Internet Marketing For Solopreneurs

Have you heard this expression before? “Do You Eat Your Own Dog Food?” usually means “do you use your own products?”. When it is used in tech circles, it usually refers to a company using the products that it has created.

When I adopted this phrase to use with my coaching clients, I usually use it to discuss if the client walks his or her own talk. For example, if a financial coach who teaches others not to have debt is in a lot of debt himself, he is not eating his own dog food. And if a relationship coach teaches others how to find a fulfilling relationship, but does not have a fulfilling relationship herself, she is not walking her talk either.

It is extremely important to walk your talk and to be authentic when you are in business for yourself. When you are not walking your talk your potential customers will realize that you are not being authentic with them and will not be able to trust you. And if a potential client does not trust you, how can they do business with you?

This is another reason I only teach online marketing techniques that I have tried myself and that I know work. If you want to be successful in business, you must be authentic and always do what you say.

Now you. Do you eat your own dog food? Share with us how you use your authenticity in your business.

Biana Babinsky

I have seen thousands of business owners do it. A business owner, let’s call her Carol, offers a great service, and she designs a whole system for her clients to get through her service and achieve amazing results. Carol sees the amazing results her clients are getting and, quite correctly, attributes the results to the system that she has created for them.

However, when it comes to her own business, Carol resists setting up a marketing system. Instead, she just tries using different marketing techniques, hoping that one of them will turn out to be the technique that will bring her all the clients that she would ever need.

She tries blogging, article marketing, social networking, search engine optimization, using each technique for a few days and then moving on to the next one. She starts her own list for which she now has 24 or so subscribers.

None of the techniques have really brought in customers, so three months later she goes back and starts from the very beginning - blogging, article marketing, social networking, search engine optimization, again for a few days each. Her list is now at 39 subscribers, but again, nothing is happening.

This is exactly what I have seen many business owners do. They rapidly switch between many marketing techniques hoping that one of them will provide all the clients that they need. None does, so they start over again, still hoping for clients….

The problem here is that they have no system in place for using online marketing techniques effectively. It is not enough to just apply the techniques; you must have a clear understanding of why you are bringing people into your sphere of influence, what happens with those people and how can you continue to communicate with these people to turn them into customers.

Here is a Three Step Online Marketing System For Getting Clients that you can use:

Step 1. Use online marketing techniques to identify your target market and drive your target market to your web site.

In this step you will apply online marketing techniques such as social networking, article marketing, business blogging, etc. But you need to apply them effectively, so that your target market will recognize that you can help them and visits your web site.

Step 2. Turn the web site visitors into leads. The web site visitors that you have acquired in Step 1 are now browsing your web site. Now either they will leave your web site and never come back or you must turn them into leads on the spot. You can accomplish this by offering them something of value in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter.

Step 3. Turn your leads into clients. Again, you must have a system in place for this - you must have an effective follow-up system that helps you turn your leads into clients.

Create an Online Marketing System for your business today. The System will make a difference between doing the same thing over and over again and not seeing results and actually starting to get clients from your online marketing efforts. I will be teaching how to create an Online Marketing System for your business during the How To Get More Clients Online Teleseminar Series. Register for the Teleseminar Series now at
http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zmarketing

Biana Babinsky

I like using Facebook for social networking (if you are a member of Facebook, add me as a friend. Just let me know that you read my blog.). It has been great at helping me connect with members of my target market, find affiliates and create joint ventures and other opportunities for my business.

I like learning more about people and visiting new and old friends’ pages to see what’s new in their businesses, on their blogs, etc. Unfortunately, sometimes I have to leave the pages without learning anything about the friend’s blog or business. This is because some people on Facebook have so many applications on their profile pages that it takes them forever to load.

I know that it is hard to resist to add an application that helps you send someone a hug. Or send someone flowers. Or offer someone a drink. Or add unicorns to your page. Or….

