Category: Target Market

3 Ways To Build Your Business Online

3 Ways To Build Your Business Online

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

I am sure you have heard about small business owners who have made millions of dollars and have built their own empire. I’m sure you have also heard about the stories of people who have failed miserably.

It is important for us to understand that there is no one size fits all answer when it comes to building your business. There are different ways to build a business and if you want to succeed you need to find the right method for you.

There are many different types of businesses and each type requires a different approach to marketing and growing your business.

Brick and Mortar

The most common way to start a business is to open up a store front or a kiosk in a mall. This can be a very lucrative option but it does require some serious planning and some serious capital. If you don’t have the capital to invest in this type of business then you will need to look into other options.

Franchise

Another option would be to open up a franchise. You can find franchises that sell products and services that you can run from home. This is a great option because you don’t have to worry about the overhead of running a store front. The only thing you need to do is make sure that the product or service you are selling is something that people are looking for.

Online Business

If you are looking to create a brand new business, then you should consider starting an online business. There are many different types of online businesses and you can choose the one that suits your interests.

A simple internet business could include affiliate marketing where you promote other peoples products. This is a great way to make money because you don’t have to spend any money to get started. All you need to do is sign up for an account with a company that offers affiliate programs and then you will receive a link to promote. When someone buys through your link, you will receive a commission.

There are many other methods to earn money online but the above three are just a few ideas. You will need to do some research to see which one works best for you.

Be sure to watch our “Wrong Video” …Everything you’ve ever heard, everything you’ve ever tried, and everything you’ve ever done — it’s all wrong.

How to Increase Your Profits

How to Increase Your Profits

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

If you have decided to start your own business, congratulations! You are taking the first step towards financial independence. The next step is to get your business up and running so that it can provide you with a steady stream of income. There are many different ways to do this, but one of the most effective is to focus on increasing your profits instead of just focusing on increasing your revenue. This will help you to grow your business faster, and it will also allow you to enjoy the fruits of your labor sooner.

The reason why you should focus on increasing your profits over increasing your revenue is because your profits are much easier to increase than your revenue. You can increase your revenues by doing things such as hiring more people or buying more equipment, but increasing your profits is much easier. The best way to increase your profits is by increasing your gross margin. A gross margin is simply the total amount of money that you make from a sale minus the cost of the product or service that you sell. In order to increase your gross margin, you need to find ways to reduce the costs associated with your business.

One of the best ways to do this is to buy in bulk. Buying in bulk will not only save you money, but it will also reduce the number of trips that you need to make to pick up the products that you need. For example, if you buy a large quantity of paper, you may be able to buy it for less per pound, which means that you can purchase it for less money and still end up making more money. Another good thing about buying in bulk is that it allows you to use the products that you purchase more often. If you buy a ton of paper, you may be tempted to throw it away after you use it once, but if you buy a smaller quantity, you may be more likely to keep using it.

Another way to reduce the costs associated with running your business is to buy things used. This will allow you to get the same quality product at a lower price, and it will also allow the seller to pass on some of their savings to you. Many people assume that they cannot afford to buy things used, but if you are careful, you can find great deals on items that you would otherwise have to pay full price for.

The final way that you can increase your profits is by selling your products or services to other businesses. Selling your products or services to other companies can allow you to earn a commission on each sale that you make, which will increase your profits. You can also sell your products or services to other small businesses, which will allow you to make even more money.

How To Increase Your Profit Margins In Your Small Business

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

A small business is often called a start-up business. It is defined as any business that has a limited number of employees and is less than 10 years old. In this article, I will discuss how you can increase your profit margins in your small business.

Increase Profits

If you are just starting out with your own small business, you may be tempted to focus on increasing your sales volume first. This is the wrong approach. Your first priority should be to increase your profits. You need to realize that it takes time for your business to reach profitability. This is why you should not be discouraged if your sales volume does not increase immediately.

Increase Prices

If you are selling products or services, your primary focus should be to increase your product prices. If you sell products or services at a fixed price, then you have to increase your prices to increase your sales volume. However, if you are selling products or services at a variable price, then you have to focus on increasing your profit margins instead.

Increase your profit margins by lowering your cost of goods sold. If you sell products or provide services, then you have to lower the amount of money you spend on the materials or the labor costs involved. Lowering your cost of goods sold will increase your profit margins.

You can also increase your profit margins by lowering your overhead expenses. Overhead expenses are the expenses that do not directly involve in producing your products or providing your services. Examples of overhead expenses include office rent, utilities, insurance, and advertising.

