Marketing Tips – What To Do When Your Small Business Goes Online

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When your small business goes online and you’re the owner you’re probably temped to hide. That’s certainly understandable!

Been there done that. But here are better alternatives as marketing tips for your small business as you go online to unleash the power of the Internet.

Call to Action

When you go online pay attention to giving a call to action. Practice this as often as possible!

Give incentives like free gifts for answering your call to action, but do so very clearly. Be direct.

Don’t be coy or play games. Tell people exactly what to do.

Promise what will happen when they act. Then do what you say you’re going to do.

When you’ve got something that’s actionable, it’s easy for you to act, right? That’s because you let go of being indecisive or even lost so you can do what you now know is what to do next.

Give that to whoever encounters you online. Make it easy to know what to do next.

Here’s what that boils down to: whenever you provide any kind of content online do whatever you can to make it easy for your readers who want more to connect with you.

Give a call to action at the end of your content. Everywhere!

Keep it simple. Relate your call to action to whatever your reader just finished reading.

Let your call to action direct your reader to a link to click. Make the link be to your squeeze page.

Article Marketing

There’s a huge need for answers in life, isn’t there? Article marketing is a way you can share a little bit of your expertise and entice people to join your list to learn more.

Article marketing is the practice of providing content all over the Internet. Little chunks!

Publishers of articles have an audience. People hungry for information!

Publishers generally get paid from the advertisers on their site. Generally they don’t pay you for contributing articles.

Unlike advertising, you don’t have to pay for the exposure you get with article marketing. The investment you make is time.

Time is a one-time expense; article marketing is an ongoing exposure.  It’s the investment of your time when you write yourself – or the still one-time expense of paying staff or outsourcing the writing.

Exposure

Your articles should be appetizers. That’s an exposure that doesn’t fill up your readers.

Instead, prepare your readers to want more. Your appetizer increases appetite for the main meal you serve your subscribers.

Your call to action goes at the end of each article. Your squeeze page goes at the other end of the link!

Your squeeze page collects contact information. Your list goes into action automatically.

When someone consumes the entire appetizer? You want them to reach your call to action still hungry for more.

Let that more be a free gift, some kind of information gift you make yourself. That builds credibility by showing your expertise.

Make it easy for your readers to follow through, “Right now!” You want the growling stomach urgency of having eaten your appetizer to drive a hunger for more, “Right now!” while that taste is still upon the tongue.

Hungry readers act! Give clear directions and you’ll have a new subscriber.

Fresh new subscribers go through the emails you automatically deliver. Your subscribers learn to respect, like and trust you.

Your subscribers become your buyers. Buyers buy!

Volume

Unleashing the power of the Internet requires volume.

I’ve shared a little bit of my new skills. For example, I released tiny information products that sold over $41,000 by over 150 affiliates in a testing mode. I deleted them (I was testing!) and am updating them as I prepare to sell them myself.

Article marketing is one way for people to find you. That’s why I’ve done a few here and there, in learning and testing.

It’s time to do more. Lots more. For me and for you as your small business goes online!

It’s time to turn up the volume. Share expertise.

You’ll need to do that too. Turning up the sheer volume of stuff you get onto the Internet for people to find you with.

Here’s an example of volume! Sean Mize submits thousands of articles, resulting in visitors and even articles about how he uses article marketing for traffic generation.

Secret of success online

The best kept secret online is to take action. Stay in the mode of learning while you apply.

Take as much action as you can. Learn as you implement!

Make your plan. Knowing which action to take next comes from your plan.

That’s what to do when your business goes online. Stay in action mode by knowing what comes next and doing it.

By the way, do you want to learn more of what to do when your small business goes online?

If so, download my completely free new guide: List Building For Traffic.

Leadership Tips – How To Write An Email

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Leadership tips are often simple concepts made memorable. How to write an email is intended as a leadership tip for you to use.

When I write an email, it’s by typing out words and sending them off on the Internet. You probably do that day in and day out without pausing to think.

