If entrepreneurs and small business owners do not market themselves, chances are, they won’t be in business for long. Here are some mistakes entrepreneurs may overlook or struggle with when marketing themselves:

1. Thinking that one ‘touch’ is going to do the trick. I have recently been in conversations with someone who does workshop and he has done one mailing to 300 people and thinks that marketing doesn’t work because no one contacted him based on that mailing. I have been trying to help him understand that his first mailing didn’t even cause a blip in the brains of those who even saw it. I encouraged him to narrow his mailing list and to “mail the heck out of them.” (I think that is the language I used).

2. Thinking that one kind of marketing is going to do the trick. Today, there are so many options for marketing and we need to consider all of them. Direct mail, email, articles that draw people to our websites, social media, face to face, ‘stuff,’ word of mouth…it’s ALL important and very few entrepreneurs can go with only one type.

3. Not understanding that you need to build your ‘list.’ If you only have 6 people or 73 people or some reasonably small number of people to whom you are marketing, they had better be pretty darn responsive or you’ll starve! Building a list through opt-in methods is the way to go and it’s part of why it’s smart to offer products (digital, for example) for free. People come to your website, find what you offer to be helpful, download it, take the teleseminar (or whatever), and if they like what they receive, they “hang out” for awhile. The hope is that they will continue accessing some other products or services. Someday…they’ll buy…or at least that’s the idea. Since you are in business, if no one buys, you are not in business for long, but it’s about building relationships along the way.

4. Not budgeting time to do all the marketing activities that need to be done. It’s extremely short-sighted to say you don’t have time to market. If you don’t MAKE time to market, you’ll soon have nothing but time because you’ll be out of business. And remember, you do not have to do it all yourself. Tap into the expertise that is out there.

5. Not paying attention to the marketing intervals in addition to the marketing frequency. If you send out something 15 times, but over 15 years, you won’t have much (i.e., any) impact. Your marketing needs to be frequent but also done within a short enough time frame that people remember and think, ‘oh, yeah, I think I’ve seen this person/service/business before.’

6. Not realizing that you are either going to spend money or time or both. You can’t market without some investment of your capital – either the $$ or the time part. Target your message and your efforts so you don’t dilute your impact.

See if you are making any of these mistakes – and if you are, take steps this week to start correcting them. It will be perilous to your business if you don’t.

Being a huge fan of teleseminars, both as a learner and as a business owner, each month I participate and host these high tech (but low tech) ways of learning and teaching. If you have not been integrating one or more aspects of telelearning and telecommunications as part of your strategy as an entrepreneur, then I would like to encourage you to do so. Implementing these seven suggestions will support your intention to connect with clients, customers, or others in the broader community.

• Interview key clients. Others will be interested in learning from them and the clients you choose to interview will be honored by your request to feature them.

• Have focus groups with various clients, customers, or other stakeholders. This is another great service you can provide, i.e., offering connections between and among the people with whom you work. By doing focus groups – virtually – you and everyone else is learning.

• Teach something that your clients need (and that will help show them your value). The teleseminar can be as short as 10 minutes or as long as a weekly series that lasts for years. It’s up to you. You also get to decide whether to offer these for free or whether to charge for them.

• Offer classes that your clients (and potential clients) will pay for. You are in business, right? And your knowledge is worth something to others. Figure out what your clients most need and offer teleseminars that provide that information. People will gladly pay and you will have additional revenue and a deepened connection with your clients.

• Interview guest experts that are related to your business’s core offerings. I know you know people who are experts in fields or specialties that are related to what your business does. Bring those special guests to your audience. It’s a magnificent way to be seen as connector and also (potentially) to have your guest announce your class to their contacts.

• Do follow-ups for new products or services you have offered. Depending on what you do, your customers may need additional follow-up to make sure that they remain faithful to the new method you’ve taught them, stay true to the new practice they have learned from you, or otherwise continue using the product they bought from you or implementing the strategy that they learned. You can offer teleseminars like this on a regular basis and either extend their learning or offer Q & A time for those who call in.

• Share best practices. Gosh, can everyone use more best practices? YES! And if you are seen as an industry leader and resource about best practices, then this strengthens your relationship with your clients. Consider sharing best practices related to your business that you have researched and/or you can have key clients and customers share their best practices.