For example, you can reduce your office rent by moving into a smaller office space. You can reduce your utility bills by switching to energy efficient appliances. You can reduce your insurance expenses by buying insurance from a low cost provider. You can reduce your advertising expenses by using free classified ads sites.

Increase Sales Volume

Once you have reduced your overhead expenses, you can then focus on increasing your sales volume.

If you want your business to be successful, you have to make sure that you select the right type of business. For example, if you want your business to be a service based business, then you have to focus more on improving your customer service skills. On the other hand, if you want your business be a retail based business, then you have focus more on increasing your sales volume.

https://impelonline.com/wrong This short presentation will teach you a system for successfully marketing your business … to a point where it becomes instantly obvious to your prospects that they would be an idiot to do business with anyone other than you… at anytime, anywhere or at any price.

What Is a Drip Campaign and How Does It Work?

What Is a Drip Campaign and How Does It Work?

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

Many people wonder what a drip campaign is and how it works. This article will explain all about this method of marketing, as well as give some examples of when you would want to use this strategy.

First, what is a drip campaign? A drip campaign is a series of emails that you send out to your list over time. Each email has a specific topic and goal. The goal of each email is to get your subscribers to take action. You can either use an autoresponder or have a web page for this. If you are using a web page, you can track your conversions by having a link in the email that leads to the page.

Some examples of drip campaigns include:

  1. Sending out emails with tips and tricks about starting your own business
  2. Offering freebies to build your mailing list
  3. Sending out emails that offer new products or services
  4. Sending out emails to announce changes to your site or services
  5. Sending out emails to remind your subscribers of upcoming events
  6. Sending out emails that offer special discounts
  7. Sending out emails to announce a contest or sweepstakes
  8. Sending out emails to thank your subscribers

If you are just starting out, then you should start with one of the first ones listed above. They are very easy to set up and cost very little to run. If you are already running a business, then you can use more advanced strategies like #6 and #8 above.

The great thing about a drip campaign is that you can do it on a budget. You can also add links and graphics to make it more interesting. For example, if you are sending out emails to promote your new product, you could include a picture of your product in the email.

Another benefit of a drip campaign is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get started. You can even start with a free service such as Constant Contact. It will allow you to send emails to your subscribers. Then, you can purchase a domain name and a hosting account and put together your website. You can also purchase an autoresponder if you want to automate your emails.

Overall, a drip campaign is a very powerful tool for getting your message out there. You can easily send out a series of emails over a period of time and you can track your conversions. Once you start using this method, you will be surprised at how effective it is.

If you would like to see what small incremental changes can do for your business, be sure to check out our free Simulator at https://impelonline.com/sim.

Drip Campaigns – Is This Worth It?

Drip Campaigns – Is This Worth It?

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

You have heard about drip campaigns and you are wondering if they are worth it. The answer is yes, but only if you do it right. There are many companies that don’t understand how to make the most out of their drip campaigns. If you want to make the most out of your drip campaign, then follow these steps:

1) Set up an email list with a good opt-in form. This will help you keep in touch with your customers.

2) Make sure that you send your emails on a regular basis. This helps build trust between you and your customers.

3) Include value in every email that you send. This builds loyalty with your customers.

4) Make sure that you include a call to action in every email. This is very important because it makes people take action.

5) Make sure that you include some sort of incentive in every email. This will encourage people to take action.

6) Make sure that you offer free information in every email. This gives people something to look forward to.

7) Make sure that you offer a discount in every email. This will help you get more sales.

8) Make sure that you send the same email to everyone who signs up for your list. This will help you build a relationship with each person on your list.

If you follow these steps, then you should be able to see results from your drip campaigns. However, you need to remember that drip campaigns are not a magic wand. They are not going to turn you into a millionaire overnight. It takes time and effort to build a successful business. You need to put in the work if you want to see the results.

The reason why I am saying this is because you have to understand that there is no such thing as a “quick fix”. If you want to grow your business, then you need to put in the time and energy. You have to learn new things and figure out what works and what doesn’t. This is the reason why so many people fail when trying to start a home based business. They think that all they have to do is find a product or service and they will be rich. That is not true at all. You have to put in the work to get anywhere in life.

 

If you would like to see what small incremental changes can do for your business, be sure to check out our free Simulator at https://impelonline.com/sim.

Get Out of the Rat Race

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

We’ve all worked jobs we hated. We were underpaid, underappreciated, and bored out of our minds. We either quit these jobs or were fired for poor performance because we just gave up. Instead of taking that approach, you need to consider every job an opportunity to learn something new to apply down the line to find success.

