Have you ever thought about this question? I’ll admit, when I first started doing freelance website design about 10 years ago my concern was only the second half of the question – the “where do I find clients?!” part.
What Makes Your Business Unique?
August 25, 2009 By 2 Comments
It’s time to look at your business and embrace exactly what is unique about it. We’re going to walk through a series of questions to help you identify what’s special about your business. Just write down what comes to mind as you read each question. There are no right or wrong answers. This is just for you and it’s okay to be honest with yourself and accept your talents, your personality and your likes and dislikes. Fully accepting yourself for who you are and allowing that person to shine through your business and your marketing is one of the best ways to gain the attention and confidence of customers in your target market. When you are fully expressed you’ll find there’s a connection that happens between you and your customers and they feel like they know you, they like you, and they can trust you. So, with that in mind, let’s begin.
What is your business? (Include your business name and tag line or motto, if you have one.)
What products or services do you sell?
What is unique about your products or services? Special Features? Style? Customer Service? Order Process? Custom Options?
Look through your testimonials or comments from customers. What words or phrases stand out? What do they praise about your products or services?
What are your favorite products to make or your favorite services to provide? Why?
If you had to write a mission statement for your life or your business, what would it be?
What else comes to mind when you think about what makes you or your business unique? What qualities about yourself are your favorite (noses and ears don’t count here, we’re talking personality, ethics, that kind of thing)?
Do you see any themes running through your answers above? Spend a few minutes re-reading what you’ve written and then set it aside for a while so you have some time to think more about it.
Save your answers and in next week’s issue we’ll be using this information to identify exactly who you can help, and how you can help them.
The Biggest Mistake
August 23, 2009 By 1 Comment
Note from Michelle: I read this article in a newsletter I subscribe to and wanted to share it. Great analogy!
A couple weeks ago my family was vacationing in Aruba. My husband and I were having a great time lounging on the beach while the kids were building a huge empire in the sand. Even at 15 my son felt compelled to help out in this endeavor.
Later on we heard our youngest, Caitlin, sound pretty upset. I went over to see what was going on. I saw that Justin and Eveline were building an empire together. Eveline had asked Justin for help with her structure. She pictured what it was going to look like and asked for assistance. They both jumped in and started building.
Caitlin, on the other hand, was having fun just building as she went along, but had not come up with a design for her structure. She was upset when she saw that not only did Eveline have a better structure than her, but that her brother was helping to build it. She was upset to realize that her structure paled in comparison, and why on earth was Justin not helping HER?
In looking at this from a mompreneur’s point of view, I realized that she was upset, but failed to take any action from the situation. She just proceeded to get upset. There are many business owners who do the same thing without realizing it.
Sometimes we get upset that something didn’t work. We may feel like we failed. It’s important to realize what your idea of success looks like and to take action towards that vision.
Caitlin did not visualize what she wanted her structure to look like. In order to be successful, you need to know what success means to you. How do you know if you have reached success, if you don’t first outline what that means to you? Success means very different things to different people. How do you know if your business is what you want, if you don’t first visualize what you want your empire or business to be?
It’s also important to learn from your mistakes and take action through each step. Whenever top leaders make a mistake or realize that their business is not heading in the direction they envision, they take a step back and figure out what it is that they need to change to get where they want to be.
In Caitlin’s case she could have taken a step back and figured out why she thought her sister’s sand structure was better than hers. Was it really better, or was her sister just further along in building because she enlisted help from her brother?
Every once in a while it’s important to take a step back and observe what others in your field are doing. Are they doing something you would benefit from? Can what they are doing give you ideas on improving your own business?
Copyright ©2009 Kim Reddington and Cereus Women. All rights reserved.
