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As any veteran business owner will tell you, the success or failure of your venture depends greatly on reaching the right customers at the right time. As a new business owner, you know that your market budget will not allow you to waste your money on reaching your target market. If you’re looking for a few helpful hints on finding your ideal customers, you’ve come to the right place.

One of the first things that you have to think about when determining your target audience is  about your product or service and how it can be used. Do you offer administrative services to the overworked business professional? Or perhaps you offer quality wood and paint to the weekend home renovator. By understanding  what you offer, you can start to determine the audience that would be interested in your product.

Once you know what you have to offer, and how it can be used, the next step is to go out and see where you product is needed. Small business owners often overlook this simple act but it is one of the most helpful steps in determining your target market. For example, the business owner that sells quality wood products could easily overlook the growing market among furniture repair shops for his wood if he didn’t take the time to visit a few marketplaces and talk to people on the street.

Finally, it is important to make sure your target market is large enough to be effective, but small enough to be manageable. For example, a virtual administrative assistant can offer services to everyone from a business owner to an online church, but her services might not be a good fit for a company requiring hours of physical labor.

Do you know who your target market is?  Hopefully these few simple tips have made you think and narrow down your focus as well as determining the perfect fit for your product or service.

Tags: Tips by Carrie Wilkerson
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It seems like there is always some new gadget or device that is designed to make a person’s life more fulfilling, or easier. Everyday, the worldwide market is inundated with countless improvements, new innovations, and technological marvels. In truth, many of these new items fail to survive the month, and much of that has to do with how and where the item is marketed. Perhaps more than ever, marketing is an integral part of the success or failure of any business venture in this technological age.

As a business owner, you know that you have a great deal of competition. If you do the majority of your business dealings through the internet, you know that there are hundreds, if not thousands of people trying to convince your potential customers to come and visit their website. With the ease of a few simple clicks, your valued customers could easily move over and become your competitors’ new clients. One of the most effective ways to prevent that, while increasing your customer pool is through effective and targeted marketing.

Another important reason why marketing effectively in the modern world is so important is because the taste of your customers can change extremely rapidly. Previous to the internet age, if someone wanted a new and different style of shoes, they had to go to the store, look through the selection, make a choice, or perhaps even have something special ordered. It was a truly a labor and time intensive process. Today, however, a few clicks of the mouse in the comfort of their home are all it takes. By understanding this, a savvy business owner can place targeted advertisements on the pages that they visit, reminding the visitors of what you have to offer.

Venture out of your comfort zone and get involved in different online networks to market your services and products. Promote, promote, promote is what will keep your business alive in our technology age.

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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So you’ve decided to start your own online business, and use the power of the World Wide Web to bring success to your venture. But wait, it can be a little more involved than opening up your shop online and mentally willing your potential customers to stop on by. The Internet is a very large place, and a savvy business owner needs to make sure that their potential clients can find them. One of the most effective ways to do this is through the use of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short.

In a nutshell, SEO is a way to encourage the various Internet search engines to list your website or online business within the first few pages of the search results. This can be done in a number of ways, including meta-tags, keywords, and back-linking to name a few. Places like Google ® or Bing ® use complex formulas to search out for websites that contain information that the internet viewer has searched for, in the hopes of providing the best, most relevant results for their needs.

By using these simple principles of SEO, you can easily accomplish something that many online businesses pay consultants hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to do on their behalf.

So if you realize how search engines operate, you can understand why the SEO process can be a major influence on your business. By choosing the right keywords, or the right meta-tags, for example, you can make sure that your website and your business is ranked near the top of the search results. The higher you are ranked, the easier you are to find.

And as any business owner will testify, being found by your customer is the first step to making the sale.

Tags: Tips by Carrie Wilkerson
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My goal is to share strategies and tips to help you build your business.  Nearly every successful business owner will tell you that the growth of your business greatly depends on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.  So, here are three that are proven winners.

Joint Promotions

There is a lot to be said for collaboration. Customers are constantly looking for ways to make their business and home lives run more smoothly, and sometimes by combining your services with another business, you can help them do just that. For example, if you own a health food store, teaming up with a local fitness club to promote both businesses through discounts or specials can be a great way to increase both your potential client pools.

Discover New Niche Markets

Another great marketing strategy is to be on the lookout for new types of customers. As any business owner will tell you, keeping abreast of the evolving market can mean the difference between being what you customers want and need, and being left in the dust. Take the time to customize your marketing media for them, and make them feel like they are your one and only customer. This form of targeted advertising is a great way to grow and further establish your business.

Make Use of the Emerging Trends

One of the most effective marketing strategies for any business is to listen to the market itself. By recognizing the various emerging trends you can find ones that you can design around and work with to grow your potential client base. Quite a number of businesses took advantage of the Internet in the early days to attract new customers. By being some of the first to have an online presence, they were able to obtain customers from their competitors, and cater to those who welcomed the Internet with open arms.

Some of the above strategies are some you may have heard or read somewhere before, but many don’t take action. Don’t put off what you can do today..that’s my mantra and should be yours as well.

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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If you are using a blog or website for marketing purposes, fresh content is essential. How important is fresh content, you ask?