When you give people the tools they need to develop unordinary solutions, you are enhancing their lives for the long run. You need to take this approach. What if one of your terrible jobs had been one with no pay at all, and you needed to come up with some ingenious ways of making money? I bet you could have found a diamond in that rough. This idea can also be used in your own company.

Now, I don’t recommend going into the next meeting declaring that no one will receive pay anymore. Still, you can tell them that their potential raises, bonuses, and other perks are now dependent on their creativity in ways to enhance business.

Let’s talk about a great concept called financial literacy. This certainly isn’t something they taught you in school, but it is still essential to know. So, what is financial literacy?

The old school way teaches people to be good employees and not employers. This mindset will never make you wealthy. It would be best if you focused on becoming a good employer. You also need to learn how to not only attain wealth but sustain wealth for generations. This is what financial literacy is all about.

So, how do you get out of the rat race and start working toward a wealthier future? You need to understand the difference between an asset and a liability. Take a look at your own life and you’ll probably find the following:

Assets

  • Real Estate
  • Stocks
  • Bonds
  • Intellectual Property

Liabilities

  • Mortgage
  • Consumer Loans
  • Credit Cards

You’ve probably been fooled into thinking things like your house, car, and entertainment system are assets. They aren’t! Assets should be continuing to MAKE you money. When you continue to struggle, you are not building wealth. If your primary income is from wages and each time you make more money, you pay taxes-you’re not really creating wealth either, are you?

So, if buying a house isn’t an asset (and it’s not because you spend about 30 years of your life paying it off), then what is. Here are some of the best assets to attain and when you can start actually to see wealth being created because of it:

Average time of holding on to an asset before selling it for a higher value:

One year

  • Stocks (Startups and small companies are good investments)
  • Bonds
  • Mutual funds

Seven years

  • Real estate
  • Notes (IOUs)
  • Royalties on intellectual property
  • Valuables that produce income or appreciate

So, here are the steps to getting out of the rat race and onto your journey of creating wealth:

  1. Understand the difference between an asset and a liability.
  2. Concentrate your efforts on buying income-earning assets.
  3. Focus on keeping liabilities and expenses at a minimum.
  4. Mind your own business.

If you need help getting out of the poor mindset and into the wealthy one, try our GUIDED TOUR and work with one of our experienced business coaches today.

We went through the first three, and next time we’ll talk about how to mind your own business to keep your eye on the prize.

Word of Mouth Tactics – Part 1

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

Today we’ll start a new series talking all about Word of Mouth and how it can make or break your business in an extremely short amount of time. In this first lesson, we’ll get a feel for what exactly word of mouth is.

Word of Mouth is easily the most powerful form of marketing and is absolutely free. People talk about ads they see, experiences they have, and the products they purchase. If you treat people right and spread the word about your new products/services positively, you’ll attract the right customers and clients who will sustain your business for a long time.

Now, as positive as word of mouth can be for your business, the other side of the coin is how negative it can be as well. Bad news seems invariable to travel faster than good news, and if you have a less than high-quality product or weak customer service system, then your customers will tell everyone they know not to buy your products and services.

The age of technology has proved to be a fantastic benefit in the world of word of mouth. With blogs, podcasts, online marketing, forums, social networking, and all the other online mediums available, it is easier for consumers to share their experiences. And, remember this is all free advertising for you.

Let’s take a minute to discuss the importance of shortening the customer decision cycle to help customers/clients choose more quickly and easily. There are three great ways to increase sales by shortening the decision cycle. They are:

  • Increase the overall dollar amount customers spend on each purchase.
  • Increase your number of customers.
  • Increase frequency of purchases.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at decision speed. Offer simplicity, ease, and a fun purchasing atmosphere and you’ll help your customers make their decisions quicker and more confidently. When this happens your customers will buy more frequently, spend more money than usual, refer friends, and decide to purchase more quickly. This can raise your market share by over 100 times.

The time it takes your customer to decide and purchase far outweighs any other component of marketing. When you focus on customer decision speed, it forces you to take a hard look at your company and brand image, positioning, value, customer service, guarantees, and product quality.

The next area I want to talk about quickly is how to minimize the friction, or stress, involved with decision making. No matter how easily people find decision-making, we all experience a certain amount of anxiety when making a purchase, especially from a new source or for a large amount of money. When you help minimize this emotional response, you will soothe your customers’ anxiety, and they will make their decision quicker and more confidently.

There are a few secrets to accelerate the customer’s decision making progress:

Your benefits, features, claims, and promises must be obvious, clear, and concise.

The information you offer must be complete, easy to understand, credible, and balanced.

Use comparisons that show a marked difference.

Your guarantees must be rock solid and more than the customer expects.

Make trial periods easy.

