One of the most common problems for small business owners is managing their time when using free marketing strategies. Many individuals feel that free marketing, specifically social media marketing (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, etc), is too time-consuming and overwhelming.

Individuals aren’t sure what to focus on, where to spend their time and how to balance all of their varying marketing platforms.  As a result, many individuals end up spending hours and hours every day marketing their business.

Believe me, it doesn’t need to be this way! Of course, free marketing is going to take some time and energy every day but, it should only take you between one and two hours if you work smart and strategically.

Here are 7 time management strategies to help you work smarter, as opposed to harder.

1) Narrow Your Focus

There are hundreds of free marketing platforms to choose from. You can’t possibly market on all of them. My rule of thumb is to pick five free platforms and focus your marketing efforts there.

You will never succeed if you try to conquer too much. Remember, you do not want to be a “Jack of all Trades, Master of None!” You want to master a few marketing strategies well.

2) Spend Time Each Day on “Creation” and “Maintenance”

Every day you should “create” new information. This can be accomplished by writing an article, shooting a video, creating a group (FaceBook, LinkedIn), etc. The new information that you create doesn’t have to be long and time-consuming. For instance, you can shoot and 3-minute video and upload it into YouTube all under fifteen minutes time.
In addition to creating information, you should spend time each day maintaining your sites. This can be accomplished by making MySpace friend requests, writing on Facebook walls, adding LinkedIn connections, posting to Twitter, etc.

If you divide your time between creating information and maintenance, you will be working smarter.

3) Set an allotted amount of time for marketing each day.

You want to approach your marketing with a plan. And that includes a plan for how much time you will devote each day to marketing your business.

If you simply “start marketing” without any sense of how much time you will devote, you will be extremely non-productive.

I generally recommend spending 1-2 hours every day actively marketing your business.

However, you also do not want to spend more time than necessary on marketing. If you log into Facebook and begin “to market” without a plan of action, you might still be there six hours later.  So, decide how much time you will spend on marketing and stick to it.

4) Use a Timer

Using a timer might sound silly, but it is certainly a trick that I have always relied on. When I am writing an article, I set my timer for 30 minutes. I give myself exactly 30 minutes to write my article.  If I don’t finish, then I will have to finish tomorrow.

You’d be surprised how much more efficient you are when there is a timer clicking away in the background.

5) Connect Your Accounts

Make sure that you connect all of your social media and information accounts that you can connect.

As an example, you can add your Twitter account to your EzineArticles account. Then, whenever you publish an article, your Twitter account will be automatically updated with your newest article.

Again, you can add Twitter to your FaceBook account, so that your “Twitters” appear on your FaceBook profile. Take some time to investigate all the ways that you can integrate and connect your accounts together. This will save you valuable time in the long-run.

6) Recycle Your Efforts

Whenever I write an article, I reuse it in many different ways. Here is an example:

Imagine that I write an article titled, “7 Ways To Market On FaceBook.” I, of course, publish that article in multiple article directories.

However, it doesn’t stop there. Then, I post that same article to my blog. After that I use the basic concept from my article for a YouTube video. After that, I Twitter about that concept as well.

The point is that when I have a new concept, I reuse that concept as many times as possible.

7) Track What Works and Focus Your Efforts There

You will soon find that when it comes to free marketing and social networking that it’s often difficult to accurately track your marketing statistics. For instance, when using PPC (pay-per-click) it is simple to add a code to your website and find out exactly how many people are visiting your website, opting-in to your form and making purchases.

This isn’t as simple when it comes to social marketing.

However, there are activities that you will notice add to your business success and activities that don’t do a thing for your business.

As an example, I found that managing all the “application requests” from FaceBook was becoming quite a chore. So, I decided that I just couldn’t take the time to respond to every Christmas ornament, Starfish, etc. that I received. I had to begin to “ignore” those application requests.

You will need to make the same decisions.

Remember, free marketing work.  In fact, I truly believe that free marketing often works better than paid marketing.

However, if you are going to optimize your free marketing plan make sure to implement these seven tips to help you effectively manage your time and energy.

