Watch the above video for a funny take on Facebook etiquette

Your business image–from your marketing materials to your personal dress–affect potential clients’ perception of your company. First impressions are everything.

Check out the style contest hosted by Charleston Style Concierge. The deadline is the end of this week — so hurry and enter today!  

Enter to Win a Style Consultation

Add some excitement to your Valentines Day with the gift you really want:

EFFORTLESS STYLE.

Enter to win a

Virtual Style Consultation

($100.00 Value)

Enter to win your Virtual Style Consultation.

During a 60-minute Virtual Style Consultation over the phone, we’ll discuss your style goals, answer your questions, and uncover the best way for you to get effortless style. We will use a style-assessment workbook and digital pictures you send to help develop the personal style you desire.

In your 60-minute Virtual Style Consultation, you’ll learn . . .

• What clothes are right for your body.
• How to dress based on the proportions of your body.
• What you need to buy to create a versatile wardrobe.
• How to develop a great style within your budget and for your unique lifestyle.

Here’s how it works: Using a style assessment and digital photos, we will help you determine the right clothing for your body type and easy ways to update your current wardrobe. All you need to do is fill out our style assessment, send photos, and show up for the call. It’s that easy.

Celebrate you this Valentines Day and enter to win.

Winner to be randomly chosen and announced on Valentines Day, February 14th.

Click here for your chance to win a FREE Virtual Style Consultation

One of the greatest challenges companies face with their online presence is lack of time and effort to market their company online. One of the most important aspects of growing a booming business is to market your company online in the most efficient way possible.

Using social media resources to promote the presence of your business online drives website traffic, reaches thousands of potential clients, and gets you involved in your industry’s online community.   

Since social media marketing is one of the most important ways to grow your business online, it’s important to set aside a minimum of three hours a week to promote your business on various social media sources. You can reach out to thousands of potential clients by simply adding three hours a week of social marketing to your schedule. Your business will thank you.

Below are important social media marketing vehicles to utilize.

Video Posting

Videos are an excellent way to allow customers to see the face behind the business. According to comScore, a global internet information provider, internet users in the U.S. watched 13.5 billion videos in October 2008, which was a 45% increase from October 2007.

Video provides a personal connection to customers and allows you to show them how certain services are done, how you work, how the company works, how your product works, and so much more.

YouTube is one of the most popular sites to post videos, since thousands of potential clients view them. Developing a video for YouTube is simple and benefits your company tremendously. You can place the YouTube video on your website or blog to further promote your company.

Blogging

Posting professional advice, information relating to your industry, company projects, and more on a blog, shows customers you’re an expert in your field and are passionate about getting the word out to the online community.

Commenting on other blogs relating to your industry, adding companies to your blog roll and vice versa, and using interactive media on your blog, all create an excellent haven of company / industry information. Using a call to action at the bottom of each blog post and linking it back to your website is an excellent way to bring in potential clients. 

Social Networking

Social media is the key to successful networking. There are many social media websites where you can post your company profile, interact with other companies, integrate yourself into the online community, and share information. Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, MySpace, and discussion forums are just a few places worth checking out. Facebook, for example, allows you to create a company page with your mission statement, basic information, photos, events, video, a place to put your logo, and an area where your blog is fed directly onto the page every time you add a post. Stay active on these sites by posting comments, joining groups, joining causes, and becoming a fan of company pages.

NOTE: Social media sites are not a place to simply promote your company / product / service. They’re a place to build relationships and network with others.

A year ago, many businesses could safely assume what worked for one successful business worked for all. This is not the case today.

Business practices and marketing strategies, which made a company successful last year, aren’t the same ones companies should implement today. It’s important to understand the pros and cons of this economic downturn and change the way you do business. It’s about marketing your company in a unique fashion and flipping past practices upside down.

The businesses succeeding during this time . . .

• Don’t simply follow trends—they’re ahead of the trends.
• Think outside the box.
• Educate themselves on the economy as a whole and in niche areas, not necessarily related to their industry.
• Analyze what other successful businesses are doing and put a unique spin on it.
• Acknowledge the negative aspects of this economy but do not dwell on them.
• Go the extra mile to discover what their competition isn’t doing.

