about your site.

Are there any effective, easy, inexpensive ways to generate traffic? Yes, there are.

Create viral tools: Create a report or an e-book that is related to what you offer on your online business, and give it away for free. Place your website or links to your affiliate program or products in this e-book.

You can enhance this strategy by making it possible for webmasters or other affiliates to brand the report with their own URL and give it away too. You will need to have a link somewhere in the report which points back to your URL too. If this is a very useful report of good quality, it will get distributed all over the internet, and the links back to your site will increase, which is what you need to get more traffic.

Write and distribute a lot of articles: One of the best strategies to get traffic to your website is through writing and distributing articles on the internet. The internet is a huge place, and you will need to regularly write and distribute articles in order to get more links back to your website.

What subject is your online business focused on? What is it that people would like to know more about? What can you teach them? It is important that your articles provide useful and valuable information. Publishers and ezine owners appreciate quality articles with useful information, and they will publish your article if it meets this criterion. In your articles, include an author’s or resource box at the end, and invite readers to visit your website.

As your articles get distributed and reprinted online, you will get targeted traffic, and your search engine rankings is also improved, which will further help bring in more traffic

Forums and Bulletin Boards: Participating in forums and discussion board, offering help and answering questions can help increase traffic to your website. These forums are indexed by search engines, and therefore participating on them will also increase your link popularity and earn you extra traffic. Most forums allow members to add their signature and URLs and some have a free advertising section. This will give you an opportunity to promote your business and also interact with others and encourage them to visit your website.

Which are the forums and bulletin boards that relate or focus on your target audience? What are their rules and regulations regarding posts and participation? Once you know this, visit these sites on a regular basis and offer some genuine help, answer question and include your signature with your URL while doing that.

Trade Links With Other Websites: Having some links with other websites of similar topic can help increase the link popularity of your website. You will need to trade links with sites that offer similar products but are not direct competitors, that is, do not offer exactly the same product or service like yours.

Although two way links help, one way links are even more effective. You can get one way links by registering your sites several directors, participating in forums and writing articles as stated above.

Publish an ezine or offer an email course from your website: Website surfers appreciate free information and tips. By having an ezine on your website, you can keep in touch with visitors who may otherwise never return to your site. This will build the relationship with your subscribers, and they gradually become confident to do business with you.

Alternatively, you can also offer a small email course to your website visitors, which is related to what your website is about. You can structure the course so that your subscribers will come back to your site to check it out. This generates repeat visitors to your website, and eventually these subscribers will be converted to customers.

Follow these 5 strategies and drive traffic to your website.

Nikki Mhlanga is a trusted online residual income authority and provides valuable online residual income opportunities and
resources through her website at: www.smart-homebiz.com/
You can also follow these 3 easy steps to make money online in the comfort of your own home : www.smart-homebiz.com/pips.html

It’s amazing how quickly free articles can generate traffic - my traffic sometimes triples within 24 hours of releasing a new article.

But if free articles are your main marketing technique, you may run into a problem - how to come up with new ideas.

Yesterday an interviewer asked me in an email: “How does someone come up with topic ideas? What do you do, for example?”

This was my reply:

The key to coming up with topic ideas for your articles is to be very aware of what you yourself are learning. As you know, e-commerce is a huge area and we’re all learning new things every day. Every time you learn something new, write a short article about it. Because there are almost certainly other people who are going to have to learn what you just learned and your article is going to make it much easier for them to get that information.

The other thing to do is pay close attention to the questions people ask you. For example, I had a question last week from a man in the UK who wanted to know how to use articles to promote an affiliate link. So I answered his question and then wrote an article titled: ‘How To Boost Your Affiliate Sales With Free Articles’.

You may notice that I’m using this technique here. Yesterday someone asked me a question and today I’m writing an article about it. It’s that simple!

Here are five great ideas for your next article:

1. Write a Book/Product Review

   This is an endless source of new articles. Every time you see a new eBook, write to the author and ask if you can have a ‘review copy’ (this is also an excellent way to get free copies of the latest new eBooks).