Most likely you’ve heard the idea that you are only removed by any other person in the world by “six degrees of separation.” The theory (made popular by Stanley Milgram), suggests that  “if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is only six steps away from any other person on Earth.”

Interestingly enough, this very theory can be applied to your small business. If you need to contact a boss, colleague, consultant or prospective customer, client or employer, it’s obvious to tap into your own network of connections.

But, what if there was a way to tap into the connections of the people that they know, and the connections of people that they know, and so on? Most likely, you wouldn’t have to go through more than 4-6 connections to find the exact person that you are looking for.

So how can you tap into a network that allows you to leverage the power of your connections quickly and efficiently?  That network is called LinkedIn.
What Is LinkedIn?

Once you have registered for a free account through LinkedIn, you are able to invite others to “connect” with you through the site.
Once you begin connecting with others, you are able to ask them to connect you with their network. (The entire system is built on referrals, so there is a good amount of quality control already built in.)

LinkedIn  (much like any networking site) works best when you apply simple and strategic marketing strategies to boost its effectiveness.

Here Are Ten Tips For Making LinkedIn Work For You and Your Small Business:

1. Complete Your Profile. It’s important that you add as much important and relevant information about your small business as possible. Your profile is the first impression that you make upon your prospects and business partners. Make sure to include a picture, past job experiences, current job experience and personal information. The more information people are able to take away from your profile, the better connection they will have with you.

2. Keep Your Profile Fresh And Up To Date. Don’t make the mistake of creating a LinkedIn profile only to let it stack up with dust. Make sure that as you change jobs or achieve business recognition that you update your profile to reflect this.

3. Connect With Clients, Customers, Co-workers and Colleagues. It’s important to connect with past and current individuals in your field. However, it’s also a wonderful way to find new clients and learn about exciting new job opportunities in your field. Remember, that the main purpose of LinkedIn is to create a giant network of possibilities for you and your small business.

4. Use LinkedIn To Research Prospective Business Partners or Prospect. Before you contact a new business partner or prospective client, make sure to research them through LinkedIn. Their LinkedIn profile functions much like a resume and will provide you with insight about their potential strengths and/or weaknesses.

5. Get Recommendations. It’s fairly simple to gather recommendations from individuals in your LinkedIn network, In fact, all you need to do is click a link. Of course, the more professionals that are able to vouch for your products and services, the better your business will appear to others.

6. Use LinkedIn to search for consultants and contractors. There is a great component in LinkedIn called the “Service Provider” feature. It allows you to pre-screen and research independent business people.

7. Join Relevant LinkedIn Groups. As you become involved in LinkedIn, it is in your best interest to join groups that are relevant to your particular field or industry. There are thousands of LinkedIn groups and you can find even more connections by becoming an active participant in several of these groups.

8. Create a LinkedIn Group. If you are interested in being perceived as an expert, then you will want to create your own LinkedIn Group that you personally manage. Once you create the group, you can invite others in your network to join. If you promote your group effectively, you can eventually have hundreds, even thousands of members that you are able to communicate with on a consistent basis.

9. Tap Into The “Question and Answers” Feature. One immense bonus of LinkedIn is the fact that you are able to ask thousands of business professionals important questions, receive immediate answers at no cost to you. In addition, you can answer other business professionals questions and, again, position yourself as an expert in your industry.

10. Respect The Network. Always remember that your LinkedIn connections must be treated with the utmost respect. Answer your emails, respond to questions and give appropriate recommendations. If you are going to be a part of the LinkedIn community then you need to be involved and active in order to find success.  The good news is that it only takes a few minutes every day to reap the rewards.

If used correctly and consistently, LinkedIn can be a powerful networking tool for the small business owner. To learn more about LinkedIn go to: www.LinkedIn.com.

If there’s one piece of advice that outshines and outperforms time and time again, it’s the idea of offering free materials and resources to your prospective clients and customers.

In my opinion, there is nothing that you can do to catapult your business more quickly to the top.

The first reason is that marketing has changed dramatically in the past few years. People are sick of interruptive ads and hate being sold. The consumer is becoming more immune to the old ways of advertising and is looking for ways to interact with the companies that they do business with.

