If you want your business to grow and attract new clients, you'llhave to start creating meaningful proposals. The goal of aproposal is obviously to be awarded new work. It accomplishesthis goal by providing answers to the questions of who, what,where, why, how and when. But many small or home-based business owners have neither thetime, knowledge or resources necessary to create proposals thatproperly relay the pertinent information about the company andits ability to provide the requested servi More..

Ten Tips for Creating a Winning Proposal - Part 2

Part 1 of this series described five critical components forcreating a winning proposal. In some instances, these componentsare all a prospective client needs to make a determination andaward the job. Be sure to carefully review the request forproposal to determine the amount of information you need toinclude in your proposal. Remember, each proposal is unique. Here are five more tips to keep in mind when preparing a winningproposal. Tip #6 - Properly Estimate Job Costs Selecting the right pr More..

What You Must Know When Marketing Your Business

Marketing is both an art and a science. Anyone who says differently probably isn't doing very well marketing his or her business. On the art side, intuition definitely plays into the equation. On the science side, it is about systems, strategies and plans. Outlined below are some areas of consideration when you decide to market your business. * Determine where your business is currently * Determine where you want to be * Know who your market is and/or needs to be * Identify w More..

6 MUST Have Strategies To Make Big Bucks with Big Ticket Items

Strategy #1: Change Your Mindset That's right, change your mindset! It's probably the number one most important strategy when selling Big Ticket Items. Plenty of people are uncomfortable selling items that are priced above the $500 - $1000 mark. It's the intangibles which make Big Ticket marketing tougher to come to grips with for many business people. They have questions like: * Will my customers accept a product priced this high? * How can I put a value on information? * Who's g More..

Promotions That Build Profit

Promotions are everything you do to let your customers know you exist. Good marketing techniques can help eliminate the "I didn't knows" from your clients and would-be clients. Even if you believe you have more than enough business you should always continue to do some sort of marketing. What if there is a sudden downturn in your industry? What if you have to suddently reach more customers? With a good marketing system in place you will be prepared for any surprises. Additionally, you must be v More..

How Do You Know Your Clients Cant Pay More?

"My clients can't afford higher rates." When more than 330 business owners and self-employed professionals checked off reasons why their income was not going through the roof, this statement was chosen more often than any other. If you're tempted to agree that what clients can afford limits you, let me first ask: are you certain of that? You can't make a leap from what people say about this to whether or not they can find the money if sufficiently convinced that it's important. Years ago, som More..

Dont Use Yourself as Your Pricing Yardstick

"I wouldn't pay more than what I charge now." If you are not a member of your target market, toss thisthought about your own preferences out the window this veryminute. What you consider a reasonable price has nothing todo with how they spend money. Even if you are a member ofthe market you are selling to, it's a fallacy to assume thateveryone in that group feels as you do. Chances are, somefeel that your current rates are more than they want to pay,some feel you're charging just about right an More..

Key Marketing Strategy - You Need To Stay Visible!

If you want to get consistent results from your marketing, you need to stay visible to clients and prospects. But, how do you do that? It's not going to do you a whole lot of good if you produce a bunch of great marketing stuff and nobody ever reads it. And, it's pretty hard to keep the ball rolling if someone hears about you once and then you disappear after that. Lots of people are "out there" getting that all important first visibility through networking, doing presentations, handing out bu More..

Marketing On The Cheap: Become a Joiner

Recently I wrote an article on the benefits of joining your local Chamber of Commerce as a way of getting exposure for your business. See "Marketing on the Cheap: Join The What?" at this source or at http://sbmag.org. The Chamber of Commerce is or should be the number one organization in your area promoting business. Your involvement will help them indirectly help your business while giving you direct exposure to a large and viable market. Now let's look at other organizations you, your busines More..

3 Ways to Gain and KEEP Customers Using Postcards

In today's competitive (sometimes cutthroat) marketplace, savvy business owners need to constantly look for ways to get and, more importantly, keep their customers. When used properly postcards offer a great opportunity to do both. 1. Mail systematically to a targeted database of prospects. Most people who use postcard mailings as a way to acquire new customers mail to a list once and then stop. It's far more effective (provided that your postcards have an enticing offer, and provided that you More..

Does The Market Really Want It?

At the very heart of any successful marketing strategy is the determination of what your present and prospective customers need, want, and desire. You have to find out what they want before you try to sell it to them. Never make the mistake of investing a lot of money into a product or service you want to sell before you understand how much demand really exists on the part of the customer. If you want to be successful in business you have to provide a product or service people want. You cannot More..

Marketing the Government for Profit

Steps and tips on marketing your business to the government. Fact: Federal, state and local governments buy over $450 billion combined in goods and services each year. Part of that can be yours if you know how to get it. Fact: Federal procurements under $25,000 never go through the bid/RFP process. The only way to earn these government procurements is to market your business wisely. You probably know there are huge opportunities for any business to earn government contracts. But how will YO More..

Deceptive Marketing and Procrastination

Procrastination is every marketers worst nightmare. This applies on three fronts. Firstly how many times have we waited to see howa company or product sells before joining? There is a very fine line between researching the backgroundhistory of a company before joining and should I join or not! By carried out proper research we should then be able to makean informed decision. Sounds easy, but? In real life we are swayed by so many outside influencesIncluding deceptive marketing practices. More..

Image is Key to Your Marketing Success

In virtually any business first impressions are lasting impressions. Most people have heard this statement for years, and yet some people completely ignore the first impression they are conveying to potential customers or clients. Regardless of the industry you are in image is a part of your marketing. Take the real estate industry. An often-overlooked part of marketing is the image an agent projects. This includes marketing collateral, clothing and the type of car you drive. Do you convey the More..

