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When you’re busy operating your business-making sure employees are doing their jobs, ensuring your products and services are delivered on time, striving toward goals and so on-it’s tempting to think to yourself that you just don’t have time for marketing.

If, in fact, that thought has crossed your mind, you’re not alone. However, neglecting your marketing efforts is one of the biggest mistakes you can make as an entrepreneur.

You may be concerned with hundreds of business ownership details, but you still need marketing to achieve the visibility you require to get noticed in the marketplace. This visibility leads to more prospects converted, to more customers converted, to more profits-which is the formula for staying in business. So, by deduction, entrepreneurs need marketing to stay in business.

In the world of marketing, there’s a general rule of thumb that 60 percent of your marketing should be spent on current and past customers. After all, they represent your best prospects. These people already know you, trust you and, hopefully, have confidence in your company, products and services. They’ve already had a good experience with your business, which increases the probability they’ll buy from you, especially when compared to a new prospect who doesn’t know you and hasn’t yet had a positive experience with you.

The remaining 40 percent of your marketing budget should be split up this way: 30 percent should be spent on prospects, and 10 percent should be spent universally. And all this spending should happen simultaneously: You need to keep your prospect funnel full while continuing to convert prospects into paying customers. You can start by using marketing to:

1. Replace former customers with new ones. Customers come and customers go. Sometimes they leave because of us, sometimes because of them and sometimes because of factors beyond the control of either. This can’t always be predicted or forecasted. To safeguard against this, you must use marketing to replace former customers with new ones. Obviously, not everyone you market to will become a customer. But to increase your chances of getting those all-important new customers, you must continually put your message in places where they’ll see it.

2. Pay attention to your customers. Imagine for a moment that you’ve secured new business from more customers than you ever dreamed. The good news is, you’ll be busy fulfilling their every need. The bad news is that lack of attention is the number-one reason customers abandon a business. So if you get busy, how can you stay in touch with your most valuable customers on a regular basis? The answer is marketing. Different marketing vehicles can reach out to them and show that you’re paying attention to them. You can send thank-you cards, special offers, tips and techniques, newsletters and more. The type of marketing activities let you stay in touch without being there in person.

3. Keep customers informed. Now let’s say that your business is growing, and you’ve decided to introduce new services and products. Who will buy them? Current customers will, as well as new ones-but they won’t buy unless they know about your new offerings. Product announcements, press releases, newsletter ads and advertising are just a few of the marketing vehicles that can be used to alert prospects and customers to your new products and services. Marketing once again saves the day, pays attention to your customers, informs and educates them, and causes them to eventually empty their wallets into yours.

Effective use of these marketing tactics will let you keep your marketing costs down while increasing your return on the dollars you do spend.

Generating profits from a blog doesn’t require selling anything.  Profits can be from ad placements, banners, or contextual advertising.  The best blogs draw the attention of a large audience and keep them coming back for more.

There are many types of blogs available. The most common types are:

• Professional blogs: These blogs are focused on discussions about professions, job aspects and career building
• Personal blogs: These blogs take the form of an online diary and contains thoughts, poems, experiences, and other personal matters
• Topical blogs: These blogs focus on a certain topic or niche, discussing specific aspects of the chosen subject
• Business blogs: As its name suggests, these are discussions about business

Other types of blogs include but are not limited to science blogs, cultural blogs, educational blogs, and photo blogs.

In order to have a successful blog that attracts a lot of visitors and keep them coming back, you need to follow some simple guidelines.

Before you begin blogging, carefully consider what you are going to write about in your blog as there are lots of interesting topics out there, waiting to be discussed.  You can find them in every day life, in the media, in the news – anything that attracts attention and a loyal following is good. You can look for blog subjects in many places, the most important being the Internet of course.

Put quality content in your blog. If you have quality content people like to read, they will return to your blog and tell other people about it as well. Posting articles containing useful information on your blog is very beneficial for attracting more traffic. Make sure you add your URL address below your posted article! If other web site owners find your articles useful and decide to include them within the content of their web pages, the added link will contribute to increasing your popularity every time it is hyperlinked.

Update the blog on a regular basis. If you don’t do this, visitors will not return and they will move on to reading another blog that is updated more often. You should try to update your blog daily or weekly. Many newcomers have blogging fear, fearing their inability to update it daily or weekly.  If your blog is interesting enough, offer your readers the ability to keep it updated by posting their own personal thoughts and share stories so you won’t have to do all the updating work yourself.

Listen to what your readers have to say. Always pay attention to the readers’ suggestions and try to find out what people were actually searching for when they found your blog. Try to focus on that theme and even consider developing it by encouraging the visitors to discuss new aspects of that particular theme.

