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Starting out it can all be so overwhelming. But it doesn’t need to be. We have to get our products or services exactly right. Then we have to figure out how to explain them to others through our website. We understand the reasons people should buy what we are selling. But can we successfully explain that to our website visitors in convincing language they relate to, instead of jargon and lingo related to our industry?

Finally, we have to develop an action plan to market online and within our budget, which is often limited when first starting our business. And how do we develop that marketing plan? Where do we get the information necessary to formulate marketing techniques that will actually work for us? The number of sources out there is simply overwhelming! This is when getting feedback from a professional outside our own industry can be valuable. You can turn to an affordable Internet Marketing Consultant or an SEO Consultant who understands and specializes in small businesses and new business start-ups.

What about Getting Internet Traffic to Your Site?

Some start by using pay-per-click marketing, like Google AdWords. The trouble is that AdWords can get expensive quickly. And it takes a LOT of time to set up and manage over time. Starting out it may make sense to use AdWords. Plus, it can be a great way to test your keyword search phrases to find out which ones convert best. You can use AdWords for this purpose before beginning search engine optimization (SEO). But ultimately…sooner or later…you’ll need to optimize for the search engines (SEO).

SEO can provide you qualified Internet traffic without per-visitor costs. Think of it almost as free advertising. You should also utilize article marketing, getting your message in front of article directory visitors and ezine newsletter subscribers. This can generate faster sales, while you’re waiting on your SEO efforts to pay off. Lastly, for most Internet businesses, they should use blog postings or opt-in email marketing to stay in touch with their prospective buyers, using a soft-sell method, over time. If all you focus on are people who make a buying decision they very first time they come to your site, you’re missing out on the great majority of sales you can make!

How Much Traffic Do You Need?

Here are some questions you’ll need to consider when making decisions about AdWords and SEO:

1. What is your monthly sales revenue goal from your website?
2. How much traffic on a monthly basis will you need to meet your sales goals?
3. What is (or will be) your click-through rate, whether from AdWords impressions or organic SEO listings? You need this number to determine the total number of monthly impressions you’ll need for your AdWords ads and your organic SEO listings, to arrive at the monthly traffic number you need to your website.
4. What is (or will be) your conversion sales rate from your traffic? Again, you need this number also to determine the amount of monthly impressions you’ll need.

Especially when first starting up, finding this type of data, evaluating it and then implementing a plan can be very time-consuming and can almost drive a person crazy! There are a lot of so-called experts you can follow. But how do you know if they know what they’re talking about? And without having these numbers (at least good estimates), starting AdWords or SEO is like throwing darts with a blindfold on! Again, this is where talking with an SEO Consultant or Internet Marketing Consultant can help light your path. Your result can be more sales, MUCH faster.

Which Keyword Search Phrases are Right for Your Business?

Think of keywords as the windows or doors to your website. Without using the right ones for YOUR business, your website is like a house without windows or doors — no one is coming in. Kinda the opposite of what you’re going for.
What makes good keywords for your business?
My advice to clients I coach is your keywords should:

1. accurately match what the search engine users INTEND when they type in their keywords to the services or products you offer (get inside their heads);
2. bring you enough traffic to be worth the AdWords or SEO effort;
3. offer affordable enough AdWords bid prices, if you’re using AdWords;
4. have obtainable first or second page SEO results;
5. contain words in the phrases that suggest a searcher who is ready to spend money (unless you’re offering something that is truly free) and
6. CONVERT directly to a sale, a sales lead, a sign-up…whatever your goal is.

Wrapping it Up

Be open to the value an affordable Internet Marketing Consultant or an SEO Consultant can offer you. Someone who has already gone down the road you’re on can help you avoid the potholes along the way. And those potholes can be very expensive… There are talented advisors out there who understand small businesses and new business start-ups. And they price their services for these businesses.

Using someone talented, you’ll almost certainly make more sales, more quickly. And following that advice and the other suggestions in this article, your Internet marketing plan should be off to a great start!

