7 Days to More Powerful Audio Information Products

When looking at the numbers of my own information products that get the most listeners, I’m fortunate enough to know how to go into my website’s C Panel. The C Panel is when you go into the back control panel of your website, and there’s an icon in there called, “Stats,” and you can click on the stats. It gives you all the statistics of how many people have clicked on a page.

It tells you how many unique visitors have come to your site. It tells you where your traffic is coming from, and then there’s a top ten. It’ll rank your interviews by the month, what are the top ten most listened interviews.

So, it’s really telling. It’s exciting to go in there and see what people are listening to. You can actually go into a section of that C Panel, and you can click on this thing. It’ll show you, if you had 300 visitors on your site, you can see exactly the path that someone has taken on your website.

They may come to the homepage. They may listen to an interview with Ben Settle, and you can see their traffic patterns. This really gives you a good idea of what is your market listening to on your website.

An interesting story, I just did an interview, it’s probably been two months. I did an interview with a lady named Elizabeth Hagen, and she is an organizing expert. She teaches ladies how to organize their life, and how to get rid of the clutter.

I was looking in the stats in January of 2009, and I couldn’t believe the traffic. On that mp3 file for January, it was hit on, I can’t say that all these people listened to it, but the mp3 interview had 4,304 hits. That’s a lot of hits.

It’s interesting that part two was listened to more than part one. Anyway, so I called Elizabeth and I was like, “Elizabeth, did you mail out to your list and promote that interview? The traffic on this interview is incredible.” She said she didn’t, and I’ll tell you it’s getting harder and harder for me to kind of nail down where all these people are listening to this interview.

I’m scratching my head still with the Elizabeth Hagen interview. It’s still getting a ton of traffic, but we can’t figure out where. The reason is recently I’ve been taking my interviews – and we’ll talk more about this – I have all my interviews on iTunes. I have ten minute clips of all my interviews up on YouTube. I have them being introduced on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, and a lot of the social networking sites.

You may have someone who took some of the content from an ezine article on the organizing interview, and put it in their blog that has a large subscription base.

There’s an interesting point in this. As long as you start getting your interviews out there, and getting them on the internet, they’re going to go viral eventually. If you do it right and you provide good exciting and valuable content, these things will get passed around. So, you’ll never know sometimes where all this traffic is coming from, but I do remember that learning interview that I did with the gentleman. That was very popular.

I’m just looking here from January of 2009, the organizing interview was number one. An interview with Ben Settle was number two for January. There was one called The Obvious Expert with Elsom Eldridge, and that’s how to publish a book and become the obvious expert. That was number three.

This one was not that surprising. It was an interview I did with an expert on LinkedIn. It was a training on how to use LinkedIn, which is a business social networking site, and how to maximize that and meet people and network better. That was very popular in January.

These are just the top ten. Nick Gilbert, he’s the one who hosts my web server. We did an interview on internet security. That was one of the most popular ones. Then, there’s one more. A guy named Mark Imperial, it was on information product creation. That was very popular, too.

It’s great. Once you have a website, and once you start doing interviews, you will be able to track what’s hot and what’s not, and you can use that to your advantage when you’re marketing.

Why Instagram Is So Powerful for Your Business and Personal Brand

Do you know how powerful Instagram is?

Most people by now have heard about the little app called Instagram; that has taken the world by storm. It doesn’t matter if you are a technology expert, that knows about the latest and greatest apps, or you can barely check your email. We can all agree that someone we know is always on Instagram. If you look around nowadays it’s a rare sight if you don’t see someone glued to their phone, completely unaware of what’s going on around them. It’s really interesting how much people use their phone while in the middle of a conversation, sometimes more focused on the phone than the conversation they are having with the person right in front of them. Has this ever happened to you, or maybe you even done this yourself?

It’s a different world we are living in now; as opposed to 10 – 20 years ago. Back then smartphones weren’t that smart, apps we not as prevalent, and people where not totally mesmerized by their phones, and more importantly, the apps they use on them. Nowadays you can use applications like Instagram to chat with friends whether by tagging them in something you saw, sending them a video message, replying to a story they posted, or even based on seeing something that reminded you of them. You can also get caught up exploring different cities, watching your favorite actor every day life, or your favorite comedian doing a live steam or some sport highlights from last nights game. None of this existed 15 years ago, back then people would turn to maybe the TV for entertainment but now people are spending more time one their phones than ever before and Instagram is where they are spending most of their time. Whether you own a business or want to build your personal brand… Instagram is definitely one of the platforms you need to utilized, here is why.

