Questions to Assess Your Notepad Design by: Brent Durell

Are your custom notepads truly fit for marketing purposes? Notepad printing has of course been used for
many purposes, and marketing is one of the more alternative but surprisingly effective uses for them. However not all types of notepad printing can be used for marketing.

So, to help you determine if your own color notepads are good for marketing, here are the five basic assessment questions that you should try to answer. Just go through the steps below and you should see if your custom notepad printing will work.

1. Is your header logo and design distinct? � For a color notepad to be used for marketing, its header logo and design should of course be distinct. This allows people using the notepad to recognize and identify the maker of the notepad, and hopefully trust it more in the future.

So you should always assess if your own color notepads have header logos and designs that are distinct and different from the rest. It must have something really original so that people won�t ignore it as they use the notepad. If it does not have that distinct header element, then you might as well not use them for marketing.

2. Is your design in full color? � A good color notepad for marketing is always printed in full color. Full color notepad printing allows designers to use full color graphics in their designs for the logos, headers, watermarks and footers in the layout. So you should ask yourself if your printing options for notepad printing are set for full color or for single color prints. Make sure that it is set for full color notepad printing if you really want you use those custom pads for marketing purposes.

3. Does your notepad have a call to action? � The next question to ask is if your notepads have a �call to action�. For those new to marketing, a call to action in a printed or visual marketing medium is the part of the print where you convince people to respond to the marketing message. This is crucial for the print to produce any kind of result in marketing. Typically this is something like a statement that says �buy now!� or �contact us now!� Your color notepads must have this if they are truly aimed for marketing. So check and see if you have this element.

4. Is the size of the notepad easily mobile and easily kept? � Also, you should ask yourself if your color notepads have the proper size and dimensions for it to be mobile and be easily kept. Marketing notepads must always be small enough so that people can easily carry them around. This allows for better distribution for marketing purposes and for better acceptance by the market in general. So make sure that your custom notepad�s size is appropriate for a more mobile marketing campaign. Anything smaller than 8.5 by 11 inches should be good.

5. Is your notepad easily functional and useful? � Finally and perhaps most importantly, you should ask yourself if your marketing notepads are functional and useful. If your designs take too much space and make the notepad hardly writable then your marketing notepads fail. Make sure that your notepads have ample space for note taking so that they can still be relevant and useful for your market.

That is your 5 assessment questions for marketing notepads. If your custom notepad designs pass these questions then you have a good print design there for proper marketing.

Ad Age Survey: Marketers Buy Facebook More for Awareness Than Likes or Leads

By: Cotton Delo
Marketers who buy ads on Facebook are more focused on building brand awareness than accumulating fans, according to a new survey of Ad Age subscribers by Ad Age and Citigroup.
Asked to identify their primary goal in Facebook ads, 45.9% of respondents put building awareness and sentiment for their brands at the top. Driving traffic to brand websites was the second most-cited goal, with 17.6% of respondents saying it is their most important objective, followed by building fans or likes, staying in touch with customers, generating sales leads and social commerce.
The full survey results are available to DataCenter .
The third-place showing for fan acquisition is perhaps surprising because racking up "likes" has been the centerpiece of many Facebook marketing strategies, even if marketers have also persistently griped that they don't know whether likes translate to increased sales.
"Brands spent a lot of time and energy in 2011 building up their fan base, and fan acquisition was a top goal for many brands," said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer. "I think what you're seeing now is an evolution; now we have these fans and we have to figure out what to do with them."

Ms. Williamson noted that branding and awareness are consistently shown to be a top goal for marketers on social media, but that lead generation and sales tend to be higher priorities for b-to-b brands. On Facebook, those might be the marketplace advertisers buying ads at auction with the goal of driving game downloads and getting targeted users that might have an affinity for their product to visit their websites.
Meanwhile, the setbacks of Facebook commerce have been well documented, so it's not surprising that commerce would be the respondents' last priority, she said.
Facebook's pitch to the world's biggest consumer marketers is that it's a branding platform like TV, and it's been urging them to focus less on metrics such as click-through rates and more on reach and "resonance." The fact that a plurality of survey respondents said brand awareness was their top goal might mean that Facebook's message is sinking in, leading marketers away from expecting immediate results up front.
But "branding" could also be a response from people who feel bullish about their presence on Facebook but don't yet know what the return will be.

Build Referral-Generating Relationships With Content

By Steve Klinghoffer

Regardless of the nature of your health care practice, you may have heard the terms "relationship-based marketing" or "content marketing" recently. In marketing circles, they have become today's buzzwords. Because I have helped businesses market themselves with editorial content for almost three decades, I know content marketing to be tried and true-not a fad. When I first entered this business as a young attorney-turned-entrepreneur, we called it newsletter marketing; today, we might also refer to it as Internet, e-mail or social media marketing. Regardless of what you call it, today's marketing comes down to the idea that content is king.

Marketing has always been about relationships, but traditional advertising has changed. For today's marketers, the single best way to maintain relationships with patients and referring health care providers is through content marketing. The people you work with-and want to work with-are skeptical of marketing, especially from a health care provider. They're not looking to be sold. They're looking for a professional with a solid reputation.

By providing valuable content, you can meet the needs of patients and referring health care providers and build relationships with them. Whether it's a blog, eNewsletter, printed newsletter or social media, a content marketing strategy can build powerful relationships and generate results.

Here are four tips to make your content marketing work for your health care practice:

1. It's about them, NOT you.
The focus of traditional advertising was always "me, me, me." But the truth is, your patients and referral sources care much less about you than they do about what you can do for them. That's what makes content marketing so powerful. A dentist, for example, can develop content related to the latest breakthroughs in treatment options and provide links to these with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media.

By informing your audience, you'll demonstrate that you are the expert they should trust with their health, not the one simply trying to sell them a service.

2. Provide value.
Remember that it's about them, and your content marketing will best meet the needs of your readers. Ask yourself, will my patients or referring health care providers care about this? Why should this matter to them? These questions will help you keep the focus on information they will value. And they'll remember you for it.

3. Persist.
Sometimes, if they don't see instant results, health care practices can become discouraged with their content marketing strategy. You often won't know the full long-range impact of your blogs, newsletters or social media posts. But remember that quality content is doing something very powerful: It consistently reinforces the idea that you're the expert in your field, whether it be pediatric dentistry, orthodontics or physical therapy. It also keeps you top-of-mind with your audience.

