One of the vital aspects of growing a home business is marketing. Too many overlook this and the truth is, if you are not promoting, you’re dead in the water.

Network marketers need a steady flow of prospects to survive and finding an at home business marketing solution is key to their survival. It doesn’t need to be complicated. The best and most cost effective way of promoting is article marketing.

Articles are priceless as a promotion tool for your business. Did you know unlike a paid campaign which ends once you stop paying articles continue marketing for you long after you’ve written them. We call them our own team of salesmen which keep flying the banner for us years after being published.

If you think you cannot write then think again. In this article, we outline some writing tips to help boost your at home business marketing efforts.

1. Create a steady and consistent schedule. Unless you are producing a consistent stream of content promoting your business then you’ll get haphazard results. We suggest you produce at least ten articles a month for your network marketing business.

2. Make a commitment to write on one or two particular days a week. Writing ten articles a month is not a massive task. It’s just over two per week. Make one day a week your writing day. If you produce ten pieces a month then that will give you 120 articles for the year all doing one thing, promoting you and your MLM business.

3. Set yourself a challenge each time you sit down to write. That is, to create some urgency, give yourself a set amount of time to write the article. For example, if you think you can produce it in 30 minutes then challenge yourself to create it in that time. It’s amazing how efficient your brain becomes when it is given a time and end goal to meet.

4. Create a list of topics ahead of time you’re going to write about. That is, produce a list of keywords around your business. When you’ve done this, then come up with at least two secondary keywords for each main word. Knowing what you’re going to write about ahead of time simply cuts out any chance of wasting time and procrastination.

5. Organize someone to become you’re accountability mentor. This is a great process and will have a big impact on your at home business marketing efforts. It works simply by stating your goals for any given day or month to someone and then checking in with them to declare your work. Your accountability partner needs to be someone you don’t like letting down; even someone you fear a little as this can really kick your urgency mode into high gear.

Business to business marketing online Internet style. This is not a new marketing technique. In fact, the design of having two or even more businesses help to endorse one another products and services is a tried and true method that has provided profitable results for most entities involved. Knowledgeable business owners and webmasters recognize the enormous value brought to their company by business-to-business marketing. Marketing online offers another dimension with enormous reach that will allow businesses to continue their networking efforts in the virtual and viral world that the Internet provides.

Lets say for example that a brick and mortar company like a dog grooming business will benefit and gain customers from displaying advertisements at the local veterinarian offices. Dog owners, who trust these veterinarians are more likely to take their pets for a professional grooming to a business recommended by an already trusted establishment, like their local vet. On the other hand, the clients of the dog grooming business will be most likely those who need a veterinarian for their pets, and they will most likely trust the vet suggested by the professional grooming business who already has an reputable relationship with them. The same concept applies to business-to-business marketing; The Internet simply adds a new aspect to this method.

If the local pet grooming business and the veterinarian both have a website it will permit for further business-to-business marketing, Internet style. Since the services provided by the pet grooming business and veterinarian only tangentially overlap, they are not in direct competition with one another, but instead will be able to do business-to-business marketing online in the truest sense of the term.

These businesses could then continue with this business-to-business marketing method with other related businesses. For example the Pet grooming business could establish a relationship with pet magazines, animal shelters and other groups that are not in direct competition with each other.

This form of business-to-business marketing has become commonplace online and savvy webmasters and business owners have been taking advantage of this viral marketing method in many different forms. Website owners will cross promote each other’s products, services and business opportunities to each others subscribers lists in an email marketing campaign. Or just place ads on each other’s websites.

Finding these business-to-business marketing opportunities are not as hard as you would think. Perhaps you are starting a new website promoting your own type of network marketing opportunity and need a professionally designed website. The design company you hire to design your website could benefit from new people you recruit into your new business. Just as you could benefit from people looking for website design that need a business to promote on their new website.

So now you have your new network marketing website designed and need to add content to it. You then hire a ghost writer, establish a relationship and before you know it they are sending you prospects and you in turn send them back to first the website design company and then to the ghost writer. All of related but non-competing businesses start benefiting from the viral nature of business-to-business marketing online. Next you need your site optimized for the search engines, OK, OK, I’ll stop now, but you get the picture right?

These are highly viral and lucrative methods that all involved can benefit from. The next time that you do business with another business remember to look for the business-to-business marketing opportunity.