Did you know on Instagram you get access to over 800 million users every month. Instagram is quickly rising to the top of all social media platforms, and with a whopping 800 million users it has become one of the best platforms with which to reach your targeted audience. While Twitter has remained at 350 million users for a few years, Instagram has blown past that and will reach 1 billion users within the next year or two. As the old saying goes, “Meet your customers and people where they are.” And right now, they are on Instagram, and Instagram, is on their phone making it even more powerful. Take a look around, you can always find someone staring at their phone, and more importantly using Instagram.

Instagram makes Networking easier for you. The networking capabilities and extensive reach that Instagram has given us, on a global scale is unmatched. Smart people like yourself know they must take advantage of every opportunity to grow and expand their network. Instagram allows you to connect with people based on their interests, location, hash tags and mutual friends and contacts. The best part is you can build your network all around the world from your smartphone. Now this actually gives you a good reason for all the time you spend on Instagram.

Instagram maximizes your reach and engagement. Instagram has 58 times more reach and follower engagement than Facebook, and an astonishing 120 times more reach than Twitter. So building your Instagram audience is vital to your success now and even more so in the coming future. If your not building your targeted audience (people who are interested in your business or personal brand) it’s almost like not having a cell phone or email for people to contact you. It’s like a fisher men not having a fishing pole or net to catch fish, a barber not having clippers to cut hair, we’re sure you get the point by now. Start building your audience today so you can start gaining momentum and exposure fast setting you up for the future with a solid foundation to build on.

Instagram is fun and easy to use. For those who are familiar with Instagram, you already know how fun and easy it is to use. Whether you currently have a personal or a business account you probably already understand how powerful Instagram can be. People are able to explore different cities, countries, and continents right from their phone and also see and do live videos for their audience. You can join someone on a live video, interview style. and the possibilities are endless with new feature being added often. Instagram allows you to basically have your on TV network with out the TV network cost. Even better you are able to get live feed back from your audience with comments and engagement right as you are talking to them, that is more powerful than TV.

People love pictures now and always have and always will. For those who have never used Instagram before, it can be an amazing way to connect with people and build a targeted audience that is highly focused. You can build an audience that is local, nationwide, or international depending on your preference; brand, professions, or passion. There is an old saying, ” A picture is worth a thousand words.” Start using Instagram today, and let your pictures say thousands of words for you. People have always loved pictures for generations so you know Instagram is going to be here for the long haul.

Using Instagram you can create meaningful connections. Most people know by now that Instagram has been growing by leaps and bounds. Especially in the last several years, now the timing is perfect for you. Everyone knows someone that’s always on their phone checking their Instagram, and more importantly Instagram holds people’s attention. It has become one of the most powerful platforms that people and businesses can utilize to connect with others. Can you imagine connecting with new people and potential customers everyday simply from using Instagram. What if you were able to develop a rich, meaningful, connection with your audience. At the same time create and develop your own brand and presence in the minds of people all over the world. Not to mention also to stay up to date with friends and family, Instagram truly allows you to do it all and more.

How to Develop a Powerful Marketing Strategy

Introduction

As you launch your new real estate business or wish to elevate it to the next level of success, it will be critical to have an efficient and cost effective marketing strategy. Having a great product, deal, or service will not bear any fruits of your labor if you are not reaching the proper audience. The following information will highlight many concepts and recommendations you may want to consider as part of your marketing plan. Because of the general nature of this material, all information may not apply to your specific business model.

Marketing and Advertising Concepts

Recommendations Go a Long Way

Perhaps one of the most powerful tools you can ever have in your marketing arsenal that you can’t buy for any price is to have people who have done business with you, or are familiar with your business ethics and professionalism to provide positive recommendations. You need to capitalize on all of the hard work and service you have provided in the past to instill confidence among your new relationships that you will continue to provide the same premier performance. We have all been exposed to testimonials and recommendations throughout many aspects of our life. Clearly, most people don’t need any further convincing beyond a sincere recommendation from someone not benefiting from the referral.