Kimberly Reddington, Moms in Business Thoughtleader for Cereus Women, teaches moms how to turn their skills into a successful home-based service business and to find a balance between their business and their family. Discover Kim’s popular special report by visiting http://www.CereusWomen.com
Marketing Mindset Chain Reaction
August 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Your mindset towards marketing has a direct impact on:
* your satisfaction with your business
* the number of clients you find and keep
* the quality and quantity of the products and services you offer
* your sales – your bottom line
* how fast your products “fly off the shelf”
* how prospective customers and current clients view you, your business and your products and services
* whether you meet your sales targets and objectives
* your personal growth and lifestyle
* your opportunities for having affiliate and joint venture partners
* how fast you grow and your company grows
Like anything in life, your attitude shapes your actions and therefore affects your results.
Read these statements and see how many have crossed your mind or passed your lips:
* I’m not smart enough to learn that marketing tactic
* My business isn’t very special
* Who am I to think people will want to listen to me
* I doubt that I’ll be a very big success
* It’s too hard to market
* I don’t think I’m going to make enough money
* I’m not a good enough speaker, writer (fill in the blank)
* People won’t like my products or services
* I don’t want to be a pest
* I can’t sell
* There isn’t enough time to market
If you have a negative attitude towards marketing, don’t understand it, don’t feel confident about marketing, it will definitely impede your ability to attract and retain clients, and ultimately make money.
There is a chain reaction that occurs:
…if you have a negative attitude toward marketing, chances are you will market poorly or not at all
…if you don’t market, people won’t know about you, your products or services
…if they’ve never heard about you, you can’t sell them your services
…if you’re not selling anything, your business isn’t going to be successful
…if your business doesn’t succeed, where does that leave you?
You need to have a positive attitude towards marketing, or at the very least you must have a willingness to market yourself and your business.
With willingness you’ll start marketing and from there you will gain confidence and comfort in marketing by being able to see positive results such as recognition, money, the phone ringing, people signing up for your newsletter, etc.
You’ll move from willingness to actually wanting to market and maybe, just maybe, even enjoying marketing!
Jody Gabourie Marketing Plan Queen helps small business owners get into marketing action fast with done-for-you products and services such as her Ready Made Marketing Plan ebooks. To learn more about how she can help you attract more clients and grow your business, and to sign up for her FREE ezine, articles, and special report: 5 Massive Mistakes Businesses Make with Their Marketing Plan, visit her site at http://www.MarketingPlanQueen.com
Understanding the Basics of Website Statistics
August 11, 2009 By 1 Comment
Learning to understand your website statistics can help you improve your website for visitors, measure if your promotional strategies are working, and find new opportunities to promote your business.
How can you measure your website statistics?
There are two common ways to measure this important information.
One is with software that analyzes the server logfiles. Each time someone visits your site the server records detailed information about the visitor and what they did on your website. With software like Webalyzer or AWStats that information is put into a form you can easily read and understand. Many website hosts offer this software already installed on their servers and available to clients through a cPanel or Plesk administrative area.
The second way to keep track of your stats is with a javascript added to all of your pages that sends info to another server each time a visitor loads a page, such as Google Analytics or Crazy Egg. With these services you sign up, then they provide a small snippet of code for you to copy and paste into your web pages.
You may want to combine both methods to get a better overall picture of who is visiting your website and what they’re doing.
What do the terms mean?
Hits: Each request for a file from a server is counted as a hit. This is an often misunderstood term. It does not mean you’ve had 5,000 people visit your site if you have had 5,000 hits. If your page has one html file and five images on it, then each time a visitor loads the page it would count as six hits.
Page Views: How many times a “page” as defined in log analysis has been loaded. This is more accurate than hits because it will only count the .html or .php files instead of every image on a page.
Unique Visitors: This is an even more useful piece of information than hits or page views. Unique visitors tracks how many different computers have visited your website.
Number of Visits: How many unique sessions were logged. The way this one works is that if a visitor comes to your site today, and then again in a week, that would be counted as two visits.
Spiders Visited: Some tracking/analysis software is able to show you which “spiders” from search engines visited your site. This is an easy way to see if your site is being indexed by different search engines.
Top Pages: Which pages are the most popular on your website? Look for the top pages section of your stats to see what visitors are most interested in.
Connect to Site From or Search Phrases Used: This may be called something different depending on what software or analyzer you’re using but most will include a section allowing you to see how visitors found you. It will show if they’ve followed a link from another website, a search engine, or typed in your URL directly.