Remember, though, every time you add an application to your Facebook profile page, it becomes bigger. This means that it will take the page longer to load. People are impatient, so if your page isn’t loaded instantly, they will just go on to another page without looking at yours.

Also, since you are on Facebook to bring more clients to your business, think about what those hugs, drinks and unicorns applications say about your business.

Here are three tips to make your Facebook Page more effective:

- Make Your Profile Page Load Fast. If your page takes a long time to load your visitors will go elsewhere and no one will ever find out about you and your business.

Make sure that your Profile Page loads fast on both fast connection and on dial-up. Yes, some people still use dial-up, so you want your page to load for them, especially if they are in your target market.

- Add Business Applications To Your Page. Some of the Facebook applications help you display your blog posts, promote your business web site, promote your newsletter, etc. These are exactly the applications you want to use on your profile.

I myself use applications to display my Free Report on getting clients online, to display my blog posts, etc.

- Decide If You Really Need Non-Business Applications On Your Page. As yourself, since you use your Facebook page to market your business, do you really need non-business applications on it?

You may want to add one or two that you really like, but stop there. You are serious about building your business, so make sure that your Facebook profile reflects that as well.

Want to learn more about using social media? Join me for Social Networking Teleseminar Series at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znetwork

Biana Babinsky

I publish a weekly newsletter on getting clients online and I am often asked how this newsletter helps me and my business succeed.

There are many ways that my newsletter helps me:

- My newsletter positions me as an expert

- My newsletter helps me showcase my expertise

- My newsletter helps me build relationships with my subscribers, every single week

- I re-use the articles that I write for the newsletter on my web site to get more traffic

- My newsletter brings in more clients and more sales. Every time I send out my newsletter there I see many product sales.

All of this from just sending out a weekly newsletter!

It is no wonder that when I discuss the above with my clients, they want to take action and start their own newsletter! So their next question is how to get more newsletter subscribers.

I use many strategies to get subscribers. I believe that the best to get subscribers is to have a system in place for using online marketing techniques to get subscribers.

First in the system is your free gift - a gift that your target market would love to receive. Offer this gift to everyone who subscribes to your newsletter.

Next, tell everyone about this free gift, so that they subscribe to receive it! For example:

- If you are doing an off line speech or a presentation, pass around a sign-up sheet to enable participants to receive your gift and get on your list.

- If you have a business blog and are blogging, have your gift offer prominently displayed on your blog.

- If you are writing and distributing articles, make sure that everyone who is reading your articles is able to sign up to receive the gift.

Share the information about your free gift with everyone in your target market! You can dramatically increase your product sales and build your client roster if you have a large list full of your target clients, ready to hear from you.

If you don’t have a system of getting people on your list yet, I recommend that you sit down today to brainstorm how to create such system and how to use all the marketing that you are already doing to build your list.

Want to learn my favorite strategies for building a list? Join me for the Top 5 Strategies To Build Your List Teleseminar at http://www.marketingsalad.com/build-list.html

Biana Babinsky

I was asked on one of the calls I did recently about what steps I would recommend to take for a coach who wants to take their coaching from a part-time hobby to a full time profitable coaching business.

It takes time to re-adjust and what you need to re-adjust the most is your way of thinking about what you do. When you have a hobby, your priority may not be making money. When you run a business, your priority is to have a profitable business that brings in income.

You also need to re-adjust the way you think about marketing. Marketing is the cornerstone of your business and helps you bring in clients. If you are not marketing your business you will not be able to have a successful business, it’s that simple.

Here are some marketing tips to help you take your coaching from a hobby to a successful coaching business:

- The very first thing to do is to decide on a good target market for your business. Before you can bring in clients consistently, you need to decide on WHO these clients are. After all, if you do not know who your clients are, how are you going to bring them to your business?