Now, to get going, here are two more suggestions for you:

• Get a bridgeline using one of the many free bridgeline services and
• Set up an account with a service that records audio.

You don’t have to do all of these that are listed in this article! Just choose one that you aren’t currently doing and see what a difference it can make. If you have never done any kind of teleseminar, there are certainly resources to help you with that.

Has your e-book publishing produced enough results to make it worth the effort?

[MEMc] Well…what a question…ha! All of these things are so tied into one another that it’s hard to say what does and doesn’t make a profit. All of my teacher e-books are not exactly big sellers, but they were already created as physical books, so having them now as e-books should only generate income, but they took awhile to update and convert…so it’s hard to say. I am getting ready to have the Top Ten Productivity Tips as an e-book and I’m hopeful that this one generates an income… Lots of my other products that are available electronically are probably not yet in the black given how much time and energy I put into creating them.  Sometimes I have to remind myself to “STOP IT!” as Bob Newhart would say. 

But here is the thing….there are a jillion reasons to have electronic products, including ones that are free (as you know, I have TONS that are free). People come to my site, download something (they give me their contact info since I use http://theshoppincartmegginrecommends.com) and then I can contact them in the future and they may buy something later. I begin to build relationships with people through my various products. I have several speaking engagements this fall and next spring that are related to people who have gotten my free stuff for YEARS and they are finally getting around to hiring me to come to their university. It’s so interesting how that happens…but it’s not a speedy process, especially in terms of money showing up in your bank account.

SO, I think part of what you will have to decide is how much time and energy you have, how much $ you need to generate and how quickly, and what the options are for doing that. Having electronic products are one of the ways to get your name out there, but there are many others, too.

There are definitely reasons to have “e-books,” and making money is one of them.  It can’t be the first reason – but it can be a major reason – especially as you become more and more well known and as you have a better reach into your market.

I am in the process of looking for a shopping cart and I heard mentioned that you use KickStartCart (one of the carts I was looking at). I was wondering if you like the cart, find it easy to use, etc. I am especially wondering about the affiliate program (for your products that you offer). Is the program easy to set up and is it easy to use as far as tracking and payment?

Answer:

I’ve used it for about 6 years now and have trouble imagining ever switching. I did a webinar last year – http://meggin.com/AudioAcrobat.php (free) that you are welcome to access and you can hear me say a bit more about some of the features.

Yes, the affiliate program works well and, like all of the parts of the shopping cart, once you get the big picture of how it works, it’s easy to set up.

My suggestion on this – start small with it. As I said, I’ve used it for just over 6 years and I am still learning – and I’m pretty knowledgeable about the whole thing. I have been very disappointed in many of the VAs I’ve hired who “say” they know 1ShoppingCart (KickStart) but they really don’t. If you’re going to hire someone to help you, have them tell you what kinds of things they have done, etc.

And I always recommend that the business owner knows how this piece works, even when we have a VA who does a lot of the day-to-day work on the shopping cart. Not everyone would agree with me, but I think it’s important.

Hope this helps!!

Meggin

http://www.copyblogger.com/ultimate-facebook/

I’ll be going back to this MANY times!

• You might like to have some paper copies of your articles to distribute at a presentation you are doing.
• You might want to have some paper copies of your articles to include in a writing portfolio.
• You might like to have some paper copies of your articles to display or offer at a booth advertising your products and services.
• You might want to have paper copies of what you have written to send to someone through the mail, e.g., based on a question you’ve been asked or because you know this client, customer, or friend would find the information helpful at a particular time.
• And the list could go on and on here.

Whatever your reasons, it is worth having a paper copy handy. So, how should you get these ready to use?

Here’s a page you could put in your Operations Manual so that someone else could do this for you (or here are easy-to-follow steps just for you).

Title of Operations Manual Page: Printing and Saving Articles from an article directory

Expected Time Expenditure: About 5″/article.

Frequency: As often as new articles are submitted.

