What ever business you are in, it helps to have a crystal clear conception of your marketing purpose. For me, that has required a bit of reconsideration of late.

For a long time I have and continue to refer to myself as the Micro Business Specialist. This was fine as far as it went, however, what is it that I actually specialize in?

On one of my recent walks, (I have become an avid walker this past year – which has helped me lose 70+ pounds) I finally was able to crystalize just what it is I do.

I develop Online Media Customer Acquisition Strategies for both online and offline businesses.

The internet has blossomed and warped into dozens of key media that go well beyond the original web site that used to be the primary vehicle for home stagers and others to get found by their prospects.

Today, social media from Twitter, to Linked In, to Facebook and several dozen other venues are demanding attention.

Not all are equally valuable for every business. And all require more know-how than the typical business person is able to devote.  Heck, it’s hard enough for those of us who work in in the field 40-80 hours a week to keep up.

So that is what I do. I work with businesses to identify where they should strategically place their emphasis, to maximize their ability to attract customers.

Now there are some basics, that continue to start with your main web site. Most small business web sites still stink as my first eBook from several years ago stated.  But the fix, is usually not that difficult to accomplish.

What I am seeing today that is front and center and still not effectively implemented by most homestagers is their listings on Google Places Pages, and the appearance of their sites on mobile devices such as smart phones, ipods, and other such tablet devices.  Both of these are important today and increasingly important as each day passes.

Like most business people, I note that most home stagers are far more expert in their main business and tend to not pay much attention to their online marketing. Unfortunately, this is costing you potential business in your market, IF you are in a competitive one.

If you are the only homestager in 50 miles it doesn’t matter.  If on the other hand you have two or three or more friendly rivals it matters a lot.

Let me suggest that you need to focus on what your key business mantra is, and if you need more customers consider hiring me or someone like me to be your online marketing assistant. That way you can do what you do best, and I or someone like me can focus on devising effective strategies that will help keep you busy doing it.

Currently I am offering a $150 marketing review of your site, and a look see at your competition in your specific market and a proposed course of action.  If you decide to hire me to implement a particular  set of strategies I will credit the $150 toward the cost of implementation.

I also offer a 100% money back guarantee on the marketing review. If you are unhappy with what I have to offer for any reason, I will immediately refund your $150 and we will part company with no hard will whatsoever. So there is virtually no risk on your part.

To take advantage of this limited time offer, email me at enetwal@gmail.com or call me at 612-724-4392 to discuss details and timing.

As always, things constantly are changing. That has especially been true of the internet which itself has caused so much change in our lives and the way we do business.  While the following free report may not be central to your home staging business, it is a good idea for all of us to stay up to date on the major changes that are happening to the world wide web.  The report below is free although you will need to opt in to get your copy. I highly recommend you do that and then read it.

Like I said, it may not be central to your home staging business today, but you will be better prepared for some of the dramatic changes coming in the next year or two if you read this.

Based on alarming new data, Ryan Deiss is predicting the World Wide Web as we know it, as independent direct marketers, will be dead in 18 to 24 months.

Ryan’s outlined his findings in a shocking new report he’s calling: The “End of The Web?” Report

You can get a complimentary copy right now by clicking the link below:

http://microbusinessspecialist.com/blog/dealthofweb

Inside the report Ryan will reveal…

* The 3 giant companies who are KILLING online “mom and pops”
(like YOU!) using an old Walmart strategy…and how you can PARTNER
with them. (Yep, if you can’t beat ‘em it’s best just to join ‘em…)

* Why cheap, easy traffic (i.e. Google AdWords) has all but dried up, and the “Brute Force” traffic strategy that is more reliable and less expensive than Google…

* The “5 Phases of Technology” and why the transition from Phase 4 to Phase 5 will render most online businesses impotent over the next 12 – 18 months…

* The $200,000 “bet” I make every 30 days, and how you can follow my lead and cash-in on the largest wealth transfer the web has ever known…

* How the most common gadget in the world is killing traditional eCommerce, and why tactics like upsells and continuity may be gone forever. (There is a solution to this mess, but you have to read the report to see what it is…)

and much, much more…

Claim your free copy of his 24 page report NOW before he’s forced to remove it from the web.

Click the link below to claim your free copy now:

http://microbusinessspecialist.com/blog/dealthofweb

Ryan realizes that he’s making some very bold statements that could come back to haunt him, but he’s willing to risk his reputation to make sure that you don’t get blindsided by these massive shifts in the marketplace.

That alone just move this report to the top of my reading list!

Listen, I know this must sound like a very doom and gloom message, but Ryan assures me there is a rainbow, if you know where to look, and pot of gold too.

He believes that he’s figured out a way for few of us to profit from the coming changes. The report outlines the entire process, along with Ryan’s research data and proof points to inside the report.