Make a decision about who your target market is. Knowing your target market will help you make other decisions and will help you simplify your marketing. And we all want to simplify our marketing :)

- Decide on marketing techniques you’d like to use to market your coaching business. It is great if you want to use blogging, and social networking, and article marketing, and public speaking, and e-mail marketing to promote your business. However, don’t start using them all at once!

The best way to market your business is to pick one technique, master it, start using it on a regular basis and then move on to the next one.

And remember, you don’t have to use every marketing technique you have heard about. For example, I have clients who enjoy public speaking, who speak often and for whom public speaking is one of the most effective techniques for getting clients.

On the other hand, I have a client who says that she would never ever do public speaking, it’s just not for her. Her favorite marketing technique is blogging, she is good at it and she uses her blog to generate interest in her business.

Pick the techniques that you enjoy applying and you will be more successful with them.

- Have a marketing plan! Create a plan for bringing in more clients, marketing your business, etc. You are much more likely to take action if you create a plan and put it on paper.

Members of my online business mentoring program have access to thousands of dollars worth of resources on creating a marketing plan, picking a profitable target market and using online marketing techniques to promote their business. Get immediate access to all these resources by joining us at http://www.MarketingSalad.com

Biana Babinsky

One of the most popular questions I have been receiving this year from clients, colleagues and online friends (some of whom I met on social networks) has been Is Social Media A Fad?

I even had a discussion on this same subject at a non-business event a few months ago. One of the participants found out what I did for a living and we had a great discussion of social media, how it affects the way we do business and if it is here to stay.

As someone who has participated in social media and social networking online for the past fifteen years and recently taught a social networking teleseminar, I know that social media is not a fad. However, I can see why this question keeps coming up over and over again. Social media and social web sites have become the “it” things on line in the past 6-8 months, just like blogging did a few years ago. And because of their “it” status there have been many articles in mainstream publications about social media and how business owners use it for business development.

As a result of those articles, many people who have never used social media before decide to give social media a try. But since they are new to the social media scene, they are not sure how long social networking is going to stay around for. They do not want to spend their time on something that may just be a fad, so they are looking to make sure that social media and networking are here to stay.

And from what I have seen in my many years online, I can tell you that social media is here to stay. Social networking started as soon as people started using the Internet. I remember communicating on Bulletin Boards, then through mailing lists, then message boards. I started using social networking as soon as I got online. The very first social networking medium that I ran was a message board.

Since then I have joined and left countless mailing lists, message boards and social networking sites. While the media that I use changes with time (new networking sites, new mailing lists, etc), social networking stays. While we might not use the same social networking websites five or ten years from now, we will still be using social networking. Just like I used it fifteen years ago. And this is why social networking is not a fad and is here to stay.

More social networking articles:

- Getting Results From Social Media Sites

- What To Do With Your Social Networking Traffic

Biana Babinsky

P.S. What do you think? How do you use social networking?

Lately I have been getting many questions from coaches on how coaches can get more web site traffic to their coaching web sites. I am going to do a series of posts on my favorite online marketing techniques to get web site traffic.

Today I want to discuss article marketing, one of my favorite online marketing techniques (for my step-by-step plan for doing article marketing, you should also see the Article Marketing Home Study Guide ). I get traffic (as well as leads and sales) from my articles every single day. The best part about articles is that you need to write and submit your article once, and you will be able to get traffic and sales from it for a very long time. I am still getting traffic from articles I submitted to article directories years ago.

I like to use article marketing, because when you use article marketing, your articles perform triple duty. When you do article marketing, you will, as expected, bring more traffic to your web site.

But, article marketing will also help you promote your expertise. When you write articles your target market will read them, get to know you and get to know your expertise. When you write, you are seen as an author and an expert.

The third benefit you will get from article marketing is better search engine rankings. It is no secret that having lots of links from other good sites pointing to your web site will improve your rankings. When you submit your articles to article directories, the directories will publish the articles, giving you links back to your web site. In addition to this, every time your articles are reprinted, you get back links from the blogs and web sites that reprinted them.