Marketing Returns to the 16th Century

By Anthony M Turner

Take a quick look back through your history books to the 16th century and you'll quickly recognize that most people lived in small villages and seldom made contact with people from outside.

Obviously there was no electricity, telephones, public transport or other modern accoutrements back in that time which probably accounts for why most villagers seldom travelled outside of their village boundaries and when they did, it was slow and often arduous.

Typically any marketing activity revolved around the local village community and mainly happened in the local market square; the centre point of the village, the hub of commercialism and the focal point for many community relationships.

As with all societal groups, individuals got on with and trusted some neighbours more than others but all listened to local gossip and, whether they believed it or not, often used that gossip as a barometer for deciding who to do business with and who to stay clear of.

Step forward in time a little to the time of the 'railway' and then to the time of the 'telegraph' and notice how those previously remote areas become influenced by the goings on of the city and how astute city merchants created catalogues, brochures and travelling salesmen to enlighten the poor country folk as to what they were missing out on and how much better their lives would be if they only purchased whatever was being sold.

Modern marketing was born at this time and gathered momentum as the years progressed. Marketers started to develop and engage in all the psychological tactics to sell more of their wares we commonly see today. City businesses created shops, offices and manufacturing businesses to create market advantage through 'localised service' in order to sell more and more product.

As time marched forward to the information age, we saw the introduction of technologies - radio, television and then internet which sped up the sales/marketing processes and enabled marketers' greater access and faster tools to 'brainwash' consumers into the many benefits of their products through campaigns of mass advertising, societal manipulation and blatant selling.

For many years customers followed the trends, bought the products and dived deeper and deeper into debt as they blissfully contributed to an ever wasteful cycle of consumerism.

But then they (the consumers) started to wake up, they started to realise how they had become slaves to all this 'stuff' that was meant to make their lives easier, they started to resent the constant bombardment of messages telling them they were not OK if they didn't have Brand X and started to get frightened as they realised their whole world was crumbling under ever increasing mountains of debt.

They also found their voice and, through tools like social media, blatantly tell the world about those who have betrayed their trust, who have given poor service or who sell shoddy products or deliver shoddy service.

So, welcome to the world of consumer scepticism, a world where advertising messages are no longer believed and trusted, a world where personal referral from those we trust determines our buying patterns more frequently, a world where consumers help each other to determine who is worth dealing with and who is not. Then look at the way we are creating buying communities (villages) based on common interest and common need rather than geographical location and realize marketing has returned to the 16th century style - just with a global, modern twist.

Article written by Anthony M Turner - an Australian based Coach, Mentor and skills trainer for small business who has assisted around 2000 individual business owners from a wide variety of business disciplines to achieve their best.

How One to One Marketing Works

By Leland P Nelson 

One to one marketing or most known as personalized marketing is an extreme form of product differentiation. One to one marketing differentiates products from competing ones by giving unique product offerings for each customer. It is an approach that focuses on providing services or products to one customer at a time by identifying and then meeting their individual needs. One to one marketing had been most useful in interactive media such as the Internet.
This kind of strategy is applicable in all parts of organization like marketing, sales, production, service, finance, etc. Furthermore, One to One Marketing recognizes the lifetime values of loyal customers who make repeat purchases far exceed that of changeable customers who constantly switch suppliers in search of a bargain.
One to one marketing has four main steps to accomplish its desired outcome. Firstly is Identify. In this stage the main concern is to known the customers of a company, to collect reliable data about their preferences. Second is Differentiate. Distinguish the customers in terms of their lifetime value to the company, to know them by their priorities in terms of their needs and divide them into more restricted groups. Third is Interact. The aim in this stage is to know by which communication channel and by what means to contact with the client is best made. It is needed to get the customer's attention by engaging with him in ways that are known as being the ones that he prefers the most. Lastly is Customize. Personalize the product or service to the customer individually. The data that the company has gathered about a customer, needs to be put into practice and the information held has to be taken into account in order to be able to give the client exactly what he wants.
Two forms of one to one marketing are personalization and customization. Personalization is when the company's decision is based on the previous collected data from the customer, what marketing mix is suitable for individual. Example of this is Amazon.com which uses collaborative filtering to find out what book and music to recommend to customers. Customization is when the customer proactively specifies one or more elements of his or her marketing mix. Example of this is MyYahoo feature at Yahoo.com which allows users to specify elements of their home page such as the weather forecast, reports on their favorite stocks, or priorities given to local sports news.

Why Postcard Marketing?

By Dennis Boyd Jr

Postcards are a cost-effective alternative for generating leads, getting the word out about your business and your special offers, i.e. marketing. Unlike other advertising methods your message is delivered directly to the decision maker and the best part is... they don't have to open anything to get your message.
They are also cheaper than mailing letters. In fact, since the new postage increase has taken place (Effective January 22, 2012), the postage cost to mail out a standard 1st class postcard ($0.32) is over 28% cheaper than mailing out a standard 1st class letter ($0.45).
You should use them to pre-qualify prospects before they enter your sales cycle. Let them self-nominate to receive future contact from you. (When this happens, you will no longer have to make cold calls. You will make warm calls because THEY WANT what YOU HAVE to offer).
You are not trying to sell your prospect with this piece. You want them to take action and request more information. This establishes you as the expert and puts you in control because the prospect wants YOUR EXPERTISE to satisfy THEIR WANTS and NEEDS.
With any lead generation tactic, you should ALWAYS use a two-step approach. By this I mean you need to have a "Do this, Get that" mentality. In the industry, this is known as Direct-Response Marketing. Keep it simple, the harder you make things for the prospect, will in turn make it harder for you to convert them into a new customer or client.
Direct mail gives the prospect an opportunity to self-nominate and say "Hey, I'm giving you permission to market to me, now show me what you got!"
Once your prospect takes action (visits your website, sends your reply card, reply envelope or calls you for more information), you have momentarily secured their desire and now you must handle any objections they may have and close the sale. If you do not close on that call, you must follow-up with Excellent Customer Service.
Sounds like a lot of work doesn't it? Seems like it might be too much to handle? If you were doing all of this work yourself, yes it could be a lot, but as a business owner, you need a simple automated system that works for you instead of you working for it.
When you decide to use postcards as ONE OF YOUR marketing tools, you leverage your time, money and effort, so your business will do all the things it's supposed to do: increase profits, generate qualified leads, attract new business and build brand awareness... whether you decide to work or not... and do it consistently.