Today’s marketplace wants to develop relationship with companies before they make a purchase. So, it’s your job to make sure that there are plenty of different ways for the customer to get to know you.

The second reason is that by offering your prospects a free sample of your product or service, it allows them to get a taste for who you are and what you represent.

Your local grocery store has been using this exact concept for years. While you are strolling the aisles, they offer you a free sample of a tasty food item. You probably wouldn’t have purchased that item until you tasted it. Now, you’ve sampled it and you’re hooked!

It’s really no different with your prospects. Once they have sampled your wares, they are much more likely to make a purchase. Especially in today’s overcrowded marketplace, if you aren’t doing anything to separate yourself from your competition, your prospective clients and customers will simply ignore you.

The third reason is that when you offer your prospects free resources, it automatically positions you as an expert in your particular industry. If your free product/resource is high quality (and it must be high quality!) then, your prospects will automatically trust your authority in this particular field.

The best news is that developing free offers and resources doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task.  The most important factor when creating your free resource is to make sure that it’s not a sales pitch. It needs to be educational, informative and essentially solve a problem that your prospects are facing.

If you are able to create an instructional free offer that teaches your prospect something that they didn’t know before, the long-term benefits are priceless.

There are dozens of examples including:

- Downloadable e-books

- Downloadable audio classes

- Articles

- E-Courses

- Ezine or Newsletter Subscriptions

- Special Reports

- Videos

- CD’s

- DVD’s

- Free Webinars/Teleseminars

- Complimentary Coaching Sessions

- Free Local Seminars

Obviously the sky is the limit and creativity helps. If you are able to write or produce the material yourself, that’s wonderful. If you need to hire an inexpensive “ghost-writer” go to: www.guru.com and describe your project in detail. You will soon have dozens of people who will bid on your project for a very reasonable amount.

When clients access free material that you have developed, they will intrinsically view you as an expert in your industry. They will get to know you and your business style and begin to trust you.  Of course, trust is a key component to building a lasting business relationship.

I truly love Twitter. Without question, Twitter had increased my visibility, created thousands of leads for my small business and produced dozens of sales for my products and services.

And every single day of the week, I run into quite a few self-proclaimed “Twitter-Experts.” 

Of course, as with any industry, I find that all of the soapbox experts fall into one of three main Twitter categories: 

1) The “Twitter Virtuoso” with interesting and often remarkable advice;

2) The “Quasi-Twitter Expert” who has an average suggestion here or there;

3) The “Twittering Fool” who shouldn’t even be on Twitter in the first place.

There are hundreds of great tips and strategies that come from experienced individuals who are truly boosting their income through the power of Twitter. However, beware of those crows who are masquerading as eagles. If you listen to them, your Twitter days will be incredibly disappointing.

Here are the five worst tips I have personally received regarding marketing on Twitter:

1) Don’t Promote Yourself. This is bad advice on so many different levels. Obviously, any savvy marketer understands that you don’t jump on Twitter and start tweeting “Check out my product…it’s really the best one in the world!” This just goes without saying.

However, if you are using Twitter as a marketing tool you need to do a bit of balanced marketing. There are only so many Tweets in which you can tell your followers what you are having for dinner until people start to unfollow you.

Twitter is a two-way street. Of course you are there to ask questions, listen and interact with your followers. But, you also need to let your followers know about blog posts, articles and press releases that highlight you and your business. Don’t be afraid to do a bit of self-promoting.

2) Don’t Autofollow. I absolutely disagree with this advice. I use www.SocialOomph.com to automatically follow everyone who follows me. I then get to know whom I am following through their Tweets. If I find they are annoying, rude or inappropriate, I unfollow them.  But, how can I make a decision to follow someone based on a 140-word profile?  For all I know, this person could be the next Faulkner with some of the most profound Tweets known to mankind.

I can only decide if someone is worth following AFTER I am following them and reading their Tweets. I truly believe that it is in good taste to follow everyone who follows you and then unfollow those who are not compatible with you. Not to mention that it takes too much time to manually decide whom to follow and whom to ignore.

