Debbie LaChusa

I just found out that Go Daddy (my favorite place for website domain registrations and web hosting) is now offering professional, custom Web site design services at very affordable prices.

So, if you don't want to tackle building your own website using Microsoft Frontpage or Go Daddy's Website Tonight, and you don't want to hire an unknown company via Elance.com, you now have another attractive option.

With Go Daddy's new service, you can start with one of 800 design templates and then Go Daddy's professional design team will create you a custom Web site, complete with your images and copy. And prices start at just $499 for up to 5 pages. And, if you follow my recommendations for a basic starter website, you only need 5 pages!

You can find out more about this new service www.GoDaddy.com

Weekly Marketing Success Podcast: "Take My 10-Question Commitment to Your Biz Quiz"

New businesses are started every day, by people hoping to achieve financial freedom and success. By people with grand visions of having more flexibility and being their own boss. Unfortunately, the lion's share of those new businesses fail within the first few years.

Take a few minutes to take my 10-question quiz to find out if your business is poised for success, or if there are some steps you need to take to allow you to achieve your goals. This quiz will also help you measure your commitment, and help you ensure you're not "flying by the seat of your pants!"

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(length 7:15 minutes)

It's one thing to have a website, it's quite another to have a website that makes you money. To have a website that makes you money, you need to have persuasive copy, since your copy must do the selling for you. This is an area I have struggled with in the past, and spent a lot of time studying and getting help with. Because writing copy and writing Internet Sales Pages are really two different disciplines.

To write effective, persuasive sales copy, you need to understand some basic principles of direct marketing and sales. You must walk your prospects through the sales cycle, including hooking them with an attention-getting headline and engaging copy, address how you can solve a problem or fill a need they have, answer any questions that might be running through their mind as they are reading, and present an irresistible offer. That's a lot and it's no easy task.

Plus, once you've written your copy, you have to test it, and keep testing different variations (e.g. different headlines, lead copy, pricing, offers) to find out what works best. It really is a never-ending task. But, it is definitely worth spending the time. Once you have a web page that consistently converts prospects into clients for you, your business is set.

Do you have any copywriting tips or questions? Post and comment and share.

Think of your marketing copy as your sales force, in print. For your marketing efforts to be effective and give you a return on your investment of time and money, your copy needs to effectively engage your audience and persuade them to want to know more, and to buy whatever you are selling. It also needs to clearly communicate what your business, product or services are all about and how they can solve a problem your prospects have.

Done well, it will also serve to attract only your ideal clients, repelling those who are not a good fit for your business. To write effective marketing materials you need to be very clear what your objective is for each piece. What do you want it to achieve? What do you want the reader to do once they've read it? Then write and design the marketing piece to lead your prospect to take that ONE action.

In Step 7 of my 10stepmarketing System we focus on helping you uncover what your Key Marketing Message is - what is the ONE thing you need to say to your prospects to get them to buy from you, and not one of your competitors. Once you know what it is, you can easily create any marketing piece.

There are also other great copywriting resources available. One of my favorite copywriting gurus is Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red Hot Copy. I've even had her personally review and critique some of my sales pages. Lorrie offers a free weekly ezine along with self-study products and live boot camps and is a great resource if you want some focused help with your marketing copy.

Additionally, my Step of the Month Club topic for August is "How to Uncover Your Key Marketing Message and Sales Copy Points." This call is happening on Thursday, August 16th and is free for all Step of the Month Club members.

If you're not currently a member, you can join today and get one month free (new members only please). Click here now to learn more and join today!

Don't worry if you can't make the live call, it will be recorded and made available as an mp3 download.

Weekly Marketing Success Podcast: "Increase Your Sales With An Incredible Offer"

Want to know the easiest way to increase your sales? Make your prospects an incredible offer ... an offer too good to refuse. You want your prospect's response to be "I'd be crazy NOT to buy." Listen as I share tips for creating your own incredible offer so you can increase your sales conversion rates.

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(length 4:45 minutes)

In my experience, most solo-professionals and small business owners don't do a good job of positioning themselves. Instead they tend to market a list of all the services they offer. Here's a great example. I was talking with one of my coaching clients the other day, and she was reporting back on the last assignment I had given her: to research her competitors and see how they were positioning themselves. This was to help us identify a unique positioning that she could own.

She told me that she couldn't find anything that really stood out in the marketing of any of her competitors. She said they all just had a long list of the services they provide, and most of the lists were pretty much the same.

So let me ask you a question: If you were searching for a company to hire or buy from, and all of the companies you looked at were promising you the same services, how would YOU decide which one to hire or buy from? If you are like most people, if all things are equal, you'll choose based on price - who has the lowest price, that is.