And the best thing about article marketing is that it is absolutely free to apply. Writing articles, submitting them to directories, all of that is free.

Here is how to maximize the power of article marketing and use your articles to get free web site traffic:

- Write Effective Articles. Effective articles are the articles that will do the triple duty for you: they will help you get more traffic, promote your expertise and help you with search engines.

In order for your articles to promote your expertise and be read by your target market, they need to be on topics that your potential customers are interested in reading. If your potential customers find your article useful, they will visit your web site after they finish reading it.

And in order for them to be reprinted they need to be of interest to people who republish articles on their blogs and web sites.

- Create Article Resource Boxes That Maximize The Amount Of Web Site Traffic You Can Get. Your article resource box is extremely important. A Resource Box is the paragraph about you that comes right after the article. You need to make it interesting in order to get people reading your article to click on the link in your Resource Box and visit your web site. After all, you are writing the article to get free traffic, right?

To maximize the traffic, make sure that your Article Resource Box is benefits-oriented and that it compels people who are reading the article to take action and click on your link.

- Submit Your Articles To Article Directories. By doing this you are offering your article for reprint to other people, who are going to reprint it on their web sites and their blogs. When your article appears on their blogs and web sites, your name, expertise and web site address are exposed to more members of your target market.

Now repeat these three actions with 10, 20 or even 100 articles and see your traffic and sales increase dramatically.

Want my step-by-step action plan for doing article marketing? It is available in the Article Marketing Home Study Guide at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zarticles

More articles on getting free web site traffic:

- Get Free Web Site Traffic By Blogging

Biana Babinsky

Lately, I have been hearing from many coaches and consultants who are experiencing a slowdown in their businesses. They are reporting to me that it became much harder to get one-on-one clients and that even product sales have slowed down.

There are many reasons for this to be happening. It could be that many potential clients are taking summer vacations instead of working. It could be that customers are concerned about gas prices and the economy and are trying to save money by not getting professional help. Or it could be the regular business cycle - there are many different reasons for a business slowdown.

I recommend that you do not concentrate on finding out why there is a slowdown. Rather, you should concentrate on how you can bring more clients to your business. Here is what I recommend:

- Review Or Create A Marketing Plan For Your Business. Summer is the best time to review your marketing plan. Are you accomplishing what you have set out to accomplish? Are you filling your marketing funnel? Are you marketing every day? Are some of your marketing strategies bringing more customers to your business than others?

A marketing plan review will help you streamline your business and bring in more clients.

If you do not have a marketing plan now is the best time to create one. Your marketing plan will help you organize your marketing actions and spend less time on marketing while getting better results. Your marketing plan is your map to getting clients and creating a successful business.

When business is slow the businesses who survive are the ones who can do more and better marketing in less time.

- Do More Of What’s Working. As you review your marketing, you will see that certain marketing actions bring in more potential customers than others. There is no reason to do things that only bring in a few customers. You want to find actions that bring in the bulk of clients and repeat these actions over and over again. So when you find something that is working for you and your business, do more of the same.

For example, if networking with your target market online brings in great results, increase your networking time or find additional places to network. When you keep doing what’s working, you get more clients, it’s that simple.

- Bring In More Prospects. In slow business times it helps to bring in more prospects to your business. It could be that in the past you were able to convert 1 out of 20 prospects into a customer. But now it could be that you are able to convert only 1 out of 30 prospects into a customers.

If you need to get 10 clients for your business, in the past you only needed to bring in 200 business prospects. In order to get the same 10 clients now you will need to bring in 300 prospects. You will be able to do that by using marketing strategies that will help you attract more prospects to your business.

The best way I found to bring more prospects to my business is by getting more targeted traffic to my web site. I will be discussing how to bring more of your perfect clients and prospects to your web site during this Thursday’s teleseminar, How To Get More Clients To Your Web Site. You can register for it at http://www.marketingsalad.com/clients.html

Biana Babinsky

I am sure that by now you have heard about social media and social media sites. Lots of people are networking on them, talking about them and using them to promote their businesses.