Go grab your complimentary copy now Click Here =>

http://microbusinessspecialist.com/blog/dealthofweb

I’m sure that some people will say that Ryan’s being over dramatic or that he’s gotten too emotionally attached to his ideas, but I think that you’ll see: the facts back him up 100%.

Grab a copy of the End of the Web report now for FREE:

http://microbusinessspecialist.com/blog/dealthofweb

Technorati Tags: End of the Web, Ryan Deiss, internet marketing, internet marketers, internet guru, Free reports, future internet, internet future, Is the web dying?

Technorati Tags: End of the Web, Free reports, future internet, internet future, internet guru, internet marketers, Internet marketing, Is the web dying?, Ryan Deiss

Home Staging to Sell – You Can’t Afford Not To In This Flooded Real Estate Market!

By Pamela Mac

Home Staging is a proven vital tool in today’s flooded real estate market. With well over 90% of all prospective buyers searching the web before touring homes with an agent, and mere seconds to make that first impression, MLS or FSBO photos on-line had better WOW! Having an abundance of homes to choose from has left the buyer’s market very particular and demanding. Builders too, who have been hit by the recession, are slashing prices on new homes. So, the competition is tough!

Although every home should be staged prior to listing, it’s never too late. The Real Estate Staging Association polls 2000 active real estate agents annually for their current home staging statistics. Once again, consistently since 2007, despite the market being down, homes that are staged to sell, do sell faster; saving sellers thousands in monthly expenses. Just one of the impressive statistics in their 2010 report is for Occupied Homes that were listed without staging first. The average DOM (Days on Market) was 233 days–that’s almost 8 months! After those same homes were staged to sell, the average DOM was 53. That’s 78% less time on the market!

Today, home sellers have options. A professional home stager can be brought in to make the needed changes, or for the Do-It-Yourself generation, who’d like to save some money, many staging ideas can be done by the home seller. And for the very design-challenged seller, who has difficulty knowing where to begin, personalized advice and guidance can now be obtained by submitting photos of the home (interior and exterior) to be reviewed by an expert with a critical buyer’s eye. Sellers are then provided with a detailed report, including budget friendly suggestions and recommendation for the home to make it appeal to the maximum number of buyers. This can save a seller lots of time on the market and thousands in price reductions.

Maybe you’re an agent, who has listings that don’t show very well. After sitting on the market for awhile, your client is asking (or badgering) you for why the home hasn’t sold. You know why, but hesitate to be brutally honest about their home. Before suggesting that it may be overpriced and deducting 10, 15 or even $20,000, suggest that a professional home stager determine what’s prohibiting the offers. That fee would be a fraction of the price reduction and is tax deductible upon the sale of the home as an advertising expense; paying for itself!

The Home Staging industry has risen to the needs of sellers today; and while this country’s major cities have embraced the new standard, much of the country needs to be enlightened and realize that what was once their home, is now a product they are marketing. Too often, sellers can’t detach themselves from their home, it’s distinctive style and it’s memories. A professional home stager can guide you on how to let go of personal tastes and appeal to the maximum number of prospective buyers.

Tough times call for creative measures, because the 21st Century demands excellence in real estate presentation. Does your listing draw buyers in or send them right to the competition? If it’s the latter, you can’t afford not to seek the advise of an expert, to get to the root of the problem. Have your photos analyzed and learn how to draw the buyers to your property and get what it’s worth!

Pamela Mac
http://thecyberstager.com/
Email: Pam@TheCyberStager.com
(910) 730-2386

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pamela_Mac
http://EzineArticles.com/?Home-Staging-to-Sell—You-Cant-Afford-Not-To-In-This-Flooded-Real-Estate-Market!&id=6205644

Technorati Tags: home staging, creative real estate marketing

Technorati Tags: creative real estate marketing, Home Staging

Every time you think you’ve caught up, internet marketing changes all over again. At first we rushed out to put up web sites, thinking customers would be rushing to find us. We soon learned that merely having a web site was not enough. We needed to do more than set it up, we also needed to optimize. Then we discovered that we needed to do research to identify the right key words to use on our site based on our business and our customer’s point of view.

Even then we learned as time went on that we had to do more. Backlinks were required to prove that our site was worthy enough to climb the rankings so we could be found by our customers. In the process, we have come to notice that video has become an important element. And today, all of that remains the case.

The dirty secret is that while we may do all of the above, so too does our competitors. To get ahead or keep ahead, we must be planning for the next big change that inevitably is heading out way. I am here today to let you know that a big one is already here. And we know by now that this new change will undoubtedly spark further changes down the line.

For most businesses, just keeping up with the day to day business of running a business is time consuming enough. Mastering the ever changing challenges of the internet is a major burden for most. Some of us are still dealing with a change or two ago’s demands. And it is next to impossible to predict and take advantage of the emerging trends. No wonder there has been such a rapid growth in the number of consultants in the internet marketing arena.