The internet is your best ally when selling your high priced consulting services as this remains to be the most effective marketing tool. Here’s how you can sell your consulting online:

1. Talk about your high priced consulting on your home page. Make sure that the first thing that your potential clients will see when they visit your website is your consulting information. Create a bullet list of all the topics that you will discuss and the benefits that you can offer to those people who sign up.

2. Offer free trial. You can entice more people to sign up by offering them free trial. Give them your first couple of sessions for free so they can gauge if they really need your offerings. Your goal here is to impress these people and make them feel that your consulting services are really helpful in reaching their goals.

3. Forums and blogs. Invade blogs and forums that are often visited by your target market. Then, talk about your consulting program without resorting to blatant ads. Make sure that you come back everyday as your prospects might have questions for you.

4. Article marketing. If you don’t have any problem writing articles, this marketing tool will really do wonder for you. Write articles that are closely relevant to your consulting business and submit them online. Through this, you can offer your prospects with free information and you’ll have inbound links for your website. As you know, these are the two elements that can boost your traffic in no time.

Consultants that get great ratings and fast promotions didn’t get there by accident. There are a handful of strategic activities they invest in to make sure the odds of success are stacked firmly in their favor. While you can’t control the environment in which the decisions are made, you can control the foundation for the conversation-and that happens well in advance. Here are six habits of competitive consultants that guarantee great ratings year after year.

1. Keep tabs on what really matters. Competitive consultants work smarter, not harder, by making sure they understand what’s most highly valued by their firm, practice leaders, client leaders, and immediate manager. And these aren’t always exactly the stated criteria for success. These consultants get that there are nuances. Certain things carry more weight while others, though important, are more “check the box” criteria. If they want the big promotion or a great rating, they make it their business to know what’s going to matter to the people that get a vote.
2. Set a few important goals that match firm expectations and personal priorities. Each year when it’s time to set annual goals, these individuals don’t get bogged down in lots of lofty goals. They set a max of three to give goals closely tied to the things that carry the greatest weight and the things they need to be totally satisfied on a personal level. They use these goals to guide their decision-making for things like the roles they seek out and the extra-curriculars they sign up for.
3. Meet with their team of advocates regularly. The more people vying for you, the greater your chances of success, but savvy consultants will have a core group of advocates firmly in their camp. These are individuals they strategically target and proactively manage their relationship with on an ongoing basis. They keep them informed of their goals, accomplishments and areas they need their help.
4. Keep track of their own accomplishments. Your days and weeks are incredibly busy. It’s easy enough to forget all the things you did last week never mind six months ago. High performers recognize this and have a system in place for tracking their accomplishments, regularly, because they know no one else is going to do it for them.
5. Can tell their “story” (and make it easy for influential people to tell it too). If you want to ensure you are fully recognized for your accomplishments, it’s always a good idea to help write your performance review. Equally, if not more important than the written review, however, is your “story” or an executive summary of your most important, quantifiable accomplishments that demonstrate your strong career trajectory. In essence, this is the “Reader’s Digest” version of your review for the purposes of the rating discussions. For star performers, this is something they can articulate clearly and succinctly and they make it easy for others to do the same.
6. Act the part. Finally, there’s a saying in this business that you should dress for the role you want. We’ve all seen that guy that all of sudden starts showing up to the office in the partner jacket! The same principle applies for the way you act and present yourself. Those that want to lead a team find ways to step up and do it, whether they have direct reports or not. If they want to be the go to guy or girl for a particular subject, they seek out opportunities to share their knowledge with others and build a reputation. They know that when they step into being the role or level they want to reach, others start to see them there as well.

If you’re starting to think this all sounds like a second full-time job, don’t panic. You can actually do all of this in about one hour per week. Once you orient your mindset around these strategies, you’ll start to see that they require minimal time, if any, and usually can be combined with other things you’re already doing. Out of your entire week, isn’t one hour of time a worthwhile investment to get you where you want to be?