Small business marketing is a passion of mine! It is very exciting especially when you start to see results. When a customer says “I saw you on top of Google and went to your website, then I did a search on YouTube and you came up 1st there, after that I called a sign on the side of the road, that was you too, I figured i had no choice where I was going to buy… Who does your small business marketing? and you say, I do… It makes you feel good.. all the way to the bank…

Search engines are the best place to start when you begin your quest for the best small business marketing ideas. Google gets most of the traffic and their results are sent to many other search engines. Getting on the 1st page of Google is really much easier than you think…

There’s a friend of mine that owns a business near mine and as a result of using these simple ideas he was listed on the 1st page of Google in 2 days. He landed a $3600 job as a result of his efforts. This small business marketing stuff not rocket science, it’s just following a proven system that works.

If you are looking for small business marketing ideas, in specific geographical locations, then Google Local is quick and easy way to start. This is the listing on the top of google when you search for a local listing like (Hot Tubs Minneapolis) there is a map on the left with businesses on the right. Google Local is a great website marketing strategy because, its easy, free and fast.

There are a few tricks I have figured out over the years with Google Local , like how to show up for more than just one city. This is the best place to start for online small business marketing for local results.

PPC (Pay Per Click) is another service that is offered by Google and great for small business marketing. The “Pay” part shouldn’t scare you because you have complete control. You pay $5 to start and choose the areas you want your add to show up. You can choose 10 miles around your location, or a metro area, or state or country..

With PPC you can write unlimited ads and Google rotates them automatically so you can see which ones are getting the best click through rate. You can then delete the losers and keep the winners. You can set a budget anywhere from $5 and up or you can set a monthly budget of $300 per month. PPC has been a very important strategy for my small business marketing.

I’ve spent $52,000 with Google since January of 2005 and it is hands down the best and easiest small business marketing I have ever done. The cool part is I have never spoken to anyone that works for Google. I actually have never had to email them either… I do get a Christmas card from from Google each year. Tip: Again there are a few tricks with Google PPC that can save you money and time setting up your account. In summary this is the quickest way to increase website traffic and learn cutting edge tactics about small business marketing…

Let me ask you a question. The answer is to the question is critical to your business success.

Do you fully understand the real nature of the business you are in?

Your instant response is of course, I’m in the [put your industry name here] business. For example, you probably said, of course, I’m in the real estate business, or the plumbing business, or the printing business, etc.

But that is only partly correct if you are the owner of the business. As the business owner, the real nature of your business is marketing the business you are in.

You may have the greatest service or the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, you will soon be out of business.

One method of increasing the exposure of your business to your potential customers, is to conduct a marketing crusade.

You can compare this marketing approach to a missionary’s work or the launching of a crusade because only the fervor and the determination of a missionary or crusader will assure your marketing success.

Missionaries are driven by more than just their desire to sell someone on buying their product or service. Rather, a missionary’s goal is to convert the world to their way of thinking, their mission and their crusade. Only through such a conversion process can you expect to receive not just a customer, but customers for life.

When your business launches a marketing mission, it takes a different approach than traditional marketing.

Traditional approaches are taken and set aside in favor of our missionary or crusader’s goal. In a traditional marketing effort, the real motivation for most marketing activity is just to make money. That’s nice to do, but that’s not all we need.

Every marketing effort, at this point, is tied directly back to its contribution to money coming in.

Now, as a missionary, your business goal becomes an effort to win your customer’s lifetime business and loyalty. If your business’ marketing activity is successful in changing the way your customers think about your business or products or services in such a way that the customer sees you as a vehicle to accomplish their goal and growth, then your goals and your growth will be a natural result.

As your business manages its sales growth properly, increased profit is going to follow. Immediate profits are nowhere near as important as long-term profits. To insure that you’re going to continue to profit for the long-term, your real objective is to convert your prospect into a customer who shares your vision of what you’re trying to accomplish and is a true believer.

Vision is a problem with the normal sales approach. There is no vision other than the short-term, which is to make the immediate sale. There is little or no real focus on back-end selling and the life time value of a customer, which we’ll talk more about later on.

What is your vision?

Is your business focused on an area of interest to your customers, prospects or clients?

Are you driven fervently by the need to help them or yourself?