Use Referrals And Recommendations As A Marketing Tool

As you establish your history of past success stories, you should compile this information and share it with people you are trying to influence with regards to your ability to perform. An example of this could be a presentation folder that could include a summary of past projects as well as copies of any written letters of recommendations. In addition, you should have readily available a list of past clients that have given you permission to give out their contact information as a reference. You will have far more credibility if you provide this information in advance as part of your presentation material instead of your new potential client having to request this information; proactively providing this information will demonstrate your confidence in your services.

Know Where Your Leads Are Coming From

To have an effective marketing program, it will be critical for you to know what strategies are making the phone ring. When you fully understand what approaches are producing results, you can shift marketing efforts and capital away from the methods that are not producing the desired results and apply them to the methods that are successful. During your day to day activities when making inquiries on services and products you need, I’m sure you have been asked “Where did you see our ad” or “How did you hear about us”. This is their attempt to do their own marketing research on what is working for them.

There are a number of techniques you may want to consider that will help you to understand where your leads are coming from. Of course you can just come out and ask them. Alternatively, you could use the following methods:

– The use of different color stock on forms can help you establish what “color area” is responding.

– Have each different ad have a unique “offer number” and ask for his number during your conversations.

– Have a different response phone number for each ad or location.

Keeping Your Marketing Plan Going

There is one mistake that is common to new smaller businesses, once they get busy with the business that is coming from their marketing efforts, they become distracted and lose focus on keeping the marketing plan going. An example of this is getting wrapped up in a flip you are directly involved with that is taking away from your time to send out direct mail letters. Remember, with most of the common business models, once you’re done with the current deal, you need to get another one in the pipeline; otherwise, the flow of income may stop or be reduced. As another example, have you ever tried to get an estimate for a repair on your house? It seems they are all too busy on the job they are currently on to stop and work on new business.

Delegate Or Outsource Your Marketing Activities

As you are developing or expanding your business, the day to day challenges of running your business along with everything else going on in your life can stand in the way of you working your marketing plan. If you feel this is occurring and is affecting your potential business success, it may be to your advantage to either delegate or outsource some or all of your marketing activities. Using this technique will allow you to free up some time that could be used to work on items that will help you grow the company. Some examples of the marketing tasks that could be delegated or outsourced are highlighted below:

– Preparing and mailing marketing materials and direct mail letters

– Distribution of flyers

– E-mail support

– Covering phone calls

Keep in mind that before you let other people get involved with your marketing and speaking with potential clients and customers, make sure they have been adequately trained and the process has been documented in your company procedures (see “How to Write Your Business Plan” for information on the development of standard work modules).

Dealing with Rejection

As you develop your marketing strategy and “hitting the streets”, you should be prepared to face some level of rejection. The level of rejection you will experience will be determined based upon your approach, persistence, and what is the current situation and state of mind of the person you are dealing with. If for example your marketing model is focusing on homeowners in foreclosure, there will be a very high rate of rejection. In some cases they may be in denial regarding their current situation and also because they have been overwhelmed with the interest in their property from all of the investors who saw the Lis Pendens filed. You must recognize that this type of marketing is a numbers game and the more people you have an opportunity to make contact with, the higher the probability to secure business.

Even Rejection Can Make You Money

As you work through your targeted marketing area and encounter rejection, remember that each door closed in your face or phone call hang-up will get you closer to a completed transaction. If for example it takes 100 calls to close a deal worth $5,000 than each rejection is worth $50.00! Although difficult at first to imagine that rejection makes you money, it could help motivate you to move on to the next door slamming or phone-hang-up opportunity.

Your Marketing Should Have A Look

As part of your marketing efforts to “brand” your company, you may want to consider the use of logo’s, slogans, and trademarks in all of your ads and promotional merchandise. In addition, the use of “company colors” that is used exclusively in all of your marketing will also help to create a unique look that will help to set you apart from your competition.

Marketing and Advertising Techniques

The following section will provide you with some specific recommendations on marketing techniques you may want to consider. Since this information is generic in nature, all recommendations may not apply to your particular business model.

Due to the significant impact on operating budgets to fund marketing and advertising activities, you should be very critical on what methods become part of your Business Plan.