Steps:

1. Go to the article directory.
2. Log in with your username and password.
3. In the upper left hand part of the Navigation Bar, you will see something like “Article Manager.” Go into Article Manager and then click on Live Articles.
4. Go to the oldest one that has not previously been printed (Note: You should be keeping a record of this).
5. Click on View over on the right of that row.
6. It will come up in the the directory’s format that they display on their website. In the upper right hand corner it shows “Print This Article.” Click on that. 
7. Once it is displayed in the nice directory’s format, do a Ctrl – A to select all. Then Ctrl – C to copy.
8. Open a Word document and do a Ctrl – V to paste it in. Delete the little symbols at the top and then save it as a Word document, using the title of the article as the title of the document.
9. Print out a copy and put it in the notebook.
10. Send me the Word Document that you saved as an attachment so I have it on my computer, too.
11. Then go on to the next one.

This is a simple enough process if you follow these steps. You will start finding uses for your articles and will be glad that you have both the paper copy and the saved Word document.

1. Article marketing: Article marketing is by far one of the most accessible forms of online marketing. Research the top keywords for your niche, write a quality article and distribute it to a few top article directories like EzineArticles.com. It doesn’t get any simpler than that! Note: As of this writing, I have nearly 700 articles published on EzineArticles.com.  You’re welcome to take a look.  Clearly, this is one of my favorite tips!
2. Affiliates: When you’re running a business, especially an on-line business, affiliates can be your best allies in getting new clients. An affiliate program that pays well and that offers affiliates tools like articles, solo ads, and e-mail messages will attract top affiliates and bring you new customers.
3. JV Partners: Unlike affiliates, JV partners get a special level of commission by promoting your products and services. They will likely run special promotions for your new products and services so they definitely help you get the word out to folks.
4. Pay per click ads: Running a successful pay per click campaign can bring you a lot of targeted traffic to your website. Choose the right keywords, craft an attractive ad, and you’ll have lots of new contacts.
5. Social marketing: Sites like Facebook and Twitter can offer you many opportunities to connect with your niche market and get new potential clients. Start a profile for your website/business and search for friends who are interested in your niche.
6. Yahoo Answers: This website is a good place to find questions that people are asking related to your niche. Search through the open questions a few times a week and provide helpful answers. Use your website link in the resource area to drive targeted traffic back to your site.  A similar site is to search for the questions on LinkedIn.  In both cases, you are building your credibility and the sense others have about your expertise.
7. Forum marketing: If you already participate in a forum related to your niche, this will be an easy way to promote your site. Add a link to your website in your forum signature file. Each time you post, your  webpage link will be promoted.
8. Viral reports: Write a short report on a popular topic within your niche. Solve a major problem or provide a plan of action for your niche. Include lots of links back to your site within the report. Allow others to distribute it for free and your website link will get in front of thousands of potential subscribers.
9. Reviews: Contact bloggers and other product creators to give them free access to some aspect of your business (products or services) in exchange for a review. They’ll offer their opinion of the item to their readers and you’ll get lots of new traffic into the site.
10. Blog comments: Search for blogs in your niche and post insightful comments from time to time. Use your website link in your blog comment and you’ll get some new visitors to your site.

 You are probably doing at least one of these and maybe you are implementing several of them.  Choose one that you are net YET doing and give it a try this week.  Recognize that you may or may not see results instantly, but you will see results – as long as you have a website that offers a quality product or service.

And for scores of sets of Top Ten Productivity Tips for Entrepreneurs like these, you’re invited to join others around the globe who subscribe (free) to one of the Top Ten Productivity Tips series (info to be found at):

http://TopTenProductivityTips.com

Hi, Meggin,

I’m motivated, focused, and loving life.

I’ll try to keep this short.

I’m writing you this email to let you know where I’m at now and where I want to go. Maybe I’m looking too much at the negative (which I usually don’t do), but my business is struggling. I knew it would take awhile but I was hoping that I would be a little further ahead than I am right now. I know I have what it takes to be successful as a speaker/consultant. But, when is it going to happen? I must be doing something wrong. Can you please help me figure out what it is?

I’m sure my focus will change, but right now I’ve got to figure out a way to MAKE SOME MONEY. If I can’t do that, I’m going to be hurtin’ for certain. I’ve recently taken a part-time job just to bring in some extra income.

Please understand that right now I’m not discouraged at all. I’m more motivated than ever. But, I know some things have got to change.

