Life Delights

Your toughest job as a business owner and marketer is to get clients. It’s also your most expensive job. So it stands to reason that you’d want to make the most of every single client you do get.

The best way to do that, and one of the most cost-effective ways to market your business, is to use a marketing funnel.

What’s a marketing funnel?

Well, you’re probably familiar with what a funnel looks like. It’s got a large opening at the top and a small opening at the bottom. It looks kind of like an inverted triangle.

The idea of a marketing funnel is this …

You want to get as many prospects and potential clients into the top of the funnel - the part of the funnel with the widest opening. Ahhh … the better to hold all those prospects and clients!

So how do you get clients into your funnel?

One way is with a free or low-cost, low-risk offer. Offering a free newsletter or ezine, a special report or even a complimentary consultation are all great ways to get prospects into your funnel.

This lets potential clients “test drive” you before buying

Giving prospects a way to “try you on for size” and see how they like your style and your approach is a great way to entice them onto your list. They can “test drive” you and your business, without first investing a lot of time or money.

And it gives you the chance to create a relationship with them over time.

This is particularly important if you’re selling higher-priced professional services. Odds are most people will not purchase from you the very first time they come in contact with you or see your marketing. They need to get to know you first, to see if you’re a good fit for their needs.

So what goes inside the funnel?

Inside your funnel, you’ll want to have a series of products and services, ideally increasing in value and price as you work your way down the funnel.

My 10stepmarketing funnel starts with my Step-by-Step Guidebook and Resource Center, and is followed by several CD products, my telecourses and my Extreme Marketing Makeover Program. The value and price of these products and services increases as you go down the list.

The idea is that most people will try you out by first purchasing a lower priced, lower involvement product or service. Then, if they are pleased with that product or service, they’re very likely to come back to see what else you have to offer.

And, they’ll be more likely to spend more now that they know your products or services are high quality and deliver on your sales promise.

Fill your funnel with a variety of products and services

This gives you the opportunity to earn more from every client and helps you minimize the expensive and time-consuming task of always having to be looking and marketing for MORE clients.

Plus, with the right “top of funnel” product, you’ll ATTRACT more clients.

So what’s at the bottom of the funnel?

This is where your very best clients end up. These are the people who love you and your products and services so much they’ll buy anything and everything you make available to them.

So, usually the product or service at the bottom of your funnel is your most expensive, most valuable one.

Take a look at your business and make sure you’re using a marketing funnel. If you’re not, make it part of your marketing plan to create one. And you’ll always have a pipeline full of prospects and clients.

(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa

Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to make marketing your own business as simple as answering 10 questions. Learn more about this unique, step-by-step system and get a free 10-week Marketing E-Course when you subscribe to the free, weekly 10stepmarketing Ezine at http://www.10stepmarketing.com.

Viral marketing strategies are marketing techniques which once implemented take on a life of their own, they continually expand their reach across cyberspace drawing more customers and their cash into your net. They can spread like wildfire from place to place, luring, enticing and pre-selling prospective customers before they even reach your site.

Viral marketing strategies are so powerful that whole ebooks and courses have been written on how to implement and use such techniques to squeeze the most out of them. As once set up correctly you may never need to pay for advertising again…

So what types of techniques work?

Well as I said there have been book written on the subject, so here’s a quick run down of a few techniques which I’ve used to help create steady streams of traffic to my websites.

Writing and submitting articles such as this is a great technique for getting more links back to your site and for drawing in more visitors, as people publish them in ezines, on their blogs and websites and you’ll find them popping up all over the place. If you go to Google and type in “How to profit from your home business blog” you’ll find about 9,290 listings of that article which I wrote a while back…it’s also the most popular download at contentdesk.com with over 4200 downloads last time I checked. So if you’re not regularly writing and submitting articles, why not?

Power tip: Make your article viral, by adding at the end something like this to encourage distribution:

“(Feel free to use this article online and in your email newsletters as long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. The by-line and biography must remain in the article.)”

Putting together and distributing viral ebooks is another strategy I’ve used with good results. The key is to make them ‘brandible’ so that consumers can brand the ebook with their own affiliate links, this gives them an incentive to pass them on and on.
A few places you can give these away are, to your customers, website visitors or in article/forum signatures. Have a look at my resource box for an awesome free viral ebook which is like nothing you’ll have ever seen.