Why should others patronize your business rather than any other business? Or not do anything at all?

What can you do that will not only cause your customers to return again and again, but cause them to tell others to buy your products and services as well?

Can you take that vision and incorporate it with a main sales and marketing thrust, advantage or Unique Selling Proposition and use that for an advantage over your competitors?

A good marketing crusade will integrate all this together and soon have customers coming to you as a result of what Dan Kennedy calls a Magnetic Marketing System. If you were Jiffy Lube, you might call it a well oiled marketing machine.

Network marketing opportunities that work not only exist, but are also doing quite well for themselves and their representatives. Some people will no doubt scoff at the notion. It’s understandable considering the number of businesses that pose as reputable top notch network marketing opportunities.

To give you a better idea of what network marketing is and what it isn’t, let’s look at some of the basics of network marketing. Network marketing isn’t an industry in and of itself. It’s a method of distribution for various products and services.

Network marketing organizations rely on their representatives to promote and sell the company product or service. This saves the company the huge expense of marketing themselves.

Also, because network marketing allows reps to recruit and train their own sales team, they receive a portion of the revenue generated by their sales team.

When most people hear the terms network marketing or multi-level marketing, they tend to immediately think “oh no…! Not another pyramid scheme.” It’s good to have a basic understanding of the fundamental difference between the two.

Point blank, pyramid schemes are illegal. Besides that however, pyramid schemes don’t rely on the sale of a product or service. Instead, these organizations focus heavily on recruiting and provide give little or no value to the new recruit aside for the promise of big bucks.

So, if the business opportunity you’re looking at doesn’t have a clearly defined product or service, or relies heavily on fancy recruiting systems to “do all the work for you”, it’s most likely an just another attempt to dazzle you with lots of hype.

Believe me, I speak from personal experience. “Everything that glitters, ain’t gold.” Use good judgment, and be sure to do the proper background research before you spend your hard earn money on a potential business opportunity.

Network marketing opportunities are a legitimate means to provide some additional income at low cost and limited risk.

To really learn about direct marketing and how you can use it to better your business you should first understand what direct marketing is.

According to Wikipedia, direct marketing is defined as “a sub discipline of marketing focused to driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific call to action”. This marketing discipline can include and medium that allows you to communicate directly with customers. Some examples of direct marketing include, direct mail, email, newspaper, radio, television, and of course the internet.

The main focus of any direct marketing strategy is to increase the number of customers that respond to your marketing campaign or “response rate” while also trying to decrease the cost of advertising. Increasing customer response to your advertising will accomplish two very important things. One, increase the number of sales leads generated by advertising, and two, further establish business name recognition.

The ability to properly communicate with your business’s target audience is an extremely important factor in your overall business success. As you learn about direct marketing; keep in mind that persistence really does pay.

One of the most important aspects of designing a successful direct marketing campaign is in targeting your audience. Developing a marketing campaign that speaks directly to your potential customer’s wants and needs will mean the difference between creating quality sales leads for your business and utter frustration at a lack of customer responsiveness.

Several important questions to answer when developing any direct marketing campaign are:

* Who..? Who are you targeting with your particular business message? Who are the people who would be most interested in hearing what you have to say?

* Why..? Do you just want people to review a few helpful products..or do you want them to retain your services?

* What…? What specific benefits are you offering through your message?

* When…? Are you looking for a more immediate response from your reader…or are you providing food for thought and building your relationship?

* Last but not least…How? How do you intend to present and distribute your message to your potential customers?

Your study of direct marketing will be an on going process. It’s important to understand what works for you and your business, what doesn’t, and why that is. The key to success will be in continuing to try different strategies and techniques in order to perfect a particular combination of things that work well for you.

Once my clients truly understand that marketing is about relationships, we start talking about how those relationships are created and maintained to determine appropriate marketing tactics for their businesses and personal styles.  But no matter what kind of business my clients are in, they all have the same excellent relationship marketing tool at their fingertips: Their e-mail messages.

E-mail messages are the most frequently overlooked (and virtually free) marketing tools available to entrepreneurs.  No, I’m not talking about electronic mail campaigns, or spamming, but using the messages you send out every day to your clients and colleagues as a subtle marketing tool.  You can do this by adding more information to your signature line in all your e-mail.

