When your starting it out in business it can be really frustrating if you don’t know what marketing activities you should be focused on.

Here are four simple ways to market yourself:

1.  Speak

Find as many speaking engagements as you can. Speak for free if you must, but get out there regularly and speak at places where your ideal clients would be.

There are plenty of organizations out there that are always looking for people to speak at one of their meetings.

When you do speaking engagements make sure that you get the biggest bang for your effort by ensuring you:

• Record it
• Collect the names of the attendees
• Provide a handout
• Mingle about before and after your talk or speech

2.  Network

…like crazy.

When I say network I don’t mean just going around and collecting business cards.  It does mean spending time at networking events where you’re  going to meet your ideal clients and critical buyers.

3.  Publish

Don’t have a blog?  Start one.

Write for your local community newspaper or on line magazine where you’re clients would be looking for information.

If you’re a women entrepreneur there are some great free on line communities where you can post your articles for free and gain valuable exposure.  The Diva Toolbox is one that comes to mind.

Get out there by spreading your message.

4.  Internet

Again start a blog.  Blogs are great because they add valuable content to your website regularly and the search engines love them.

Start a newsletter so that you can stay in touch with your clients and potential clients.

Check out HARO (Help A Reporter Out) to search for queries by reporters who are looking for people to be interviewed or other opportunities to expose yourself to the masses.

One of these marketing efforts is good, but use all of them as part of a comprehensive marketing plan and your efforts will really pay off.

This week while on a couple of different calls,  I noticed a theme that kept coming up for my  new clients.  They all seemed to be completely and utterly overwhelmed with everything that was on their plate.

It struck me that what was missing in their work lives was a serious plan and commitment to carving out the space and time to attend to their business.  So we addressed the issue head on.

Here are a couple of great tips to help you tackle the overwhelm and start getting a handle on developing your dream business:

1. Marketing Takes Time

Realize that it takes about 3 hours a day to market your business effectively.  I just heard a thump…was it you falling off your chair onto the floor?  You heard me right.  3 hours each day.  I know that this sounds like a lot and, well it is a lot but the rewards will be even better once you reach your goals.

Try waking up an hour earlier each day in order to work on your marketing plan and strategies.  Spend less time doing things that are not going to build your business.  No matter how you accomplish this realize that you MUST find the time in your schedule to build your business, market your business and attract all the clients you want into your business.  In essence, you must make this a top priority!

2.  Create A Plan and Stick To It

Once you carve out more time to work on the most important aspects of your business stick to the plan.  Stop allowing all the other stuff to creep into your schedule and take priority.

One of  my client’s told me she loved to garden.  I said, “great, you can only garden in the early evening and weekend.”  Work time is work time and you shouldn’t be doing laundry, cleaning the house, or any other chore you can think of when you should be devoting your time and attention to your business.

3.  Rid Yourself of Everything That Drains You

You need to have  a lot of energy to successfully create and grow a business.  Maybe  you are engaging with people, activities and responsibilities that suck the life out of you.  Evaluate your current circumstances and begin to eliminate these energy drains immediately.

If you volunteer and it is a painful process – give it up.  If you have a friend that complains all the time and you really don’t enjoy her company – stop seeing her.  Make the hard decisions and reinvest your new found time and energy into your business success.

4.  Realize That You Should Be Focused On 3 Things and 3 Things Only

You should be focused on:

• Work with clients – If you get a client you are working with them as you should be.
• Marketing the business – Without the marketing activities you won’t have a business.  So get busy marketing!
• Working on your mindset – Our mindsets often stand in the way of our progress.  Sign up for a teleclass or read a great book that will help you consistently work on the mindset issues that come up for you.  It will be one of the greatest things you can do to move your business forward.

Follow these tips  and you will find a great return on your investment by doing these simple, but effective strategies.

What does your website look like? Most of us understand that we need an eye-catching website.

But what most people fail to understand is that a beautiful website is not what’s going to get visitors to actually take action and push the buy button.