3) Don’t Use Automated Software For Posts. There are some individuals that believe that automated posts (posts that you preschedule through a service like www.socialoomph.com) are too impersonal. However, I preload helpful marketing and small business quotes into socialoomph.com and auto-send them out throughout the day to my followers. Many of my followers love these quotes and actually look forward to them. Plus, it keeps my small business in front of my followers as much as possible.

Of course, I also log into Twitter every day and interact personally with my followers as well. I believe that if you combine auto-posts with personal interaction, you will leverage the power of Twitter in a much more meaningful way.

4) Keep Daily Stats On How Many People Unfollow You.  This is one of the strangest tips that I have received. First of all, who has time for this? And second, I really don’t care who unfollows me. Really. If someone doesn’t like my Tweets, then they SHOULD unfollow me. I am not on Twitter to make sure that everything I say appeals to every single person. I am on Twitter to connect with interesting and like-minded people.

5) Your Tweets Should Always Be Witty, Educational or Profound. Obviously, in the ideal world this would be the case. But, the last time I checked, most people on Twitter are not professional writers, bloggers, and word-smiths. They are just regular people making connections. Of course, you should strive to add value and interact with people. But, don’t worry so much that every Tweet is a witty comedy sketch. Just be yourself and have fun.

Twitter is an amazing and powerful marketing tool. However, besides spamming and other illicit behaviors, there are not many “rules” that you must follow in order to be a part of Twitter.

In my opinion, Twitter is mainly about using common sense.  Interact, be nice, ask questions, listen, and add value.  And of course, just be yourself and have a little fun.

Over the past ten years marketing has changed more than any other time in history. The marketing world has gone through three main transitions that are important for the small business owner to understand.

1) Traditional Marketing includes tools such as television, radio, billboards and direct mail. The marketing message is commanding and directive and there is no interaction between the marketer and the consumer. As a result, consumers began to distrust the commanding nature of traditional marketing and turned to the internet in order to feel more in control over their purchasing choices.

As consumers moved online, traditional marketing was forced to change. Small business owners realized that they needed to utilize the internet to reach their clients and customers. Thus, internet marketing was born.

2) Internet Marketing includes tools such as pay-per-click advertising, banner ads, text ads, solo ads, etc. Internet marketing is more dynamic and more focused on the wants of the customer than traditional marketing avenues.

However, the consumer continued to change. They wanted even more participation in their purchasing decisions and wanted to become personally involved in the buying process.

As a result, consumers developed various networks of trusted friends and colleagues through social media platforms to help them in their purchasing decisions. Thus, small business owners were forced to embrace new marketing tools in order to market their businesses and relate to customers in an entirely different way.

3) New Media Marketing includes tools such as blogs, video sites, social networking sites and podcasts. This marketing approach is vastly different from either traditional or internet marketing. Instead of an aggressive, pushy and a one-sided dialogue, there is an open process that includes listening, interaction and involvement between the consumer and business owner.

Today’s consumers are savvier than ever before. They aren’t interested in the commanding and directive ways of traditional marketing. Instead, they are interested in interacting and developing relationships with the companies they do business with.

Therefore, another way to understand the vast changes in the marketing world is to divide marketing into two distinct categories: interruption marketing and relationship marketing.

Interruption marketing is exactly what the name implies. It is marketing that “interrupts” the consumer. For instance, as you watch a TV show, a commercial cuts into your program. Or, as you listen to the radio, an ad abruptly takes over your favorite song.

Research suggests that consumers detest interruption marketing. Here are some interesting statistics that show how quickly interruption marketing is dying:

According to Justin Kirby and Paul Marsden authors of Connected Marketing:

• 90% of people, who are able to skip TV ads, do skip TV ads.

• 65% of people believe they are constantly bombarded with too much advertising.

• 56% of people avoid buying from companies that they feel advertise too much.

According to a McKinsey and Co. Report:

In just a few short years, traditional TV advertising will:

• be 1/3 as effective as it used to be.

• experience a 23% decline in ads due to switching the ads off.

• experience a 37% decrease in the marketing message due to saturation.

A report put out by The Internet Advertising Bureau states:

• In 1980 fewer ads reached more people with undivided attention.

• In the 2000’s more ads reach less people with shorter attention spans.