If you don't want to be forced to compete on price (which is a very tough way to maintain a profitable business) you need to create a unique, compelling positioning for your business. In Step 6 of my 10stepmarketing System I teach you that you must promise to deliver something that is highly valuable to your ideal clients, and that is different from what all of your competitors offer. And, I walk you through the steps to determine what that difference is.

The difference might be inherent in your product or service itself, or it could be a difference you create with your marketing. The only requirements are that the difference be valuable to your ideal clients and that you deliver on it with every sale. And, it should be clearly communicated in all of your marketing. In fact, it becomes what you are known for.

So, if you haven't set your business apart with a unique positioning I encourage you to do some competitive research, then take a closer look at your business. Find a positioning that you can own and start building your own unique brand!

Some people make the mistake of thinking that their logo mark IS their brand. Well, it's not. Your brand is your entire business and includes every touch point with your prospects and customers. I like to think of your logo mark as the face of your brand. If you market right, your logo mark will come to represent your brand and all it stands for. Consider logos like the Nike "Swoosh" or the Apple "Apple."

You see them and they paint a very clear picture in your mind of what these businesses' personalities are and what they represent.

Your logo should do the same for your business. Granted, you won't be investing millions of dollars to make your logo mark a household icon, but for your ideal clients, over time, your logo should come to represent your business, its personality and what it stands for.

For this reason, when it comes time to hire a logo mark designer, you need to make sure you hire someone who understands marketing and branding. They will ask you questions about your business, the personality you want to portray and what your positioning is. They use this information to develop a strategically sound logo mark to represent your business appropriately. If they don't understand this, they will design you a pretty picture. A pretty picture is not marketing.

One of my favorite, low-cost logo resources is Logoworks. For between $300-$600 you will get a variety of logos to choose from, and they do require you to submit a creative direction worksheet to ensure your logo correctly represents your business and positioning. Logoworks created my 10stepmarketing logo and my Twin Connections logo. And, they've successfully created logos for my clients, too.

Weekly Marketing Success Podcast: "What Does the Color of Your Logo or Website Say About Your Business"

So just how important is color? Does it really make a difference in how people view your business? What does it say about your business if your logo is pink, or blue, or green? Listen as I share what the colors of your logo or marketing materials might be saying about you and your business.

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(length 4:34 minutes)

The name of the game in Internet Marketing is traffic. If you have a website, but no one is visiting it, you don't have an effective marketing vehicle. You need lots and lots of qualified traffic to your website in order to generate leads and make sales.

Of course, for those with big budgets, there are firms you can hire to optimize your site for certain keywords and hopefully get your website to show up on the first page of the search engine results for those keywords.

However, for most of us solo-professionals and small business owners, we don't have thousands of dollars to hire a firm to do this for us. The last SEO (Search Engine Optimization) firm that contacted me about getting my website onto page one wanted a couple thousand dollars to start with and about $1200 a month ongoing after that. I don't know about you, but that's a little rich for my small business marketing budget.

So what are your other choices? Are there ways to generate traffic that don't cost an arm and a leg? Absolutely! I have successfully used Article Marketing to generate tons of free traffic to my websites. I've also pursued link exchanges with other websites, issued press releases online, and done my own keyword research and site optimization ... all with pretty good results, especially for a newbie (I've only been marketing online for 2-1/2 years).

If you type "twin stories" (one of my keywords for my Twin Connections website) into Google, my Twin Connections website
shows up several times on the first page of search results.

If you type "small business marketing help" (one of my keywords for 10stepmarketing) into Google, my 10stepmarketing Website shows up on the first page of the search results.

And the best part is, all of these online traffic generators are FREE!

One way of knowing whether anyone is visiting your website is looking at your results. Are people signing up for your mailing list? Are they buying your products or services? While this gives you some indication it certainly does not tell the whole story. You need to look at your website statistics to really know if your traffic is increasing over time, holding steady, or declining.

Additionally, you can use your website statistics to calculate your opt-in percentage rates for your mailing list and your sales conversion rates for your sales pages. Once you know your conversion rates, you can then begin work to improve them by making changes to your site, and measuring the results. You can test different headlines, different offers, different pricing, and optimize your site so it is most effective using this tracking information.

On a more basic level, you can see where your website traffic is coming from (are those articles you're posting on that article directory sending any traffic your way?) and you can monitor your traffic over time. Ideally, the longer you market your website, the more your website traffic should increase. You want to track this, so if this is not the case you can take steps to improve.

Your web hosting company should provide website tracking statistics at no extra charge. Some hosting companies provide better stats and reporting than others. The good news is, even if your web hosting company doesn't provide very comprehensive stats reports, there is a great third party option for getting comprehensive website stats.

