20 Marketing Ideas to Help Grow Your Small Business

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Be different
Take your cue from big advertisers and brands and find something that distinguishes you from your competitors – then promote the difference. The difference could be your slogan, or a key difference in your product, or even a perceived difference.
Form strategic alliances with other businesses.
Look for businesses that reach your target market and consider ways you can work together. Whether you actively market each other's services, or team up to jointly work on clients' jobs, strategic alliances can extend your reach and firm up your bottom line.
Segment your market and create products or develop specialties that appeal specifically to the needs of each segment.
Expand into new markets. Sell your bakery products to local restaurants and catering facilities as well as directly to consumers; if you sell office services to small businesses, look into soliciting business from bigger businesses, and federal, state or local government agencies.
Talk to your customers – ask them for feedback. Ask them what you can do to better serve their needs. If you see a trend in what's being asked for, act on it.
Put your business on the web if you haven't already done so.
Get listed in Google Places.
Get involved in social media. Ask your customers which social networks they participate in, and then spend a few minutes a day participating in the one or two most customers use.

Fill out social media profiles with as much detail as you can, being sure to include website links and products.

Use direct mail to reach your customers. Yes, it's an old-fashioned technique in an always-on world, but it still works.

Send a card or postcard to customers to remind them when they need to come back for a checkup, or to remind them in advance of an appointment scheduled months in advance. Tip: Save time and money by using a service like SendOutCards (affiliate link) to store addresses and do the mailings.

Put local keywords (the name of your city or county for instance) on your web pages and in title tags to help web searchers find you.

Add share buttons to your website and encourage visitors to use them

Use email to stay in touch with your customers. Contact them regularly with special offers, tips about using your product, industry information, or other content that will help them return to your website and/or buy from you.

Include your telephone number in your pay per click ads to make it easier for customers to call for more information or call to make a purchase.

Make the telephone number on your website a click-to-call link to make it easy for customers using smart phones to call you.

Advertise in weekly shoppers and the classified sections of local weekly papers if your business is local. Look for deals for getting your ad in both the print edition and online edition of the publication.

Give away something useful with a purchase over a certain dollar amount. You might give an inexpensive lint brush with clothing purchases over $100, say, or a thumb drive to new customers who hire you to make their PowerPoint presentation look good.

Be proactive and be persistent. You didn't learn to ride a bicycle when you were a child by thinking about how to ride a bicycle. You went out and tried, and tried again until you learned to balance yourself and then gradually picked up speed. Marketing is no different. You have to keep at it until you find what works for you. Then, if you want to continue your momentum, you have to keep on marketing.

Start today. Make your own list of marketing ideas. Include some of the ideas on the list above, or ideas of your own. Include marketing ideas you've used before and those that you haven't. Include marketing strategies you've seen other companies use. Then start putting them into practice one by one. Aim to try one new marketing idea a week. Keep using the ones that work, discard the ones that don't and watch your business grow.

What Is Spam?

The most general definition of "spam" is the sending of e-mail that is both bulk AND unsolicited.Here are the basic guidelines for avoiding unintentionally spamming your potential customers and team members:

1. Never use e-mail for advertising with one, and only one, exception: when you have a clear "opt-in" event.

E-mail is for communicating, not for advertising. The same is generally true of instant messaging, newsgroups (Usenet), Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Web-based forums and discussion boards. Your own Website (or another's site - with permission) is the only Internet resource where advertising is generally acceptable. Many marketers are resistant to this, but the sooner you accept this simple truth, the better off you will be. There are many effective ways to use Websites to market on the Internet. These techniques often involve using the one exception to the e-mail rule—the "opt-in" exception—as part of the process. But, the process begins with a Web page, whether that Web page is yours or another's with your ad on it.

2. When advertising with e-mail in an "opt-in" situation, always supply a working "opt-out" mechanism.

When you have a clear opt-in event (which is the only situation where you should be sending commercial e-mail), you must include an opt-out mechanism in the e-mail. You must give the recipient the option of communicating with you that your e-mail is no longer welcome. The mechanism you use must work to get that communication to you in a timely manner and you must immediately obey the opt-out request. Opt-out mechanisms are generally of two types. One is a line in the e-mail that states that one can reply to the e-mail or send an e-mail to another stated address, putting "REMOVE" in the subject heading. The other common opt-out mechanism is to supply a URL in the e-mail, which if clicked on, will automatically remove someone from your mailing list. Either one is fine—as long as it works.