Keep it short and concise – You don’t need material that takes hours to read, people usually like to quickly skim a blog for quick tidbits of useful information and if you post materials that are difficult or take a long time to read, you will most likely drive them away.

You can also include some artistic work or pictures in the blog, to make it more visually appealing.

If your blog has interesting, original content, bloggers might decide to add links to it on their web sites and comment on your suggested topic. By gaining backlinks to your blog from other web sites, your web site will place higher within search engine queries, thus boosting your link popularity.

Announce the launch of any new blog with press releases.  Free publicity through press releases are powerful tools for increasing incoming traffic.  Search engines love press releases and it gives them a good reason to spider and to index your site quickly.

Include free downloadable viral reports on your blog to turbo-charge visitor traffic and build a subscriber/viewer base quickly.

In order to simplify the creating and updating process of a blog, take advantage of the many blogging tools and software readily available, a number of them are free.  Blogging software such as WordPress will help you update a blog easily.

Offer to inform readers of your blog with free email management services like Feedburner (if you don’t have an email list management solution) in addition to offering RSS feeds for subscription.  Readers and visitors can be kept updated of any new information being added to your blog without having to check the site constantly.

Utilize blog and ping to get sites indexed quickly by the search engines.  By notifying popular ping servers monitored by blog search services, you attract search engine spiders to a blog.  A blog can automatically be setup to ping certain web sites.  An easy method of doing this is by adding the Pingomatic service to the sites to ping in the blog software which pings many popular ping servers at once.

Finally, remember to submit to popular, high quality blog directories to boost your web traffic and link popularity.

If you respect these guidelines you will most likely have a successful blog, and you will be rewarded in the process.

There are tons of websites out there but very few that actually pull their weight and get results.  Effective website design is not easy.  If it was, every business that put up a website would realize enormous success.  It takes many different skill sets to pull together a killer website.

That being said, here is a list of website design sins for your edification.  We highly recommend you make sure your website doesn’t commit them.

Website Sin # 1: Website does not have a crystal clear objective.  Why do you have or want to have a website in the first place?  What do you want it to do for your business?

Website Sin #2: No clear call to action.  This sin dovetails on the previous one.  Once you are clear on your website’s objective, make it real clear to your visitor what action you want them to take.  Clearly spell it out.  Trust me, leave no room for interpretation.

Website Sin #3: Website does not have a means to capture visitor’s contact information.  You are missing a tremendous opportunity to gather prospects who are clearly interested in what you have to offer: hence qualified prospects to market to going forward.

Website Sin #4: Website doesn’t give visitors a reason to come back.  Unless your website is a one-time sales website, you must keep it chock full of new and great content to keep it producing for you.

Website Sin #5: Website has no substance, all style.  Dovetailing on the previous sin, focus should be more on adding valuable content as opposed to having flashy animations.  Flashy animations may wow your visitors once (if you’re lucky), but great content starts building a relationship or dare I say a dependency on you.  Bottom line you’re adding value to your prospects.

Website Sin #6: Website has an “it’s all about me” mentality.  Keep the copy conversational in tone and focus clearly on what’s in it for your visitor.  Make them feel that it’s all about them — make them feel special.

Website Sin #7: Website is inconsistent with your “Brand”.  Your website does not have to be the best looking site out there.  It is far more critical to be consistent (same overall look, feel and design as your other marketing materials).

These next three sins are absolutely inexcusable and should not require much explanation.  Nothing will frustrate your visitor more and detract from your credibility faster.

Website Sin #8: Poor or inconsistent navigation.  Don’t make people think.  Make it real easy for visitors to find what they are looking for.

Website Sin #9: Dead links.  This is a credibility killer.  Always do what you say you’re going to do.  It is amazing what people can read into a dead link: the worst being that you simply don’t care enough about you visitor.

Website Sin #10: Slow website.  Speeding up websites is important — not just to site owners, but to all Internet users. Faster sites create happy users. Google actually takes site speed into account in their search rankings.

While it’s great to get a multiple visitors one time on your site, it’s even better to get returning visitors multiple times. This means that your site really has an interest to them enough that they’ve bookmarked it. “Bookmarkers” over time will lead to sales, and once you’ve sold to someone it’s always easier to get them to buy from you a second time than getting them to buy the first! So is your site “sticky” enough to keep them coming back? Here are a few good ways to make your website “sticky” so that you get repeat visitors that are interested in your site:

1. Have frequently updated, fresh content. People aren’t going to come back if your site stays the same all the time. If they’ve already got all the information they need from your site, why should they return? Make sure that the information is always new, fresh, and changing so that they have an incentive to return.

