Smart Simple Marketing - Practical Strategies for Creating a Highly Successful Service Business » Outsourcing

The #1 Marketing Tool Successful Entrepreneurs Use

Sydni Craig-Hart — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:15 +0000

Let's face it. You can't be taken seriously as a business owner in today's marketplace without having a strong presence online. (this is not true, many businesses do NOT have an online presence. You need to clarify this and narrow it down to your audience. Perhaps say, "You cannot be taken seriously as a virtual business owner without...")

Whether you want to admit it or not, prospective clients ARE going to look for you online and you need to be in control of what they find.

The foundation of your online presence is, of course, your website.

If you don't have a polished, professional, client focused site now, or your current site is out of date, you likely have wondered how to go about go about creating a quick and easy, money making website.

I am all for having a custom designed site that reflects your brand and has all the "bells and whistles" needed to make it an effective marketing tool.

But, I also recognize that for some folks, creating THAT kind of website seems completely overwhelming.

If that sounds familiar, you'll appreciate these two resources I recently discovered that can help:

In both cases, you can setup a polished, professional (albeit somewhat minimalist) website in just a few hours. You won't necessarily have all the extra cool features you could have, but it is a place to get started.

NOTE: I have not personally used either of these sites, but if I was starting from scratch I would strongly consider using either resource as a place to get started. Just make sure you maintain control of your hosting account by using a company such as HostGator or Bluehost.

If you are feeling really ambitious, you might check out my friend Christina Hill's Website Creation Workshop, where she'll walk you through creating your own customized WordPress website. WordPress is THE platform to use if you are serious about leveraging the Internet to increase your income.

You can learn more about Christina's workshop at:

http://smartsimplemarketing.com/recommends/wordpress-workshop

The bottom line is this: There is NO, I mean NO excuse for you to NOT have a polished presence for your busines online. I know you are a serious business owner. I know you are committed to your work. Please don't undermine that by not paying attention to your online "digital business card".

My grandmother used to say (actually, she still says it), "better to let them think you're stupid than to open your mouth and confirm it". The same princple applies here. Better to control what your prospective clients are finding about you and your business online, than to have them wondering if you are really a serious entrepreneur.

'Nuff said.

Five Steps to Eliminating Time Wasters and Increasing Your Profits

Sydni Craig-Hart — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:10:14 +0000

Time. It's the most precious asset we have as entrepreneurs and the one thing we can't get enough of. Many service professionals struggle with using their time effectively and find it hard to consistently market the way they should. While we can't literally add hours to our day, we can use the time we have much more efficiently so that on a daily/weekly/monthly basis we are connecting with ideal prospects that want and need what we have to offer.

If you want to change the results you are seeing in your business, you have to change your actions. The truth is, you DO have the time to market consistently. You just need to "buy it out" from other activities and use it to work towards your goals. Follow these five steps to eliminate the time wasting activities that are holding you back from success:

Outsource Your Marketing for Consistent, Profitable Results (SSMS Episode 15)

Sydni Craig-Hart — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:49:41 +0000

Struggling to market your business the way you want to? Tired of being on a cash flow roller coaster? The solution lies in getting help to consistently market your business. I'll let you in on a secret. It's not pursuing one particular marketing strategy that gets you great results. It's marketing consistently that makes all the difference. Listen in to this week's episode on how to apply this strategy to your business and the many benefits of outsourcing your marketing.

Outsource To Market Consistently and Create More Profits In Your Business

Sydni Craig-Hart — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:30:10 +0000

How many times have you heard that you have to market your business consistently to keep your client pipeline full? Probably too many times to keep track of. One of the biggest challenges solo service professionals face is scheduling time to market their business.

To overcome this common challenge, you need to take a step back and ask yourself "why" you don't schedule time to market your business consistently. What is it that's holding you back?

For many, marketing seems like an complicated, time-consuming task. It doesn't matter what the task actually is, because it often seems overwhelming. The key to success here is to break your marketing projects down into simple individual tasks, that you can easily manage. Getting the work done then includes doing part of the work yourself and then delegating and automating the rest.