Yes, everybody could use more money. But most mom business owners and business seekers I know aren’t looking to make millions. Most of us want to contribute to the family income while staying at home with our children. Especially initially, our goals are usually more family focused, like paying the mortgage, getting a new car, saving for college, or being able to go out to dinner a couple times a month. We want a business that we can enjoy and still have time to enjoy our family.

I recently posed a question on a popular message board and the responses I got confirmed that “rich” isn’t always the goal. Moms want to “pay bills and have some in savings,” “pay my bills and take care of kids, and “pay the bills, have some fun and still have enough to set aside in savings/retirement.” Others mentioned “financial security” and the “peace of mind” that comes from not worrying about money.

Often after meeting some immediate needs with our first business endeavor, we start looking more towards the future and wanting a little more. I think about how I’d like to enjoy retirement without worrying about money. And how I’d like my son to be able to choose his career or business path without being so concerned about whether his chosen path will net enough income. I even think about how much fun it would be to help other moms get started in business by providing some start-up cash or funding a business expansion.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t go for millions if that’s what you want. In fact there were a few responders who said they want to be rich and be able to afford luxuries. What I am suggesting is that if you are marketing your business to moms, don’t assume we’re all looking for big bucks. Promising fancy cars and six figure incomes doesn’t attract as many moms as you think it might.

The key is to listen to what each individual prospect is looking for and help her meet her goals.

Many of us who start a business from home have little or no marketing experience, especially with online marketing. We learn as we go. Here are a few common marketing mistakes that if avoided will save time and money, and spare you some disappointment.

1. Not having a marketing plan.
   A marketing plan is simply a blueprint for how you will go about promoting your products or services. In the same way that a business plan provides focus, goals, and tasks for your overall business, a marketing plan provides a road map for your promotions and advertising. It’s best not to approach marketing without one.
2. Putting all your eggs in one basket.
   This old saying seems to work in a lot of situations and marketing is no exception. Diversification is the key to success and growth. You may find one or two strategies that work particularly well for your business, but don’t base your entire marketing plan on just those methods. Explore other options to avoid being stalled at a certain point.
3. Ignoring the power of networking
   Business networking is invaluable. When entrepreneurs get together to brainstorm and exchange ideas, all sorts of beneficial relationships are formed. In your business networks you will form joint venture partnerships, referral networks, and find mentors and friends.
4. Working alone to “run the whole show.”
   Most small businesses start out with one person working alone. But as your business grows there will come a time when you’ll need help to keep things running smoothly. Your time can best be spent marketing the product in new and creative ways. Someone else can take care of designing your web site, answering emails, and handling the bookkeeping. Use your expertise where it will increase profit the most and hire others to take care of the everyday details.
5. Cutting the budget.
   When business is slow is natural to want to cut expenses. But it’s especially important to keep marketing and advertising during a downturn. A better choice is to beef up marketing to reach a new or wider customer base.

If you’ve already made some of these mistakes, don’t panic. Take a good look at what you’ve been doing, keep doing what works and drop what doesn’t, and begin again with more knowledge and a marketing plan for success.

Direct sales consultants are often advised to use a number of free or inexpensive marketing methods that don’t work as well as you might think. But because they are low cost and occasionally produce results, consultant continue to use and recommend them. Before you put any time and effort into them, consider how effective these methods really are.

1 – Business card marketing. While business cards are an essential business tool, leaving a trail of them wherever you go cheapens them and minimizes their effectiveness. To use them to their best advantage, treat your business cards as if they are valuable. Only hand them out in person, to people with whom you are starting a business relationship, and always try your best to get their contact information as well.

Read more in “Is it Marketing or Littering.”

(Flyers and brochures should be handled similarly.)

2 – Catalogs. Consultants are often advised to generously give out catalogs and to leave them in doctor’s offices and hair salons, on the train, or anywhere else someone might pick one up. While a single catalog may be inexpensive, this practice can become a significant expense for consultants over the course of a year or two. And in most cases, catalogs left anywhere are more likely to end up in the trash than result in a sale.

Save your new catalogs for existing customers, guests at sales parties, and people who you meet face-to-face and who express a real interest in ordering from you.

Your old catalogs can be left around town with a big sticker on the back indicating that it’s an outdated catalog and inviting people to contact you for a new one.

3 – Car bumper stickers or magnets. Unless you have an extremely catchy domain name, it’s not likely that you’ll reach many potential customers with this method. When cars are moving it’s difficult to read what’s on the bumper sticker and when they’re stopped or parked it still requires someone to get out a pencil and paper to write down information. And before you add your business information to your car, check with your insurance agent to see if that changes your classification to business use.