How many times have you received a message from people who aren’t using a company domain name in their e-mail address, so you’re not sure who Bill or Sally @Hotmail.com is?  Or what if you’re in that position yourself? Many low cost Web hosts will forward e-mail received to you@yourdomain.com, but don’t provide an e-mail address from your domain name.  So how do you look professional when you’re dealing with a $35 a month Web site and free Internet e-mail?  You use an annotated signature line.

Most e-mail programs allow users to create an individual signature line that is appended to all outgoing messages.  If you’re not using one, you are missing an effective and virtually free way to market your business.  And as an added bonus, your marketing message can be seen where paid advertising is forbidden such as on electronic bulletin boards, giving you a competitive edge is such circumstances.

So why bother to annotate your signature line?  Here are some good reasons:

1. Annotating your signature line makes it easy for your clients to find your contact information when they want t o buy again.  Sure you may have given them a business card, but what if business cards are lost or misfiled?  Creating a situation in which your client has to look in the Yellow Pages for your phone number may be risky, especially if a competitor has a more compelling marketing message.

2. Annotating your signature line reminds and makes it easy for your clients to visit your web site.  Of course that’s assuming you want your customers to visit your Web site.  And why wouldn’t you?  Your Web site is a great visibility tool that builds your relationship with your customers.

3. Annotating your signature line identifies the origin of your messages so that if they get forwarded, people who are interested in what you have to say or offer can find you easily.  Evan if you know for sure that your customers have your address, your fax number or understand the full range of your products or services, that information does not forward with your e-mail unless you put it there.  So if one of your loyal customers forwards an e-mail from you to a colleague and your contact information is not included, you’ve just closed the door to a new business opportunity that your customer opened for you by forwarding your message.

4. Annotating your signature line can be a gentle way to remind customers of upcoming events (“Sale end Friday, Dec 27th” or “Don’t miss our open house on Jan 17″) to buy again (“Call today for a free quote”), to promote a new product or service (“Ask me how our new widget will save you money”), to encourage forwarding and referrals (“Forward this newsletter to anyone you thing will find it valuable”) or to call for feedback (“If you like working with us, tell your friends.  If you don’t, tell us and we’ll make it right”).

So what should you include in an annotated signature line?  At the very least, your e-mail signature should include you full name, title, company name, web site link, plus you phone and fax numbers.  Also consider a direct access phone line (if different than the company phone number), cell phone number, company tag line or motto, an offer, a reminder to buy, last call for a special deal, teaser for the future products or services, or even an inspirational quote, if it reinforces your marketing message.

It doesn’t have to be fancy to get read.  You can make simple borders around your key messages or information by using your title key (~), a dash (-), and underline (_) or even a series of asterisks (*).  Bottom line: Every professional needs a standard signature line in all business correspondence.  Because that is exactly what e-mail is professional correspondence.  Of course, we use it so casually and so frequently that it hardly seems like something professional at all.  But bear in mind that all correspondence between you and your customers is an opportunity to enhance you business relationship, even if that communication happens only in cyberspace.

Master these four fundamental steps to network marketing and be all but guaranteed both incredible wealth and great success. Fail to understand the importance of but one, and condemn your business to flounder and ultimately follow the path of so many eager, yet unprepared network marketing hopefuls.

You may be thinking at this point, only four secrets to making millions and millions of dollars? Let’s hear it then. Actually, there is really only one. Time and time again, success story after success story; all have this one truth in common. So, this particular gem I’ll save for last.

If network marketing is all about networking and of course marketing, why do so many network marketers continue to struggle to realize the infinite networking and lead generating potential of the internet? Simply put, it’s being done all wrong. How’s that?

Network marketing (also known as “Multi-Level-Marketing” or MLM) depends most heavily on…

– recruiting / lead generation / relationship-building

– sales conversion

– ongoing consumption

– replicating yourself through down line motivation and training

If your network marketing business fails to recognize the importance and any one of these fundamental elements then quite simply, you won’t have much of a business at all.

Everything starts with recruiting and lead generation. No leads means no sales. No sales means no down line. No down line means… I’m sure you get the idea here. The entire process is built upon the foundation of recruiting and relationship-building with the express intent of maximizing product consumption and the success of your down line. Your bottom line is this. If you can’t replicate your success within your down line you ultimately fail to realize the true income generating potential of network marketing.