Most people do! Yet how you write an email is one of those little things that matters far more than you may realize.

That’s exactly why I’m writing. Your email matters. A lot!

5 Habits To Gain On How To Write An Email

Step by step…

(1)  Use your subject line well!

Pay attention to saying, “Hello!” Use words you normally would to grab attention.
That’s how you’ll write a subject line that gets your intended audience to open your email.

(2)  Greet your reader!

Your first sentence is right after your headline. But there’s a momentary gap of time between that action of, “Click!” and your first words entering a mind eagerly prepared to connect with you.

Go ahead and ask a question if that matches your style. Questions are quite effective in how to write an email!

Greet like a handshake. Be personable. Be yourself!

That’s how you’ll write the first sentence of your email in a way that reflects well on you as a leader.

(3)  Share a story!

Your reader no doubt has read far too many emails before yours. Including boring ones!
One way to avoid being boring is to share what you’re trying to accomplish in a story. Your story can be a simple, short example.

That’s how you’ll be memorable in how you write your email. Let your leadership shine.

(4)  Ask a question!

Asking questions gets people thinking! Learn to make this part of your style after you share a story.

Engage your reader. A question opens a mind. Opening minds gets a little bit of thinking and wondering in play.

That’s how you’ll write in order to prepare your reader for action.

(5)  Call for action!

Dare to tell your reader what to do. Be clear. Be concise.
That’s how your writing gets your reader to take action.

(6)  Sign Off!

How to close your email is a personal style thing. I often end with, “Peace” or “Blessings” because that usually feels like it fits for me now.

What fits you? Use that as your closing.

That’s how to write an email that matters. An email that matters to your reader! An email that gets results that matter to you.

By the way, do you want to know more about how to write an email that promotes your business?

If so download: List Building for Traffic

 

Tips For Leadership – How You Can Gain Courage

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Courage does not mean you are not scared. Courage is about feeling your fear and acting anyway. Courage is you taking action!

Your courageous action demonstrates enthusiasm. Leaders must have followers in order to lead, right? Well, your followers must see your enthusiasm in your eyes while you’re showing your courage by taking action.

Your enthusiasm is critical to your followers. Your enthusiasm in taking action courageously creates the kind of inspiration that builds loyalty. When you make the effort to build loyalty, you turn a group of people into a team inspired to work toward common goals.

How do you get courage and enthusiasm for taking action? Part of that comes from looking at fear head on and asking yourself, “Why?” Watch out — you will often find good reasons for fear!

Your constant watchful awareness of “What is this fear for?” begins to challenge you to grow. That’s where the ability to avoid the “flight or fight” reaction that’s built in to us as human beings. Overcoming that reaction demands building a habit and practicing that habit.

As you develop your habit of moving beyond reaction to response you will begin to command respect. Developing a habit of courage is part of leadership. Being able to pause that little moment between fear and reaction is where you give birth to your ability to choose your response.

Your courage in choosing to respond is one of the top criteria of leadership. People can observe a situation and how you respond. Seeing you respond with courage instills confidence.

How do you build a habit of courageous action, and how does that differ from rash reaction? First, you train yourself to stop, pause, and consider, “How do I want to respond?” You allow yourself to wonder, “What if I respond with action?”

You learn to be able to deflect your reaction when your “flight or flight” reaction is triggered by fear. You gain the ability to look inside. You learn to notice fear and move beyond fear to examine potential actions and some of the more likely implications of taking those actions.

You find a response amid your potential actions. You act decisively. You “blow it” by reacting, too, because you’re not going to be perfect at this no matter how well you instill your habit.

You learn to expect to feel fear — and you learn to work within and around fear. You learn to step out of your comfort zone. You learn to choose to act anyway.

You gain courage step-by-step through practice! Sometimes you’ll succeed. Sometimes you’ll even begin to get noticed by people surrounding you and start to gain respect as a leader.