Don’t let this recession frighten you into hiding. You don’t have to spend a ton of money to get on top. Use your mind as your main tool and resource for creating a successful business during this time. This will help you exercise your creativity for the future benefits of your business.

Change the way you do business today, and succeed in this troubled economy. You won’t regret it.

Feeling overwhelmed, stressed, scared? Here are five simple ways to avoid freaking out:

1) Stop listening to the news. If you listen to the news, read papers, participate in negative gloom-and-doom conversations, then stop. Try taking a week break from listening to the media reports. You’ll be amazed how much happier and less-stressed you will be.

2) Treat yourself to something nice. Take a walk, take a bath, take yourself to dinner. Whatever you do, do something for yourself. 

3) Sit down and write a list of what’s going right in your business and what’s going wrong. Take the list of what’s going right and focus on ways to do more of that. Evaluate what’s not going right and ask yourself why. Brainstorm a bit. Either stop doing what’s not working or find a way to make it work.

4) Surround yourself with positive, like-minded people. 

5) Ask mentors for advice. Every business owner should have a mentor. You cannot operate in a vacuum, and seeking the advice of someone outside of your daily struggles will help you refocus and stay on track.

Now is a critical time for businesses to invest in their marketing.

According to a McGraw-Hill study, businesses that maintained or increased their marketing during the 1981-82 recession:

–Averaged higher sales growth during the recession and over the next three years, and by 1985, had increased sales 256% over those companies that cut marketing…

–Then in 2001, another study found that aggressive marketers increased market share 2½ times the average for all businesses in the post-recession!

Those who stepped up their marketing were the big winners during and after the recession.

The time to grow your business is now. 

The most effective way to grow your business is to invest in your online presence. If you don’t have a website, now invest in one. If your site is stale and the content is outdated, now is the time to revamp it.

Your website is the easiest and fastest way to advertise your services or product. But there’s a catch: you have 3 to 5 seconds to grab a prospective client’s attention.

One. Two. Three. And they are gone.

And with millions of websites to choose from, the competition is fierce. Want to stay ahead of the crowd, rank high on search engines, and reach millions of prospective customers? 

You must have compelling web copy.

Having a clear business message on your website is the #1 action you can take to attract ideal clients online and skyrocket your sales. 

Your marketing message must speak to your target audience. Give them what they are hungry for. Get them to take action. Communicate in a clear, concise, informative way.

Step 4 and 5 in attracting clients is to write your marketing copy and edit it. (Click here to read step 1 through 3)

Now that you have the necessary information in front of you, it’s time to sit down and write your marketing copy.

As you write, keep in mind that you must focus on your target audience and speak your target market’s language. You must grab their attention, spark interest as quickly as possible– this is where the benefits come in handy. The content must speak to how your services will benefit your clients’ wants and desires. You must be clear on what it is that you offer and how you will solve the customers’ problems.

The copy must also be engaging and positive. Remember, if you aren’t excited about your business, potential clients will move on to another site. By using descriptive text and compelling words to convey necessary information, you can easily create desire. But, remember, the message must be clear. You don’t want people to have to decipher what it is you do. Your objective is to draw them in deeper, persuade them to take action, so stay away from using industry jargon that might confuse or turn off a potential client.
 
Step 5: Have Your Copy Critiqued

After you have a completed marketing piece—whether it’s your homepage web copy or a sales letter, it’s important to let it sit for a day or two. Step away from it, and then come back to it with a fresh perspective. Review it again, make necessary changes, and then send it out for critique.

Ask friends and colleagues to read your marketing copy. Ask them to see where you can improve your message, if you are conveying a positive message, and ask them to check for grammatical mistakes. It’s important to ask people who are supportive and those who can offer constructive feedback. Take it a step further, and ask a current client to review it for you. I’ve done this before, and the feedback I’ve received from current clients has been immensely helpful.

Step 3 in atracting all the clients you want is…Understaing What Makes Your Company Unique. (Click here to read step 1 and step 2)

With so many companies offering similar services or products as you do, how do you stand out from the crowd? Once you identify your target market and know the benefit your company brings to them, then you need to show why potential clients should buy from you.

In order to do this, you need a Unique Selling Proposition (USP), a short statement explaining how your company or product differs from those of your competitors. Your USP informs prospective and current clients why your product or service is the best option.