Everybody wants to have the best. In fact, nobody would want to settle for something less than that except if they are stuck and they have nowhere else to go. And yet, this is the last thing in the minds of business people. They do not want to get stuck wherein they are left with no choice but to just accept whatever is laid to them. IN fact, this is the very reason why experts in business marketing had came up with the idea of using the internet as a means of marketing because they could not settle for the benefits that the traditional forms of marketing could offer.

When experts talk about internet marketing, they are not only talking about one particular tool in mind, they are talking about hundreds of different tools that you could use to market a particular product, service or company. One of the strategies that is highly being used today is social media marketing. Those who have not heard of such terms but are interested to try it turn to ask help and advice from social media consultants.

If you have checked out the internet to search for social media consultants, you wouldn’t have a hard time finding them because they are just about everywhere. In fact, there is just overwhelming information about social media marketing that people could get confused which one to do first that is why a social media consultant would be of great help.

The priority of social media consultants is the production of good content for the webpage as well as for distribution to the different article sharing sites in the internet. This is one of the processes that business owners need to consider carefully because a good content could never go wrong. In fact, several internet companies thrive in good content. The reason behind this is the fact that people go online to search for information that could help them. They are after sites that can provide them the content that they need when they need them.

Another trait that consultants should have is the love for social media. This will enable them to analyze which among the many social networking sites should you be fund so that you can target your marketing to the right people.

When it’s time to hire an IT Consultant for your business, it’s not always easy to know what criteria to use in order to select the best firm for the job. If you’re not familiar or comfortable with the technical side of your business, it makes the process even harder. Here are some items to consider to help guide you toward a successful search.

1. An IT Consultant with a broad range of product knowledge and experience will save you money and time in the long run. (You won’t be paying for a consultant to learn your system.) Ask about their expertise, and listen for industry standard software and hardware names like Microsoft, Cisco, Nortel, NetGear, Novell, Symantec, McAfee, SurfControl, LinkSys, IBM, Intel, DELL, Compaq, Veritas, and ARCserve.

2. Choose an IT Consulting firm which offers expertise in systems integration. The more software applications your business uses, the higher the risk of downtime due to system conflicts. Each software upgrade, hardware addition or new application that is installed on your system must operate smoothly with all other parts of the system. When these tasks are performed by knowledgeable IT personnel, it can mean the difference for your business between the high cost of unexpected downtime or productive employees.

3. The IT Consulting firm you select should offer scalable services. No matter what the size of your business is right now, it’s a good bet that your IT needs will grow in the future as technical systems become more sophisticated and complex. The firm you select should have the capability of handling not only your current needs, but your future needs as they expand. Not only will this ensure technical continuity, but you’ll save yourself the costly and time consuming task of searching for and hiring new IT Consultants on a regular basis.

4. Consider opting for round-the-clock availability. Your office or business may not be officially open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. But if you choose a consulting firm that offers 24-7 support, you will have the option available if you decide that your business needs it. Think of it as insurance. You may hope you never need to use it, but it’s nice to know you have it if you need it.

5. Choose an IT Consultant that can train your in-house staff. Whether you’re upgrading existing systems or installing new ones, the end result requires that your own employees are able to use the system effectively. Steep learning curves can be expensive when employees need to learn new systems on their own, as well as keep up with their current job responsibilities. An IT Consulting firm that offers training can save your business time and money, as well as help your employees transition smoothly. This means greater employee job satisfaction and minimal interruptions to productivity.

6. Make sure your IT Consultant can offer you the best security systems available. Computers have become as common place in the business environment as automobiles on a highway. And like automobiles, they attract their share of hijackers and thieves. Your computer system is a potential target not only for physical theft from your business premises, but for virtual theft of your information by online criminals. Unfortunately, new viruses and hackers appear on the scene on a daily basis. A competent IT Consultant should be part of the overall risk management strategy for every business.

While this list does not cover every situation, it’s a good basis for a long term IT solution. Technology is changing at a faster rate than ever before, and it only makes sense to choose an IT firm for your business team that is flexible and knowledgeable enough to navigate the ongoing uncertainties.