   Writing a book review is really very easy - just summarize the points that most impressed you. You can see some examples of book reviews at:

   http://www.freezineweb.com/article41.html

   http://www.freezineweb.com/article44.html

   http://www.freezineweb.com/article46.html

2. Do an Interview

   Contact a well-known figure on the Internet and ask him or her if you could interview them by email. There’s an art to doing a good interview and the best way to learn is to look at other interviews:

   http://www.ibizinterviews.com/

   http://www.ebookinterviews.com/

   http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/drevoy.html

3. Write a Business News Article

   Subscribe to one of the Internet News services, clipping agencies, or Press Release services and use the information you receive to write articles on the latest developments in your industry field.

   Here are some websites that specialize in Internet Business News:

   http://www.newsbureau.com

   http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/home

   http://www.newinternetnews.com/

   http://www.internetnews.com

   http://www.researchbuzz.com/

4. Write an Anecdote

   Have you had a strange or frustrating experience on the Internet, or have you made a big mistake that you learned from (people love reading about other people’s mistakes). Write about it!

5. Write a ‘How To’ article

   These kind of articles are always in demand. And it doesn’t have to be very long - five tips that you’ve picked up in the last month on some aspect of running an online business. Maybe you learned how to choose a web host, how to choose a list server, how to deal with spam, how to get better results from your Newsletter, or how to succeed with affiliate programs? Why not share those tips with others?

I hope these ideas have given you food for your next article and the next surge of free traffic to your website!

(c) 2002 by Michael Southon

About The Author

Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this simple technique to get massive free publicity and dramatically increase traffic and sales. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezine-writer.com

booggins’ mission is to collect and present business information
from companies around the world, while making it universally
accessible and useful.

Pursuing that mission, booggins ( http://www.booggins.com ) has
developed a different approach to online commerce that removes
the anonymity from transactions. Businesses can submit their
company and product information which we will then host and make
searchable online with our easy-to-use free service. Business
information seekers from around the globe will have instant
access to your information, while being able to directly contact
you without an intermediary.

booggins helps you reach people when they are actively looking
for information about your products and services online, and
sends targeted visitors directly to what you are offering. With
free link placement, it’s easy to control costs–allowing you to
receive interested visitors when people click on your links
within your listings.

Your company would sell a lot more of it’s products if a lot
more people knew about them. We help make that happen. Think of
booggins as a free worldwide sales and marketing system that
directly connects you with potential customers. By presenting
your links within listings, booggins connects your products with
the users who are most interested in buying them - and then
links them to places where they can buy them immediately.

We also provide ways to access all this information without
making a special trip to the booggins homepage. booggins RSS
enables you to receive only the information that interests you
from anywhere on the web.

booggins enables businesses to deliver measurable, cost-reducing
advertising that is relevant to the category displayed on any
given page. This makes the advertising useful to you as well as
to the business placing it. We believe that others should not
have to pay to put a message in front of you, and you should not
have to pay to put a message in front of others. We separate
your links from other content on each listing, always keeping
them visible. We don’t sell placement in any of our results, or
allow people to pay for a higher ranking.

By using booggins’ link placement to promote your products and
services on the web with targeted advertising, we believe you
can improve your ability to generate company revenue and enhance
the experience for your customers by providing an extended
business platform that connects them to your business.

This guide is for people who know what network marketing is but still in need of a “boost” to start either because they are lost and not know what to do or they have a really bad mentor. If you feel that this reading is not for you, you are very welcome to view my other articles.

If you are new to network marketing and you are lost and not knowing what to do, do not worry. I have been in your spot before, most of us have been. We read hundreds of pages of guide written by the so called network marketing guru and yet we still don’t earn the profit that they are earning.

If you have a pen right in front of you, write down these bulleted steps (do not copy and paste; writing has a more significant effects to the brain).
I will talk more about each point in this article and my next one.

o Get the right mentor

o Decide on the right advertising method for you.

o Take Action!

o Learn

o Practice

o Be Creative

o Take Action!

1. Get the right mentor.

I have been in the marketing industry for a couple of year and I do know how important it is to have the right mentor. Just like a toddler learning how to walk, you will need someone to guide you. If you think you can do well, in your business without a mentor, you are wrong. I am able to be reach my current stage in my business is all because of what my mentor taught me.

If you are really new and have not join any network marketing company, make sure you join a company that provides you with a proper mentor!

Not only mentor can tell you what you should do, he/she can also be a motivational factor in your business.

After you are sure that you got yourself an understanding, knowledgeable and helpful mentor, it is time to proceed to the next step: Deciding on the right advertising method for you.