Many businesses fail to establish a USP, just as they fail to pinpoint their target market. You must communicate a specific, compelling reason for customers to buy from you. Show them ways your company is different. Do you do something that goes over and beyond what your competitors do? Do you do things differently? Now, sit down and make a list of what makes your company unique.

While you’re making your list, brainstorm ways you can add more value to the product or service. For example, if you are a web designer, perhaps you could offer a free, 30-minute follow-up call to answer any questions customers have or to help brainstorm ways they can draw more site traffic. Offer this a month after the completion of the project. If you own a real estate firm, perhaps you could drive your clients around in a comfortable vehicle and offer snacks and drinks along the way.

Don’t forget to research the competition. Unless you know what else is out there, you cannot properly evaluate or showcase a USP.

Study the competition’s website and marketing materials, noting each company’s history and mission, product features and benefits, and target market. Why do customers buy from them and what does the market want that they do not or cannot provide? Note gaps in their product or service offerings. If you have difficulty clarifying benefits, list the features and why a prospect requires or desires them. Those reasons are benefits.

Your marketing copy has the power to bring you new customers and retain current ones. It connects you with your clients. Entices them to buy. Drives them to call you. Copy makes or breaks the sale.

Now is the time to revamp your marketing materials. It’s a must if you want to survive the economic crunch.

Step #1 was to reach your target market (if you haven’t read it, please click here)

Step 2: List the Features and the Benefits

Once you have clearly defined your target market, it’s important to identify how your product or service will benefit this group. And how you do this is to create a detailed list of features and benefits.

Your ideal customer want to know what’s in it for THEM. They don’t care about your process; they don’t care how long you’ve been doing what you’re doing. They care about how your service or product will make their lives better. Again, they want to know what’s in it for them.

Many companies make the mistake of telling the customer that they need a particular software or they need a spa package. This isn’t going to sell your software or your spa packages. People don’t buy based on what they need. They buy something because they want to. They buy based on emotion, then logically justify why they bought it. And the bottom line is people really need very little. They need the basics—food, shelter, water, love, oxygen. So if you are selling your book based on the idea that your target audience needs to buy your book—well, let’s face it, no one is going to die because they didn’t buy the book.

If you want people to purchase from you, then you need to give them what they want. How you do this is to entice them with the benefits. The benefits are the results they will get when they hire you as a coach or when they purchase your bath product. Will it save them more money or time, cost them less, or reduce their stress? 

Take out a sheet of paper for each service or product you sell. Make a list of the features of the product or service, and on the opposite side of the paper, list the benefits. I suggest creating bulleted lists and posting them in front of your computer when you begin writing your marketing copy. This will help you focus when creating a compelling marketing message.

• Have you considered reworking your marketing message to better reach and speak to your target audience?
• When was the last time you updated your website copy?
• Revised your services brochure?
• Revisited the email sales letters you regularly send?

If the answer is “It’s been a while” or “I don’t know,” then it’s time to give your marketing copy a makeover.

With the economic downturn, it’s important—now more than ever—to take a look at how you can improve your marketing message.

Why?

Your marketing copy has the power to bring you new customers and retain current ones. It connects you with your clients. Entices them to buy. Drives them to call you. Copy makes or breaks the sale.

Many companies are unaware their marketing message is driving customers away—both new and repeat business. If your current website copy or marketing materials aren’t bringing you the profits or the clients you want, the good news is that a change in your copy can drastically increase sales.

Step 1: Know Your Target Market

Before you write a word of marketing copy, you need to understand who will be buying from you. Knowing and understanding your target market is crucial for any company—from the one-person shop to the large corporation. Why? It’s simple. You can’t market effectively if you don’t know whom you are speaking to.

The key is to narrow down your target and get as specific as you can. There’s a big difference between the following:
a) My target audience is new mothers who want a career change; and
b) My target audience is new mothers in their late 30s who are interested in leaving their corporate jobs and starting their own businesses. They are married, most have master-level degrees, enjoy an active lifestyle, and are members of a gym.

Take this a step further and make a list of where your target market likes to shop and dine, what they do to relax, where they go for their information, what magazines they read on a regular basis. The more specific you get, the easier it will be to write marketing copy that will speak to and attract your target market. 

Stay tuned for Step #2 in the next blog post. If you can’t wait, check out www.webcopywritingqueen.com