-•- TheHomeBizDigest Newsletter - Issue 217 -•-
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Marketing Tip
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Try new advertising methods. Most people think they know what will
work best for their business, but they aren't always right. If you
are going to be a success in any field, you're going to have to be
willing to try new things. In the online world, things change fast
and what worked for you just six months ago might not work for you
six months down the road. What you are going to want to do is keep
your momentum going strong, and to do that you're going to have to 
try new things. Ok, search engines may be working great for you at
this point, but what happens when the keywords you want get a bit 
expensive for you? You may have links on tons of other pages that
are generating great traffic for you, but what happens when those
pages stop producing? It's been said that a great way to produce 
a long term, steady, and reliable income is to generate multiple 
streams of income. The same holds true for advertising. You have 
to generate a long term strategy of steady diversified traffic in
order to keep the money coming in. The major reason that multiple
streams of income is important is in case one of those streams of
income dries up. Don't you think the same could happen with your 
advertising? When one source of traffic dries up, be ready with a
whole other prospect producing stream and you'll be on track for 
success. If you haven't tried email advertising yet, why not give
it a shot? If you haven't given a banner advertising a try in a 
while, go ahead and try it again. Whatever you do, don't get too 
comfortable in what you're doing or before you know it, you'll be
trying to scratch and claw your way back to where you once were.

 
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Featured Guest Article
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OVERCOMING YOUR BIGGEST MARKETING OBSTACLE
By Charlie Cook

At times, no matter what you do your marketing is stuck and
you're not attracting new clients quickly enough. It doesn't
seem to make a difference how much time or money you put
into it, its like you are driving in slow motion. You just 
seem to be spinning your wheels and not getting any traction 
to move your business forward as quickly as you'd like.

What is it that's keeping you from growing your business and
your revenue?

IS THE ECONOMY LIMITING YOUR BUSINESS? Possibly but unlike
many large corporations that get hammered by economic
trends, independent professionals and small business owners
don't need mass movements of clients to be successful. Most
small businesses need a few hundred or few thousand clients
to do very well. You just have to do a better job of 
marketing than your competitors to bring them in.

IS THE LACK OF MONEY TO SPEND ON MARKETING LIMITING YOUR 
BUSINESS? The most successful independent professionals 
spend very little on marketing relative to profits. They 
utilize email, referrals, and other marketing tactics to 
get attention, build trust and attract clients.

IS THE LACK OF TIME THE PROBLEM WITH YOUR MARKETING? If you
run your own business, there is never enough time in the day
to accomplish everything you need to do. But the people who
make the time for marketing see their businesses grow.

Let's face it; your biggest marketing obstacle is you: your
perceptions/ attitudes, behavior and organization.

Common problems that may be holding your marketing back:
* Not enjoying marketing yourself and your business.
* Not having a marketing strategy or plan
* Not integrating marketing into your daily schedule.
* Taking over two minutes to describe how you solve clients 
problems.
* Spending too much on promotional campaigns without testing 
 your copy or inexpensive tactics first.
* Talking too much and not listening to prospects.
* Not giving away helpful ideas to prospects in order to build 
trust and establish yourself as the expert who can solve their 
problems.
* Not regularly contacting prospects.
* Forgetting to provide prospects with offers they can't refuse.

Are you stuck by your own thinking, your behaviors or your 
perceptions about your marketing and what is or isn't possible?

GIVE YOUR MARKETING A CHANCE
The good news is that if you are your biggest marketing
obstacle you can easily become your biggest marketing asset. 
Take the following steps to change your marketing behaviors 
and perceptions and give your marketing a chance.

Goals - Write down goals for your business and for your
marketing. Studies show that people who commit to written
goals are more successful, often making ten times as much
money as those who don't.

Knowledge - Leverage all you know about your business to
provide prospects and clients with a steady stream of ideas
they can use. In this way you demonstrate your expertise
and stand out from the competition.

Money - Spend as little as possible on marketing, but do
expect to spend money relative to the returns you anticipate.
For example if you are an independent consultant and want
to grow your business to two hundred or three hundred
thousand dollars in revenue per year you will need to spend
some money on your marketing effort.

Time - Schedule a meeting with yourself every week to
review your marketing strategy, look at what is and isn't
working and write your next ad or article. Your most
important job is to market your business and then to
deliver the services and products. Make sure the way you
spend your time reflects this.

Get out of your own way to improve your marketing and
attract more clients. Change your marketing actions and
perceptions. If you don't have it, get the marketing
knowledge you need and make good use of the time and
money you do have. When you remove the obstacles to
your marketing you'll find your business gaining traction
and clients.

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2003 C In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. 
The author, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals 
and small business owners who are struggling to attract 
more clients and grow their businesses. To get the 
free marketing guide, '7 Steps to Get More Clients 
and Grow Your Business' visit 
www.charliecook.net or write ccook@charliecook.net
 

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Beware
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Beware of the kid-in-the-candy-store syndrome. It's easy to get 
carried away and overextend your company when more resources 
become available to you, just because you can. Many management 
teams have found themselves in big trouble because of this.

 
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