That being said, I’ll take this opportunity to summarize my own cautionary tale for those who are new to network marketing or who are just now thinking of taking the plunge. For those who have been around the block a time or two please bear with me. Much of my story may undoubtedly sound very much like your own.

When I first made the decision to start my network marketing business, I believed that with a great product and an effective marketing system, enough hard work would guarantee me success. I had the right attitude, but the wrong impression of what made this business tick. I expected to have a great deal to learn and I was eager to do so. I attended trainings, bought books, studied sales copy, purchased leads, ran ad campaigns, the whole routine.

I managed to generate a fair number of leads, and only a few conversions. For me that was fine. I assumed that if x amount of traffic equaled y amount of conversions, all I needed to do was… You guessed it, drive more traffic. So, here I am grinding like a mad man at driving traffic, and losing all but my shirt in the process. That’s when it dawned on me. Sure things are a bit slow going, but if my real return on my investment comes with creating a successful down line… How many members of my down line can I honestly say would be willing to put in this much time, effort, and yes money, for the same results. Not a single one…

I’ll say this once more just to be absolutely clear. If you can’t easily and effectively replicate a reasonable measure of success in your network marketing down line, then you are in effect spinning your wheels without going much of anywhere. If you assume that replicated content and replicated sites are the same thing as replicated success, you may want to think again.

Think of your business like a car and the content you provide your potential prospects as the wheels. If you expect to move your business you need the content you provide about your business to stand out. You need wheels that give your business traction. That traction comes in the form of having a unique voice and providing your prospects unique content about your business.

Well that about says it… Once you do your pre-selling and your marketing to generate your leads make sure you can provide good quality content to convert those leads into sales. Create an effective method to transfer some form of ownership to your down line so that they can achieve their own unique voice and replicate your success for themselves.

Oh and as for my million dollar secret… So, what is the secret that creates truly successful businesses, not to mention truly wealthy people? Here it is…

Do what you love… If you can find a way to turn your passion, your interest, even your favorite hobby into your business, then you will be in a much better position to achieve true success. Turning an opportunity to make money into something you love is infinitely more difficult that turning something you love into an opportunity to make money.

If this information helps even one person out there find a bit of the success that we all seem to be searching for, then I’d say that this article has served it’s purpose very well. For any questions or further information, feel free to contact me.

As a marketing coach, I’ve probably heard every excuse in the book why people can’t market their businesses. You wouldn’t believe some of the whoppers people tell when they’re trying to justify their failure to attract clients.

Now don’t get me wrong; it’s not that failing to attract clients makes one a bad person. Not at all. It’s just that when I hear the following excuses I feel compelled to call ‘em as I see ‘em: Baloney!

If you have the mistaken notion that any of these lame excuses are the reason that your business isn’t successful, get a clue. These are just EXCUSES for people who fail, not reasons not to succeed (a subtle, yet important, difference).

1. “I’m too honest to market.” OK, this little gem is at the top of my list because it is both a lie AND an insult! I am a marketer by trade, and I am honest, so I know for a fact that marketing is not a dishonest process or practice, nor does it have to be dishonest to be effective. What’s dishonest is when you overstate your results, or if you truly don’t believe that your product or service is worth what you charge, or if you deliberately intend to defraud people. In that case, the problem is with you, not marketing, so stop insulting the rest of us.

2. “I’m too modest to market myself.” Listen up, princess, every word out of your mouth doesn’t have to be about YOU. Think about what your clients want, need and actually get, and that’ll keep the conversation going for as long as you need it to go. Hey, if you’re not comfortable saying great things about yourself, start saying great things about what your clients get out of working with you. Or better yet, let them say it for you in the form of testimonials. But don’t think that you have to be the subject of every fascinating conversation you have with prospects.

3. “I’m too shy to market myself.” As a highly sensitive person myself, you’d think I’d have more sympathy for this excuse, but I don’t. If you want to be successful, know right now that it may not always be comfortable, and you have to be willing to do what it takes to succeed, even if that means going outside your comfort zone. Shyness is a habit that can be overcome with practice, so join Toastmasters, or see a therapist if that’s what it is going to take, but get over yourself. I promise you will be glad you did.