Buy A Ton Of Business Cards

One of the most inexpensive and effective ways for you to market yourself and your business is through the distribution of your business cards. During networking and casual meeting opportunities, the exchange of business cards will be a critical tool for you to assemble your contact list. Even if you are just starting out and don’t even have a company or services to offer, the small investment in business cards will allow others to have your contact information. At a minimum, the card should contain the following information:

– Your name

– Title or company name

– Fax number

– Phones number(s)

– E-mail address

– Websites

In addition, you can add information with regards to the specific business models you are involved with, for example:

– Foreclosures

– Short Sales

– Property Management

– Rehabs

Business Cards Design Suggestions

– Make your business cards stand out with bright colors or interesting artwork or graphics.

– Avoid the glossy type of paper because it is difficult to write on (in the event the person you are giving them to would like to make some comments on meeting you or your services).

– Use the back of the card as well to provide additional information on your business; why waste valuable marketing space?

– Have a powerful hook on the cards to include statements like:

– “We will close in 7 days”

– “We buy all houses in any condition”

– “We buy with all cash”

– “Get a $250 referral Fee”

Bandit Signs

Bandit signs are a great way to attract attention from people on foot or in vehicles. These signs are usually 2′ X 3′ or smaller and are designed to either stick in the ground or mounted to a pole. This method of advertising is very economical and when using the plastic version will allow for repeated use. It is suggested that you get them printed on both sides if you plan or placing them in areas where people will be coming from both directions.

Displaying Ads and Signs

Proper utilization of the various types of ads and signs will help support your efforts in establishing high visibility and presence in your targeted marketing area. The number of ways to display your company name, logo, and services you provide is limited only by your imagination. The following section will highlight the most common locations and methods you may want to consider for posting your ads:

– On billboards (very popular in rural and city areas)

– Sponsor or adopt a community bench, garden, or road clean-up.

– On buses

– On railroad cars and stations

– Local community and church newsletters

– Placemats in diners and restaurants (I always read these things while I’m waiting for my food)

– Place signs on your property while you are working on it and marketing it.

– Advertising lettering or magnetic signs for your vehicles.

When using lettering or magnetic signs for your vehicle make sure to check local ordinances; by placing a sign on your vehicle could make it be considered a commercial vehicle. Also when using magnetic signs, make sure they are secured properly. I have heard instances of these signs flying off during high speed travel and when exposed to rain. If you can also have a sign on your trunk, it will make it easy for people to read it as they follow behind you or at stop signs and traffic lights. Make sure to use large text size on your contact number.

Marketing Flyers

When designing flyers, it will be important for you to use bright colors to attract the eye. When placing them in stores, your flyer may be among dozens of other items that are posted so it must have some punch. To help minimize the chances of someone just taking the entire flyer, design it to have tear-off tabs at the bottom that contains minimal information on your services and a contact number.

Check Local Ordinances

When using signs and flyers as part of your marketing program, make sure you check with your local town regulations to ensure you are not in violation. Most towns have laws on the books that prohibit the display of signs and may come with substantial fines.

People Love Giveaways

Another marketing tool that will help you with your company exposure is to give out small gifts that promote your business and services. The possibilities are endless on the type of give-a-ways you can come up with and is limited only by your imagination and budget. The following list will provide some recommendations that are typically used for this purpose:

– Shirts and jackets

– Calendars

– Recipe cards

– Hats

– Letter openers

– Golf balls, tees, or towels

– Refrigerator magnets

– Stationary items (pens, pads, binders, etc.)

– Cups

– Totes and bags

When selecting the product give-a ways, you want to pick items that are designed to encourage use (nobody will wear an ugly tee shirt; it will be probably used as a rag). Avoid one time use products like candy, cookies, etc. Many companies offer these types of products at various price point budgets. Do a web search on “marketing merchandise” and you will get some great ideas. To reiterate, you may want to keep a consistent look to all of your marketing gifts.

Be An Exhibitor Or Sponsor

Another outstanding marketing method you may want to consider is to participate as an exhibitor or sponsor at conventions and investment organization meetings. These events can be very effective in reaching people that may benefit from your services. Sponsorship and exhibitor costs can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands depending on the venue and size of the organizations. With many organizations, you may have an opportunity to set up a display table as well as a speaking slot to highlight your services. One comment with regards to this marketing option is that people typically feel more comfortable doing business with you when they see you as a “regular” sponsor and not a one shot deal because it adds more credibility that you will be around. This type of marketing could be a significant drain on your allocated budget and it will be critical for you to determine if the appropriate level of business is being derived from this approach to justify the expense. By doing a web search for Investment Clubs and organizations you can select particular groups you would like to focus on.