Package Design

By Deb Favilla 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the right packaging design is worth a thousand commercials. Packaging is much more than a plain paper box for distributing and showcasing your merchandise. A product's packaging should allow your product to stand out among the competition. The packaging design is a statement about your company, and the design should provide a pleasant customer experience after the product is purchased.
When consumers visit a store, a barrage of products and choices visually assault them, many of which are competing directly with your product. As consumers scan the shelf, they can decide which product to purchase in a matter of seconds. In that time, if the packaging design of your product does not immediately "stand-out" and "grab" the consumers' attention, they will purchase something else. Manufacturers of packaging and paper products employ creative professionals who can assist you with colors and graphics that grab a consumer's eye and make your product stand-out among the competition.
Another way to make your product stand-out is with point-of-purchase displays. Generally a large stand-alone display is located at the end of a shelf or near the checkout line at a store. A countertop display is located on a counter or shelf next to the point-of-purchase. Both stand-alone and countertop displays present a product that is easy for the customer to see and convenient to pick up. They encourage the consumers to make a last-minute or impulse purchase as they wait in line to pay for their merchandise.
Brand identification is essential in marketing your products. Proper branding immediately associates a consumer with products and enterprises, and the packaging design of your product should reflect your brand. A consumer might not recall all the details of an advertisement, but they can remember a dynamic graphic or catchy logo. The right branding can draw the attention of new customers and continue to hold and increase the loyalty of existing customers.
The goal of effective packaging design does not end with attracting the customer before the purchase but should also create a pleasant customer experience after the purchase. Packaging materials such as foam inserts, partitions, or packing peanuts ensure that the product is shipped without breakage. No consumer wants to open a package to find the merchandise inside appearing as if it just went through a trash compactor. Packaging design can also make the product easy to access and enjoyable to remove from the package. If there is more than one product in the package, or if the product has multiple parts, good packaging design ensures that all the items are well organized and easy to locate.
When considering the needs of shipping your product and how best to create a striking visual attraction to the packaging, a professional and experienced company that employs creative professionals and most modern design applications will best fit your needs. From production to point-of-sale, experts in packaging design can provide you with a range of options that can meet your package requirements and fit your budget.

The Importance of Capturing Consumer Email Data

By Inge Van Eetveldt 

Consumer email data is one of the most valuable resources available to brands in the marketing field. Collecting and being in control of a consumer database not only provides your company with a direct link to your most loyal consumers, it allows your brand to communicate in a way that is personal and highly effective. Email communication with your consumers can take many forms - whether you simply want to keep your consumers up to date on what's happening in your company or whether you use their information to create perfectly personalised promotional campaigns - the fact remains that your company database is the fuel that drives the most powerful engine in digital marketing: email.
Why email is still the best
As channels such as social media and mobile connectivity become more ubiquitous every day, may brands are inevitably asking whether it is necessary to still place as much emphasis on the collection of consumer email data in particular. Surely a Facebook 'like' or some steady traffic to your site fulfils the same objective? The short answer in this case is no. Email is still considered to be the best and most effective marketing medium available to brands and while social media and content marketing strategies also have their roles to play, they simply cannot compete with the measurable efficacy of an email marketing campaign created with the help of a profiled database. Email provides marketers with exact statistics that can track and analyse the behaviour of your consumers - unlike with other media - there is no guesswork here. You can have specific insights into who saw and interacted with your brand's campaign.
Personalised campaigns
Brands that have access to a profiled and managed email database are able to create personalised campaigns. This means using the information provided to your brand by the consumers themselves upon sign-up in order to create tailored campaigns that appeal to individual subscribers on some or even multiple levels. When it comes to personalisation in email marketing the sky is the limit - it all depends on how extensively you have asked subscribers to profile themselves. Ultimately, people respond to content and messages that are relevant to them and with email marketing and a personalised database, you don't have to fire a shot in the dark and hope that it may be relevant to the person who receives your message.
Email data rental
Email marketing in itself is a fairly simple marketing vessel, but its power lies in the quality of the consumer email data to which it is sent. However, not all companies have been in business long enough or simply collecting data long enough to have a database able to provide them with a real return on investment. This is where reputable email marketing companies that specialise in email data rental steps in. Renting another company's data means that you will gain short and limited access to their database where their subscribers have opted in to receive material from companies like you. Email data rental provides companies with a larger audience than they normally would have while also allowing your brand the option of growing your own email database through them.
Collecting email consumer data is still as important as ever, and now that email can be incorporated into all aspects of a holistic digital campaign it is one that should never be neglected.

Five Tips When Negotiating With B2B Leads

By Belinda R Summers 

As part and parcel of b2b lead generation campaign, it is only normal to be involved in business negotiations. You have to admit that this is a task that is rather difficult to perform if you are not skilled in talking with b2b leads or prospects. But you will agree that this is a necessity. Closing business deals will depend on your skills in creating brand value, and you need to prepare a few things first before you go ahead with your plans and try calling up prospects. Failure to consider the basics may put you in a bad position later on. So, how will you be able to do it? What should you be thinking about?
1. Know their ceiling - as a rule, there is a certain price or value of your service that prospects are simply not willing to pay. You need to identify what level prospects are willing to sign up before you give out the actual price. You do not want to set a price that might be easily countered by your competition in appointment setting, right?
2. Offer higher tier products first - even if prospects are looking for only a basic business solution, introducing them a higher tier product may actually be a good way to make them sign up. Only sales leads that are entirely certain of their affairs will be able to reject your offers, but most would be willing to pay the higher price, if it meant getting a higher end product or service.
3. Give some discounts - depending on the product or service you are offering, it would be advisable to offer a discount to your prospects. It would be a good idea for volume purchases or advanced payment. It will encourage prospects to do business with you. This is a normal tactic at the start, especially if you are working with them for the first time.
4. Talk to the decision maker - in the course of your work, you will have meetings with lower level executives who will demand this and that from you. As much as much as possible, before you proceed to offer different contract terms, get the feedback from the person who will actually sign the paper. You might end up offering something far less than what the prospect actually had in his mind.
5. Put a floor on your price - this is one of the most important points to consider. Remember, there is no point getting that deal if you are not making any profit at all. Try adding up the costs you will incur in providing the product or service. From there, you can sketch a clear idea on how much you should be charging. Taking deals below that amount will put you in a tight spot, no matter the size of your production volume.
It also pays to know what marketing tool you should be using to communicate with business prospects. There are a lot available, like social media or telemarketing, but what is important here is that it fits your business structure well. It should also maximize your capacity in finding, generating, and qualifying business leads.