2. Your content must be valuable. Don’t talk “small talk” and fill your site up with gimmicks, bells and whistles, and other page fillers. Make the content on your site actually useful to someone. Use relevant articles to your topic, maybe have free tools or calculators or something that are relevant to your product, or even just keep the people up to date about what’s happening with your product or service.

3. Make your site easy to navigate. Especially if your site has got lots of competition on your product or service, maybe they’ll choose your site over your competitor’s site just by the sheer fact alone that they can get around your site easier! People want to get the information they need quickly and easily. Don’t make it a challenge for them or they’ll only become frustrated and click off of your site.

Using these easy and common sensical tips you can make your website “sticky” and watch the traffic increase!

Content The newsletter you send stands or falls on the relevance and quality of the content you incorporate. If your website is meant to entertain you content needs to be entertaining. If it is meant to educate, your content better be educational. Your newsletter is a service to your customers and needs to be written from the perspective of what they need, and not from the view of how it can serve you. By having your newsletter serve your customers, it will ultimately serve you too.

Frequency You need to decide how often you are going to issue your newsletter. There are two primary considerations that need to make up the decision. The first is how often your customer base would engage you newsletter. If your sector is flooded with newsletters, you may conclude that there is an excess of reading material and that a quarterly newsletter is appropriate. Conversely, you may notice that there is both an absence of other newsletters and a hunger for information, leading you to conclude that a bi-weekly newsletter would provide you with an excellent opportunity. The second consideration is your internal capacity. You do not want to create an expectation for a newsletter that exceeds your production capacity. How many newsletters you are able to release each month needs to be the underlying driver to the decision how often your newsletter is released.

Design How your newsletter looks is crucial not only because it represents your company, but also because it could determine how people receive the newsletter and whether or not they are drawn to read it. A well designed newsletter includes a clear delineation of all areas of content, integrated, relevant images, and an identity that is consistent with your company’s identity. It is important that you view your newsletter as an extension of your company and that its personality is representative of the image you transmit to your sector.

Database Your database is the list of people to whom you send your newsletter. Your list should be extracted from your client/customer base, prospective clients/customers, and your sector influencers. You should make sure that everyone receiving your email newsletter either requested it or has a way to be removed from your list (clearly and easily marked in your email). Your newsletter can be sent via snail mail, but the costs of printing and postage make email a much more realistic and cost effective often. Using email, you are able to send your newsletter as HTML, text, or in PDF format. You should select your format based on customer preferences. You clients/customers may prefer a different format, but it should be noted that the content, design, and frequency are not influenced by format.

Marketing Your newsletter needs marketing support so that it can reach out to a wider audience and better serve your company as a marketing tool. The support it receives can be as simple as being listed on your website (with a sign-up option) to advertising and special attention.

Testing We recommend that you test your newsletter before you send it out to your widest audience so that you can benefit from the feedback of your test group and ultimately send out the best newsletter possible. Litmus: A great tool to test your email newsletter Your email newsletter is an excellent way to reach out to and become meaningful to your clients/customers.

Embark on an email newsletter only if you have the resources and commitment to sustain it. Done properly, it is a powerful and continuing tool for exposure and reinforcement of your expertise.

The main objective of a business website is representation of the company and describing the products and services offered by it. The website must make sure that enough information in this regard is available. Transparency is another factor while designing a business website. This can be achieved through the “About Us” page which should provide enough information about the management, the objectives, the history and the philosophy of the company represented. Photographs on this page enhance credibility, since they present a crystal clear transparent picture to the visitor which says “we have nothing to hide”.

Some designers tend to provide contact information in the “About Us” page Although it is not incorrect, a better usage would be to create a “Contact Us” page. Please make sure the contact us page is simple and short. Many websites have long forms to fill with departmental details and other formalities. Keeping this short would help in two ways — it will not be an irritant to the visitor, the other, the company can avoid getting spurious and incomplete information.

The categories explaining the products and services offered by the company should be complete including pictures of the products. Use pictures sparingly lest they distract the user from reading the content. Always keep the content regarding products and services up-to-date thru “news” or “blog” pages. The news page can be supported by writing relevant press releases rich in keyword content and distributing them to the important press release sites. This will help bring in more traffic to your site at the same time building credibility.

Use a “testimonials” page to put up comments from customers. This would not only help in pushing your products and services but also in making the customers re visit and make further purchases. This page should convey user concern and should not be a sales pitch.

We have a tendency to come up with an idea that we think is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We’re absolutely convinced that everybody will beat a path to our door to buy our product. We spend lots of money to develop a sales campaign, build a website, buy advertising and so on, and spend a lot of time and effort to draw people to our website, get good search engine positioning, and then more often than not we’re disappointed because very few people buy our products.