Advertise In Hard Papers

Running ads in hard papers such as newspapers and trade magazines can be a great way for you to keep your company’s products and services in the eyes of the readers. Although this method of advertising can consume a majority or your marketing budget, it can represent a tremendous opportunity to reach a large mass of people. When considering using this advertising method, you may want to implement some of the following recommendations:

– Have a “hook” to your ad like “We will close with cash in 72 hours”.

– Advertise constantly

I’m sure you have observed ads that always seem to be displayed. This constant exposure although costly, will help to develop your company’s long term credibility.

– If your ad is listed in column form, consider adding a blank space above and below the text, this will make the ad stand out.

– If possible, use a contrasting or reverse color or text from the standard format.

Out of State Newspapers

Based upon the particular business model you are involved with, it may be necessary to either advertise or receive copies of out of state newspapers.

Using Public Records

Depending on your particular marketing areas or contact group, you may have good success accessing the public records that are available on-line. The information available will vary from state to state and also based on local township on-line capabilities.

The Use of Purchased Lists

An effective method to locate a particular group of people or businesses is to purchase a list from companies that specialize in generating and selling information about specific groups of people. An example of these types of lists includes the following:

– Recent graduates

– Recently relocated

– Recently sold their home

– Recently turned a milestone age (example:18,21,50,62,65)

– Recent Lis Pendens filings

The lists of possibilities are endless. Companies that generate and/or sell these lists are marketed by “List Brokers”. Try a Google search on this and you will see how big this information industry really is.

Be Prepared to Get Responses to Your Marketing Champaign

There is one area that many people fear when launching their marketing strategy and you need to get properly prepared for this and that is getting responses to your marketing efforts. The last thing you want to exhibit to people who are reaching out to you is your lack of confidence in being able to help them. In addition to having a strong foundation of knowledge in the particular business model you are marketing, you will need to develop a standard process on what you will do when they start calling you or responding to your calls. It is suggested that you put together a scripted dialog or bullet list that you will use when speaking with potential clients. The dialog or bullet list should be used as a guide as you are speaking with them to ensure you are gathering the appropriate data from them and presenting all of the critical highlights of why they should consider working with you.

Practice Makes Perfect

It will be absolutely critical to make sure you are projecting confidence when speaking to potential clients. I have spoken to many people who have left the leads hanging because of their fear in making contact with them; one way to mitigate this fear is by practicing and learning from your good and bad experiences. It is suggested that you conduct role playing to practice your approach. Another strategy that works well is to record your conversations and listen back to them. It will be critical to extract lessons learned from the calls and to apply these lessons to future calls. Keep in mind that the more you do this, the more effective and successful your “close rate” will be.

Don’t Touch That Mailbox

Keep in mind that you are prohibited from placing anything in a mailbox that does not have the appropriate postage. If you practice this technique, there is a very good chance you will be contacted by a representative from the postal service.

Creating Your Buyers and Clients List

Whether your real estate business model is wholesaling, rehabbing, selling notes, or any other model that requires you to rely on someone “taking your deal” will require you to understand the investment goals of your potential clients. To achieve the highest degree of project turn-over efficiency and to minimize your risk exposure, you will need to have investors and clients in a stand-by mode waiting for you to hand them your next investment opportunity they will consider. It will be very important that as you begin to launch your marketing and networking activities, you have a method to compile the investment criteria of your buyers or clients. It would be very efficient to have this information as part of a spreadsheet database. To help gather this information, you could create a form that can be filled out that will highlight the investment goals of your buyers or clients.

Having a comprehensive buyers list that includes the specific criteria of your buyer will help you to align available investment opportunities to the appropriate investors. In addition, understanding these criteria in advance will allow you to go out and seek new investments that you know will fit into the investment strategy of your buyers and clients that will be willing to pull the trigger if you bring them a good deal. The following list will provide examples of common criteria you would want from your investors (let’s assume for this example we are involved in the flipping business model)

– Specific locations

– Price point

– Age of property

– Class of property (A,B, C, D)

– Type of property (single-family, multi-family, commercial)

– Financial expectations

– Cash flow

– Cash on Cash returns

– Minimum percent of equity position

– Capitalization Rate

– Condition of property

– Creative Financing

Also keep in mind the relationship you develop from your Buyer’s List may also be a source for deals they bring to you. Perhaps a deal is too big or too small for a particular investor or they are too busy to get involved in another project at this time. The fact that you have presented them with investment opportunities in the past can set the stage for them to feed you a deal.