Know How Popup Advertising Plays an Important Role in Internet Marketing by: Dylan K. Williams

Popup advertising can be very useful depending on how they are used. Most of the internet marketing experts and companies use this advertising strategy for obtaining the best results. The primary purpose of this method is to pull up the web traffic to a particular promotional website. Apart from this, popup ads will also help the business to draw more email addresses, which will be important for generating good contact lists and customer data base. This will in return help the company for email advertisement campaign. Usually, this is considered as a form of online advertisement. These are some of the major reason why it used in the internet marketing. When popup advertising is used in online marketing, it will help the website to maximize the distribution of the product information to many people. The usage of this online marketing strategy can become useful, useless or even harmful to your website. Therefore, if you are planning to use this technique for your website, it is very important to understand the process thoroughly and then use it for obtaining effective results.

The main aim of the popup advertising is to attract more web traffic to a promotional website. This could be done when certain website will be viewed by the visitors. When a visitor will visit a website, a pop up window will be allowed to appear. These ads will convince the visitor for visiting certain website for getting some freebies. Moreover, they will also provide useful information for the visitors. When the visitor is bound to visit the website, he has to click on the ad. However, when you are using such popup ads, for your website, it is very important to make sure that you are using the right graphics and words. In some cases, the visitor will neglect the pop up ads if it is very bright or in striking color. Therefore, it is very important to make sure that the ad is created in the right way, which suits your business. In order to enhance the ad, you can also give it a blinking effect. The pop up ads should be simple in appearance yet attractive for the visitors. The first glace only should convenience the eye of the visitor.

Another great advantage of using popup advertising for web advertising is that, it will help the company to generate email addresses, which are very useful for list building. When you are using pop up ads, you will be able to use it either non-permissive or in opt-in way. In opt in process, the pop up window will appear when the user is about to go away the promotional website. In some times, it will also appear when the visitor is halfway by visiting it. These pop up ads will ask the user whether he or she needs to receive newsletters about the products or services they are promoting. Here the visitor has the power to either enter his email address or even to neglect it. However, this depends on the choice of the user. When you are surfing on the web, you will be able to find pop up windows that will even provide you information on wellness, health as well as the latest trends. These ads are more informational than promotional.

Non permissive is another option of generating the email addresses with the help of pop up ads. In this list building process, the pop up window will come out by offering downloadable useful applications and unbelievable freebies, as an online advertising process. This process is also some times known as banner ads.

Can Internet Marketing Be a Long Term Business? by: Tanaka Ara

Here is the basic honest truth: most of the people get into Internet Marketing because they are convinced it is an easy way to earn quick money. Their approach is to make a fast website, put up some advertising and a few affiliate links and then sit back and watch while they earn real cash. There are a large amount of individuals who do this and also earn lots of money on the internet. But what if you want more than some extra or even quick cash (quick cash, naturally being a misnomer)? Can Internet Marketing really be leveraged to produce a worthwhile and long term career?

The quick and dirty answer is that yes, you are able to make Internet Marketing your long term and sustainable career. You only need to take on the project properly. The procedures and programs you use to build something to earn fast money are not all that different than the methods and systems you will use to build long term profits. So what would you do if you need to develop a sustainable career on the internet?

It is very important that the first thing you do, in order to earn long term money online, is accept the fact that you are going to have to do real work. You will have to do actual and real work on a daily basis and you will have days when you feel fantastic about what you do and days when you wish you could find something else to take on. This causes it to be just about like every other occupation that is out there. If you want to produce lasting cash flow by working lots right now and not at all later on then you are going to be in for a rude awakening in a little while. So be ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

There are a few ventures that lend themselves much better to a long term career than others will. Affiliate marketing, to use one example, is a great task for someone who wants to earn money on a part time basis or to supplement your already existent income. Is it truly possible to earn a full time income in this manner? You could if you pick out only the right products and then work like crazy to promote them. A far better approach, nevertheless, is to create your own products or websites and then promote those. This gives you full control over the projects you take on and how you accomplish them. And you will end up more likely to stick with it in the long run. If you want to give a service on the web this works much the same way. Writers, for example, need to create websites for themselves and create portfolios that they can point to as examples of their work.

Finally, perhaps the most significant thing that you need to recognize is that, when you want to build a long term and reliable income on the internet, you need to truly dedicate yourself to your task. You might have fun and feel rewarded by your efforts but first you should tell yourself "yes, I really want to do this." Making a half hearted effort is not about to get you anywhere.

How Viral Marketing Improves Online Efficiency

Viral marketing is a promotional strategy that has been in use for quite some time and has transitioned over onto the internet quite successfully. The strength behind this particular advertising technique is in its ability to help businesses spread their marketing message a whole lot faster and with less effort. In this way it helps to not only boost your exposure but also your ability to work much more efficiently as well!

Here are 3 significant ways in which any online business can expect to benefit by using this particular promotional strategy.

Time Efficient

Typically this advertising technique involves little more than sharing your marketing message with a relatively smaller crowd who then spread the word. Working online offers the advantage in many cases of automating your efforts even further resulting in greater savings of time! As any entrepreneur will tell you time is money and therefore a precious commodity that should be used wisely!

Cost Efficient

In most cases advertising in a viral manner online involves distributing free reports or leaving business links at social site, forums, bookmarking sites or even blogging. In every case there is little or no out of pocket expenses making this advertising technique very cost efficient!

Energy Efficient

By leveraging the efforts of others you are able to channel the energy you have saved into other areas of your business. As an entrepreneur this is extremely important since most functions and/or business tasks are left up to you to complete. Avoiding fatigue in this way helps you maintain a mental alertness that can be use in more constructive and creative ways. Your mistakes will be minimized and your ability to produce more and stay motivated will benefit as well!

Remember when fatigue does set in your ambition will naturally decrease and as mentioned above and you will be more prone to making mistakes. What happens here is that not only do your miscues create business inefficiencies but they also require more time and effort later on to fix!

The biggest advantage viral marketing offers a business or person is its ability to leverage the efforts of others to spread your marketing message. When this advertising technique is put to use online the benefits it offers magnify due to the automation and global audience the internet can supply! The single biggest advantage this promotional strategy offers is the increase efficiencies a business can experience as reviewed above. It therefore stands to reason that if you can increase efficiency you will also boost productivity thereby leading to greater sales and profits. With that said there seems to be little reason as to why you would not want to include this very effective promotional strategy into your online marketing mix!

by: TJ Philpott

Pay-Per-Click - Meet Search Engine Optimization

How to use your PPPC marketing to achieve #1 Google rankings that matter

By Michael Fleischner

As I continue to work with companies seeking to improve the return of their Internet marketing dollars, I’ve gained a new appreciation for the marriage of search engine marketing and search engine optimization.

