4 Online Marketing Tips

1. Social Networking - Use social networking responsibly. It can be addictive and time-consuming. I suggest joining Twitter andFacebook and perhaps one more specific to your industry. Maintain a complete and updated profile. Then start connecting with people. Don't just connect for the sake of adding another contact. Really take time to get to know the person you are connecting with.

2. Blogging for Business - Schedule time to create blog entries. Start with two entries per week. Don't forget to go out and contribute valuable comments on other blogs in your industry. I'd recommend trying to make two valuable comments per week to begin.

3. Newsletters - Your newsletter should provide interesting and valuable information. Stick to a consistent schedule of sending it out.

4. Articles - Write interesting and informative articles. These can be used in your newsletter, on blog posts, posted on your website and submitted to article directories.

What's your favorite online marketing tip?

Social Networking Can Work for Your Business

Social networking is the wave many solopreneurs are now riding. Using social networking as a piece of your marketing strategy helps your prospects get to know you and your business, how you work, what values and ethics you uphold. Your prospects come to trust you, turn to you for information, and eventually want your services and products. They will even refer you to other people they know who can use your services.

Why haven't you decided to ride the wave of social networking? Some small business owners I've talked to give these reasons for not jumping into social networking:

1. It's too complicated.
2. It takes too much time.
3. There's no way to track the return on investment
4. You can't get new clients from social networking

Social networking does not need to be complicated or take hours and hours each day. So how can you use social networking responsibly and effectively? Remember - no one wants to be inundated with offers of your costly services all day long. When I start getting a dozen messages everyday from the same people over and over again offering their expensive services, I quickly tire of that and don't want to hear from them anymore.

However, I do appreciate receiving valuable and interesting information, tips, quotes, etc. So start small. I suggest taking these steps in this order:

1. Post tips your prospects can use
2. Offer a free report or gift to those who sign up for your newsletter
3. Put together a free or low-cost teleseminar to build your list and promote it

Remember, social networking needs to be about building relationships - not primarily about self-promotion. So balance is needed when using social networking as a marketing strategy.

A virtual assistant can help you get started in social networking and assist in maintaining your profile. Save time by having your virtual assistant update your social sites on a regular basis. There are tools, such as TweetLater.com, that can be used to schedule Tweets in advance so you're not spending every minute of the day on Twitter.

If you're not using social networking to market your business, you're missing out on a big piece of the puzzle. Remember that it may take seeing your information 8-20 times before a prospect picks up the phone to call you or contacts you through your website. So let's get busy and start networking!


For over 25 years Sue Canfield, Virtual Office Administrator and Owner of Awesome Assistant, has helped small business owners with administrative tasks. Since 2005 she has worked with over 30 clients to help them grow their businesses, specifically by using online marketing strategies such as email newsletters, blogs, articles, and social networking. Her mission is to partner with her clients to work together to create and implement strategies to promote their businesses. For more information about how she can help your business, visit http://www.AwesomeAssistant.info.

4 Online Marketing Tips

1. Social Networking - Social networking is the rage right now and more and more people are using social networking sites to connect and build business relationships. There are many out there and they can be addictive and time-consuming. I suggest joining LinkedIn and Facebook and perhaps one more specific to your industry. Create an effective profile and start building relationships.

2. Blogging for Business - Again, more and more businesses are blogging. Yes, it can be time consuming. By scheduling a regular time to blog, you can increase traffic to your website and connect with your target market.

3. Ezines - Create an email newsletter and send it out regularly. Too often businesses are not consistent with this and lose subscribers. Commit to sending your newsletter out on a consistent schedule and you'll build credibility.

4. Articles - If you write an article for every newsletter you publish, you can then submit it to article directories and increase exposure for your business even more. This helps get more web site traffic and higher search engine rankings.

What other online marketing tips have you used?

Consistent, Persistent Effective Marketing

Have you tried blogging, article marketing, social networking, and other marketing techniques? Do you feel that none of them worked? Too often a small business owner tries a marketing technique, such as social networking, and thinks that one month of social networking will bring in all kinds of new clients. When that doesn't work, they try blogging for a few weeks. After little or no response, they then turn to article marketing, and the cycle repeats.

Rapidly moving from one marketing technique to another and hoping that each one will provide all sorts of new clients is not consistent, persistent effective marketing. To be effective in marketing your service or product, you must have a plan in place to use a variety of techniques and then be consistent and persistent in using them. Effective marketing takes time.

Each marketing technique you use should drive your target audience to your website. You need to be sure that your blog posts, articles, and social networking profiles all aim at your target audience and have links back to your website.

What happens when a prospect visits your website? Do they land on the home page, read a paragraph or two and leave? How can you turn them into a lead? Once a prospect finds your website you want them to give you information and permission to contact them again. A great way to do this is to have a newsletter sign up on your home page. Offer your prospect something of value in exchange for signing up. It could be some sort of free report or discount on a future purchase.

Now that your prospect has signed up for your newsletter and you have their email address, you need to have an effective, consistent follow-up plan. You can't expect to send one newsletter and get a paying client. Set up a system to stay in touch on a regular basis and offer valuable information to your prospects about you and your business.

It is important to use a variety of marketing techniques. It does take time to turn leads into clients. That's why it is important to be consistent and persistent in your follow-up and not to give up on one technique too soon.

Let me help you put together a consistent, effective plan to market your service business.