Qualify Your Buyer’s List

It will be critical for you to establish if the contacts on your Buyer’s List are able and willing to take deals that meet their investment criteria. The last thing you need when you are trying to wholesale a deal is to find out your buyer’s are just tire-kickers. One way to help avoid this situation is to get to know your buyer’s and become familiar with their past success. Through your networking and relationship building with these buyers’s, you should be able to feel them out with regards to their ability to pull the trigger.

I’m sure you’ve heard before, “If I find a great deal, I know the buyers will follow.” Although there is some logic to this statement, if you have buyer’s queued up in advance knowing their investment criteria, it will help to minimize your risk of not being able to close the deal; this can be a real concern when you are in a stale or decreasing market.

Your Extended Marketing Team

In addition to your planned direct marketing efforts, there could be past clients, family, friends or business associates that may provide additional sources of leads and business for you. This circle of contacts if properly utilized could be another informal arm of your comprehensive marketing plan. Although most people would normally pass along any services or products you provide to someone they know in need with no compensation; one sure way to motivate them to help bring in additional business is for you to offer a referral program. Depending upon the business model you are involved with, you could compensate them on a per deal basis. It is suggested that you provide these contacts with some of your marketing material.

Using Bird-Dogs To Augment Your Marketing

To bring the concept of an extended informal marketing team to the next level, you may want to enlist the help from people whose specialty is to locate deals for clients and present them for consideration. These people are called Bird-Dogs and they do this work as part of their business model. When using Bird-Dogs, it will be critical that they understand your criteria so they will not waste your time or theirs. Usually Bird-Dogs will only get compensated if a deal closes. A Bird-Dog fee is usually paid at closing.

Using Technology To Market More Efficiently

Have Your Own Website

Having a website can be a powerful tool to provide current and potential clients information on the products and services your company offers. The use of websites is so common that omitting it from your marketing campaign could certainly lead towards lost business. Remember, there is a very good chance that your competitors will have a website.

The subscription or development cost of your website can have a very large range depending upon the features. You should expect to pay $30-50 per month for a web design service provider that uses pre-designed templates you can edit. On the other extreme, you can pay thousands for a custom designed site.

When selecting a domain name, it is suggested that you use a name that reflects your business and is also easy to remember

Although having a website can be instrumental to the success of your business model, it will be useless unless you can attract visitors to your site to see what you offer. There are many strategies you can consider to help direct visitors to your site, some of techniques are listed below:

– Have a reference to your website on all of your printed material and e-mails you generate as well as marketing giveaways you hand out like coffee mugs or pens.

– Write on-line articles for websites like e-zine.com where you contribute articles for free in exchange for an opportunity to discuss your expertise as well as what you have to offer. In addition, you will be able to provide a link to your website.

– Have your website listed on other websites as a link, you can have an agreement with the website owner to mutually display links to each other.

– Pay to advertise on other sites that have the type of traffic you are trying to attract. Usually, there is a monthly fee for this service or in some cases will be a “Pay Per Click” where you will be charged a predetermined fee when anyone clicks on the link to your website.

– There are many options to consider when developing your website from do it yourself templates where you just fill in the blanks to a full blown custom site. It is suggested that you speak with an experienced website designer to see what option is best suited for your needs and budget.

Tele-Conferences

A very popular marketing method is to utilize teleconferences to highlight the services and products that you offer to a large audience by speaking with them via a phone line. This marketing technique will allow your company to provide another vehicle for your potential clients to get to know who you are. The process of setting up a teleconference is very easy; there are many third party providers that offer teleconference services for either a flat monthly rate or on an as-needed basis. Once set up, you just need to provide the attendees with a dial in number and access code (given to you by the service provider) and they will call in at the appropriate time.

Webinars

To bring the benefits of a teleconference to the next level, you can consider reaching out to your audience using a webinar. A webinar is an opportunity for you to provide a presentation to your audience by accessing a web site on their computer. Two-way communication is also possible using a dial in phone number. Like the teleconferencing, a webinar can be arranged by a third party. The cost of this service will be determined by how many “seats” are required.