Just a like a company’s house list, the information they gather from their own PPC campaigns can provide a significant boost to the effectiveness of their search engine optimization efforts. The key is to know what information you’re looking for and how to use it to generate qualified visitors to your website.

Qualified visitors are those that have a higher degree of interest in your products or services and a greater likelihood of purchasing your products. I’ve often seen websites that have reduced their traffic while significantly improving conversion rates. The result is lower costs related to traffic acquisition and higher revenue. With more revenue and less expense, margins reach a new level of success.

The concept that I teach in SEO training is the most effective way to combine pay-per-click advertising with search engine optimization is to focus on conversions. What keywords have you promoted through pay per click advertising that led to conversions? If you’ve been running PPC for a while and you are still unsure, then consider expanding your analytics to include Google conversion tracking.

Once you have the answer and know which terms produce the greatest conversions, regardless of ad variation, then you SEO keywords have been determined. You want to generate organic traffic to the same keywords you’re promoting through PPC as long as they are generating your highest conversions.

An example of this might be someone promoting an ebook on how to fix a car. If the highest converting keyword is, “car repair”, then you should consider car repair as a keyword phrase you must optimize for. Organic traffic to this term will produce targeted web site visitors and conversions for little or no money as you improve your rankings.

The last piece is to take your highest converting landing pages and build in some or all of the elements into your website. Once you’ve tracking and optimized landing pages via PPC, you can duplicate what you’ve learned from a conversion perspective organically. Consider applying the landing page elements that have generated the highest return for you on your pay-per-click advertising.

Whether you’re new to SEO or consider yourself a search engine optimization expert, leveraging your pay-per-click advertising is the best investment you can make. Determine which keywords generate the type of traffic that is most valuable to you and optimize around these terms. They will generate more traffic and revenue at a lower cost.

On-Page Optimization Techniques To Take Your Rankings To The Next Level!

After you've selected the keywords you want to optimize your website for, you need to focus on what is called on-page optimization. On page optimization is what you do on your website pages to improve organic rankings. The good news is that through years of research and experimentation I have identified the most important on page factors for improving organic rankings.

There are variety of optimization factors to consider when optimizing your web pages. I have found three factors in particular to have more of an impact than others when correlating them to search engine rankings. In particular, meta tags, URL structure, and page load speed all have a direct impact on search engine rankings for particular keywords or keyword phrases.

Meta tags are important to web site rankings because they provide some basic information to search engine spiders. Meta tags need to be formatted correctly to enhance search engine rankings. My research as shows that meta tags by themselves cannot radically improve rankings. It is my belief that meta tags may be used to verify other aspects of your website and are important for getting users to click through from search engine results.

The best formatted meta tags should include a title tag that includes the keywords that you are trying to optimize for. It is recommended that the size of the title tag is sixty or fewer characters as this is the limit shown on Google search results. The second meta tag is the description tag which should be limited to fewer than one hundred and fifty characters and repeat your keyword phrase no more than two times.

The last meta tag worthy of description is the keyword tag. I see this tag misused all too often and it may actually be hurting your search engine rankings. When using a keyword tag, focus on only a dozen of your most important and highly trafficked keywords. Search engines should know that you are an authority site and worthy of top rankings. Do your research and only include the keywords that truly matter. You can also evaluate the sites in the top positions and model their keywords as long as they are included on your web site or blog.

Once you have your meta tags within your web page code it's time to focus on the next on page optimization factor. The load time of your web pages matter a great deal to Google and other search engines. Not only does your web page need to be formatted correctly but it needs to load quickly. Fast loading web sites mean a better user experience. Search engines like Google reward you for providing the right information quickly to web site browsers. Keep load times to a minimum and continually work to improve the speed at which your site loads.

The third and certainly one of the most important factors is URL structure. It is true that having your keyword in the URL helps but it is not the only or the most heavily weighed optimization factor by Google. There are plenty of examples of sites that include the keyword in the URL being outranked by other web sites. If you can purchase a URL that has your keyword in it though, consider it advantageous. If you are unable to do so, consider adding a folder or page to your site that includes the keyword you want to optimize your site for. A good example would be www.sample.com/keyword. By doing so you are placing your keyword close to the root and giving it more value. Also consider a sub domain strategy.

Before you begin any search engine optimization effort, evaluate your web site, landing page, or blog from the perspective of meta tags, load speed, and URLs. There are additional on page factors we'll discuss in the next lesson, but the three mentioned herein are vitally important to your search engine optimization success.

Invest In Effective Banners & Display Stands to Promote Your Business!

Are you seeking to advertise your business in an innovative manner at cost effective prices?

You can explore a number of proficient methods to select the desired advertising techniques, which can spread your business and can target the potential clients. These commercial advertisement methods can be used in exhibition, road shows, display shows and in expo displays to convey the trade message to the people. Banners, display stands, roll up posters are the widely used advertising techniques, which are designed with a company logo, required information content and with the images of a targeted product. Banner stand is one of the most recommended products designed with certain information works fantastically to spread your business. For the people, who arrange seminars and participate in road shows, this displaying product helps them to leave a remarkable impression on the mind of people.

Roll up banners are the revolutionary commercial product, which can be used as a printed singled side or double sided with an interactive colour combination. Moreover, the message of the advertisement printed on the banner can be used in an impressive way to invite the attention of the desired audience. Such a banner material comes with a folding facility; you can keep them preserve for the next time when the current task is over. Roll up banners are high in demand in these days as it is the latest in trend. Whenever, you start purchasing or designing creative banners, always keep in mind that the material should be high quality, otherwise the printed colours do not give an imaginative effect. Convention display, as the name suggests, is highly sophisticated advertising method, which is being commenced for accomplishing the high profile business meets and conferences. Always keep in mind that such banners must be outlined with superb content which should be highly informative and material of good quality can be used for the same.

Convention display is a professional but commercial way to grab the important business meeting outcomes in your favour. The delegates should be impressed with these convention designs. Banner stand can be purchased for keeping outside the shops, malls and offices to advertise certain products and the new arrivals.

What are Custom Business Cards?

Custom business cards are the best option for you to have a unique card. Comparing with the traditional card the custom card might be quite expensive but obviously its value for money. A custom business card will boost the business and goodwill of the company. Through internet, you can locate the business card companies, which allow you to design your own card in your own style effortlessly.