So, what do these statistics mean to you and your marketing plan? In a nutshell, our audiences are changing so our marketing needs to change.

People are tired of traditional advertising. They are sick of “being sold” and want to make purchases in a completely different environment. Research clearly suggests that consumers are moving away from trusting directive advertising and moving toward trusting their friends, their networks and the networks that they have created around themselves.

More and more consumers are moving online to establish this network of trusted friends and colleagues. They are active in social networking sites, business networking sites, sharing sites, and publishing sites. Therefore, if you want to capture the attention of this new consumer, then you need to move online as well.

However, it’s not enough to simply build a website on the internet. You must develop ways to genuinely interact with your potential clients and customers.

The good news is that there are hundreds of free marketing platforms that allow you to engage with your prospects in very authentic ways. Blogs, videos, podcasts, ezines, articles, press releases and social media sites are all new tools perfectly designed to communicate with your target market.

You are currently part of the most exciting marketing phase in history. Anyone can quickly and efficiently grow their small business, using a combination of effective marketing tools, without spending a dime.
 
So, go ahead and begin your journey into the exhilarating world of free marketing.

If you’re interested in capturing more prospects and growing your small business on a shoestring budget, you must have a brilliant marketing message (a concise statement that explains the purpose of your small business to your ideal clients and customers).

The fundamental reason why a marketing message is such a powerful component of your small business is that it forces you to become extraordinarily clear about what you do. Believe it or not, most small business owners do a “little of this” and “a little of that” and aren’t able to effectively articulate what business they are in.

The main objective behind your marketing message is that you want to describe what you do as quickly and succinctly as possible. If your marketing message is effective, it should create an instant connection with your target market that sparks conversation.

The end result should be a one to two sentence statement that highlights the main benefit(s) your prospect will receive if they decide to do business with you. Once created, your marketing message should be used everywhere: on your website, blog, ezine, newsletters, brochures and business cards.

Here are five industry-specific marketing messages:

Fitness Trainer: “helping women over 40 create rock-solid bodies”

Dog Trainer: “achieving lightening-fast results with naughty dogs”

Insurance Agent: “creating family-friendly health-plans at rock-bottom prices”

Dentist: “delivering pain-free results for your entire family”

Virtual Assistant: “maximizing time and money for the busy business professional”

Here is an easy, three-step formula for creating your own marketing message:

1) Describe What You Do. Use an active, precise adverb to begin your marketing message.

2) Identify Your Ideal Client. Who is your potential client or customer? Are they women? Men? Small business owners? Writers? Dog owners? The better able you are to determine exactly who needs your product or service, the clearer your marketing message will be. 
3) Pinpoint The Main Benefits Your Clients/Customers Will Receive. Your product or service should ultimately solve a nagging problem or potentially improve your prospect’s life. A well-crafted marketing message will clearly accomplish this in the mind of your prospect.

It’s not easy to describe everything that you do in a simple sentence. However, once you are able to capture the essence of your small business by speaking to your target market and providing them with benefits, you will have crafted a brilliant marketing message.

Last Monday, one of my neighbors proudly announced her determination to learn the “secrets” behind marketing on Twitter. She thinks that Twitter will save her business. Ironically, the very next day, one of my clients reported to me that if he only understood how to “power market” on Facebook, his business would catapult to the top of his industry. And three days later, I noticed a small business owner complaining in a forum that he will never succeed until he has unlocked the keys behind YouTube marketing.

Enough is enough! Without question, new media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) are wonderful places to market your small business. Obviously, I market my own business through every single one of those platforms.

Believe me, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, there is absolutely nothing magical or supernatural about any of the new media platforms. They are just platforms. Nothing more, nothing less. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are simply ways to spread awareness about your brand.

Mark my word, there will always be another “amazing” platform that will supposedly “save” you and your business.

But, before you tap into any marketing platform, you need to understand the basic philosophy behind marketing. You need to know “how” to market your business before you even dip your toe in the pool. Because if you don’t understand the basic tenants behind good marketing, Twitter won’t do a thing for your small business. Even if you spent eight hours a day with 2 million followers, you wouldn’t get anywhere if you went about your marketing in the wrong way.