So if you have a great looking website that doesn’t result in your phone ringing off the hook with new business then it’s time to look at your website copy.

Yup, it’s the words that matter most in the design of your website, not just how it looks. Think of it this way:  It’s the perfect blend of design and content that sells.

Marketing copywriting is different from other types of writing.  And website copywriting is even more of a sub specialty.

In order to covert leads and generate income you must first understand internet marketing principle and then be able to apply those principles in your text.

There are many, many courses you can take to hone your skills.  They typically take 4-8 weeks of your time and cost on average about $1000.  But I would have you ask yourself if that is the best use of your time and resources to learn this yourself, or would it be better to invest in hiring a website copywriter to write your copy? Don’t make the mistake in believing the person you hired to design your site can handle the copy too.  That is a huge mistake unless the design firm has copywriters on staff.

Ultimately you need to make the final call on that decision.  But I will suggest that you consider leveraging the talents of someone else when writing your website copy.

Leveraging someone else’s expertise will usually result in a far better end result that if you do it yourself. Usually, the most cost-effective solution for having a site that provokes your visitor into action is to invest in a professional copywriter.

One of the easiest and most unused piece of FREE marketing is the email signature. Yes, that little piece of real estate at the bottom of your email messages.  A well crafted email signature is one of the easiest and simplest forms of marketing that you can engage in and yet it often goes unused or underutilized.

Here are three simple tips to make sure that you craft the most effective email signature line.

1. Make It 5 Lines or Less

Many email signatures are way too long.  They try to cram everything that is happening over the next year in these email signature lines that go on and on.  Who is going to read all that?

No one!  That’s who.

When you craft your email signature keep it to five well crafted lines of text.  Be creative and thoughtful with your email signatures.  I highly suggest that you craft several email signatures for ready use.  If you are launching a special program or product develop a new signature to use during on going promotion.

Keep them fresh and useful and they WILL be read.

2.  Include Results

When crafting that email signature include the results that you get for your clients.  Now I didn’t’ say, what you do, because quite frankly no one cares what you do.  They do care however,  what you can do for them.

So craft that email signature into a results driven description of what you can do for your clients.

3.  Give Them A Call To Action

When you craft that message make sure that you include a call to action. Typically this is either an invitation to get a free report or sign up for your newsletter or ezine.  My friend Janet Powers of Diva Toolbox asks in her email message to visit the site each day to be inspired!  Who could resist the invitation to be inspired?

No matter what you include make sure that it asks your reader to take a next step.

So go out and create some results driven email signatures and start getting better use of that free real estate at the end of your message!

If you are like most other coaches, consultants and small business owners you probably dread, maybe even hate to market your business.  The problem if you feel that way is that everything you do is about marketing your business.

Funny thing is this:  If you hate marketing that much you probably are not spending a whole heck of a lot of time marketing your business, and if you are not marketing your business your cash flow is probably really suffering.  Am I right?  Read on and learn 4 simple but effective marketing strategies that can help create on-going cash flow in your business.

1. Become A Magnet To Your Perfect Clients

I have written about the idea of identifying your ideal client before so this should come as no surprise…Know what your ideal clients want, know how you can help solve their problems and communicate this consistently all the time.

In order to effectively become that magnet you will need a couple of things:

• A clear marketing message
• An awesome website
• A juicy free offer with an e-mail capturing database
• A clear understanding of what your gifts are and how working with you will ultimately change the life of your clients

2.  Share Great and Valuable Content With Your Prospects

In this day and age there are many places that prospects can go to get some FREE help and resources.  What can you offer to help you stand out from the crowd?  Providing valuable content that answers some questions and offers them a take away without giving away the farm is a great combination that will keep those prospects coming back and investing with you.  Remember, your free offer should give them some help but not go so far that they don’t come back for more.

3. Share Your Time with Your Tribe

Connecting with your tribe is the best investment you can make and it literally only costs you your time.  Connect regularly with them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your newsletter.  Make sure you publish your newsletter regularly so they know when to expect it.