You will begin inspiring loyalty. Loyalty leads to a lot more than tasks getting completed. Loyalty changes the equation completely.

Tip for leadership:  successful leadership requires courage.

 

Tech Tips- Email and Connecting with People

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Email is a high tech tool. Don’t let that fool you! Connecting with people is high touch.

Fast.

Email is fast! Enter a few words, click to send. Whee! There goes your message.

Bumps.

You get bumps, mistakes, and potential disasters along with the benefit of fast, easy delivery of your words. Tech tips usually focus on the use of technology, don’t they? Today is about your need to look deeper with email and connecting with people.

Value.

Business is about relationships. Business is an exchange of value within the realm of some type of relationship. Relationships form through people who connect with one another.

Your ability to connect with people determines your success.

 

Audience.

The secret of using email for connecting with people is simple. Business owners must remember that when you use this technology you don’t see your audience. You are invisible, too.

Email removes you and your audience from one another.

Connect.

When you connect with a human being, you can smile, shake hands, engage in, “small talk” and see and hear responses and reactions. You can begin creating trust. Familiarity. Liking. Respect.

Those are some of what leads to trust. Connect and trust! Trust is the foundation of relationships.

Email doesn’t smile…

You Matter.

When you know you matter to someone, you pay attention to them in a different way. When you pay attention, you connect. You open a pathway to relationship.

When you make time and expend effort to connect, you’re saying, “You matter!”

Email just sits there.

Context.

In fact, when you’re connecting with someone and being clear, “you matter” you’re adding context to your communication. You’re putting your communication into the the context of openness and trust. Context opens minds and hearts.

Email has no context.

Compassion.

Life’s messy, isn’t it? When the whole fight or flight reaction enters our mind and body it takes over. Sometimes fear triggers that fight or flight reaction, even in a safe situation. Compassion is what gives the moment to choose to respond rather than react.

Compassionate filling in of the gaps is what gently builds time and space for each connection. When you want to connect with someone you don’t know? You need to be recognized by that person’s bodily reactions as safe.

1. Safe as in: “Okay, brain, turn off your body’s fight or flight reaction.”
2. Safe as in, “This is how safe this one unique person is to connect with.”

Here and now.

You connect in a moment of, “here and now” with a person. Connecting can help smooth the differences between people. Your high tech email gets the benefit of the doubt when there’s a connection.

In fact, connecting is how you can fill gaps of communicating. You know how words can be interpreted in a number of ways, right? When you’re connecting with people the secret ingredient you gain, your secret sauce so to speak, is gaining the benefit of the doubt.

Email “here and now” does not make the connection, but can rely on existing connection.

Gentle.

When you want to connect with someone you don’t know you are more gentle than you might be otherwise in that situation. When you’re gentle and on common ground there is a chance for a growing recognition of one another. That recognition melts your built-in fight or flight reaction.

Email is one way communication, there is no growing recognition taking place.

Reaction.

If your gentleness does not prompt some spark of recognition, that’s when trouble brews. People still have their fight or flight reaction turned on full throttle, instant access. Your body does not give space for response, just a fight or flight reaction.

Email gentleness can be missed, misunderstood, or distrusted.

Bowing, shaking hands.

Shortcuts are in place in many cultures. Bowing and shaking hands do more than show respect. They provide connection. When bows match what’s going on, when handshakes are appropriate to here and now, common ground is established.

Cultural cues give space for response rather than reaction.

Email removes cultural cues.

Reaction.

Fight or flight as an instant reaction can subside with cultural cues. You allow giving benefit of the doubt rather than simply fight or flight reactions. You’ll trip reaction into response with compassion, too.

Email provokes reactions you cannot see or hear.

Benefit of the doubt.

Opening a connection changes everything. Benefit of the doubt stretches that little tiny moment between reacting (fight or flight), and responding (connection). Benefit of the doubt, given out of a connection, is the secret of effective email communication.

Tech tip:  when you’re using email and connecting with people pay attention to how technology removes you from cues you’ve come to rely upon.