It's called Google Analytics and it's free! Once you register for your free account, it will provide you with some html code to add to each page of your website. Once you've done that, you can access comprehensive website statistics reports for that website. And, you can register more than one site.

I just started using Google Analytics and so far I like what I see. Have you tried Google Analytics? If so I'd love to hear what you think. Post a comment and share.

Weekly Marketing Success Podcast: "10 Easy Ways to Market Your Small Business Online"

One of the coolest things about marketing in the 2000's is that even the tiniest of businesses can compete for business internationally. The Internet has "leveled the playing field" in a manner of speaking. Listen as I share 10 tips for marketing your small business online, even if you have a small budget.

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(length 5:30 minutes)

I recently began attending the local Glazer Kennedy Chapter meetings. Now I am very familiar with Dan Kennedy and his style of direct marketing. And there are some things about his style that just don't fit me and my business. But there is no arguing the guy knows his stuff. He is probably THE pre-eminent direct marketing guru of our time. He knows how to get clients and retain them.

So I am keeping an open mind and hoping to learn more about effective direct marketing. Both for my business and to share with my clients. Toward that end I recently read Dan's book, "No B.S. Direct Marketing." It's a direct marketing book for non-direct marketing businesses. Now, Dan will argue that direct marketing is right for any business, and that's a big part of what this book is about. It includes case histories for a variety of businesses and industries that you wouldn't typically consider candidates for direct marketing and how they have used direct marketing to get and retain clients, and build their market share.

Case in point ... I just read a chapter on direct marketing for restaurants. And, I have to say it included some untraditional marketing techniques for restaurants, but they were all so SMART! It really just makes sense when you read about it. It's all about establishing relationships with your "guests" (they don't call them customers because that implies a one-time purchase). And doing little things to bring your guests back to eat at your restaurant over and over again - this is called client retention.

One example was publishing a monthly newsletter sharing insights about the restaurant, and the food. And, including promotions and special offers to encourage guests to come back in. And it works. The restaurants profiled were very successful in increasing their profits even while cutting back on traditional advertising.

And the funny thing is I just experienced an example of this myself. Prior to reading this book, I may not have thought too much of it. But on the heels of reading this chapter, it stood out to me. I'll share more in a few days about my restaurant direct marketing experience.

My husband celebrated his 48th birthday in July. We had to postpone his birthday party for a few weeks for scheduling reasons (we have a big family and it's tough to get everyone together at one time) so his mom decided to take us out for dinner on his birthday to celebrate.

We didn't go anywhere fancy, just to our local Mimi's Cafe. It was a Wednesday night and I was surprised how busy the restaurant was for a weekday.

My mother-in-law made sure to let our waitress know that it was my husband's birthday. And, as it fairly typical, when he finished his meal, they brought him a free dessert with a candle and we all sang "Happy Birthday."

But it's what ELSE they did that caught my attention, especially after reading the chapter on restaurant direct marketing in Dan Kennedy's book, "No B.S. Direct Marketing." Along with the free dessert, they brought my husband a birthday card. And inside that birthday card, they inserted a coupon for a free appetizer. The waitress made sure to call my husband's attention to it before we left saying, "Be sure to come back - there's a coupon for a free appetizer in there." What a great client retention tool!

The next morning I noticed the little coupon card stuck on our refrigerator door. There it was, staring me in the face when I opened the refrigerator looking for something to eat. A little ad for Mimi's Cafe, promising me free food.

How smart is that? Every restaurant does the free birthday dessert. But I have never seen a restaurant deliver a birthday card along with it and include a free coupon. Do you think there's a better chance we'll go back to Mimi's Cafe knowing we can get something free? You bet!

This is a great example of doing a little something extra for your current clients (or guests), to encourage them to do business with you more often. How could you apply this idea to your business?

Okay, I admit this post probably has nothing to do with marketing, but it has everything to do with inspiration and motivation - two things that are just as important as marketing in building a successful business. So please indulge me (and enjoy!) as I share a music video my 15-year-old son Jake shared with me today. This was already one of my favorite songs - the lyrics are powerful.

If you've ever doubted that you could make a difference with your small little business or with anything that you do, this video is a great reminder that even one person can change the world. Enjoy and be inspired. I was!

Weekly Marketing Success Podcast: "10 Tips to Keep Your Current Clients Happy ... and Buying!"

You've no doubt heard the saying, "It's easier to keep an existing customer than to get a new one." And, it's more than just a saying. It's true. Unfortunately, many solo-professionals and small business owners stop marketing as soon as they make the sale, forgetting about their current clients. They spend all their time trying to acquire new clients.

Listen as I share 10 tips you can use to implement a relationship marketing program for your current clients, so they'll remain clients for years to come.

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(length 5:51 minutes)