One of the best ways to interact with your tribe of followers is by engaging them in a conversation.  This is accomplished by asking questions on your blog, on Facebook and Twitter posts and in your newsletter.

Don’t forget to share information about yourself.  Now don’t get freaked out on me.  You ultimately control the amount of information you share with your followers.  There is a fine line between too much and too little but if you are resistant to sharing I would ask you to work through that resistance.  Followers want to build a connection with you and if you never share anything personal about yourself chances are they will go to someone who will.

4. Ask Your Followers To Take the Next Step

Here is THE mistake that most solopreneurs make!  They fail to ask their tribe to take the next step. They fail to market their services to the people that they are engaged with.  They fail to ask them to invest in themselves by working with you.

Does this sound familiar?  This is where your fear of sales and marketing comes in…you see how this kills your cash flow?

Asking is ok, heck it’s necessary!  But I know how scary it can be just asking.  Do you struggle with these very issues?

If you have that fear of sales and marketing I will be addressing this very issue in my Money, Marketing and Mindset Mastermind Program that is currently forming.  Contact me at 978-794-4991 or at maureen@daretobephenomenal.com to request an application.  Don’t delay as space is limited and the early bird pricing goes away February 28^th!

I look forward to helping you break through your stuck points and create the cash flow you desire!

Successful business owners will tell you that having a well thought out marketing strategy is crucial to their overall success.  Developing the plan doesn’t have to be a daunting task if you follow these components.

1. Proper Positioning

Positioning is the most important element when developing your marketing plan.  Positioning is the process by which you create an image or identity in the minds of your customers each time they experience your product or service.   Generally speaking positioning involves several steps; but in a nutshell it boils down to ensuring you are offering what your customers want with the most profitable market opportunity while differentiating your product/service from the competition in such a way that customers will choose your product or service.   To sum up, positioning is putting the right product at the right price in front of your target market.  When you have done this, you have mastered positioning.

2. Survey Your Customers

Don’t know what your customers want?  The best way to get the information that can propel your product or service forward is to ask your customers.  You need to understand clearly your target market if you have any chance at appealing to them to buy your products or services.  Surveys, samples, and test markets are great ways to get the feedback you need.  The feedback you get from your current customers or potential customers is priceless and will help you evaluate the integrity of your product, whether or not it’s in line with you branding, if the pricing strategy is correct and whether or not the quality of the product meets your customer’s expectations.

3. Tap Into The Power of Your Mastermind

Mastermind programs are one of the most powerful programs a person can participate in.  Why?  Because you get to leverage other people’s expertise and information and that is always better than trying to go it alone.  Your mastermind participants have probably had similar situations when developing their own marketing plans and even if they haven’t, they are a wonderful resource for ideas, perspectives, and experiences.  Having this resource to brainstorm with and to solve your biggest business challenges is the greatest benefit of a mastermind.  The synergy created between the members of the mastermind is the fuel that creates powerful results.  If you are not part of a mastermind I encourage you to investigate it and see if it doesn’t help you achieve the goals you set for your business.

4. Create Your Plan

A marketing plan is an essential element in your business and its overall success.  So many women business owners fail to create a marketing plan that it is no wonder that there scattered marketing attempts fail to yield them the results they are looking for.  Your plan doesn’t have to be complicated or complex to be effective.  I teach my clients an effective and simple marketing strategy that gets them the results they are looking for.  Remember simple is better and will be more effective.

5. Measure and Track Your Results

You know the saying if you don’t know where you are going how will you know when you get there?  The same is true of your marketing results.  If you don’t have the plan in place how will you know if you have achieved the results you are looking for.  You must track your results to see if you’re yielding the desired outcomes.  How will you measure the results of your plan?  Some ways this can be accomplished is by:  tracking open rates from your newsletter or other email marketing campaigns, how many unique visitors visit your website, increased signups for your newsletter, increased calls for new business, your return on investment vs what you spent.  Only you can determine what activities you want to engage in.  Just remember to know precisely the results you are looking for when developing your plan.