Fresh content, as the name implies is new content used by websites to provide new information, promote their business endeavors, and keep them highly ranked in the search engines. In the world of search engine optimization, or SEO, the importance of creating and publishing fresh content cannot be overstressed.

As an entrepreneur, you can create a blog, website, or create an article to promote your business. However, unless the content within those things are updated on a regular basis, the search engines and readers will start to see the blog, website, or article as stale, and contain out of date information. Therefore, even if the pertinent information about your company hasn’t changed, it is essential to provide fresh content on a regular basis. This way, your business identity and your information remains in the minds of your potential clients, and at the top of the search engine’s findings.

How Important is Relevancy?

Before you run out and start creating new content just for the sake of new content, stop and think. Another important factor of fresh content is its relevancy. Today’s search engines, as well as internet users in general are becoming more aware and savvy then ever before. If you add content that doesn’t relate to your business, or to what your clients need, about the only thing you’ll gain is disrespect from your potential customers. Therefore, it is important that your content is updated regularly with information that your client needs, or information that presents your company in a new light.

One of the most effective ways to promote your online business is fresh content. Adding content can be accomplished at a very reasonable price. It truly is an easy and cost effective way to keep you at the top of your competition.

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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Promoting your online business is essential, especially in these dynamic economic times. There are a numerous different avenues that a savvy business owner can take, and many of them include the use of social media.  We’ve touched upon one of the social networks I enjoy which is Twitter, today we discuss another. If you choose to use social media to expand your client base, another effective social media site available is Facebook.

A business owner can promote their online business with Facebook’s many business friendly features. These include such things as a profile page, groups, and marketplace. Each one should have their place in your marketing plan.

A Facebook profile page can provide a new wealth of marketing opportunities. Start by creating a profile that is simple, pleasing to the eye, and informative. Then, if any of your customers or business contacts is using Facebook, take the time to invite them to become an online friend. By doing so, you begin to grow your network, and gain exposure to all their friends.

Facebook discussion groups are another great feature for any business owner. They are a great way to reach out to people with specific interests or needs. They can be extremely active, and with your expertise and knowledge, you can quickly gain their respect, and eventually their business.

Another way to promote your business is the Marketplace. This is Facebook’s online version of free classified ads, ones viewed by millions of users’ everyday. This is a great place to promote your latest sale or new product.

As you can see, there are a number of features on Facebook that seem to be tailor made for the online business owner. With a little time, effort, and common sense, you can easily use them in any combination to help your business grow.

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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With any business the ultimate goal is to increase your revenues, or quite simply to make an income we can survive on. Marketing is important to build your business and email marketing is a great way to improve your business as well. Individuals with online businesses use this particular method to promote their sites, services and products.

In order to make your email marketing a success, keep these points in mind:

• Treat your clients as royalty - when you emphasize the importance of your client’s needs they will feel that you are focusing on them personally.  Your relationship will not only increase but so will the referral rate.  Your goal should be to build a long term relationship.

• Build your list – building your list is very important for the success of your email marketing.  Obviously you must have a list in order to market via email and this list can be built in different ways.  A great way to build a list is by offering a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter.  Staying in contact with you list is a way to build a strong relationship and incorporating newsletters or promotions makes it easier.

• Stay Positive – Email marketing is not easy but you must not get discouraged.  It is important to keep your messages to your clients, upbeat and positive and most of all informative.  Always keep in mind that folks will unsubscribe but don’t let that sway you from your ultimate goal or staying connected.

• Keep it short and sweet – when sending email messages to your clients make them short, sweet, yet impactful. No one likes to open up their email to a long message that has no meaning and then hits them with a sales pitch.

Ultimately you will want to keep building your list and updating it frequently for your email marketing to be effective. Building a relationship with your readers,  and clients should be your goal and email marketing is a perfect way to do just that.

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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Another month has come and gone.. are you on track with the resolutions you made on January 1st?  Many individuals make resolutions or goals on January 1st but few make it past 3o days.  The reason behind their failure may be due to the unrealistic goals they placed upon themselves.  Perhaps the lack of motivation is another excuse.

Nonetheless, there are many excuses and you will not have results if you continue to make excuses.  Instead, determine your goal, make a plan and stick to it.  Sure, some may be more difficult than others, but don’t give up!  In order to succeed in life you must be determined and with determination comes hard work.  Perhaps you feel like you are spinning your wheels, then it is time to determine if your plans are realistic.  It’s great to dream but not all dreams come true.  I’m sorry to be the one to burst your bubble, but success comes from hard work and determination.

It is important to align yourself with individuals that you strive to be like.  If you strive to increase your business, seek out those that have the same intentions.  Mastermind groups, and joint ventures are wonderful but will only work if you are in the group that will push you forward, not keep you behind.  You can definitely do it alone, many have; but if you can find a group or some individuals that will truly help you succeed in your business then do it!  Don’t wait until tomorrow to do what you can do today.  That saying is something that rings true in my life and something that I live by on a daily basis.

So again I ask you, are you on track?  If not, evaluate, re-create, and focus.  Determination, hard work and focus will keep you on the path of success.  You can do it!

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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