E-Mail Blast

An e-mail blast can be a very effective way to contact a large group of people on your mailing list. Depending upon how many people you are trying to reach, you can either send the mail through your own mail service like Outlook or if a very large list of people need to be contacted, you may need to consider the services of a third party provider. As you compile your contact list, it is recommended that you create “groups” within your mail program. By using groups when sending e-mail, you can easily fill out the “to” field by selecting the appropriate group you are trying to make contact with. It is recommended that you sort your address book into categories that make sense for your business model. Examples are as follows:

– Bankers and private money lenders

– Past clients you are trying to stay in touch with

– New prospective clients you are trying to conduct business with

– Tenants occupying your properties

Mail Merge

Mail merge will allow you to take your contact information from your Outlook (or equivalent) address book and add these contacts to envelop and form letters you generate. Although mail merge can save you a considerable amount of time in preparing mailed letters, it is not encouraged when preparing envelops for initial contact letters. Computer generated envelops look too much like junk mail and not even be opened.

Newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to keep your contact list up to date on what is going on in your company and to help attract new business. All of the popular word processor programs have templates that you can use to generate your own custom newsletter. When considering the use of newsletters in your marketing campaign, you may want to implement some of the following recommendations:

– Make your newsletter releases monthly or quarterly; you want to periodically remind them who you are.

– Add both business development information as well as education and public interest sections. Don’t make every issue overflowing with sales hype. You will turn off your audience.

– Give each newsletter a release number or volume

– Format the pages so they can be added to a three ring binder

– Publish articles that continue in a future newsletter

– Add photos and charts to help illustrate text

– Have featured segments that are part of each newsletter release. The following are some examples:

– Rehab trick of the month

– Bloopers sent in from audience

– Deal of the month

– Success story of the month

Using An Internet Video Site

A very popular tool that can be added to your marketing plan is to utilize internet sites that allow you to download videos. On these sites, you can download your video that will be part of the site database of searchable videos. It is suggested that you add in your title a “hook” that specifically identifies the scope of the video so when someone searches the site for your topic, you may get a “hit”. An example of this would be “Learn Short Sales from John Doe.”

Sales Lead Software

As your marketing and networking strategies start to generate leads, it will become an increasing challenge to manage the large volume of leads effectively. Without managing leads appropriately, you run the risk of losing the ability to “convert” them to a deal or sale. Although there are many manual methods that you could use to manage your leads, you may want to consider purchasing lead generation and management software. There are a number of companies that provide this product. Perform an internet search for available products.

5 Powerful Tips to Consider Before You Start a Catholic Business

There are about 1.2 billion Catholics in the world. With that many people with something in common, there is a great opportunity not only to build a great business but one that is socially good virtuous.

Now, in reality, a Catholic business shouldn’t be any different from any other business aside from its goals. When devout Catholics want to start a business, you’ll often see them create a book store. That’s great, but often these small shops get dominated by larger online chains.

Here are some tips for starting a business that carries with it the conviction that comes with faith:

  1. The most important thing to realize that everybody needs a solution to something, and if you can fulfill that need you are making their life better. Your business does not have to be overtly Catholic (i.e. a Catholic book store, or a Catholic bakery), rather your mission statement and the soul of your business should be geared toward holiness. That way, you could start a web development, show shine, or online fishing store and still carry with it the impact of your faith.
  2. You need to learn effective selling and marketing skills. I can’t tell you how many Catholic businesses I’ve seen that have horrible promotional campaigns, terrible websites, and still wonder why they can’t get any customers. Just because your business is faith-based it doesn’t mean that you can ignore the fundamentals.
  3. Engage in social media. There are a lot of folks out there that are willing to spread the word of your business, especially if you’ve engaged them on a consistent basis. Do not ignore the revolution that is taking place, and take a course on social networking if you have to.
  4. Find a mentor – even if they are not Catholic. You need someone to bounce ideas off of and to ensure that your ideas are realistic and doable. A mentor will act as a guide and will make sure that you are successful.
  5. Join a mastermind group and share ideas. The best way to learn something new is to learn it from someone else. There are meetup groups all over the place and for almost every industry, and you need to take advantage of them. One additional benefit is that you’ll be networking with other people who may become future clients.

The point of this article is that you need to do everything that a secular business person needs to do. Just like being religious won’t help you to be a better soccer player, if you intend to join the game of business you need to learn the rules of business. So get out there, and start learning.

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