Internet Marketing For Solopreneurs

Many times my clients ask me how defining a target market has helped my business grow. I have been working with my target market for a long time. My target market are service professionals - coaches, consultants, virtual assistants and other service professionals. I help them get more web site traffic and more clients online.

Defining a target market has been extremely helpful and profitable for my business. Once I knew exactly who my target market was, it became much easier for me to find my target market online, network with it and bring my target market to my web site.

Here is some advice for you if you are struggling with defining a target market or a niche for your business:

A target market are people who need, want and can afford your products and services. Remember, all three have to hold — they people you want to work with have to need, want and be able to afford what you offer.

I have seen many business owners making a mistake by using two out of three — they find people who need and want, but can’t afford what they have, or they market to people who don’t necessarily want what they offer, even though they need it.

Another consideration I recommend looking into are the people you like to work with. Look at your past clients and see which clients would you like more of.

These are usually the clients who you enjoyed working with, who got results from working with you and who had no problem paying your fee. These are usually the clients you want more of. So start
looking at them — are they a part of a specific group?

Where can you meet more people from this group? How can you market to people from this group? Once you answer these questions, you will have a target market, and some ideas about marketing to it!

Need more help defining your target market? Get my How To Find A Profitable Target Market For Your Business Audio Recording at http://www.marketingsalad.com/niche.html

Biana Babinsky

You may have noticed this phenomenon as well. Many years ago it happed to a client of mine. My client joined an online networking group to promote his expertise and get clients. This was a group frequented by his target market, so it was an ideal spot for him to network and promote his expertise and his business.

He jumped right in and was fairly active in this group from the very beginning. He posted messages every other day, answered questions and networked with many members. He really enjoyed talking about his subject matter and it showed through his messages as well. He became seen as an expert almost immediately and he became to reap rewards.

As a result of his actions, he started getting traffic from the group. Every week he would check his web site statistics and tell me that he was getting a nice amount of traffic. The traffic brought him sales as well - he did two consulting projects with people who met him through this group. He sold his e-books and got quite a few people from the group to attend his seminars.

But as more new clients and commitments came his way, he did not have time to participate as much. Some of the things he was doing had to be cut from his schedule, so he decided to cut back on his social networking. He started to participate less and less in the group.

After some time he reported that he was getting much less web site traffic from the group, now that he participated less. Once he stopped participating in the group, he stopped getting any traffic from it.

Things like that happen to business owners all the time. We get busier and stop participating in social networking groups, and stop getting the traffic from them as a result.

But there is a better way! You can continue to receive benefits from a social networking group, such as leads and sales, long after you stopped participating in those groups. To do that, you need to actively promote your newsletter while you are still a member of the group. That way, some of the members of the group will get on your list and you will be able to keep in touch with them long after you leave that group.

I still get sales from people who met me in groups that I haven’t been to in years. And one of my new one-on-one mentoring clients this year is someone I met in a group that was closed down four years ago. This person was on my list for many years, she has been to my teleseminars and now she is working with me one-on-one.

So if you want to keep in touch with people you meet through social networking for a long time, make sure you promote your newsletter! Promote it in your profile, link to it from your signature, post a link to it from your “About” page, etc. The more visible you make your newsletter, the more people will get on your list, and the more people you will be able to keep in touch with even if you stop using some social networking groups.

For more help with getting clients from social networking, join me for the How To Create Social Networking Plan That Gets You Clients Teleseminar at http://www.marketingsalad.com/social-networking.html

Biana Babinsky

About Biana: Biana Babinsky is the online business expert and author who teaches coaches, consultants and other business owners how to use social networking to get clients. Join her for the How To Create Social Networking Plan That Gets You Clients Teleseminar to discover how to use social networking to get newsletter subscribers and clients for your business. You can learn more and register at http://www.marketingsalad.com/social-networking.html

One of the first things that I teach my clients is how to to start and use a newsletter that will get them clients - every time.

A newsletter is a great way to connect with your potential customers, build relationships with them and get more clients and more sales. My newsletter has been a source of clients and product sales for many years for me. This is why starting and publishing an effective newsletter is one of the first steps I teach to my clients who want to run a profitable and sustainable coaching business.

If you don’t publish a newsletter yet, you should start doing it now! Here is how to get started publishing a newsletter:

- Pick a newsletter publishing service to use to send out your newsletter - there are many to choose from. Aweber, 1 Shopping Cart and many more. Compare the pricing and features that each service offers, and see which ones you will need for your business.

- Make a commitment to sending your newsletter out on a regular basis. The only way to build a relationship with your subscribers and convince them to buy from you is by being in touch on a regular basis. You have to make a commitment to send out your newsletter on a regular basis, otherwise you are just wasting your time.