Marketing platforms come and go, but understanding how to market will never go out of style.

Whether you are marketing on YouTube or running an “old-fashioned” ad in the newspaper, the same rules of good and solid marketing apply. You use marketing platforms as a way to drive your prospects back to a webpage, landing page or blog in which they give you their name and email address in exchange for free information from you and your small business.

You might offer a downloadable ebook, a special report or a 10-part audio class. It isn’t the format of your offer, it’s the offer itself that is important. Your offer must be perceived as a means for your prospect to better their life or solve a particularly stubborn problem. You want your free offer to be utterly irresistible.

Once you have obtained your prospect’s information, you can begin the task of building solid and significant relationships with them. This is when you are able to send your prospects’ additional educational materials, helpful advice and important resources that will position you as an expert in your industry.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube marketing are only effective if you use them as tools to drive traffic to your landing page or blog. Newspaper classifieds are only effective if used as a tool to drive traffic to your landing page or blog.

So, yes, in essence there is a well-kept secret on how to effectively tap into the power of new media. Learn the basics of marketing. For if you understand exactly how to market, you will always be ready for the “next great marketing platform.”

One of the threads that ties successful small business owners together is the fact that they are considered “experts” in a particular niche of their industry. As experts, they exude leadership qualities that naturally attract a base of loyal followers.

Unfortunately, this concept escapes many business owners who are desperate for success. They feel that they either don’t have an area of expertise, don’t have the right qualifications, or don’t possess a formal “degree” in order to effectively lead a group of people.

The interesting fact is that all experts, at one time or another, took time to become an expert in their field. And there are countless ways to become an expert in your field. Some small business owners go back to school for a formal degree, others attend seminars and workshops, while still others teach themselves.

Both Albert Einstein and Earl Nightengale declared that if an individual dedicates just thirty minutes each day to studying a certain topic, they will become an expert on that topic within one year’s time. (Obviously, if you study for an hour every day, you can conceivably become an expert in six months time.)

It’s time for you to become an expert in your industry today. Your expertise will be one of the most important components to the overall success of your business in the long-run.

Here’s a very simple three-step formula to develop expertise in your field:

1) Identify Problems. First and foremost, you must find an area within your industry that is in need of expert advice. One of the simplest ways to do this is to make a list of problems that your prospective customers and prospects face in your industry. What frustrates or angers your prospects? Do they need to lose weight? Are they sad or depressed? Do they need marketing help?

No matter what small business you operate, their are numerous problems that your prospects face.

2) Research Solutions. Once you have identified problems in your industry, begin researching possible solutions. Read online articles, visit your local library, attend classes, seminars and webinars. The main goal of your reasearch is that you eventually want to offer tangible solutions to your prospects.

3) Educate Your Prospects. One of your main objectives is to offer your prospects a sample of your knowledge base. You can turn your knowledge into a special report, short e-book or 10-day e-course. Once you begin packaging your knowledge and offering it to others, you will be surprised how quickly you will develop a group of followers that are eager to learn from you.

So, take the time to identify the problems in your industry, research the solutions and then educate your prospects. You will soon find that you have more business than you can handle!

What if you discovered that every single day you were losing dozens, even hundreds, of potential customers and clients? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you probably are losing sales every single day. The simple fact is that most websites don’t perform nearly as well as they should. They confuse and overwhelm visitors, make the ordering process too complicated and present a less than professional approach.

The good news is that there are simple and immediate solutions that you can implement in order to keep prospects on your website and convert them to happy customers. Here is a list of five simple and proven ways to improve your website, retain visitors and make more sales than you ever thought possible!

1. Create a Clear Purpose. When a visitor comes to your website, your purpose needs to be cyrstal clear. Do you want the prospect to enter their name and email into a website opt-in form? Are you trying to sell a product or service? Are you interested in educating the prospect over time? Your website should be designed to efficiently guide visitors to the information that they are seeking.It must have a clear and direct purpose.

In the overcrowded world of the internet, you only have three seconds to capture the attention of your prospect. If your visitor is at all confused, they will leave your website in order to find a more obvious and perceptible solution.