2. Decide on the right advertising method for you.

There are TOO MANY advertising styles out there. If you are new to advertising, you will get confused and you will be overwhelmed. One method of advertisement may be more effective compared to another but then again its effectiveness fully relies on individual usage of it.

Take some quiet time to decide on advertising method. It doesn’t matter whichever one it is for now. Eventually, on the right time, not too long I hope, you will find one that best fits you.

When you have decided on one, you can proceed to the next step: “Take Action”.

3. Take Action

This is something that needs to be reminded over and over again. When you are lost, one of the most effective methods to get a jump start is to TAKE ACTION! Once you start acting, many things around you will not be overwhelming anymore. That is to say: you are not lost anymore! When you take action, your act will lead to another act done by your prospect. This in turn will cause you to take MORE action.

The key that trigger this whole process is your first act! Your first act is the spark that will cause you to feel the warmness of SUCCESS!

Let’s compile what we have learnt so far.

After finding the right mentor, discuss together with him/her to find out which advertising method is best for you. Once it is decided, you MUST start taking action!

Always remember that you are the key that will trigger your success. Without you taking any action, you will not experience a single tiny weenie bit of how it feels to be successful and you will be walking with another failure in life (we got a lot of those, and enough is enough, no?) So start taking action!

In my next article we will learn about the importance of: “Learning, Practicing and Being Creative”. I will see you there. Cheers!

Working together with you towards financial freedom,

Copyright 2005 Henry Tanaka - All right reserved worldwide.

This article is written to accommodate a quick and convenient reading. If you feel the need to get more information regarding the topic brought up in this article, you are welcome to send an e-mail to: Tanaka@Tanaka-Henry.com

Reprinting and republishing of this article is granted only with the credit shown below included. Permission to reprint or republish does not waive any copyright.

Henry Tanaka, a college undergrad who’s been making a good income online, believes that with the right guidance and teamwork anyone can attain financial freedom through internet. Take a look at his step-by-step method at: http://www.ShowerIncome.com

Nothing happens in business until a sale is made. Marketing is simply about getting new customers and keeping them. If you’re not doing something everyday to market and promote your business, your competitors are. Here are ten easy-to-implement tips to effectively market and grow your business:

1. Partner with large email database list owners and offer to cross promote each oher. The list owner will advertise your event, product, or service to their email database and you’ll offer to do the same to your list.

2. Create your own blog which is an online journal with frequently updated posts to entertain and excite existing and potential customers. It’s more personal and immediate then a website and keeps people engaged and hopefully coming back for more. You can even create one for free at www.blogger.com.

3. Create an educational or promotional DVD movie of your business to increase sales and spread word-of-mouth. It’s not as expensive as you may think: www.paytribute.net cost effectively produces high-quality, personalized DVD movies for clients.

4. If you want to increase word-of-mouth fast, do something beyond normal industry expectations. For example, Mr. Lube offers fast and affordable tune-up service to customers right on the spot, without having to leave the car, while offering coffee, cappuccino, and a fresh newspaper.

5. Always ask happy clients for endorsements or testimonials and put them on your website and other marketing collateral. They’re worth their weight in gold. Try to get some recognizable names in your community for additional cachet.

6. Put a special offer or product advertorial on every invoice and statement you send out. Likewise, you can also negotiate a deal with another company to advertise your product or service on all their invoices for a percentage of revenues from placed orders.

7. Make your business cards stand out and be natural keepers. Offer important information on the back such as emergency phone numbers, a map, or special dates to remember. Have a slogan that offers a powerful benefit statement to your prospective customer.

8. Offer special bonus packages with your product or service offering. Get corporate sponsors to give away products as part of the bonus package in exchange for free exposure.

9. Align your business with a cause or charity. Give back to your community. Customers appreciate doing business with companies that are bettering their
communities and the environment and being good corporate citizens.

10. Post frequently in online message boards/forums relevant to your business or expertise. Include your signature and offer tips and valuable advice. Eventually you will begin gaining word-of-mouth exposure as a leader in your field. Posting messages with your company information also helps to increase your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your site.

[Excerpted from Sharif Khan’s new ebooklet: “101 Ways to Market Your Business”].

Sharif Khan is a professional speaker, writer, coach, and author of Psychology of the Hero Soul, an inspirational book on awakening the hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. For more information, visit http://www.herosoul.com Email: sharif@herosoul.com Tel:(416)417-1259.

Copyright © 2005 Sharif Khan

Most email marketers know that it is important spam-check email messages before sending them out, as this may identify potential issues that cause emails to be marked as spam.

It should be noted however that the results generated by the spam-check feature should act as guidelines only. Spam-check is almost always based on the open source software SpamAssassin, whereas large email services employ their own content filters, created internally.

There is no magic formula to composing messages that don’t trigger anti-spam filters, but if you want to maximize the chance that your message goes through to your subscribers, then…

Don’t do what spammers do!

This may sound like an obvious truth, but, looking at contents of email messages sent out by legitimate email marketers, apparently it is not.

One example of how you can easily hurt your email deliverability is by using “hashbusters” - using misspellings and/or random punctuation in the attempt to fool content filters.

Examples:

s^pam instead of spam
F’REE instead of FREE
Op-portunities instead of Opportunities
Get R1ch Quik instead of Get Rich Quick
and so on…

Please don’t do it.

This technique, very often used by spammers (v^a^l^i^u^m… rings a bell?), may seem slick, but it’s not.

Don’t try to outsmart the system. Instead, fire up the old classic “You Don’t Fool Me” by Queen and hear this:

If you resort to such tricks, your messages will more likely end up in the unforgiving virtual blackhole.

“Hashbusters” are actually pretty easy to detect and many filters consider them a sure-fire sign of spam.

Why?

Because spammers use them, and they send out hundreds of millions of emails, whereas in comparison legitimate marketers send minuscule amounts.

It’s all about patterns that anti-spam filters pick up from millions of spam emails they screen.

I will emphasize again:

Unless you want your legitimate mail be blocked left, right and centre…

Don’t do what spammers do!

Instead of deleting every spam message on sight, let it accumulate for a few days. Research which strategies spammers are using and then make sure that you don’t copy any of them.

When they use hashbusters, you don’t want to use hashbusters.

When they sell fake Rolex/Viagra/Valium, you don’t want to sell fake Rolex/Viagra/Valium.

When they say “This email is NOT spam”, you don’t want to say “This email is NOT spam”.

When they say “You have an e-postcard waiting, click on this link…”, you definitely don’t want to start another electronic postcards website.

Learn more about internet marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing. Go to internet marketing and website promotion

Becoming a consultant can be as easy as hanging up your shingle, calling a few colleagues to see if they can use your services and putting a contract together. But what happens when you run out of colleagues and their projects have dried up? This is one of the questions that I am asked everyday from consultants that are not only new but those that have been in the game for a long time. Marketing for consultants seems to be very cyclical, when there is plenty of work, then the marketing stops as there is no time to get it done. When the work is over, it is a mad scramble to try and not spend too much money yet be effective. Unfortunately, by being penny wise, the consultant can miss out on a number of excellent opportunities.

The best way to market for consultants is to do it on a regular basis. This is not rocket science, it is, however, a matter of being consistent and making the marketing efforts a habit. The best scenario for any consultant is to be booked for over 6 months in advance. You may wonder why it is that some consultants are able to do this effectively, while others have dry spells that can last for months. Those that do have the dry spells tend to blame everything including the economy, to the groups they belong to, to any outside source, when it reality they only have to blame themselves.

In reality, the economy does play a big part on how well a consultant does as people who are laid off from corporate jobs come into the profession and destroy the credibility of the legitimate consultant. They tend to lower prices as they are hungry and there always seems to be so many of them. As a seasoned consultant, you can remove a great deal of this type of problem by putting together a marketing plan that spans over your fiscal year. Any marketing plan needs to have actions that are executed daily or at a minimum weekly.

A typical marketing plan will include going to networking events, writing some articles for newspapers or magazines, getting out and doing some evening or lunch hour talks. Whatever you choose, you must be visible and you must show your expertise. Does this take effort? Yes it does but the rewards are a full pipeline and those peaks and valleys of the typical consulting firm are minimized.

The problem with most consultants is that they do not usually have the marketing expertise to put together a plan that will maximize the dollars spent. This is when you need to turn to a marketing consultant or someone that can help them put together a plan that is customized for their niche. As a consultant, I help clients put together a plan and a budget to execute the plan plus a set of action steps. It is the action steps that are the key to making the plan work. So now it is time you start planning, spending, and putting your action steps together.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”. Blueprints for Success - Networking: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprints for Success Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2006. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com.