These are two strategies you can implement straight away. Other viral marketing techniques you could use are:

-Creating and distribution podcasts on your niche; turn your articles in to podcasts and you’ll add a new stream of visitors to your site, don’t forget to submit them to podcast directories.

-Create viral videos and submit them to google video, ifilm and other video related websites. Done properly, these are a very effective strategy.

-Add refer-a-friend scripts to your site, these are freely available just do an internet search, I’ve used “Spread The Word” which is a good free script. If you give away an incentive for referring friends (e.g. viral ebook) you can really enhance the effect of this strategy.

There are many more viral marketing techniques that you could use, focus on one at a time and keep working until you get the results you want. Decide now to take action and take your business to the next level.

(Feel free to use this article online and in your email newsletters as long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. The by-line and resource box must remain in the article.)

By Ian Canaway

Who else wants to get their hands on “The Greatest Viral Marketing Idea of All Time”? Click here to download free, while you still can!
=>Plus If You Can Follow 3 Easy Steps I’ll Show You How I Earn Massive Residual Profits From Home…For More Info Visit: http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com

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Foreign Currency Direct offer one off overseas payment, so should people need to transfer a lump sum overseas. FCD will supply you yourself with a dedicated account manager to control all of the stages of the current transaction. Saving up to 0.04 compared to typical rates sold by high street agents will probably make one’s transaction notably better value as well as stress free. They furthermore sell spot contracts aimed at settlement within 2 working days and also prompt transfer to the bank account one choose, or forward contracts to guarantee a currency exchange rate for the future, for an examples purpose, when a house completion is scheduled aimed at a few months time, by using a forward contract people may know how much GBP you can often need in a future requirement found in a different countries currency.

www.currencies.co.uk furthermore specialise in regular overseas payments, if folk own a Euro mortgage from France, Spain or feasibly Portugal there timed payment plan is a wonderful practice to cut said monthly GBP’s cost. They offer free payments for transfers and also zero bank costs for payments well over 300 GBP. Lastly but not least the business are knowledgeable for transferring money home to the U.K., if you should be selling a abroad home and require to channel currency back to the Great British Isles in GBP, then maybe FCD can often help you. People should utilise the trained account managers that may share their capable knowledge with you yourself & assist folk make any its’ necessary arrangements. www.currencies.co.uk have experience in currency exchange, they have a dedicated team of dealers that can secure currency exchange rates lower than high street stores.

Why do some websites sell more than others?

Why are some people making more money at their
websites more than others?

Is it the content of the site?

The design of the site?

The product?

What is the trick?

Below I reveal to you 10 internet marketing online,
magical tricks that you may use to explode your sales:

1. Give people a deadline to order. Tell people if
they order by Jan 28, 2000 they will get a discount
or free bonuses. This will create an urgency so they
don’t put off buying.

2. Offer people a money back guarantee. The longer
the guarantee the more effective it will be. It could be
a 30 day, 60 day, 1 year, or lifetime guarantee.

3. Offer a free on-site repair service for products you
sell. This is convenient for people because they won’t
have to send it away for repair and they won’t have
to be without the product for a long period of time.

4. Publish testimonials on your ad copy. They will
give your business credibility and you’ll gain peoples
trust. It’s important to include the persons full name
and location with the testimonial.

5. Give people free bonuses when they order your
product or service. The free bonuses could be books,
jewelry, reports, newsletters, etc.

6. Allow people to make money reselling the product
or service. Tell people they can join your affiliate
program, if they order. You could pay them per sale,
per click, per referral, etc.

7. Offer free 24 hour help with all products you sell.
Allow customers to ask you questions by e-mail, by
toll free phone, by free fax, etc.

8. Provide free shipping with all orders. If you can’t
afford it, you could offer free shipping on orders over
a specific dollar amount.

9. Give away a free sample of your product. You will
gain people’s trust when you allow them to try out a
free sample of your product. If they like it they won’t
hesitate buying it.

10. Offer a buy one get one free deal. If you sell
more than one product this type of deal works great.
People will feel they are getting more for their money
and order quicker.