3. Never annoy anyone with any kind of e-mail.

With respect to the gray areas, it helps to remember that you will never get in trouble if no one ever accuses you of spamming. If you never annoy anyone, no one should ever be motivated to report you. If you treat others as you would have them treat you, you are not likely to annoy them. Because some people have thin skin, however, and will be annoyed where you would not be, using the Golden Rule is by no means foolproof. It helps to think in terms of what annoys the average person, but to be safe, you need to think in terms of what annoys the overly sensitive person as well.

4. Never mislead anyone (in either the opt-in process or in the e-mail subject header).

Another guaranteed way to annoy someone, spurring them to report you for spam, is to mislead them about the type of information they are requesting. If you have a Web page which collects e-mail addresses to send more info about an interesting subject, but you send entirely different correspondence from what they expected, you will certainly have trouble. Honesty is more than just morality, it is good business practice. You do not want to start any relationship with a client, customer, or affiliate by dishonest correspondence. As we will discuss later in this course, "trust" is the most important factor in any business relationship.

Affiliate Tip of the Day

Network Marketing = Patience + Persistence + Non-Stop Promotion

How to advertise your Gateway for free

First, create your own blog for free at Blogger.com, Blog.com, or at one of the numerous other free blog hosts on the Internet. Build it with your SFI business as your blog's theme.

Next, sign up as a free member at a manual traffic exchange (such as TrafficSwarm.com orSurfNexus.com). Promote your blog and/or Gateways through your traffic exchange to drive traffic to your SFI Gateways and blog.

How To Earn Money On The Internet

How To Earn Money On The Internet

12 Secrets To Website Success

Here are twelve secrets to website success.

1. Have specific goals for your website.
2. Know your customer or site visitors and what they want to get out of your site.
3. Have pages dedicated to specific items or subjects the customer or site visitor is looking for.
4. Don't make the home page of your site a "flash" animation. Web visitors routinely skip those animations (or just leave) because they aren't interested in pretty graphics. They want facts. If you're going to use flash to demonstrate your product (or a video) let people choose to view it, don't force them to.
5. Make it easy for visitors to find what they want. Use a simple navigation structure, and if you absolutely must use drop down menus, make sure visitors can actually click on the links without the drop down rolling up before the person hits the link they want.
6. If you're selling products, have category pages plus individual pages for each type of product. (For example, if you are selling jewelry, have one page for earrings with links to individual pages for different types of earrings, such as diamond earrings, ruby earrings, pearl earrings, etc.)
7. Pay attention to search engine optimization (SEO) in setting up pages. The more closely the page title, page description, and keywords match what someone would search for, the more likely they'll find the website, and the more likely they'll buy whatever product is advertised on the page.
8. Have a means for legally and ethically capturing visitors' email addresses so you can contact them in the future.
9. Plan to advertise and market your site on an ongoing basis through all methods available to you.
10. Track and measure traffic, bounce rates, sales conversions and progress.
11. Ask for feedback from site visitors.
12. Stay in contact with site visitors (those who gave you their email addresses) on a regular basis so they remember to come back to your website.

HOW TO BECOME AN EXECUTIVE AFFILIATE (EA)

1.Transfer Buying

The fastest, easiest way to go EA. Just purchase the same trusted products that you normally get from other sources from TripleClicks.com instead—transferring your regular purchases to YOUR store. These everyday items could easily accrue 1,500 VP or more for you, thereby earning you EA status essentially for FREE! Choose this method if you wish to become an EA immediately.

The formula for qualifying as an EA via TRANSFER BUYING is simple: Tens of thousands of products are available at your TripleClicks store (with hundreds of new products being added weekly). Each product has a VersaPoint (VP) value. Simply buy a product (or products) worth 1,500 VP or more and you're automatically EA for the month. It's that simple!

"Why do I have to buy something?"

YOU DON'T! You're never required to purchase anything from SFI. Chances are, however, you're already buying many of the same products sold at TripleClicks—but from other stores. By simply transferring your purchases to TripleClicks, you can easily earn 1,500 VP each month and attain EA status and all the corresponding benefits every month! ALL WITHOUT ANY ADDITIONAL EXPENSE TO YOU!

In short, just shop at TripleClicks.com for the everyday items you're already buying elsewhere... and become an EA essentially for FREE! NOTE: You can make this task even more convenient and ensure your EA status each month with a Standing Order.