Could it be that the marketplace doesn’t care about our opinion?

Does that hurt your ego? It shouldn’t. It should open your eyes to this very simple, but wildly profound truth.

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK, IT’S WHAT THE MARKETPLACE THINKS THAT IS IMPORTANT!

Big companies spend millions of dollars on market research, testing and surveys before they ever spend any money in developing a product or marketing a product. Doesn’t it make sense that before we ever spend a dime on any kind of product development, website development or whatever that we should spend some time first to find out what people are buying, when do they buy, and how do they buy? By doing proper research in advance, you’ll save yourself a lot of wasted time and effort, and you’ll be rewarded many times over.

Finding profitable “niches” is not a difficult process, but it can make all the difference in the world as to whether or not your business will be a huge success or a dismal failure.

Start strong: Your title and initial lines should briefly and directly convey what you want to say. Include the “who, what, where, when and why” in the lead of your press release. The remaining part of your press release should include supporting facts and examples.

Make it easy for the media: Some media agencies and journalists will grab your press release and carry it in their publications with slight editing or no alteration. But even if it’s not used word for word, journalists may use it as fodder for other stories or to create their own story ideas. The more information and details you include, the less work the media has to do.

Think like the reader: Your press release should be able to keep the reader’s interest. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Would you want to read your press release?

Make it relevant: Try to point out real examples to support the message you want to communicate. Show why your information is important and how it benefits the reader. If your release isn’t newsworthy, don’t expect anyone to read it.

Support your story with real facts: Facts make your point stronger and tell the journalist you’ve already done much of the research for them. If you pull facts from other sources, make sure you attribute them. Avoid fluff and add-ons. And never make anything up. If content seems too good to be true, tone it down or you could hurt your credibility.

Include company information: The press release should conclude with a short description of your company, including  where your company is based, what products and service it provides and a brief history.

Be concise: Avoid using superfluous adjectives, extravagant language, or unnecessary cliches. Get to the point and tell your story as directly as possible.

Get permission: Companies can be defensive about their name and image. Get written permission before including information or quotes from officials or associates of other companies/organizations.

Avoid exclamation points: The use of exclamation points may hurt your credibility by creating unnecessary hype. However, if you have to use an exclamation point, use only one! Not several!!!

Avoid industry jargon: The harder your press release is to understand for journalists and laymen, the less likely it is to be picked up. A limited use of industry terminology is ok, if you’re trying to optimize the news release for internet search engines.

Here is the basic rule of every business: you have to sell things to earn money.  Salesmanship, or the art of closing a sales, therefore, is of ultimate importance for any business venture.  After all, we can’t expect any earnings if we don’t make any sales.

Winning customers is essential for the success of your enterprise. Here are 5 methods by which you could gain a good number of customers, and keep them for a long and profitable business for you and your family.

1. Always deliver quality goods or services.

There is no better vehicle for our business message than our products themselves.  Consistently offering things that are more than worth our customers’ time and money will brand us as enterprises that are committed to quality products and services.  This would only serve us well in future dealings with the same clients.  Additionally, this would make our clients as advertising vehicles for our business as well, as they would spread the word about the excellence of our service to people belonging to their network.

2. Always try to over-deliver.

People love receiving more than what they paid for.  If you consistently give them some extras, their minds would be conditioned to trust your business for future transactions.

3. Provide bonuses.

In addition to the product you’re selling, add some more goods that would perk up the package.  Do this in a manner that you will make your customers aware of the value of the bonuses if they were otherwise purchased.  This would definitely increase the worth of your product, and such would make it more favorable for a successful sale.  Additionally, your bonuses would foster good will with your clients, and this could go a long, long way for future orders.

4. Build relationships.

The importance of building good relationships with your customers cannot be undermined. Try to humanize your approach so that your customers can relate to you as someone who is more than just a business provider, but also as a friend.

5. Make use of a mailing list.

A mailing list is an Internet marketers number one weapon.  By capturing the contact details of people who may not have been interested with their current offer, they will be able to condition the same people for future sales.  And this could serve their businesses well for quite a long time, as one successful sale can beget another and another after that.  Take good care of your subscriber base, and they will take good care of your business in return.

Winning customers is more than just luck.  It entails a lot of strategizing and good planning.  Retaining customers involve the same level of commitment as well.  In the highly competitive world of online marketing, trust plays an integral role in achieving our goals.  Try your best to win your customers’ trust.  Take care of it.  And for sure, this trust would fuel good business for you for many years to come.