May thse internet marketing online secrets help you
to make a lot of money.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”,(investing online/a>) program, which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”.

Marketing on the web is fairly simple if you do it repeatedly. One of the main reasons people do fail in this area is because they do absolutely “NOTHING”.

When I talk to people or ask them what they’ve been doing to get business, the response is usually the same. “I’ve been working on my web page.” Another one is “Well, I’ve got a web page.”

If you had a garage and no car, my first question would be: “Why do you have a garage?” Doesn’t make since does it. Well, lets go back to the web page theory. Suppose you have a web page but you don’t have anything to put in there worth selling.

Do you remember reading something like “content is king”? You cannot get excited about empty pages.

If you had a brand new car in the garage, you’d more than likely take people inside that garage and brag till midnight about it. It would be automatic. You’d want the world to know what’s in there.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that marketing is kind of like bragging. Go ahead and “toot your horn” now. Tell everyone about your web page. Please take caution here though. If you toot to the wrong crowd, you could get toted out.

Ask yourself some questions before you go shouting in the clouds.

1. What is on your web page worth seeing?
2. Do you get impressed with it?
3. Do you think you’d buy what’s on that web page?
4. Are you competing against Walmart, Target or Sams?
5. Do you know who visited your web page?

Now, here is what most people get mad about. “The gurus never reveal the exact secret to their success.” They always hold back the good information just so that they can sell you something.

There is some truth to this as I’ve witnessed it. Who says you’ve got to depend on a guru.

Let’s go back to the car theory. You didn’t have a guru to show you how to get people in your garage.

Here is one of the secrets that most gurus tell you. You’ve missed it time and time again. Are you ready?

“You must enjoy what you are doing.”

Excitement is what wins. If you’re not utterly excited with what you are doing, or what you are showing, then make that change before you tell someone about it.

Now I’m sure your still wanting to know how to market. It’s actually an action plan that you’ve failed to take.

1. Advertise
2. Advertise
3. Advertise

Pretty simple, right? It cannot get much simpler. Now must people want to know where to advertise. “Yeah, I bet you know what I’m about to say.” “Everywhere.”

Now in reality, don’t advertise everywhere. Do what is “most” beneficial to your website. If your web site is based on “Fish”, then advertise in:

1. Ezines that are based on hobbies.
2. Magazines that interest hunters.
3. Solo Ads for fishing, hunting and outdoor sports.
4. Tell your friends about the web page.
5. Make new friends on the internet and tell them.
6. Pay per click search engines targeted to your specific niche.

Now, I said “not” to advertise everywhere. Don’t go out and make a nuisance of yourself. Most all the information you’ve bought so far is worth something. I’m not here to tell you “spamming” is wrong. You should know this.

If you don’t like receiving “spam”, then why would you do it?

My last piece of advice is about “free for all advertising”. Some people refer to these as “FFAs”. If your willing to give up your valuable time to get nothing in return, then do it. “FFA” sites benefit the person who sets them up, not the one who advertises on them. Of course this is my own opinion.

My experience with “FFAs” is “getting more spam” than I care to think about.

It’s been said before and I’ll repeat it one more time. To be successful, you need a great web site with a targeted niche. You need to market that web page like you love it.

a. Ezine Advertising
b. Pay-per Click Search Engines
c. Solo Email Ads (NOT Sp*am)
d. Classified Ads
e. Writing Articles & Reviews
f. Search engine optimization

If you’ve ever read a shampoo bottle, most of them say “wash, rinse and repeat”. Have you noticed that the instructions don’t say to “STOP”. That’s how you market.

If you change the words to “test and repeat”, you’ll do fine. The only way anyone ever fails is when they “STOP”.

Randall Stafford has been marketing on the internet seriously for 2 years now. He’s been on the internet since 1994. He’s no different than most people. He’s spent thousands of dollars on material, web sites, and advertising only to find out he didn’t have to. In the last 2 years, he’s found out that the formula “KISS” works in all areas of your life. “Keep it Simple Stafford”. He believes now that you can only be successful if you love what you are doing. You can see one of his web sites at http://www.letsworksmarter.com