 With the rise of online marketing over the last few decades, there is now a head-spinning variety of methods to add to traditional offline approaches you can use to put your offer in front of your target market. Here are some of today's key marketing channels both online and off. Social Media Social media is a great place to conduct market research, build relationships with your audience, and promote your products and services. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram give you a wealth of information about the people who buy products like yours. You can get to know them and introduce them to your brand. Although people don't generally buy directly on social media, it has become an increasingly important step in the buying process. Publish Content Offer helpful advice and share your knowledge with readers by publishing articles about your topics. You can find offline publishing opportunities but the quickest way to get your work widely read is to publish online. You can start your own site or blog, or for even better results, find websites or blogsites that publish articles. Get your work out there to reach a new audience. Email Marketing Start an email list and offer helpful content to your subscribers. Email is still the most intimate marketing channel on earth. Create a freebie offer in exchange for people signing up for your list and set up an opt-in page to capture names and addresses. You can promote products and services through your email messages, but most of the content should be informational and helpful, not promotional. Search Engine Optimization You'll still get a great deal of leads through search engines, so make sure that all of your websites are search engine friendly. Choose some good keywords and use them naturally throughout your text. Make sure your site is easy to navigate and try to build some backlinks into your site from related sites. Offline Events Attend trade shows, conferences, seminars and local events. Hold a booth and give a presentation if possible where you introduce your topic. Just like your content marketing, give people some information they can use and then tell them that you have more to offer. Make sure you have professional business cards to hand out to people you meet offline. Your business card should be eye-catching and include not only your contact information, but a short blurb describing the unique value your business offers. Networking is essential to growing a business and you should never miss an opportunity to meet someone and tell them what you do. The Basics of Marketing Remember that the concept of marketing is actually quite simple – just find your audience and put your offer in front of them. Choose the marketing channels where you can most easily and effectively reach your target market. Was this report helpful? If you want to know more about building your business, checkk out Innovate Academy Memberships. Through memberships you learn how to start your business from the initial planning stages all the way to the launch. Check Out Innovate Academy Memberships HERE. About The Author Pat Simes is an entrepreneur, a blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality.
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 There's an old saying that there's nothing new under the sun and, unfortunately, this is true. Many new businesses search endlessly for that one profitable niche that nobody has found yet, and this is time wasted. You need to find a profitable niche, but you don't need to reinvent the wheel. Here's how you find a good niche that will bring you success in business. An Evergreen Niche The best niches are "evergreen." This means that it's not something that's just popular now, but something that people will be into years from now. You'll do a great deal of work setting up your business. If the trends change and your audience leaves you, you'll have done all of that work for nothing. High Demand Choose a niche that has high demand. This means that there's a great deal of engagement. People online are actively talking about it and searching for solutions. For example, if you see social media groups talking about this topic, this is a sign that you have a good niche. You can also use these groups to learn about your market and to promote your product or service. People Are Paying Money for It Look for products in the niche that are already selling. There are some niches that are popular with a great deal of engagement, but no one is buying anything. For a niche to be profitable, people need to be purchasing products or services. One way to assess this is to look at products in the niche on Amazon or affiliate networks. Problems and Solutions The best products and services are those that solve problems. Look for niches where people are discussing their problems and looking for solutions. Most of the time, people want ways to save time, money, or stress in their daily lives or businesses. When you find problems you can solve, you can step in and offer your answer. If you do this right, you're virtually assured sales. Competition Competition is actually a good thing when you're looking for a profitable niche. It tells you that there's money in it. If there are other companies selling products here, it means people are paying. The key is to do something unique in the niche that sets you apart from the competition. Prior Knowledge Helps It's helpful if you know something about the niche already. It'll save you time. However, this isn't totally necessary. As you immerse yourself in the topic, you'll learn about it and become an expert in no time. But if you're something of an expert already, this cuts corners. The Money vs. Passion Balance Although you want to choose a niche that you're passionate about, you need to make sure it's profitable. So, there's a balance that must be struck between passion and profitability. Try to find something you love that also has money in it. Do you want to learn more about starting a business successfully? If you want to get started now turning your vision into reality, check out the Entrepreneurship Basics Course in Innovate Academy Memberships HERE. It leads you step-by-step through the process of starting and launching your business. About The Author Pat Simes is an entrepreneur, a blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality.  