You must have simple evaluations of your products or services.

Testimonials need to be relevant and positive.

Your support, delivery, and other operational systems must be perfect.

Your website can be as good as you make it. You can offer more than information. You can offer an experience that guides your customers gently through the decision-making process to make it easy for them to buy. Take it a step beyond by offering toll-free support numbers, software downloads to help with the process or other classy and informative ways to reassure your customers that you are there with them every step of the way and have nothing to hide.

This wraps up the first post in our series on word of mouth. If you need help identifying your target market and the issues they are experiencing during their purchase that makes their decision time long, try our GUIDED TOUR and work with one of our coaches to come up with the best way to smooth out your purchasing experience.

Next time we’ll move forward with word of mouth and talk about the power of word of mouth and what precisely this powerful tool is, and what it can be used for.

Do It Like the Big Dawgs!

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

Today we’ll take a look at how the kings of industry wine, dine, and otherwise cajole prospects.

Most successful professionals use a series of information-based ads that build emotion and a call to action. These are much more effective than standard company branding advertisements. The same principles that go into putting together a high impact (and, often, high priced) ad campaign can be adapted to fit your needs with similar results.

Here are some ways to put together and execute a professional, effective ad campaign:

  1. Put together a short report that’ll you’ll automatically send to prospects when they contact you. This should include a short description of your business and what you specialize in. Don’t forget to include case studies, samples, or other proof of your success.
  2. Develop value-oriented yellow page ads.
  3. Consider newsletters as a way of educating and informing customers about your industry and services offered.
  4. Offer a free seminar, webinar, or other lecture to build awareness of your business, but make sure you make the information pertinent to your target market and find speakers who are respected and known in the industry.
  5. Buy an existing business, introduce better marketing, and grow this new business faster than a “from scratch” business.
  6. Always test different versions of your ads to find the most effective ones.
  7. Use direct mail marketing to grow your business.
  8. Put together a database of previous customers and send them new information.
  9. Offer incentives such as frequent purchasing benefits, loyalty programs, referral programs, or others.
  10. Approach large firms who may need your services and negotiate a deal to be their exclusive expert in your field.
  11. Offer a 24-hour information line with a regularly updated recorded message. Make this available to all past and future customers/clients.
  12. Donate time or materials to local charities to show support in your area.
  13. Offer public clinics for the general public to come along and discuss what they need that’s free and approachable.
  14. Organize seminars your customers/clients can pay to attend by putting together a high-perception value package.
  15. Approach local newspapers by offering to write a weekly column about your area of expertise. Don’t ask for money, just a byline and bio.
  16. Develop a weekend or other destination seminar for customers/clients, not only does this give you an action-packed weekend with the most important people, it gives them a tax-deductible business adventure.
  17. Take a good seminar and turn it into written form as a home study, member site program, audio, or video program.
  18. Approach large companies and offer to give seminars to their employees, investors, or management.
  19. Be proactive with your marketing plan.
  20. Barter for your marketing. Offer products or services in lieu of payment.
  21. Be willing to bring in new clients, even if at an initial loss because it will likely pay off later.
  22. Regulate your marketing budget to maximize the potential income from them to hit the next year and try to push back advertising costs for the next year to offset your expenses.
  23. Make offers to target markets or target market businesses to pay them for referrals or shared databases.
  24. Offer loaner products to replace equipment that’s be repaired or refurbished.
  25. Give away something free to everyone who brings in a print version of your advertisement. This is a great way to see which ads are giving you the most bang for your buck.
  26. Continually consider what new products/services you can offer to current customers/clients.
  27. Develop a mail order division of your company.
  28. Offer a proposition to your competitors to trade customers/clients you were both unsuccessful in selling to.
  29. Use different marketing tactics as an excuse to attract new customers/clients with new offers and goodies.
  30. Offer a “you-choose-the-price” program. This is especially good for products you just can’t seem to sell.

So, there are 30 great ways to market to other professionals and businesses. Some other great ways to get your name out there for little or no cost are:

  • Get involved in your community-volunteer, donate to local events, etc.
  • Join your local Chamber of Commerce and attend networking and other activities throughout the year.
  • Join local, state, or regional professional associates for further networking opportunities.
  • Become a board member of a local organization.

 

Advertising should never be your only method of marketing, there is a myriad of ways to get your name out there in a way that feels personal to potential customers/clients.

“Effective advertising…must be used to get your name out to the public. If your name is not familiar to people, they will not come to you.” Jay Abraham

If you’re not sure where you start with your marketing plan or how to reach out to your local community, competitors, customers/clients, and others who could influence your business in a highly positive way try our GUIDED TOUR to experience the tools and resources we have to boost your business to the next level and beyond.