HTTP Status Codes: Your analyzer may also show you if your visitors got 404 or other errors. Watch this section to see if you’ve got a broken link or other problem somewhere on your website that you need to fix.
What metrics should you watch?
Some of the basic things you want to watch are:
Conversion rates: What % of visitors to a sales page made purchases? There’s plenty of information available on how to optimize sales pages for better conversion rates. Once you have a base measurement of your current conversion rate, start making small changes to your copy, headlines, and other page elements then watch for a change in the conversion rate to see whether changes helped.
Page views per visit: How many pages does each visitor look at? If this number is very low – one or two – then visitors aren’t being engaged enough or finding what they were looking for.
Monthly unique visitors: Is the number growing over time? Your traffic should be going up! If it’s not, time to review your promotional tactics and strategies to see where you can focus on improving.
What can you do with all that information?
Website statistics offer you a wealth of information — use it to your advantage!
Here are some easy ways to use your website statistics to build your business:
- Contact sites that refer visitors/link to your site and send them a thank you note.
- Offer sites who’ve published your articles “priority notice” of future articles you release for reprint. With permission, email your articles directly to the interested sites so your articles are easier for them to publish.
- Watch the popular pages of your website then focus on building those pages with better copywriting, promote affiliate products, etc.
- Look for trends in the type of websites that are referring visitors to your site and use it to better target your marketing efforts.
Focus: Your Business Needs a Personal Ad!
August 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Whether it’s print ads in the newspaper or the matching programs online, personal ads are a popular way to find a person to share your life with.
A personal ad is designed to be a short, attention grabbing description of who you are and what you’re looking for. To work well, they’ve got to be honest and to the point.
Most start with a few key facts about the seeker (relationship status, ethnicity, female/male, age, location) and who they’re seeking (relationship status, ethnicity, female/male, age, location). Throw in some details about interests, hobbies, or general life experiences. State any specifics about who you definitely aren’t interested in. Add your contact information. You’ve got yourself a personal ad.
Just like a personal ad express who you are and who you’re looking for, your marketing should help you do the same. Not everyone is your ideal target. You’re not the ideal business to serve everyone. Acknowledge that, and you’ll be a step ahead on your marketing. It’s important to know who you *aren’t* looking for, as well as who you *are* looking for.
Now, It’s time to write a personal ad for your business!
1) Describe Your Business. Who is your business? What does your business offer? In 1 or 2 sentences describe what service you provide or products you sell.
2) Ideal Customer. Who is your ideal customer? Imagine the perfect customer in detail–female/male, age, marital status, children, occupation, interests, etc. If you have trouble with this step, look over your customer/client list and think about the ones who were wonderful to work with or who gained the most from your services.
3) Get Specific, Succinctly. If you had to pick three of the top results customers/clients gain by doing business with you, what would they be? Think results, not features. A good place to look if you get stuck is to the testimonials and thank you notes customers/clients send. What do they mention most often about their experiences with your business?
4) Skip Me If… Some customers/clients can be better served by another business. Who are they? This isn’t necessarily something you want to mention in your advertising, but it’s something you definitely want to keep in mind so you don’t advertise or market in the wrong places.
5) Please Call. How can customers/clients make contact with you? Offer easy options to reach you for business!
One more thought–a common joke about personal ads is the exaggeration that often happens – while it’s okay to accentuate the positive, never over-promise or be dishonest when describing what you offer or the results you or your products help deliver. Focus on building long-term customer relationships so that customers not only purchase once (and leave disappointed like the blind date that just wasn’t what you expected) but become regulars who also refer friends and family.
When you’ve finished writing a “personal ad” for your business with these five steps you’ll have a short and sweet reminder that will help you focus your marketing efforts in the right places to get results and help more of the right people. Next time you aren’t sure if a marketing strategy or opportunity is right, read over your ad and see if you’re reaching the right people in the right place.
Got thoughts? Want to share what you’ve written for your business? Come leave a comment on the blog!
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