- Offer a free gift to everyone who subscribes. A gift can be an e-book, audio recording, special report, etc. You want to bring in as many subscribers as possible, and an attractive gift that your potential subscribers want will convince more of them to subscribe to your newsletter. More subscribers = more potential customers to keep in touch with and build relationships with!

- Write an effective newsletter that provides your subscribers with value and at the same time promotes your products and services. When people read your newsletter, they want to read valuable information that is going to help them. Use your newsletter to promote your expertise and share information with your subscribers at the same time.

Your newsletter should provide a nice balance of tips for your subscribers and at the same time let them know about your offerings.

In my Grow Your List Home Study Course I share the exact steps for starting and publishing a newsletter that will help you get more clients and product sales. You can grab it at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

Biana Babinsky is the online business coach, expert and author who teaches coaches, consultants and other business owners how to grow their lists and use their lists to get clients. Get her Grow Your List Home Study Course to discover how to grow your list faster and use your list to get product buyers, teleseminar participants and one-on-one clients. Learn more about the Home Study Course at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

A few years ago a client of mine asked me when he will be able to stop marketing. “Well”, he said, “I am marketing to get more clients. Once I have enough clients I can stop marketing, right?”

I said: “Imagine that two of your clients decide to stop working with you. You will immediately need two new clients, but you will not be able to get them immediately because you are not marketing.”

After talking about this for a bit, we came to a conclusion that he will never be able to stop marketing.

Has anyone ever stopped marketing? Only if they closed their business.

Think about commercials you see on TV every day. The commercials that we see on TV are commercials for huge companies whose names everyone knows - Pepsi, Ford, etc. Everyone knows what their name is and what they do. But that does not stop them from using commercials to promote their brand and promote their new products.

So when should you stop marketing? The answer is never.

If you do not have enough clients in your business, you need to continue marketing. But even if you have enough clients (and have more clients on your waiting list), you should still continue to market your business. Here is why:

- It takes time to convert a lead into a client. Imagine you need new clients all of a sudden, but you have no one in your pipeline. If you haven’t marketed in a long time, you will not have any leads or prospects to convert into clients, and, therefore, you will have to get started by marketing for leads and prospects.

If you always market your pipeline is always full and you always have plenty of prospects to turn into clients.

- You reach new potential clients every time you market. That’s true! Every time I market, whether I am doing search engine optimization, speak in front of a group or teach a class, I get in front of people who didn’t know about me before, but are now exposed to my expertise.

Every time you market you reach new potential clients who have the potential to turn into real clients - how cool is that?

- You get more product sales. Even if you do not need one-on-one clients, marketing is going to help you get more product sales and use your multiple streams of income to increase your bottom line.

Need help with marketing? Join my online business mentoring program, http://www.MarketingSalad.com to learn directly from me how to create a successful online business. Click here to join for just $1 for your first month.

Biana Babinsky

Biana Babinsky is the online business coach who teaches her clients how to get more web site traffic and clients online. Join her online business mentoring program to discover how to use the Internet to get over 98% of your clients! Join now at http://www.MarketingSalad.com

Is your business in balance? Or are you working on 25 projects and 15 marketing initiatives at once, all while thinking: “I should really be using this brand new social networking site that I just heard about!” ?

If that sounds like you, it is time to re-think how you do business and see if you can prioritize your actions, while still accomplishing everything.

Here are some of the things I do in order to achieve more balance in my business:

- Automate everything that I can. Lots of things can be automated online - scheduling of blog posts, automatic product fulfillment, ezine software, etc.

Take action: Take advantage of technology to automatically get people subscribing to your list, downloading your products, registering for your classes, etc.

- Outsource tasks that I don’t enjoy doing and can’t automate.

Take action: Take a look at everything you are doing and see which ones can be outsourced.

- Long term scheduling. I always know what’s coming up for my business for the next 6+ months. That way I can plan the tasks I need to do, marketing I need to do, etc.

When you know what’s coming up long term, you can schedule backwards. For example, if one of your goals is to have an ebook written by the end of October, 2008, you know that there are tasks that need to get done every month/week/day in order for this to happen.

Take action: Create your marketing plan!

- Multiple streams of income. Creating products, such as seminars, ebooks and my mentoring program has really improved my work/life balance.

I can have as many or as few one-on-one clients as I want. (I usually have 3-7 clients at any given time), and I don’t put my marketing efforts into getting one-on-one clients.

Instead, my marketing is concentrated on getting leads for my business.

Take action: Create multiple streams of income for your business!