PR Equals Free Publicity

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

There are three key areas of public relations you can use to boost your advertising results ten-fold over your paid advertising.

The key to public relations lie in:

  • Public relation or publicity
  • Merchandising
  • Promotions

With a solid plan in place that encompasses all these areas, you’ll have a great approach to use public relations in the best way possible.

Public relations include all that is the media. Don’t limit yourself. The attention of newspapers, television, radio, magazines, bloggers, ezines, and more are all equally powerful. Online marketing is just as, if not more, important as conventional media.

Here are the steps to get noticed by the media:

  1. Put together a press release for your company. The press release should be relevant to your target market and address consumer interest, not just announce your business.
  2. Compact your press release to include one hook and one angle. Choose the most attention-getting to make sure the media person you are sending it to is interested in reading it.
  3. Put your press release in professional formatting. With press releases, you need a dateline, the most important information at the top, facts, figures and wrap it up with contact details including who and how. Print the press release on your letterhead.
  4. Send your press release to all television and radio stations, local and metro newspapers, national newspapers, industry magazines, and any other form of media that reaches your target market. Don’t forget to include relevant blogs, ezines, press release submission sites, and industry professionals.

More importantly than a perfect press release is to make sure you have addressed the needs of your target market in the products/services you offer and made that clear in the press release. If you are provided people a solution to a problem, a way to avoid a problem, and an opportunity to enhance their life the media and public will be interested.

If you have a connection (or the ability to get a connection) with a celebrity, this can practically guarantee you’ll get attention. Make sure you are offered newsworthy information and then follow up with media outlets to make sure they are publicizing that information.

“One of the most powerful techniques every business should use is free publicity. As the name implies, there is no cost, just the time and effort required to attract attention to your business.” Jay Abraham

Our GUIDED TOUR can show you how to put together press releases that work! Check out how the pros do it and craft the perfect press releases for your business.

Telemarketing is NOT the Anti-Christ

Posted on by Daron Stenvold

Today you’ll learn how to use direct mail marketing and, yes, telemarketing to your full advantage. I know, the word “telemarketing” might as well be four letters, but there is a way to help customers feel like they are getting personal attention and keep them from blocking your number!

With the success direct mail marketing has had and the availability of computers, these can be used as a powerful marketing tool for your success. Telemarketing is best for high priced, high margin products/services.

Here are the key steps to putting together a highly effective direct mail marketing program:

  1. List all benefits customers will get from the purchase of your products and services.
  2. Pick the single most powerful benefit out of that list.
  3. Build an attention-getting headline around that benefit. Remember to use emotion-fulfill the desire to be young, wealthy, desired, popular, or successful.
  4. Develop a sales letter using the headline you created to grab attention, provide information, and motivate customers to act.
  5. Put together supplementary items, such as a brochure, order form, reply envelope, or note that encourages them to read the letter.
  6. Rent or purchase a mailing list.
  7. Compare the cost of mailing vs. cost per order.
  8. Continue to test and refine your direct mail marketing plan.

You can see how direct mail marketing can help you find a local or even country-wide target market to send letters or postcards to and draw in new clientele and customers. Fine-tuning your marketing campaign will bring better results and therefore lower the overall cost of the campaign.

To be successful in telemarketing you need to:

  • Put together a plan, so you know exactly what you want to accomplish during the call.
  • Develop a list of topics to discuss and the questions you want to present around these topics.
  • Input verbiage checking to see if you are calling at a good time.
  • Include enough questions to keep the conversation interesting, but not too many to sound like you are interrogating.
  • Start with broad questions and narrow your focus as the conversation continues.
  • Offer feedback to show them you are paying attention and appreciate their time.
  • Don’t insult their intelligence or manipulate them.
  • Listen first, talk second.
  • Be relaxed and conversational.

Telemarketing doesn’t have to be the trauma it’s made out to be. You can put together an honest, personal, and effective telemarketing campaign that is endearing, informative and gets the job done. Think of how you would want to be treated on a marketing call. Ask your friends and family what they hate most about the telemarketing calls they get and work hard to craft your plan in a better way.

“When selling by telephone, you have approximately thirty seconds to convince the customer to listen to you. You need an opening statement that captures their attention, conveys who you are, what you want and why the prospect should listen.” Jay Abraham

It’s easy to see how direct mail marketing and telemarketing can positively affect your business by bringing in new customers and increasing the level of awareness about your products, services, and company branding. Our GUIDED TOUR offers the resources and tools you need to work through these processes and put together the best marketing plan you can.