Peddling Your Own Wagon Through Local Exposure

In my e-book "Articles That Sell", I've shared the secret of marketing your business on the Internet. If you've been active in your efforts, you've been writing and publishing free reprint articles. Guess what? I've got another incredible marketing secret for you. While online marketing has unlimited potential it often misses a valuable mark. This missed mark is your own local area. You could be missing out on immediate opportunities to market your expertise through your writing. Take a disce More..

Tie-In With Others To Maximize Your Business Leverage

One of the most rewarding, inexpensive, under-used, and effective methods of marketing is to tie in your marketing efforts with the efforts of others. The cost of acquiring a new client or customer is enormous. The average business will spend thousands of dollars in marketing, sales, and advertising to build goodwill and develop loyal clients or customers. Most businesses spend their marketing dollars to reach a large audience, and yet they're only going to get a small fraction of this audience More..

Prepare Your Communications For Growth

As the American economy emerges from recession, many businesses are now reexamining their marketing materials and realizing that their communications are outdated, ill-prepared for the return of a robust, competitive, growing economic environment. Strategies developed to survive hard times are often the wrong ones for profiting in good times. Here are five strategies for ensuring that your marketing is fully prepared for the economic recovery: Promote the most optimistic tone possible. Now isn More..

Great Marketing is Like Making a Great Movie

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE The Oscars will be handed out soon, and it's a perfect time to keep this in mind: If you're a business owner or manager, it's wise to think of yourself as a great film director who's telling a story. Having directed films, stage, television, and stage productions we noticed that the principles of great directing or filmmaking apply exactly to great marketing. OK, so you don't need the baseball cap or the megaphone like a film director. But in order to attract the right "audi More..

Alarming Marketing Trend

One key discipline of successful direct marketing has been to test marketing communications tactics to continually improve results. There is now an alarming trend according to a recent survey that we conducted among business-to-business marketers who are readers of Sales Lead Report. Only 24% of the marketing professionals surveyed said they usually or always test their marketing communications tactics before rolling them out. The survey was completed by 280 of 940 subscribers who received and More..

Motivate Your Market Force

Intro Want me to tell you something on how you can motivate your market force in 2005. I will do so today. Tell you ideas that will power your marketing and promotions with force, if only you will appreciate their simplicity and common sense. Tell me. A critical question: How simple, motivational and forceful are your communications and market thrust? Is it all creativity, hi-tech and strategy, but no force? How easily digestible and real are your promotional messages? Simplicity and Common More..

How Effective Customer Surveys Will Help Innovate Your Business

Have you ever wondered why the phones aren't ringing the way they should? Or maybe sales are flat and you're not achieving the revenue and profit targets you set for your business. There's one sure-fire way to uncover the problems to get your company back on track. The answers are right in front of your nose. b>Why Your Ads May Say Nothing & Everything About Your Business! Many business owners rely on platitudes and ego gratificationwhen promoting their businesses. They think customers willflo More..

Strategic Marketing and Tactical Marketing Know The Differences And Profit

Most people mistakenly assume that when you talk about marketing, you're automatically talking about "Tactical" marketing - placing ads, generating leads, sending out mailers, attending trades shows, creating brochures, implementing a follow-up system, and so forth. They fail to realize that the "Strategic" side of the coin - what you say, how you say it, and who you say it to - is almost always MORE important than the marketing medium of WHERE you say it. So, What's The Difference Between Str More..

Why Instant Gratification Marketing Condemns Businesses To Losing 90% Of Their Potential Customers

Most businesses target only people "ready-to-buy". These hot prospects are "Now Buyers" because they've been inching closer to a decision for some period of time. They're just about ready to spend cash. Advertisers target "Now Buyers" because the pressure is on to make sales immediately. And, they know these prospects are most qualified, from a timing standpoint. The selling situation gets more complicated when similar products or services are offered by competitors. Typically, buyers cannot di More..

Web Site Marketing: 10 Little Known Upsell Strategies That Will Magnify Your Profits

What is Upselling? It means pre-selling any additional features of your products and services even before your customers make a purchase. For example, let's say you're selling a computer witha 15" monitor for $600. You can tell your customers that they can upgrade toa 17" monitor for only $100 more. That's upselling! The trick is to pre-sell your customers on any additionalfeatures and upgrades for your products and servicesavailable and get more money out of the first sale. Below are ten More..

Connecting With Your Clients

Many service professionals tell me that they are uncomfortable with the idea of marketing -- like marketing is a bad word! For some, "marketing" brings up images of telemarketers, aggressive sales people, and feelings of resentment at being invaded. But marketing is really about connecting with your customers. In service businesses -- particularly ones where you are very personally involved with the client -- you must build up a rapport with your prospects before you can ever hope to turn them i More..

Focusing Your Marketing Efforts

One of my favorite quotes is often used to describe goal-setting -- but it applies equally well to your marketing efforts. We start with Alice lost in the woods in Wonderland, where she comes upon the Cheshire-Cat... "Cheshire-Puss," she began rather timidly, "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. "I don't much care where..." said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat. "...so More..

Make It A Threesome

What if -- every time you had a networking appointment with someone -- you invited a third person. Sound like a ridiculous concept? Why on earth would you want to do this? Aren't you taking the focus off of your business and putting it on someone else's? Here are 5 reasons why multiple meetings are beneficial: YOU CAN MAKE MORE PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS IN LESS TIME Networking can become very time-consuming and expensive -- especially if all you ever do is have lunch or dinner with one person a More..

Marketing Articles

Have Query? Contact Us Now