4. “I’m too creative to market myself.” This excuse is really lame! Marketing is a very creative process, and since you have literally thousands of options when structuring your marketing plans, creativity is an asset, not a liability. Unless you’re one of those I-am-a-self-indulgent-whiner-who-refuses-to-accept-any-responsibility-for-my-actions-and-masks-that-character-flaw-with-claims-of-misunderstood-or-excessive-creativity kinds of people, in which case I say, grow up, and while you’re at it, think up a more creative excuse.

5. “I don’t have enough time to market my business.” OK, this excuse sounds good at first, but in reality it doesn’t wash. Either you are already marketing but not acknowledging your marketing activities as such, or your business is so busy that you don’t need to market at all, which makes this excuse unnecessary. So if you haven’t got all the business you want but you don’t have time to market, you need to reevaluate how you’re spending your time, and make some tough decisions about when you are going to do what you need to do to get those clients.

6. “I don’t have enough money to market my business.” Again, you get points for trying, but this is still just an excuse, because good marketing isn’t about money, it’s about relationships. You can start very modestly with your marketing plans, and spend nothing but your time. And let me tell you, if you can’t get some traction spending 40 hours a week trying to build your business relationships, maybe you should rethink your decision to be an entrepreneur.

7. “I have no personal network to market to.” Oh please, you’ve got to have a better excuse than this! If you truly have no family, no friends, no colleagues, no acquaintances or no former co-workers, then start meeting some. I don’t care if you’ve been on a desert island for the past 20 years, you can always meet people through networking meetings, trade associations, classes, social clubs, or at the gym! Just pick up the phone and call the people you want to know, get out there and mingle, and your personal network will grow quickly.

8. “My product or service is too hard to explain to people.” Fine. Quit explaining what you do, and start talking about what your customers GET from working with you. Do you help your customers get thinner, smarter, married, fitter, their first home, or what? Seriously, nobody cares about what you do, really; people care about what they get. Get it?

9. “My product or service is so good that it should sell itself.” Sure, that’s probably true if your product is a talking monkey, or your clients are all telepaths, but other than that, it’s going to take a little effort on your part, bucko, so start creating some momentum in the marketplace and you’ll find that your product needs less and less of your efforts to sell, until one day it almost seems like it DOES sell itself!

10. “My niche is too narrow and I can’t find my customers.” Hogwash. What this usually means is that you haven’t yet defined your customer, because you can’t find what you haven’t identified (and don’t give me that you’ll-know-them-when-you-see-them line). Start with a matrix of situation and need to identify that client. For example, let’s say you’re a financial planner, and you think your clients are “people who want to get their financial affairs in order.” Think instead about who needs to get their financial affairs in order, and you’ll probably come up with something like “married couples with children who have $X in assets and need to protect those assets with planning.” And you can certainly find those people, can’t you?

So we’ve blasted all these lousy excuses, but we haven’t yet addressed the biggest excuse of all: fear. Most of the time I’ve found that the more excuses my clients offer for not moving forward with their businesses, the more fearful they are.

Hey, I understand, and I’ve been there myself. But what it comes down to is this: Are you more afraid of succeeding (or failing) than you are of going back to work for that idiot boss you always end up working for? If the answer is that you’re more afraid of facing the personal responsibility of entrepreneurship than of any garbage your boss could throw at you, then good-bye entrepreneur, and hello wage-slave.

But if you think that the worst possible scenario is working for some moron again, and that you’ll happily work like a dog if that’s what it takes just so you don’t have to slink back into that stinking office with your tail between your legs, good for you. It’s time to forget about excuses, and start figuring out how to make this whole self-employed thing work for you.

The first thing to understand is that fear is OK. Yes, we’ve all been fearful (and yes, I include myself in that “we” statement). It can be scary picking up the phone. It can be scary going to a sales meeting.

But at the end of the day, isn’t your product or service of value to someone? Aren’t people glad (or going to be glad) that you’ve solved a problem for them? So stop worrying and fearing the marketing process, and remember this: Marketing is really nothing more than the process of developing relationships, and you, my friend, can do that in your sleep.

Veronika (Ronnie) Noize, the Marketing Coach, is a successful Vancouver, WA-based entrepreneur, author, speaker, and Certified Professional Coach.  Through coaching, classes and workshops, Ronnie helps small businesses attract more clients. For free marketing resources including articles and valuable marketing tools, visit her web site at http://www.sohomarketingguru.com/