2.Website Sales
A simple, straightforward method for becoming EA: earn 1,500 VP in sales from your TripleClicks Website. Just refer customers to your online store, and you can earn EA status with as little as one sale! Learn how to refer customers HERE. Note: This method normally takes at least 45-60 days to produce the VersaPoints necessary to earn EA status.

The formula for qualifying as an EA via WEBSITE SALES is simple: Tens of thousands of products are available at your TripleClicks Website (and new products are added DAILY). Each product has a VP (VersaPoints) value. Simply sell a product (or products) worth 1,500 VP or more and you're automatically EA for the month.

Best things about qualifying via sales:

• No purchase by you is required.

• As little as one customer* sale can generate the 1,500 VP needed for EA status each month.

• You'll receive Customer Commissions of 45% of the CV (Commission Volume).

3. Action Versapoints
This method allows you to earn EA status by team building and performing other important business-building actions.

"What are action VersaPoints?"

VersaPoints are awarded to affiliates for a variety of actions, as outlined on your VP Ledger. You can earn one-time VP for taking important actions pertaining to building your SFI business, such as completing each LaunchPad™ quiz, reading various SFI how-to articles, and more. In addition you can earn new VP each month for supporting your personally sponsored EAs and TLs, communicating with your team, and other team-building tasks.

For a complete list of all the actions you can do to earn VersaPoints and a count of how many VersaPoints you've earned to date, see your VP Ledger HERE

DON'T FORGET that the 1,500 VP required for EA status can come from any COMBINATION of purchases, sales, and actions. For example, a personal purchase worth 500 VP, plus a customer* sale worth 500 VP, plus 500 VP via actions would combine to equal 1,500 VP and earn you EA status for the month.

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Free sites on which to advertise

Where can I find free sites on which to advertise?

A simple Web search using any of the major search engines will yield a listing of free ad sites. Use search terms, such as "free business classifieds," "paid business classifieds," "pay per click search engines," "free and paid safelists," etc. Be sure to use more than one search engine, as results may vary from engine to engine. Also, use variations on search terms to find lesser-known, but still valuable advertising sites.

Text ads

Help us spread the word about TripleClicks and receive:

* 5 FREE Monthly TCredits (a $59.40 annual value)!

TCredits can be used for member listings, for bidding on Pricebenders auctions, downloading TuneFlow™ music and more!

* 50 FREE Monthly Member Rewards Points (MRP)!

Redeem your points on any of the over 30,000 products at TripleClicks!

* Win $100's in our weekly W3 cash drawings!

Every week, we award $250 cash to a W3 member who has referred someone to W3. Each referral gets you another entry in the drawing!

* Earn unlimited additional TCredits and MRP!

For each W3 member you refer, you instantly receive 5 additional free TCredits and 50 additional free MRP! And there's no limit to how many you can earn! * Exclusive W3 member-only specials! Save money every month on select TripleClicks products we've made available at special prices exclusively for our W3 members! Learn more at: http://www.tripleclicks.com/11564091/wave/

TCredit bundles

Let's assume that you're an EA (Executive Affiliate) with SFI. If you sell just 18 packs of 50 TCredits a month, you'll earn about $75 in Customer Commissions, plus 4,536 VP (VersaPoints) each month. Keep in mind that if you're selling TCredits for bidding on Pricebenders auctions, many of your customers may buy multiple packs every month, or even weekly or daily. Hence, you may only need to attract a handful of good customers to easily generate $100-$200 month after month after month! Double your monthly sales to just 35 packs of 50 TCredits (just over one sale a day) and you'll earn $148.83 in Customer Commissions, plus 8,820 VP (VersaPoints) each month. Bottom line: Pricebenders customers will often create the sweetest kind of income there is—residual—and tons of VP for you!

By the way, note that just 1,500 VP makes you an EA, so selling just six 50 TCredit bundles a month maintains your EA rank every month without ever buying anything.

Is it really possible to make a large income working at home?

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the average home-based business household earns $50,250 a year. And about 20% of all home-business households earn in excess of $75,000 a year. And then there are the tax benefits; In the United States, even if your home business isn't generating a profit yet, it can put $5,000 or more in your pocket in tax write-offs.