Because there is so much information about social media and social networking everywhere, I have been getting lots of questions about social networking from my clients, members of my mentoring program and web site visitors.

Everyone wants to know how to get results from social media web sites. And by saying results the majority of business owners mean “more clients”.

So how can you, a coach, consultant or other business professional, use social networking to get more clients for your business?

What you want to use to use social networking for is to meet and connect with your target market. Just like with any other marketing technique, you want to get your target market to know you, so that they can do business with you.

My recommendations for using social networking effectively are:

- As always, look for where your target market is and go ahead and meet it! There are tons of groups on many different networking sites, and you can start by participating in a few different groups that your target market frequents. Don’t join every single group that you see - there are thousands, if not millions of those, and you will never be able to use all of them.

Instead, find groups where your target market hangs out and networks. Increase your visibility by participating in the groups.

Everyone knows the leader, right? The best visibility comes when you are the leader of the group, so start your own group where your target can hang out and you can demonstrate your expertise!

- What’s the next step for your target market? What step should people in your target market take in order to get into your sphere of influence? They subscribe to your newsletter!

Make sure that you offer people plenty of opportunities to get on your list.

- Explore social networking sites and use the available resources. Different social networking web sites have different resources for you to use, and some are not so obvious. Some offer resources to post your upcoming events, post your articles and blog posts, etc. Use the available resources to get more visibility and exposure for your business.

I discussed many more ideas for using social networking to promote your business during the How To Create Social Networking Plan That Gets You Clients Teleseminar last month. You can get the audio recording of the How To Create Social Networking Plan That Gets You Clients Teleseminar at http://www.marketingsalad.com/social-networking.html

Biana Babinsky

Over the years I have helped hundreds of coaches get clients and sales from their newsletters. Since I have worked with hundreds of coaches on improving their newsletters, we have had quite a few conversations on how often to send out a newsletter.

Before working with me, many of my clients have sent out their newsletters once every two or three months. Sending out your newsletter once every two or three months will not bring any results - this is way too rare for building relationships and getting your subscribers interested in what you have to offer.

If you are struggling with how often you should send out your newsletter, here are frequently asked questions about the frequency of sending out your newsletter:

Q: I don’t want to bother my subscribers too often, and sending out my newsletter more often than every two months feels like I am bothering my subscribers and wasting their time. What should I do?

Biana’s Answer: First of all, you are not bothering your subscribers by sending them your newsletter. They requested it by subscribing to it and they want to hear useful and interesting things from you.

You are the expert, and they want to read information and tips that come from you, the expert.

Q: I only send something out when I have news in my business, such as a new service. Why would I send out my newsletter if I have nothing new in my business?

Biana’s Answer: Your newsletter is not just about your business. While you should use it to promote your business, you should also use it to build relationships with your subscribers and sharing useful information with them.

You need to send out your newsletter more often in order to build relationships and connect with your readers. Also, if you do have a new service to promote, promoting it just once will not do much. Your potential customers need to see your information at least 7 times before making a purchase. Therefore, you should promote your new service in a few of your newsletter issues in order to get more clients.

Q: Every time I send out my newsletter, a few people unsubscribe. So if I send out my newsletter every few months, I will get fewer unsubscribes, right?

Biana’s Answer: Think back to the purpose of your newsletter. Its purpose is NOT to get fewer unsubscribes. Its purpose it to introduce you to many people in your target market, promote your expertise and sell your products and services.

As I mentioned in the answer to the previous question, your potential customers need to see your message on average 7 times before deciding to buy from you. They also need to remember that they heard your message earlier. If they only see your message every two months they will not remember it at all. So if you only send out your newsletter every few months, very few people are going to believe you and buy from you.

Learn the exact information that I use to help my clients get clients and sales from their newsletters with the Grow Your List Home Study Course at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky