Yesterday I posted an article by Maria Gracia titled “10 Tips for Growing Your Business the Organized Way“.
It was so full of great information that I wanted to expand on a few points from my own experience with my businesses over the past 10 years or so.
I recommend that you print both articles and keep them together. Make a plan and mark on your calender or day planner to put these recommendations into practice. I will have more information coming in future articles on how you can do these tasks, but no time like the present to get started now.
Maria starts her article by comparing a business with tending a garden. I’ve often made this comparison myself.
Both start with your ideas and planning, then you need to plant, weed and maintain in ways that show new life and bountiful harvest if you do them all the right things, consistantly.
But if you lag behind in any one area, or do the wrong thing completely, you can really decrease your returns and end up with a garden or business that is a little disapointing.
PROSPECTING - Many of the points that Maria makes can be accomplished by preselling to your target market. The best and most win/win way to do this on the internet is to provide free information. There are so many ways to do this effectively that it is the subject of a whole new article on it’s own. Watch for it coming up! But always be sure that along with the information, you include a link to sign up to a newsletter or ecourse for future opportunities to follow up. (more below)
TARGET. One thing I have learned over the past few years, is to tighten my niche. Are you trying to market too many niches? Try to narrow it to one.
Target your offers to your niche and sell them one at a time by offering good information about them individually. A key problem these days with information oveload is focus and attention span. It is becoming increasingly difficult for everyone, so make that your strength.
OFFERS. Try not to get too carried away with offering too much variety. You will know when it is getting out of hand. Remember to market effectively, you need to have a system in place for every offer. Don’t spread yourself too thin.
GETTING THE WORD OUT. I have to repeat what Maria says here - “Whatever you choose, schedule time each day to market your business. Write it on your calendar.”
First, choose the method that you would like to start with to get the word out, or market your offers.
Consistancy and repetition are the foundation of success. And to be a business success, you MUST get the word out about each and every offer, that takes time, consistancy and repetition. Make a point of it and write it on your calender :0)
FOLLOW-UP. Again, to quote Maria, “follow-up is the key to successful marketing”.
The bottom line is that often a customer often won’t buy from you the first time, for a mulititude of reasons. So if you can stay in their line of vision, often they will at a later date. Again, make it in their best interest. Offer them something of value in reture for their repeated attention. And if a person has already bought from you, you especially need to have a system in place to be able to follow up with them. (see prospecting above)
ONE SERVICE/PRODUCT. This goes along with offers above. A very important point. Think focus. Narrowing your offers to one, single pinpoint at a time.
PROACTIVE. Tracking is something that I am new to and something that everyone who has had business success recommends. As I am learning, I am seeing the true value in it. I recommend that you put a system in place to do this as well. If you can do it from the beginning, you will save yourself a lot of trouble and lost effort later.
As you may have notice, I talk a lot about systems. I am a true believer that success in any area of your life depends on the use of systems. It sounds so dry and boring, I certainly spent a good time of my life avoiding them, but in reality, systems will free up an amazing amount of time and reduce your stress on a large scale.
A tool that I have been finding very helpful in tracking and customer follow up is my shopping cart - Quick Pay Pro.
They are very aware of what it takes to make your business a success and have provided almost everything you need. It puts many of the tools needed right at your fingertips and in one place to simplify things even further.
If you are looking for a way to implement some of the methods mentioned above, you should check it out. It is the most full featured and best value that I could find, I’ve been extremely happy to have it.
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