Standing Out

I’m sitting @ Panera on Peach - I love Panera: great coffee, yummy CinnaCrunch bagels and free Wi-fi. Who could ask for anything more?

Online social networking can never replace the real, face-to-face interaction of traditional business networking. I would love to have an Office Nomads here in Erie or just a place to go on a regular basis and connect with other small business owners in Erie. I know that there are many.

If you’re in Erie and you read my blog, drop me a line via the contact form - I’d love to hear from you and connect!

***psst - a great way to “meet” online LOCALLY is Biznik - strange, but true - there is finally an online network that is locally-based…

Social networking (Facebook, Biznik, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) for business is all the rage right now, and while “trendy” things are usually frowned upon, you need to be where your target market is, trendy or not. Social networking will not only increase awareness of your product or service, it could lead to sales and to those priceless business connections we all need.

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Ever feel like you’re in a race against the competition for clients? Let me tell you this: constantly hounding them for their business is not the way to go.

But there are three sure-fire things you can do to set up shop so that clients are coming to YOU instead of you running after them all the time.

1. ASK FOR IT.  It may seem like the simplest, silliest thing to mention here, but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for your marketing materials (including website and blog) to include a “call to action.” It’s OK to assume that your visitors and prospective clients want to know how to get in touch with you. So, help them out by telling them how to do it! You’ll notice that on every main page of my website, I include a call to action near the bottom. On every single page.
2. DO A GOOD JOB. Another very simple (well, maybe not always) thing to do. This is not rocket science. If you do a good job, your clients will come back to you. You don’t even need a fancy shopping cart with autoresponders and all that jazz. Just be your amazingly fabulous self, do a great job, and you’ve locked in a client for life. Yes, it’s great to keep up with your clients to remind them that you’re still around, but you don’t need to chase them down with sales and discounts. In fact, your repeat clients will pay for you at a premium because they understand from experience how valuable you are.
3. CLEARLY EXPLAIN WHAT YOU DO. Even I am guilty of not clearly explaining what I do, which is why I’m in the process of creating clear-cut proposal for each of my services, and they will be available for prospective clients to download when they visit my services page. If your services are outlined clearly enough, clients will know what you do and won’t click away out of frustration, boredom or disinterest. If they need something you provide, they will contact you.

A fourth, bonus sure-fire way to get clients coming to you is to make sure you are easy to contact. Don’t be elusive. If you’re a virtual assistant, at least include an email address. But, including an actual contact form is best.

If you don’t have a contact form, download the freecontactform.com’s .zip file and get to work. You’ll need a webhost that supports .php (and not all plans do - don’t assume this - that’s why I like siteground).

Try these out! They work for me.

Cheers,

Tia Peterson
All American Admin

So I have been invited to be a guest bogger on Motherhood Incorporated’s well-read blog. That group is amazing. It is so refreshing to have a place I can go to read for 15-20 minutes about other mothers and their adventures in mothering and business. It’s a serious stress reliever!

The Motherhood Incorporated blog is located at http://www.motherhoodincorporated.com/wordpressgeneral/ and I suggest linking to it (like I have). The readership is fantastic and there are plenty of authors, so you’ll have a wide variety of things to read on a nearly daily basis.

Here’s to mothers and work from home mothers everywhere!

Cheers,

Tia

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