4 – Free online classifieds. The only thing I’d recommend advertising in free online classified is an offer of interest to others who place free classifieds. They are the only people that are likely to read the ads.

5 – Safelists. The only reason someone signs up for a safelist is to promote their own offers. Almost no one actually reads the ads. Treat them the same way as free classifieds.

One of the biggest drawbacks to these free and inexpensive marketing methods is that they put control in the hands of potential customers. You drop off cards or catalogs and wait for customers to contact you. If you collect contact information from potential customers you’re in control and can contact them with additional information and reminders.

Additionally, most of these methods have to long term benefit. Cards and catalogs have to be replenished and free online classifieds generally move very quickly and your ad ends up buried under hundreds of other ads.

I won’t say you should never use these methods, but I am advising against relying heavily on them. If you do use them, be sure to track your results so you know which are worth repeating and which aren’t worth the time and effort. Use them as a small part of your marketing plan and spend more time on free marketing methods that also have benefits and are longer lasting. Methods like article marketing, press releases, social media marketing, link directories, and online networking not only connect you with prospective customers and team members, but they promote your expertise, provide search engine benefit (backlinks), and help you develop a referral network.

When someone asks about online marketing or increasing website traffic, one of the recommendations frequently offered is to utilize search engine optimization (SEO). What exactly is it?

Search engine optimization is a strategy to increase visitors to a website by placing high up in search results when someone uses a search engine to search for keywords related to your topic

Think about how you go about researching a topic online. You enter certain words into a search engine such as Google or Yahoo and are presented with results – usually pages and pages of results. As you review them to see what fits your needs, it’s likely that you’ll visit the first few sites, and if you find what you need there, you won’t return to the search results to view more sites.

The order in which sites are listed in those search results has a lot to do with search engine optimization. The words you enter into a search engine are called keywords. If you ever look at the top of your search results you will see the number of results returned plus the words that the search engine used to bring you those results. Now look at the results. The keywords you typed in are bolded either in the titles or in a line of content on that webpage.

By optimizing your web pages and content to match the most common phrases or keywords used for your subject, your content can be found. Ideally, content found on the first two pages of search results are the ones that people will click on. No one wants to sift through five million results. The top content or websites are the ones ranked first.

What makes them top-ranked? One factor is how often the keywords appear in the content For keyword-optimized content, keywords that show up three to seven percent of the time are ranked higher than content with less frequent keywords.

Search engines crawl your content and webpages for ranking. Keyword-dense content has a good chance of rising to the top of the rankings. But, search engine optimization is not just about single keywords, but also two and three word phrases. Longer phrases have become a great way to rank high, since most content tries to match single keywords.

Search engine optimization extends to your domain name as well. If your website has a specific niche, using keywords relative to that niche in your domain name drives traffic to your website. Don’t neglect your webpages either. Individual pages that use search engine optimized headers are also ranked.

For the website owner, using a keyword optimizer makes short work of calculating your keyword density. There are also programs that rank the popularity of certain keyword phrases when searching for information using search engines. Remember, if you can’t be found, it will be hard to sell your product or service to others.

As important as keywords are for SEO, they are not the only factor in determining where your site will be listed in the search engines. Learn more about SEO:

• Grab your free copy of SEO Fast Start by Dan Thies
• Claim your free WordTracker trial today.
• Free guide How to Get Backlinks (the basics)

If you’re looking for more traffic to your site, consider search engine optimization.

Affiliate link or our product link (Why tell?)

If paid advertising is part of your overall marketing plan you want to do what you can to get the most for your money. Here are some basic tips that will help achieve your advertising goals more expediently and effectively.

Image courtesy of swanksalot.

1. Advertise where your prospects will see your ads. Do some initial research to find your target audience and use ad tracking to determine if you’re reaching them.
2. Know your competitive edge. What can you offer that others can’t? Find a different spin or edge to make your product more appealing or offer just a little bit more. Maybe you have more experience or knowledge. There are a lot of ways to form a competitive edge. Know your market and your competitors and be creative.
3. Be careful that the image you portray for your company and products is positive. Always be professional. Be careful of what you say, whether it be on air or in print. Use a catchy logo and tag line. Maintain a consistent image so that it becomes recognizable.
4. “You have to spend money to make money.” Many people don’t like this age old adage, but it is very true. You will eventually spend money on advertising. Even free advertising has a cost – your time is money.
   The more money you spend, generally the better your reach. You don’t want to lower your effectiveness by cutting corners. Free or inexpensive advertising may be a good short term solution when you’re starting out but eventually you will want to look into different advertising options that may require more money.
   Of course you want to set an advertising budget, but allow for flexibility so you can take advantage of opportunities that arise. Also, learn the best times and season for your product or service increase your budget accordingly. Keep in mind that these seasonal times can change according to economy and market changes.
5. Keep in mind that your product or service will not appeal to everyone. Find your market and appeal to them.