Let me know what you think.

My response:

I wondered if that was a possibility…and I must say, good for you for getting some extra income coming in. Lots of people, as you know, build their businesses while they have ‘jobs.’ You took the leap so you could focus on this and you stepped, in essence, into something brand new-speaking. So giving yourself a little cushion is not a bad plan while your company keeps growing (and it will, I believe with all my heart).

You aren’t doing anything wrong. There is a LOT to building a business and it may be that what you need to do now is FOCUS (and I’ve had this conversation with 3 members of the Life of E’s in the last few days; imagine that. And it’s one Larry has had with me a time or…2? Or maybe a few more). I know part of your focus is making money, and that’s fine – and within that focus, you need to focus your efforts on fewer things. For example, here is what I currently observe you doing:

1. Marketing to schools by mail
2. Marketing to colleges/businesses by mail (or getting geared up to do so)
3. Marketing to schools by phone
4. Marketing to schools by meeting people
5. Networking at certain events
6. Marketing your booklet
7. Writing articles
8. Putting in proposals to conferences to speak
9. Preparing your speeches & workshops
10. Learning how to maintain your own website
11. Learning how to set up and use a shopping cart
12. Creating products (magnets, signs, etc.)
13. Writing your emails that go out each week
14. Learning by reading, joining in the Life of *E*s & other conversations, listening to teleseminars, etc.

And this is just off the top of my head. Any one of these is actually several parts. That’s the kicker that blows people away as far as how much time goes into setting up a business as a speaker/author, etc. There are A LOT of moving parts, to say the least. And you can’t focus on all of them at any one time.

You have got to get known in your area (and it’s a pretty big area). All of the things you’re doing help that to happen, but you are dispersing your efforts and your time. It’s not scatter shooting by any means, but it is dispersed vs. focusing more laser like on a few things.

Believe me (!!!!) I get the whole thing about wanting to do everything and seeing how everything is going to be useful and I make myself nuts that way.

I think you have got to build your list so you have more people to contact about your products. List building has lots of parts, so we need to talk about which ones will get you out there the fastest.

I think you have got to get principals & counselors to KNOW what it is you have to offer. You may have to put yourself in front of some people for free in order to get known. I told you all in the Make a Diff class that I did scores and by now, hundreds of free things, and that’s part of how people know me. I can help you think about how to offer free workshops, talks, teleseminars, etc. so that you keep your fee integrity but you also have people see who you are and what you have to offer. You know I’ve told you over and over (and I think you know this) that once people meet you and see what you do, they can’t resist trying to figure out how to bring you back.

So, this may be more than you needed right now…but there you have it…

Marketing is the process of creating awareness of and interest in your products and/or services – in those who can (and will) access them.

~ Meggin McIntosh

If you would like to learn ways to market so it matters, thereby increasing your impact (whether that means students in your classes, people buying your books, professionals hiring you for your organizing services, or any other endeavor in which you’re involved) then don’t miss this tele-workshop.  Click => http://meggin.com/MarketingThatMatters.php to register.

In Search of Great Typefaces (posted with permission from the author, Pamela Wilson)

It’s easy to find typefaces on the web at low or no cost. Many, though, are low quality, and will make your business look unprofessional. A quality, full-family typeface that represents your business is a great investment, and since typeface technology doesn’t evolve as quickly as software, your typeface should still be as usable in 20 years as it is today.  Fonts.com and Myfonts.com are two good resources. 

For no cost typefaces, try these links. Remember, go for quality, readability, and a full family of weights if possible:

searchfreefonts.com | dafont.com | urbanfonts.com

These two links from Smashing magazine feature beautiful no-cost typefaces: 

Smashing magazine 40 fonts | Smashing magazine 15 fonts

Best wishes,

PAMELA WILSON - http://www.bigbrandsystem.com
Big Brand System

PS: Know someone who would be interested in this information? Send them to bigbrandsystem.com to download the “Ten Design Mistakes” report, and they’ll be automatically subscribed to this email series.

PPS: Ready to get on the Early Notification List for the Big Brand System? You’ll find out first when it’s ready to launch, and get special pricing not available to anyone else. To get on the list, visit this page.