What sets entrepreneurs apart from other people is their unique mindset. They're passionate and dedicated, and they think outside the box. These unique traits aren't something you're born with. You can learn the mindset you need to become a successful entrepreneur. Face Challenges Entrepreneurs see fear as a challenge. In fact, to be an entrepreneur, you need to love challenges. Facing down challenges is how you grow and successful business people know this. If you’re new to this, then take baby steps and move just a little outside your comfort zone bit by bit. Try to remember the first time you got up and gave a presentation or sang in front of other people. It might have been terrifying at first, but once you'd done it a number of times, it wasn’t so bad. Learn from Everything Entrepreneurs see absolutely everything as a learning experience. This includes both successes and failures. In fact, errors and mistakes teach you much more than your successes do. When you fail, you can analyze the failure and figure out what went wrong so that you can do it right the next time. A successful person gets their ego out of the way. They know that if a launch flops, it's not because of them but something wrong with the product or service or the marketing. Focus on Problem Solving Entrepreneurs focus on solving problems. This is how they're able to create such great products and services. They listen to people and grasp the challenges they're facing, and then get to work looking for solutions. A customer facing a problem will happily pay for a product or service that solves it. Network All the Time and Everywhere A successful business owner needs to know many different people in many different fields. These valuable contacts can offer you their expertise and help when you need it. For this reason, entrepreneurs talk to everyone everywhere they go and see every person as a potential contact. This includes people outside of their industry. You never know what kind of person might be valuable to know. If you want to grow your business, get in the habit of getting out of your orbit and meeting new people. Think Beyond the Weekly Paycheck Workers are used to being paid for their time or what they produce, but entrepreneurs take a longer-term view. An entrepreneur doesn't work for their pay. They build a system that generates revenue. In order to be an entrepreneur, you have to break out of the "working for pay" mindset. Action, Not Words Finally, entrepreneurs take action. Of course, they have to plan and they plan very well, but when it's time to act, they can act decisively. An entrepreneur knows that you learn as you get out there and do it, not as you sit at a desk. If you want to learn how to build a successful business from the bottom up, check out the Memberships in Innovate Academy HERE. The Entrepreneurship Basics Course teaches you everything you need to know and breaks it down with action steps. Find out about the Memberships HERE. About the Author Pat Simes writes blogs, is an entrepreneur, and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovative Business Coaching. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs through training and coaching to fully manifest their business vision.  4-Step Process for Always Meeting Your Blogging Deadlines Consistency is essential when running a top-notch blog and there are many ways to successfully manage your blogging schedule. Every writer is different and each of us has his or her own flow. Here is a 4-step process that many use which involves the best practice of goal setting to keep you on track: setting goals and working backwards.
1. Create a publishing schedule Start by deciding how often and when you will publish. A very general guideline is to publish a post weekly. If you can keep up the schedule, you can choose to publish bi-weekly as well. Once you start publishing regularly, review your metrics to see what posting schedule works best, but for now, choose something that works for you. 2. Set Specific Dates for Specific Posts If you already have an idea list, assign a specific date to each. This is a provisional schedule and you can switch posts to different dates if you feel the urge to. For now, it’s good to just have a schedule you can work with. 3. Identify the Steps Identify the steps that are necessary for a single piece of content. You may be able to sit down and dash off excellent blog posts on the day they’re to be published. On the other hand, you may decide to write all of your posts at once in one busy afternoon to make posting easier. Examples of steps might be:
You may find that it’s best to plan and outline one day, write the next, and edit and post on the third day. Decide what works best for you and if you’re not sure, decide on something and then see how it goes. You can adjust your steps later. 4. Put the Steps on Your Calendar Finally, assign a specific date or time to each step. Work backwards from the publishing day and put each step on your calendar. For example, if you have just the three steps of planning, writing, and editing, your publishing schedule might look something like this:
With each step entered consistently on your calendar, you’ll have a good blogging schedule where you never feel rushed and there’s plenty of time to give each step the attention it deserves and publish on schedule. About The Author Pat Simes is an entrepreneur, a blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality.  The title of your blog post can make or break the visibility of your content. People skim on the internet and if your title doesn't catch their attention, they'll pass it by. Here are some guidelines for creating curiosity-inducing titles for your posts. Make It Catchy The number one rule is to make your titles catchy. This is what's going to hook a potential reader and get them to click. Make it unique and striking. Look at other blog post titles and find ways to make yours stand out. Be Specific Wherever possible, make your title very specific and targeted. Use numbers when appropriate. If you have a blog post that offers 8 tips for how to organize your workspace, call it something like "8 Tips to Get Your Workspace Organized Once and For All." Consider Word Choice Try not to overuse the same words in your titles. Use a dictionary to find synonyms to mix it up. Choose words for their emotional impact. Set Expectations Although you want to make bold claims with your title, make sure that your blog delivers. Don't write deceptive titles just to get clicks. This is called clickbait and it won't gain you readers. In fact, it will hurt your SEO as readers will quickly leave your blog and go somewhere else. Hey Google! Try to write headlines that will catch the attention of the search engines. Choose a keyword or two related to the article that have a high search volume and put it near the beginning of the title. Keywords are not as important today, but if you choose a good one and use it naturally, it will bring you some traffic. Research the Industry To get ideas for your titles, look at the titles other bloggers use. You can do this by searching keywords relevant to your post and examining how other bloggers create titles based on them. The content that ranks highest in the search engines can be assumed to be the most popular, so those title formats and lengths are something to consider. Don't stress over the title at first. Create a working title that you know you can change later. Many writers start with the title since it's so important, but as you write, you may find yourself going in a different direction or you may get a better idea for the title. A great way to come up with a winning title is to create five or ten initially, and then narrow it down to the one that best meets the above criteria. That eye catching title will go far in engaging your target audience. About The Author Pat Simes is an entrepreneur, a blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality.  When you run an email list, there are some subscribers who don't open your emails. This could be because they aren't interested in your offer. But since they signed up to receive your content, it's more likely that they simply missed it or it went to their spam folder. A good way to boost engagement on your list is to resend unopened emails.
Autoresponder programs like MailChimp have features that allow you to resend unopened messages. If you have an important message that your subscribers didn't open, you can resend it the next day and bring it to their attention. One word of caution about resending is that it can appear spammy. For this reason, you should resend sparingly or only do it once. Try resending on the next day to give people enough time to see the original one first. For example, you might send an email announcing your latest blog post. While 40% of your subscribers opened it, this means 60% didn't. This is an especially good piece of content and you feel it's a shame for more than half of your subscribers to pass it by, so you decide to resend. How to Refresh Resent Emails The trick here is to change the subject line of your email. It's possible that your subscribers passed over it as they skimmed their inbox because the subject line wasn't compelling enough to hook them. With a new and slightly different subject line, you increase the changes that these readers will check it out. This will increase your open rates and hopefully drive more traffic to your blog. It can also help to build deeper relationships with your readers. They may have missed a piece of valuable content which will help build this relationship. Segmenting Your List Your unopen rate can also be used to segment your list. If there are subscribers who consistently don't open your messages, they may be unresponsive or you may have a bad email address. Remove these subscribers from your list. This is called keeping a "clean" list and it improves the performance of your email campaign. There are some marketing studies that question this approach. After all, if you resend every single email, you're cramming your subscribers' email inboxes even fuller with messages. Your autoresponder program gives you statistics that show the results of your efforts. Rely on these metrics and see how many of your subscribers are opening the second emails. If you're seeing high open rates, keep doing it. If you do not see higher open rates, it is time to stop. About The Author Pat Simes is an entrepreneur, a blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality.  A great way to engage your audience is to ask questions in your content. A direct question addressed to the reader gets them thinking and encourages them to respond. If done skillfully, you can turn every post into a lively conversation, which gives you a great deal of opportunity to interact with your audience.