These basic advertising tips are not difficult to implement. Diversify, be persistent and track your results and before long you’ll find the best mix of advertising to suit your budget and produce results.

The newest resource we offer for promoting your direct sales business is a party plan consultant link directory with free and featured listings.

 
 
We’re pleased to be able to continue to offer listings in the popular InternetBasedMoms.com direct sales directory.

And we’ve recently added very affordable 125×125 graphic ads on the right side of this blog.

Advertising is just one aspect of a successful marketing plan. The right ads can bring visitors to your website, promote brand recognition, and provide SEO backlink benefit.

Purchases made at links in this post benefit us (Why tell?)

I’m sure you’ve heard it time and time again… to maintain a successful online business you must build and market to a mailing list. But for many of us, selling to our list is a daunting and intimidating task.

If you have not yet made the attempt to promote your business to your subscribers, or you feel in the wrong when you do, it’s time to overcome your fear of selling to your list so you can make more money. And here’s just the help you need to learn how to grow your list, reduce your workload, and boost your income.

Grab the brand new Email Marketing Sweetie guide

You’ll get access to:

• 4 Succinct and Easy-to-Follow Training Guides with Complimentary Audios that will help you start making big changes in your email marketing.
• 4 Practical Assignments: To help you immediately apply what you learn to your business.
• Bonus Checklists, Idea Sheets, and Yearly Email Planner: These easy-to-reference printables will keep you on task when it comes to building your list, and help you take that all important action step.
• Bonus Audio & Transcript on Confidently Selling to Your List: A 60-minute interview with Alice Seba where she gives you the scoop on the most frequently asked questions about starting and growing a profitable email list.
• Bonus Opt-in Template & Complete Instructions: A fully customizable opt-in page template to help you start building targeted lists.

A few email marketing tips:

If you have not yet made the attempt to promote your business to your subscribers, don’t act hastily by inundating them with an onslaught of email promotions. Start out slow and test the waters first. An initial email letting them know you will be sending them valuable offers will open the lines of communication and lessen the shock value of advertisements appearing in their inboxes. This is an opportunity to sell yourself and your business while gaining their trust before the “sales” even begin. Most of your list will respond favorably, but you will likely lose some subscribers. But that’s okay because those that opt-out weren’t likely to become customers anyway.

Once your list knows what to expect, you can begin the actual task of promoting. That does not mean to send them multiple offers on a daily basis until they exile your address to the world of SPAM. However, it does mean that you will have to stay on top of contacting your list and make a point of doing so frequently enough to stay current and fresh in their minds without filling their inboxes with clutter.

It is also important to maintain a balance between content-driven emails and those containing promotions. Selling to your list requires a delicate balance. Alternate between information and advertising. You want to remain to be a voice your subscribers can trust without becoming too sales-driven and you also want to make sure your advertisements are clear without getting lost in your content.

Again, here’s the link to “Email Marketing Sweetie”
http://www.irepnetwork.com/go/emailmarketing.html

Here’s to great email!

Affiliate link or our product link (Why tell?)

One of the most frequently asked questions I see on the Internet is “How do I get more traffic to my website (or blog)?” While it is of course important to attract a good deal of traffic, what we really need is customers. It isn’t all that hard to get thousands of visitors to your site, especially if you can pay for them. But unless they are people who will buy your products or services (or subscribe to your newsletter or do whatever it is you want them to do when they get there), what good is all that traffic?

There are people who will argue that it’s all a numbers game and claim that if you get thousands of visitors, some of them will be paying customers. And while that’s probably true, wouldn’t you rather use your resources to gain a solid number of quality visitors? (And in case you’re thinking that you found the perfect free method for getting massive traffic, remember that free methods cost you time, and your time is valuable too.)

Improve your results by focusing on getting targeted, quality traffic for your website or blog. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Make sure your website is ready for visitors. No, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it must deliver what you promise in your marketing. And keep in constantly updated with fresh content.
2. Have a marketing plan. Know who you want to attract and what you want them to do when the arrive at your site. Define measurable goals.
3. Put tracking in place so you know where your site visitors come from and whether or not they follow through when they get there.
4. Focus on a few key marketing methods to start with and as you become proficient in those, add others.
5. Remember, success won’t happen overnight. It’s a long term process that improves with age.
6. Concentrate on tried and true methods like search engine keyword optimization, backlink building, blogging, article marketing, networking, social media marketing, and advertising.