Most of the companies make their card from an ordinary printer using the same pattern for all; this will not be successful if you want to be exceptional. In customizing your business card, you can do everything by your own such as the color, the font, the appearance and the kind of finish you want.

This provides you with the full freedom in choosing what all you want in the business card and what all you do not want. In addition, you can purchase a blank card, do your own design, and finally print your individual business card. In here, you can put in order the information according to your wish. Nowadays with the help of offset printing, you can get a good quality colored card with extremely low price. By using the perfect plan, you can make luxurious and good-looking cards and share out to your customers. A good idea before creating a card would be to research about things clearly and find out which printer can give you better stuff for low cost.

For custom business cards, you need to be ready with the cost involved, no other card can be as perfect as this one. The important purpose of the card is to furnish all information to the customers. Customizing helps, you witness the print of the card before placing the order. You can also alter the design of your card after sometime if you do not like it any more.

Gaining Customer Trust with Business Cards

When looking for the best and most economical way to market your business and give it a good image, then don’t neglect the wonders of the simple and tiny 2 by 31/2 inch of paper referred to as the business cards. Although they are tiny, they can give a great impact and leave a lasting impression to those you meet. Because of this, it is important that your cards have the right contact details. This is not only to promote your business but make it easy for people to contact you as well.

To start off, your name and business name are the most important things to consider. It’s critical that you strategically place them in your card depending on your need. For instance, if you are a representative of a company, the business name may be printed in more boldly than your name. But if you are a writer, you can have your name be the center of the card.

It is important that the design of your cards draw attention effectively. You can do this by using eye-catching images or your logo. As much as possible your logo has to be simple so it doesn’t distract the readers. Remember that your goal is to get your prospect’s attention and hold that long enough to present your offerings.

If your card has enough space, it may be essential to list down the types of services or products you offer. This is especially true if your business name does not reflect the nature of your business. List down your offerings at the back or you can put a tag line that describes the nature of your business. It’s not necessary to list down all the services and products you offer, just the top offerings or the general type of services. Keep your tag line short and simple. If it is too complex to understand, people will easily throw out your card.

Of course, your contact details are a must-have in your business card. If your target customers can't contact you perhaps because of an outdated phone number or erroneous address, they would easily turn to your competitors. Keep in mind that it’s critical that you keep your contact details updated to give your customers a quick and easy way of contacting you.

A mobile, office, or fax number will be enough in most cases, but you can also add in other ways for people to reach you personally. There are some customers who prefer to transact business directly. If this is the case, you can give your personal number to the customer. Be wary though of the people you give your personal give. Give it to people you trust only.

Your address is also an essential addition in your cards. Although this is the age of email and mobile phones, there are some instances when your address is needed, so make sure you include your address in your cards. Your address will also help give your business the image of stability, so you might want to keep need listed in your card.

Remember that your business cards are the single most important tool in gaining customer trust. So, make them work for you by ensuring they have the right information and contact details in your business card templates.

Tips for Chiropractic Marketing Online

Beginning your career as a chiropractor is not an easy thing to do. With accomplished, long term chiropractic clinics seemingly everywhere, establishing your own reputation and building a trust among people is a hard nut to crack. This is why using the internet for your marketing can be a way to differentiate between you and your competitors. But of course, it has to be done the right way.

When planning the marketing strategies for your services, it is always wise to keep in mind a mixed bag of strategies. First, analyze the chiropractic techniques and specialties you employ that set you apart from the other docs in town. This will help bring patients to your doors. Use your specialty as your keyword when marketing to leave a lasting impression on your potential public.

Surprisingly enough, the most effective methods of marketing nowadays, are free and easy. Using services such as email marketing, social networking, blogs, etc. can be really helpful for chiropractors. Listing your website in various chiropractic directories for example, can also help popularize your clinic and result in an increased number of patients.

If you depend on your website for marketing, then it is important to take care of certain points. For example, you should make your website user-friendly and employs relevant tools to make it more appealing for visitors. Also, starting a health newsletter can help you build an initial group of patients. This will keep people informed about your clinic and will help build a mutual trust level between you and your patient base.

With the right marketing techniques and tools, you can establish yourself as a well-reputed neighborhood doctor and can get lot of new patients. Don’t forget to showcase your areas of expertise as a method of reaching out to new potential patients.

Search Engine Optimisation Techniques To Increase Visibility Of Websites

A page one ranking on Google and other search engines instantly makes your business the obvious choice to buy from. Do you look past the first page when doing an Internet search for a product or service? Neither does anyone else.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process that helps business websites to get high visibility on search engines. The primary goal is to help businesses get top position on the search engines and to build their customer base.

If you are starting up an online business & trying to get your website ranked high on search engines, it is very important to know how the search engines crawl your site and how to encourage the search engine spiders to index your web pages to the top positions. At Enlightenment Business Solutions, we specialize in search engine optimization for small business owners who don’t have access to the resources and revenue that’s available to the big corporations, and we can cost-effectively show you ways to position your site And with 85% of prospects now shopping online versus offline, having a high SEO ranking adds up to some serious revenue. Here are three top Search Engine Optimisation Techniques that can easily get your website ranked high on search engine results.

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – This is the process which helps to rank your website or business organically in search engines. This technique helps to increase the visibility of your website so that more people are aware of your business, products, services and location etc.

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) – Pay per Click service is another type of organic SEO where you have to pay either per click or per impression. In this process advertisers typically make a bid on keywords phrases relevant to their target market.

3. Social Media Optimisation – Social Media Marketing is a process through which your website is made popular on social networking / media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Multiply, Twitter etc. It is a widely used technique to build visibility and generate awareness for your website or business among user groups interested in your business model.

Apart from these if you want to know more search engine optimisation techniques please visit Enlightenmentbusinesssolutions.com where we have a free SEO webinar and social media marketing webinar available to give you everything you need to help increase website traffic and boost your sales!

Why Use Outsourced Telemarketing in Market Research?

Doing business today is defined by the power of the customers. Though companies in the United Kingdom may have the best goods and services, there is little guarantee that it will make big waves in the market. Even costly adverts or various promotional tactics do not warrant high profitability. Not to mention the fact that there are other companies, business giants or small firms, which also sell the same products. Unless British business organisations know what their prospective clients want, they will not have a chance of reaching short-term and long-term goals. It is not enough that they have everything right and proper inside their company. What makes the big difference and sets the tone of success is to offer what the customers need and desire to buy regularly. If not, they will continue spending their money without gaining any income in return.