2. Highlight Your Benefits. A prospect visits your site in order to solve a problem or improve their lives. It is your job to convince them that your product or service will accomplish this. You can succeed in doing this by highlighting the benefits that your prospect will receive if they purchase your product or service.

Will your product make your prospect happier? Will it save them time? Will they be healthier or wealthier? It’s imperative that you convey to your prospect that if they purchase from you, they will receive an obvious and important benefit.

2. Keep It Simple. Time is a precious commodity in today’s world. More than ever before, your visitors are looking for a solution to their problems in a quick and timely manner. They don’t have hours to browse through your website looking for the answer.

Keep your web copy concise and to the point. You should use short paragraphs, bulleted lists and bolded and underlined text to highlight items of importance.

In addition, it is also imperative that you keep the ordering process as simple as possible. It is a known fact that most people who click on the “Buy Now” button, never go through with the purchase. However, if you simplify the buying process by making it simple, easy and quick, you will convert many more prospects to sales.

4. Give Your Visitors Reasons To Trust You. As soon as a visitor comes to your site, it’s crucial that they feel that they can connect and trust you. There are a number of ways to increase the trust factor. Make sure that your contact information is prominent and easy to find. Your website should be free from grammatical and spelling errors. Your site should have the look and feel of a well-established and successful company. Research suggests that trust must be established for a prospect to either give you their information or make a purchase.

So, take the time to make your prospect feel that they can trust you and your company.
 
5. Offer Your Visitors Options. No matter if you are offering a product or service, your sales will immediately increase if you offer your prospects multiple options. It is crucial that your prospects have more than one product or model to choose from.

Giving your prospects three distinct price points to choose between is a highly successful model. For instance, if you are offering a service, you can bundle or package your service into three different price points that will appeal to different buyers. If you are offering a product, it is essential that you offer a low price point, middle price point and and high price point.
 
When buyers have choices they feel more in control. They appreciate the fact that they are selecting an option that works best for them and their specific needs.
 
There are numerous ways to keep prospects engaged in your website and convert them to happy clients and customers. If you design your website with a clear and specific purpose, keep things simple, create a sense of trust and offer numerous benefits and options, you will soon find yourself with an abundance of new sales, clients and happy customers!

Here is the Golden Rule of Marketing. It is the #1 most important piece of information that you will ever learn. If you never learn anything else about marketing, learn this, because this, my friend, will change business life as you know it.

There are millions and millions of small businesses out there. And if you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times:  if you’re just another fish in the sea – you will drown.  There’s just too much competition.

You must be unique and stand apart from the crowd.

Believe me, most small business owners have no idea how to do this. Zero, zilch, nada. Take a look around. Most marketers are doing what everyone else is doing. They think that if they just follow the rules, they will succeed. But, blending in and following the crowd is the exact opposite of what they should be doing.

Every single time I search on Google, I find hundreds of companies that are virtually all the same. They point to replicated, impersonal websites highlighting companies that looks like every other company; boring ad copy that puts me to sleep before I even get past the headline. It all starts to blend together and I can’t keep one business straight from another. Yawn.

So, why do you think that 97% of all new business owners are failing? If you ask me, it’s pretty darn simple; they don’t understand the amazing power of being unique.

Whether you’re a teacher, life coach, dentist, or author, you must brand yourself in this crazy marketing world. You need to let your prospects know that you are a one-of-a-kind, completely unique small business. In other words, you need to show the world that there is no other company quite like yours. And guess what? There is no other company quite like yours, so you already have that going for you.

Pick out one or two incredibly unique qualities about your small business and tell the world. What do you offer that no one else offers? Do you get back to customers within the hour? Do you offer fun contests and give-aways? How about an amazing guarantee?

Show your distinct colors, have some fun and be you. And, don’t just copy what everybody else is doing. In fact, the more you copy, the faster you will fail.

If you can accomplish this one small feat, the world will be your oyster. Everything you touch will turn to gold.

It’s up to you. You can blend in with the crowd and join the 97% or, you can stand up and shout your distinct qualities from the rooftops with the other 3%. Try it. You just might like it.