You can’t be all thing to all people and you don’t want all people visiting your website. Focus on gaining quality, targeted, and loyal visitors to your website. They will become your fans and customers.

One of the most attractive features of becoming a direct sales consultant can turn into one of the biggest mistakes made in marketing.

Many people turn to direct sales party plan companies to start their first home business because it’s an established system that can be implemented right away. There’s no experience necessary. Someone will teach you how to run a sales party so you can make money and how to recruit new consultants so you can build a team. It’s this easy to duplicate system that attracts many people.

It’s that very same duplicatable system that can become a consultant’s downfall. The very system that works to get someone started in direct sales, discourages individualism, personal branding, and uniqueness. Without those qualities, it’s very difficult to excel in direct sales, especially online.

I’m not suggesting that consultants completely abandon the system. Many of the components work very well. But developing your own unique style will help your business soar.

The direct sales party works and following the company’s system and script will result in decent sales and team building. Putting your unique spin on your parties will lead to even more success. Think about it this way… once your best friend or your sister hosts a couple of parties for you, they may be thinking “been there, done that,” because for the most part every sales party is the same. But if you offer them something unique for their next party, they may be more willing to host another. Offering a theme party, reverse party, or a solutions party might convince them to gather their friends again.

For your Internet marketing, establishing your own online presence is essential to success. Use your own website (separate from the replicated site provided by your company), a social media presence, and content marketing to market and brand you. Not only will your recruiting efforts be more successful, but establishing yourself, separate from the company, means that you’ll have a business that can move on with you if you change companies or decide to go into something else.

Becoming uniquely you will help you stand out from the crowd and build success.

Resources:

• Theme party ideas
• What’s a reverse party?
• What’s a solutions party?
• What is Content Marketing?
• Blog Your Way to Direct Sales Success

Perhaps content marketing can be summed up by simply saying “Give the people what they want.” People come online looking for information and solutions. Using content marketing to provide potential customers with the information they’re looking for is highly effective.

Content marketing can go by a lot of different names such as private media, branded content, customer media and so on, but they are all essentially content marketing. This is probably one of the best ways to make sure your marketing is being truly effective.

One definition of content marketing is: a technique of making and distributing valuable and relevant content to bring in a much defined target audience with the over all objective being the creation of sales. Basically this is a way to reaching out to your customers and potential customers in a way specifically designed to attract them to you and keep them coming back.

Content marketing is all done without overtly trying to sell a product; it is intended to educate and inform the customers. With typical marketing, the goal is to make a sale and the product or service is the main point of the approach. Content marketing is very different from this approach and has proven to be very effective.

The idea around content marketing is to deliver consistent and useful information to the customer. In return, they will reward the company with their business and, over time, their loyalty to the brand. This form of marketing creates a bond between the customer and the company. This bond is a very hard one to break and results in ongoing business over time and a loyal customer.

Traditional marketing is becoming less and less useful as customers are able to skip commercials or change the channel on the TV. Ads in papers and billboards are not interactive and provide no real help to the customer. Pop-ups on the Internet are another way advertisers try to market their products but this can be ineffective as more and more people use their pop-up blocking tools on their browsers to avoid these invasive marketing tactics.

Content marketing breaks the mold completely and as odd as it may seem, the customer is the one who searches out the information they need. Not only do they remember where they found what they needed, they remember who provided the useful information as well -and this is where the marketing comes in.

Potential customers will buy from a company they trust and feel has the same interests as they do. This is why providing helpful advice and information is so very important to this marketing strategy. Most of the time, the people reading information on a web page don’t realize they are being marketed to as they read the content.

Recent studies have shown 70-80% of people who were surveyed, felt more comfortable buying something from a company they trust. Content marketing builds trust, because the customer begins to look forward to your next content installment and may make decisions based on the information given.

To learn more simply click the link to claim your free report, Content Marketing Explained: Why Your Business Needs Content.

To view and print this file you will need a PDF reader. If you don’t have one, you can get Adobe Reader for free here.

 

 
Note: Every effort has been made to accurately represent our product and its potential. Each individual’s success depends on his or her background, dedication, desire and motivation. As with any business endeavor, there is an inherent risk of loss of capital and there is no guarantee that you will earn any money. Click here for complete terms of use and disclaimer.