The best solution in increasing sales performance is to catch the attention of the intended users on what you are offering. Knowing the preferences of the sales prospects, their buying behaviour and the market trends is the most effective way to create products that will sell like pancakes. In addition, gaining some aboveboard knowledge on what your competitors gives you an idea on how to outwit them legally and ethically. Do not just confine your company on making goods or services in your own taste and perspective. Think in the shoes of your potential customers in order to craft marketing campaigns that will influence them. This is precisely what market research is borne for- to supply you with rich and relevant information anything about the purchasing practices of the clients.

Market research, also called as market survey, is a comprehensive method that aims to gather and interpret accurate, up-to-date and significant information about the current behaviour and trends in the target market. This set of data will not only display several insights but also will guide you to make informed decisions and wise judgements. For one, it gives you the opportunity to know the level of satisfaction that consumers experience with your products as well as their expectations. Then, it reveals what they like about the offers of your rivals, the recent volume of demand and sales trends. It also measures the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and a helluva lot more. When these information are at hand, you can make some necessary adjustments that would ensure that your products click with the intended users and sales promotion techniques will leave a great impact.

However, primary market researches are expensive, time-consuming and require expertise. The cost of obtaining it may not be within your firm's budget, and/or you may not have the right people with the right skills who are capable of conducting such big responsibility. A good alternative is to seek the assistance of a telemarketing call centre that is adept, experienced and reputed in organising telephone surveys. With a very good medium in the form of telemarketing, this program can be easily started and finished while maintaining SOPs and producing high-quality information. Since outsourcing is naturally cheaper than an in-house undertaking, financial barrier is then eliminated.

I know that there is a big question on the reliability of call centres, especially that they are only known for lead generation, customer service support and contact list. However, there are some telemarketing service providers that have a history of accomplishing successful market researches. Needless to say, these firms have exceptional professionals that may just be the experts that you are looking for. If you think that telemarketing and outsourcing are the best ways to conduct a market research, hire a first-rate call centre now.

How Telemarketing Uses Alternatives To Deal With Bad Gatekeepers

It is popularly perceived that when it comes to pitting telemarketers against gatekeepers, there is a tendency to demonize the former. Given the negative reputation that telemarketing has received, it is expected. However, it is still unfair to believe that gatekeepers are infallible.

On the contrary, they can make mistakes that can be just as frustrating as the mistakes that telemarketers make. And whether you are employing telemarketers or outsourcing them, you should try employing additional channels so that these mistakes do not stand in the way of your marketing campaign.

But first, just what are the mistakes being discussed here?

• #1 Ignoring decision maker - Some gatekeepers can be so tough and so adamant that they forget what it is they are keeping your callers from. The problem with this is that they also shut out other parties who have a right to call their decision maker. This is not just limited to your telemarketers either. It could also include workers in the same company!


• #2 Exploiting their position - If you think telemarketers have a bad image, gatekeepers are not that far off the hook either. There will always be that one person in the company who aims for the top but does so in the worst possible way. These are the schemers, the backstabbers, and in other words the people who exploit their position even though it will always be their boss who has the final say.


• #3 Being too lax or gullible - Unlike the previous two, a gatekeeper who just lets callers pass by does not seem so bad. However, it is still a mistake when your call winds up as yet another that the decision maker automatically rejects because he or she is too busy. Such gatekeepers are not doing their job (if not that, then maybe they are just a little gullible and your agents should avoid exploiting them).

Now that these bad habits have been covered, here are just some of the alternatives that can be used to bypass them and improve your B2B telemarketing success rate:

• Email - Engage with a prospect via email first and get them to give you the go signal. That way, once your agents shift back to the phone, they actually have a foothold waiting for them on the other side. This can expose hardheaded gatekeepers who are not paying any actual attention to the people they are guarding.


• Inbound website - Think of it as like your customer ordering a pizza but and they tell off whatever guard they have who gets in the way of your delivery guy. A marketing website can function in the same way. Should a badly behaved gatekeeper hold up your agent, you now have a gatekeeper who will find their attention drawn to it because it is delaying an expected call.

Business Success Tips - Are These Proofing Errors Hurting Your Business?

Are you missing the mark with your image? Are you allowing errors and a lack of updates spoil your good impressions? If so, you need to make changes quick. Today, there are so many more things to consider than in the past. It used to be as long as your website was good, you were good. But today, you have to take into account not only your website, but your newsletter, your blog, your social media, and even your marketing efforts. That's why it's so important to take the time to continually check and make sure the image you project is a good one and consistent with your brand.

When prospects or clients visit your website or review your social media sites and see outdated information or typos, they immediately lose confidence in your services. In fact, many will bolt, never to return. But here are a few tips which should help in your efforts to keep things updated and accurate. Many you might not have considered.

Tips for checking your website:

• Make sure the copyright date is current. This is often in the footer of every page. Nothing shouts "I'm out of date and not up to speed on things" more than a 2009 copyright notice.

• Your page titles (metatags). Every time you update a web or sales page with a new product or service, make sure the metatag description matches the updated information. Why is this important? A good example would be if you use social media to promote your products and services. When you use this tactic it's most likely you will use links back to your website or sales page. If this is the case, and the title does not match the link, it could be confusing for your prospective buyer. It is also unprofessional to have this conflicting information and you may lose any SEO advantages you may have had if you had used the correct metatags.

• Typos. Not much more needs to be said about this. Typos are never good. They do happen, but the risk can be minimized. That's why it can be beneficial to have someone else (such as your online support specialist) proof your materials. You might be too close to the content to notice. A fresh pair of eyes can find the obvious grammatical errors and incorrect punctuation. Here's a common one that sends up a red flag every time-The punctuation should go before the quotes in most cases (."?"!" etc.)

Tips for checking your social media efforts:

• Again, take the time to review your blogs, Facebook profiles, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, etc. Are the links working? Do they still represent what you are doing today? Did you find any typos?

• Are your pages updated? You may have run a class months ago yet neglected to remove the information, even though it's no longer relevant. Once again, it sends the message that you're not on top of things.

It's a lot of work to keep up-to-date and accurate. This is one area where you really should consider partnering with an online support specialist... someone who has your back because they are routinely checking these things for you and keeping you up-to-date. Let's talk about how we can help you in this area (and more.)

Customised Ring Binders: Marketing At Its Purest

Internet marketing is all the rage these days, and with good reason. This new form of marketing can be highly effective if carried out correctly, and the results can make it very worthwhile.