THE GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE

The key to a high ranking on Google is to have lots of links to your site from other high ranking sites. That is, you need lots of sites linking to yours, which in turn have lots of sites linking to them. Google is one of the most useful sites for those searching the Internet and has sophisticated and effective ranking and searching software.
If it took any significant time to submit your URL to Google, we would say, "don't bother." Google only ranks sites that it finds from following links on the Internet with its spider, Googlebot. Even though Google may have your site in its database from your submission, your site will have no ranking until some other included site links to it...and Google's spider finds that link. The only advantage of submitting your site to Google before it is found by the spider is that your site will show up if someone types in the URL or the exact description of your site in a Google search. Since it takes very little time to submit your site to Google, you should do so for that purpose. Although it may be rare that people will type in your URL or an exact match of your description, they are the very ones you do not want to miss while you are waiting for your site to be spidered.

SFI - RULES OF SUCCESS

Treat your business...like a business!

If you purchased a franchise, would you expect it to make money for you if you only worked it a few hours a week? Or if you didn't get trained? Or if you only tried for a few months? Or if you didn't follow the proven guidelines of the creators of the franchise?

Of course not! That's ridiculous. SFI is no different. Success requires commitment.The fact is, anything worthwhile in life requires effort and commitment. If that were not true, we'd all be the perfect weight, we'd all have perfect relationships, and we'd all be highly educated. It's the same thing with having your own business.

In short, if you treat your SFI business as a serious, full-time business, put in the effort and commit to its success, it will become a serious, full-time business.

DO something to grow your business every day

You will not create a successful business by thinking about it. You will create a successful business ONLY by DOING...by TAKING ACTION every day. Every day, no matter what, make sure you're doing SOMETHING to further your business. If you're not, you're not even in the game, you're kidding yourself. No business becomes successful without daily focus and action.

What can you do daily? Here are just a few ideas:

• Follow up with recent prospects.
• Send out some E-Cards.
• Place a classified or other type of ad.
• Send out some postcards.
• Review the LaunchPad Lessons.

• Review the Internet Income course.

• Send out a newsletter to your PSAs and your CSAs.

• Read an SFI training article you haven't read yet (or review one you have).

• Contact your sponsor, let him or her know what you're doing.

• Go to Google and search for articles on how to become a better marketer.

• Browse TripleClicks for new products you can recommend to your customers.

• Check the SFI News and SFI Power Tips blogs.
• Review your Genealogy and TC Member Report.

• Review the Hit Tracker page to maximize your marketing efforts.

• Start a co-op and invite your PSAs to join.

• Add some prospects to your ECA database.
• Review your "My Movers" report (on your SFI homepage).
• Review "My Goals" (on your SFI homepage).
• Review the latest posts on the SFI Forum.

Tip: Don't forget to use the SFI Power Tools we've made available to you. Put the power of key codes, hit tracking, setting up your own co-op, the PSA Mailer, the CSA Mailer, reassignments, and more to work for your business. To not use these best-of-the-best tools is to operate your SFI business with two arms tied behind your back!

Lead By Example

If you want your affiliates sponsoring affiliates, referring TC members, etc., then make sure YOU are are doing these things. Do these things and become proficient in these things so you can show and teach your affiliates the best ways to do them.

In the key area of duplication, your affiliates are definitely watching! Show them what it means to be a strong, active sponsor and THEY will become strong, active sponsors and help you further your growth and profits.

Leading by example works in the negative, too, of course. Want a downline of affiliates who do nothing? Then do nothing and that's what you'll likely get!

So...the rule is real simple: Whatever you want THEM to do, YOU do, because they are following your lead!

Valuable Tips From SFI Affiliates

Subject: How to help your new affiliates get started right
From: Paula Suddaby
BRIGG UK

I have no secret to success, and I am willing to share my methods with anyone...One thing I have come to learn pretty quickly is that what you put in your welcome message can make a HUGE difference.

My welcome message is short and sweet. I introduce myself as the new affiliate's sponsor, include a link to the SFI Getting Started training page and, most importantly, my e-mail address, and ask the affiliate to contact me. I have found that about one in 20 will reply to me with an e-mail. Once the affiliate actually gets in touch, I don't mention anything about upgrading. Instead, I build a relationship with my affiliates by passing along various important links and working with them to get started right. I also occassionally offer a gift certificate as an incentive to take action.

I feel that working with my affiliates and helping them get started is more important than worrying about whether they are going to upgrade. Once they get started and find out more about SFI, they see the benefits for themselves and often decide to upgrade on their own.

If you are getting no repsonse from your current affiliates, you may want to change your stategies. Take a good look at your welcome message, change your priorities, and concentrate on helping your people get started. Also, join some advertising sites so you can offer your affiliates places to start advertising right away. Remember, many people who join have no experience with anything like SFI, and tips for ad resources, etc. will be very appreciated.