But what kinds of questions should you ask? Here are some ideas. Ask for opinions. Ask your social media contacts for their opinion on a controversial issue. You can take a recent news item or some issue where there are differing opinions in your industry (for example, whether or not you should use a certain type of cleaning product). Ask how customers overcome common problems. Take a common problem that your readers face and ask them how they overcome the problem. For example, if your audience consists of bloggers, ask them how they drive traffic to their site or how they design their blog for best readability. Ask how you're doing. You can use social media and your blog as a means of gathering feedback. Ask your customers how you're doing. Is your content helpful? What would they like to see more of? Did your product solve their problem? What could you do to improve your content, service or products. Ask your readers, "Did you know?" A good way to share a curious or little-known fact with your audience is to pose it as a question. Ask them whether or not they knew about this and what is their opinion of it? This can spark a discussion based around the topic. Ask for favorites. A great conversation starter is to ask your readers what is their favorite of something. For example, you might ask your blogger audience, "What's your favorite plug-in?" Each person will state their favorite, but many will give reasons why and this can lead to discussions and disagreements. Ask about experiences. Ask your audience about a past experience that stands out in their memory. Choose a specific topic. Ask for a major achievement or a hard lesson your readers learned. As a general rule, ask open-ended questions rather than yes-no questions. If you ask a yes or no question, you'll end up with many people simply replying "yes" or "no." Open-ended questions lead your readers to discuss at length and get more deeply into the topic. You can use surveys and polls for gathering data through yes-no questions. The important thing is to ask things that will encourage your audience to engage with you and your blog. You can also use these responses to use further blogs to expand on topics of interest for your audience and keep your audience looking for your blog posts. About the Author Pat Simes is an entrepreneur, a blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality.  If you’re a service provider, how you put together your services can have a direct impact on your bottom line. If you offer clear solutions to your clients, you’ll see more sales and also give your service-based business the opportunity to grow.
Why Packaging Your Services Matters How can the way you package your services lead to higher profits? When you offer solutions like this to clients, you provide them with more value. You also make it easier for them to buy. They come to you looking for solutions to their problems. By streamlining your offerings, you can provide the solution they’re looking for in one place and help them choose the right one. There are several ways you can package services to offer higher value to your clients. Put Multiple Services Together Rather than offering just one service, you might offer a group of services that clients often purchase together. For example, if you have a cleaning company, you might offer a weekly cleaning package that includes vacuuming, mopping, dusting, laundry, dishes, and trash service. Rather than offering each item on its own, you put them all together to better address clients’ needs. Offer Resources A service package might include resources to help the client implement the service. For example, if you provide social media content for businesses, you might also give them an interactive calendar that they can use for scheduling, posting, and other social media activity. Help with Tech Support If you’re offering online services, you may include tech support. Your clients might need help installing and running the program. If there are problems, they’ll need you to troubleshoot. Tech services can also give clients instructions and other help so they can make the fullest use of the product and enjoy all of its benefits. Follow-up Help You can add educational opportunities to your services like group or one-on-one coaching. Some businesses create an online community for their clients to use to get help from each other and you. At the very least, you might offer a few follow-up sessions where you help with any problems they’re facing post-implementation. Customization Options If you give your clients too many options, it can be overwhelming and actually make it harder for them to buy. A better strategy is to offer a few simple options, each with a clear outcome, then offer customization options that your clients can choose if they want something more. For example, you might have a coaching package to help businesses with online marketing that includes eight weekly sessions. In addition, you can offer custom options like email check-ins or templates for specific tasks. Meeting the Needs of Your Target Client There’s an art to packaging your services the right way for any business. The goal is to meet the needs of your client in one place, so they don’t need to go anywhere else. This requires you to understand your target market well, especially the problems and challenges they’re facing. If you can offer packages that are comprehensive solutions, your offerings will sell, and your business will grow. About The Author Pat Simes writes blogs, is an entrepreneur, and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovative Business Coaching. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs through training and coaching for a full manifestation of their business vision. Want to learn more about how you can package and price your services for your clients? Head over here: Get Started NOW!  Do you have an excellent high-value service to offer but not enough clients? There are many ways you can advertise and put your solution-based service packages in front of those who need it. Here are 8 ideas that don’t cost a penny.