However, the rise of internet marketing does not mean that it should take over from traditional marketing methods. Some of the best marketing techniques are still to be found in traditional methods, and one of these comes in the form of customised ring binders.

Every office uses folders and binders, but you are missing a trick if you do not get them customised. Your logo, company colours, mission statement and contact details can all be presented on your customised folders and binders, and getting your ring binders customised can be a very cost-effective branding strategy.

Use Your Binders as Free Gifts

Everyone likes a freebie, and if you visit industry events or trade shows as part of your business activities then you can take advantage of the marketing possibilities of customised ring binders.

If all your staff are using them that is great because it will improve your brand awareness. However, if you give your customised ring binders away to people enquiring about your services then that is even better.

If the quality is good then this is an effortless and very affordable way to make sure that your potential customers and clients help to spread the word about your company without any effort on your part. Not only will other people at the event see your branding, but they may end up taking your ring binders back to their offices and using them. As long as the quality is high and your ring binder is not a throwaway product, giving them away for free can be very effective.

Develop a Professional Image

The sheer fact that you are using customised ring binders will make a statement about your company. Say you run a very small company or you are a freelancer. If you are seen using your own customised stationary then this can help to make an impact on customers and clients who may take you more seriously as a result.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is important for any company, no matter how small. Just because you have a branded website, you should not forget about the importance of branding in the offline world. There are countless opportunities for your branded products to get noticed, and high-quality customised ring binders that last a long time are ideal for this.

Once the initial cost has been taken into account, there is no reason why your customised ring binders will not go on improving your band awareness for years to come. There is real longevity in this marketing technique, making it a very effective and cost-effective option.

Develop Great Ideas For Referral Marketing Ploys

Marketers try to improve and increase their business by spending time pondering, inquiring from consumers and strategising to come up with good results. It would help to use a few marketing ideas with referrals for increasing marketing strengths and promoting customer base with great business opportunities.

Establish a good relationship by using referral strategy when marketing. In order to attract clients, it is necessary to implement processes that can take one's business to a higher level. Build an impressive client base and promote products to increase sales.

Different Referral Ideas for Marketing:

Here are a few tips to help you promote your business to the next level using referral marketing:

Customers should be presented with a free service that is directly related to the business periodically. You could entice them by giving a car freshener or a buffing towel free when they use the car wash service.

Once you understand why customers prefer you over others, you should try to expand on this point and increase the service that you provide as they can offer you the best referral marketing willingly if they are happy with your service.

Offer rebates when large purchases are made, or if you are offering costly services, as this is a great way of stimulating passive referrals. Make the customer aware that you are passing down the discounts in large volumes as and when you receive them.

Celebrate once a year by picking an unconventional holiday that is not a prominent day and offer gifts, discounts or credits to the customers. You will notice that the interest generated is more pronounced in the following year than the first one. Success will be yours when you celebrate and brand your business annually. This referral marketing approach is non-competitive and a great strategy.

It is a good idea to give away a useful tool that is popularly helpful to customers. Many friends and family members will notice your business logo which works as a passive referral marketing to your advantage. Try to select a useful item that will be popularly displayed such as key chains or t-shirts, if you cannot find one that relates to your type of business, try to use passive referral idea for marketing.

It is a good strategy to pack one extra product with some of the items and gently suggest that this can be shared with a family member or friend. Another aggressive idea for a marketing campaign is to offer consumers a free gift certificate, along with a gift to offer friends or family.

Send snail mail or cyber mail coupons to customers thanking them for being loyal to your business. It is also a great idea to include a coupon code or another coupon for their friend or associate.

How to Work From Your Strengths

Today's topic is about working only from your strengths.

 I work with all sorts of entrepreneurs: people who are just ramping up their business, people who are looking to have massive leverage in their business and people who play a really bigger game - visionaries who are creating a legacy.

Once you get to a point where you have filled your practice and have the number of clients and customers that you can handle, it's about leveraging. One of the ways to leverage your business is to really look at what your strengths are in the business and what is the ideal team because as you start to leverage you need to bring on team members. You simply can't do everything yourself.

One of the things that I've realized is that when you're working from your strengths and only from your strengths, you actually make so much more money than if you're doing things that you are not good at. You should not be doing anything in your business that is costing you money because you're simply not good at it.

Another thing that I've realized, and this is what I coach our clients on, is that the ideal team, even if it's you and some virtual assistants, is made up of four different categories of people. If you only have one or two of these four, you're really missing out on multiplying your business. I want to share what those four categories are and explain to you how to set that up in your business.

1. Strategic Thinker. You've got to have somebody on your team that is a strategic thinker. Now, usually that's you because you started the business. You are the one with the big vision and you are the one who can see where you want to take the business over the years. It's really important that you be strategic about how you run your business.

A lot of people belong to mastermind groups and work with mentors so that there is that strategic thinking process going on. Even though I'm a strategic thinker I do belong to masterminds and I work with mentors to help me refine that.

2. Implementors. You must have people on the team who can implement, people who will work tirelessly to get things done. You're going to have all this strategic thinking and big ideas and all that happening in your organization, but if you do not have people who will go implement and execute on the big ideas you will not move very fast in your business.

In fact, this is where a lot of entrepreneurs get really stuck. They're high idea generators, but they don't have a core group of implementors - even if it's just you plus one other person.

3. Salesperson. You've got to have somebody on your team who can sell, somebody who can influence, somebody who can make things happen in that way. Why? Because you need to bring in money in your business. One of the things that I teach my clients is the closing of the sale, because if you can't master the closing of the sales you won't have any clients, which means there's no money coming in. If that's not something that you're good at, either learn how to get good at it, which is very, very simple if you're taught the right way to do it or bring someone on who can do some of that selling and influencing for you.

4. Relationship builder. To have a team that works well and an organization that is set to multiply itself and to really get bigger and bigger, you must have somebody on the team who is a relationship builder, somebody who can connect with people who have empathy and compassion and can really bring harmony. This can be both within the team and with prospects and clients and vendors.

The reason the relationship-builder is very important is that once you get bigger and bigger in your company you will have more inquiries. You will have more clients, more prospects, more vendors, more strategic alliances and joint ventures and those relationships need to be built.

Usually, you will not fit in all four of these categories. If I look at what my strengths are, I fit in two of these. I have surrounded myself with other people on my team to take care of everything. When we all work from our strengths then we have a really, really solid team that can really increase every year.