Biana Babinsky

About Biana Babinsky: Biana teaches coaches, consultants, virtual assistants and other business owners how to get more clients, create multiple streams of income and run a successful online business. Join her mentoring program at http://www.MarketingSalad.com to discover how to create a successful online business.

Just read an article, MySpace, Facebook: Big not always better about how Internet users like to use smaller, more targeted social networking web sites and groups.

Personally I like both types of groups. I am a member of small networking groups where membership is very targeted. For example, we have a very targeted networking group at MarketingSalad.com, my online business mentoring web site. In addition to learning about online marketing, members of MarketingSalad.com also network with each other and do business with each other on a regular basis. This group is very targeted - members are are coaches, consultants, virtual assistants and other online business owners who are serious about building profitable online businesses.

But I also like much larger networking web sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. The key to using those really large sites is to still find smaller groups of people you want to socialize with. For example, if you like skiing, search for skiing groups. If you want to become known to your target market, search for groups/places where your target market is and start the conversation going.

It does not matter how big or small a group is, as long as you can create a strategy to increase your visibility and reach your market effectively.

Biana Babinsky

One of the most important concepts in online marketing is a landing page. A landing page is a page where your visitor lands to do something. It could be a page where your web site visitor lands following a link from your PPC ad. It could be a page where your web site visitor lands to purchase your ebook. In short, it is a page, where your web site visitor comes to take action.

The best rule to remember about a landing page is one action - one page. What is an action? An action is the action you want your web site visitor to take on the landing page. The action can be subscribing to your newsletter, buying an e-book or registesting for a telseminar.

The most successful landing pages don’t try to be all things to all people. Rather, they concentrate on getting a user to take one action and one action only. When someone lands on a landing page like that, they only have two options - take action or leave.

So, what about your landing pages? If your landing pages are not producing results, it is time to take action!

- Review your landing page. Are you only asking your web site visitors to take one action per page? If you are asking them to take more than one action, make a change to ask them take just one action.

When I helped a client change her landing page for a teleseminar to only have one available action to take, she was able to double her sign-ups!

- Review your web copy. The sales copy on your landing page is very important as well. Does it convince your web site visitor to take action? If not, you need to improve your sales copy to make it convince your visitor to take action.

- Review your marketing. How do you promote your landing page? Do your promotions help you qualify your visitors, so that the ones who do come to your landing page are already targeted customers?

I will be talking about effective landing pages during this month’s MarketingSalad.com teleseminar. You can register for it at http://www.marketingsalad.com/websites.html

Biana Babinsky

Do you need more clients for your business? Getting more clients is a goal of many business owners, but not all of them are able to bring more clients to their businesses. This is happening because many business owners are not using the right marketing techniques for getting clients.

Many business owners market randomly, instead of concentrating on effective marketing strategies that have been proven to be able to bring in clients over and over again. I recommend that you use these three marketing strategies in your marketing plan no matter which marketing techniques you use and no matter what kind of marketing you do. Doing this will result in more clients for your business…

Continue Reading 3 Keys For Getting More Clients

This is the conclusion I came to after analyzing how thousands of coaches, consultants and other online business owners market their business online. In fact, the majority of business owners are wasting their time by marketing online.

Why is that? Many coaches, consultants and other business owners have spent hundreds (sometimes thousands!) of hours on driving traffic to their web sites. However, even though they brought traffic to their web site, they did not turn this traffic into customers. All the time that they spent on driving traffic to their web site was a complete waste of time!

So what can you do about this? How do you stop wasting time and get started with using online to actually get results for your business?

In order to do that, you need to create a strategy for how you are going to use your web site traffic. You need to have a strategy for driving traffic to your web site AND you need to have a strategy for using your web site for turning this traffic into clients. If you have millions of people coming to your web site every day, but your web site isn’t doing anything with them, you are not going to make a single penny from all this traffic.

Once you have a comprehensive strategy for dealing with your traffic AND you have a web site that implements this strategy, you are going to be able to turn your web site traffic into prospects and clients.

Stop wasting your time marketing online! Discover how to create and implement an effective strategy for using your web site to turn your web site traffic into clients during my upcoming teleseminar, How To Use Your Web Site To Get Clients at http://www.marketingsalad.com/websites.html

Biana Babinsky

Back when I just started teaching, I realized that different students learned differently. Some came to every lecture and wrote down every word said by the teacher and used their notes to study later.

Others never took any notes — instead they just listened intently in class. Yet others never bothered showing up at the lectures and read the textbooks instead. Some articles I have read recently report that now students rely on audio/video recordings of the lectures…

Continue Reading Your Clients Want Different Formats