Be Active on Social Media Create business pages on the social media platforms that your potential clients frequent. Use your presence here to share news stories, tips, and information on your services with the aim of demonstrating to potential clients your unique value. Join Online Forums Join online forums where your target market is discussing topics related to your business. Join the conversations and offer help using your expertise with no strings attached. People will come to know you there and then check out your profile to see what services you offer. Write a Blog Create a blog where you write about topics of interest to your target market. This will demonstrate your expertise and give people free content to help them with their problems. If you get into the routine of blogging regularly, you’ll attract new leads through search engine traffic. Get Listed Locally Get your business listed on Google Places and other local listings. It’s just a matter of filling out an online form and confirming. Once you’re set up there, you’ll appear on Google Maps and other services, boosting your visibility. You can also get listed with your local Chamber of Commerce’s business listings. Speak at Offline Events Find local events where you can book speaking engagements. Get in front of local businesses who can use your services, and share your expertise on a topic that will be valuable for them to learn. During the presentation and in the presentation materials, you can pitch your packages to them. Hold Online Webinars An even easier way to get in front of your target market and inform them about your services is to hold webinars. Take some topic you can teach online and offer it for free. Participants will get a taste of the value you offer and some of them will become paying clients. Create an Incentive Program Get more business by getting your current clients to talk about you to their friends. Create a system of rewarding referrals with a free service, deep discount, or some other high-value incentive. There’s no better advertising that word of mouth. Partner with Another Business Reach out to businesses that share your client base and form partnerships with them. Carry out some project together like an event or a course teaching something that utilizes both your expertise. For the best results, partner with an influencer or big name in your niche. Grow Your Sales by Packaging Your Services The key to success is to know your target market inside and out. If you understand the problems they’re facing and where they spend time online, you can present to your solution-based packages to them and grow your service-based business’s sales. About The Author Pat Simes writes blogs, is an entrepreneur, and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovative Business Coaching. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs through training and coaching for a full manifestation of their business vision.  When you’re putting together services to offer to your clients, the best way to offer the value they’re looking for is to focus on providing not just services, but solutions. If you offer a clear solution, you’ll see better client satisfaction which results in more business for you. What Does It Mean to Offer Solutions? It’s easy to understand what “solutions” means if you put yourself in your client’s shoes. A client comes to you with a problem they’re facing. There’s some difficulty they can’t overcome, and they hire you to help get them past it. They are effectively paying you to make this problem disappear. When you offer solution-based packages, it means that you solve the problem from beginning to end in one place. You work with the client to get their issue resolved to their satisfaction. Identifying Client Pain Points Solutions are based on the client and their needs, so you need to do some research and find out what those are. Get to know your clients or your target client. Find out what problems they’re facing that you can use your skills and expertise to solve. You should base this on data, not just assumptions. Seek feedback through one-on-one interactions with clients. Conduct surveys or focus group sessions where you ask them questions about this area of their business or life, and the challenges they’re facing. You can also obtain data indirectly through social listening, website traffic metrics, and researching the offerings of competitors. How to Package Your Services to Offer a Complete Solution Once you know your client’s pain points and you’ve identified how you can help them, you’re ready to package your services. Each package should address a pain point and offer a clear solution. What’s important here is that each package should completely solve the issue in one place. In order to offer a complete solution, you might add features to services, or follow-up support like coaching or tech help. You may include resources or content that help the client get the most out of your service. Base the content of each on what your client needs and expects. Optimizing Your Services It helps to understand your strengths and areas of expertise. If you clearly understand what you do well, you can play to these strengths and use them to give your services the maximum possible value. This also helps you set your business apart from your competitors. For example, if you excel at coaching, then you might include one-on-one support for clients where you check in with them regularly to see how they’re doing implementing your services. Make It Easy on Your Clients Each service package should focus clearly on one solution and there shouldn’t be too many options. If you offer too many choices, this makes it difficult for your client to choose the one that’s right for them. If you offer just a few options and communicate clearly what problem each solves and how, you make the purchase process easier and this will increase sales. About The Author Pat Simes writes blogs, is an entrepreneur, and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovative Business Coaching. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs through training and coaching for a full manifestation of their business vision. |
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