The mega companies like AOL, MicroSoft and Google have led the way and even they have faltered a bit, as the change is hard on everyone. A lot of new faces have and will continue to appear. A dominant new trend revolves around the smart phone. What, phones? Weren’t we talking computers?

The growth of cell phones as internet access devices has been evolving for a number of years already, but is about to blossom into a major new factor in the coming 18 months to 3 years.

Today over half of all log ins to Facebook are done from cell phones. And this trend will continue. In a couple of years, people who today leave home making sure they have their car keys, wallets and cell phones will be leaving home only worried about their phones.

Cell phones will become both their keys and their wallets. The desk top computer will be playing a smaller and smaller role. Instead of it, your customers will be using their phones to find barbers, restaurants and hardware stores.

What will that mean to how our web sites look to people viewing them through a phone? The smaller viewing screen will make a difference. What once filled a wide screen monitor will now need to be squeezed into a diminuative phone screen.

This means that our existing web pages will need to be redesigned so our customers do not need to scroll over to see our full pages. We will need mobile ready web pages and content that looks good on a phone screen.

This significant transformation will need to be rolled out within a year or two, if not sooner. Those who are early adaptors will gain a significant temporary advantage. The question to you as a business person, is do you want that advantage or will you allow your competitors to take customers away from you?

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, internet marketing consultant, cell phones, marketing, small business marketing

Technorati Tags: cell phones, Internet marketing, internet marketing consultant, marketing, small business marketing

I bet you have taken the time to search for your home staging businesses web site on Google just to see where it ranked.  If you search precisely for the name of your web site it probably comes in on top for that search.

On the other hand had you searched for a keyword a potential customer might have used your results may have varied.  Say you searched for “Bakeries,”  your corner bakery probably didn’t rank very high among the nearly 14 millions other listings that Google offered.

A lot of small business people have given up on their websites as a result of this apparent invisibility. It seemed like a good idea a decade ago to invest in a web site. However, for most small businesses, it has had little if any positive effects for their business.

The alternative that was easiest to figure out was to buy pay per click ads. The cost was controllable and when they converted was a legitimate business expense you could measure. Once they did, they were taken to the landing page and a percentage would convert into sales or leads.

At first a lot of keywords were real cheap, as little as a dime or less. While some lesser searched for terms still can be found cheaply, a lot of more sought after terms will run in the $3-6 range and you would be surprised at how many run from $20 to $50 or more per click. When the rate per click is that high, you really have to be paying attention to your results and maximizing your returns.

In the beginning the “Organic listings” were on the left and the ads on the right. Organic listings are the articles and sites that Google served up as relevant to the requester’s search for free. These free organic listings are the target we are shooting for when we try to get a top Google listing. These days, Google puts the top paid listing at the top of the left column, but we are still referring to the top free listing when we pursue our top ranking.

A useful way to evaluate the value of a top organic listing is to look at the equivalent value of the same number of clicks on a paid ad.

It would cost $25 for 100 clicks to the advertiser. And this would be the equivalent value for 100 clicks on any of the organic searches.

So if you were to get your site ranked high enough to get 100 clicks in a day, it would be worth about $25 to you every day.

Now multiply this out for higher pay per click rates of say $2-5 each or much higher. Some keywords get a lot of searches every day, and this could multiply the value. “Dog Training” is a keyword that has around 550,000 searches every month. Dog training is a competitive word that would cost you $2.44 on average if you wanted to get the maximum pay per click volume for it. The top advertiser would be looking at paying $895.28 every day to get an average of 358 people to his site daily.  [Note that estimate of 358 people is 2% of the daily traffic.] (550,000 / 30 / 358) = 2%]

If our organic listing got the same number of clicks as that ad, we could say that our organic listing was also worth about $900 a day.

However, it does not.

It probably gets a lot more.

Some time ago, as many as a fourth of all visitors would click on one on the ads on they typical results page. These days that has declined to about 18%.

In contrast, current industry estimates are that on average 43% of people click on the top ranking non ad listing, which we know as the top organic listing. That is huge.

The most any individual ad gets is typically from 2-5% depending in part on how many ads are displayed, and in part on how well written the ads are.

Thus the top organic search result is getting between 8 and 22 times as many clicks as the top pay per click ad!

If our Dog Training pay per click was worth around $900 a day, our top organic would have a comparable value running between $7200 and nearly $20,000 every day.

A so we see why a top ranking is considered to be so valuable. That is also why a new industry was spawned to help people get to the top of the search engines. A top ranking for a desirable search term is well worth chasing.

Of course there are a variety of other issues and factors that must be taken into account. It is quite possible that the people who click on the ads are more likely to be buyers compared to those who click on the organic ads.

And while it is great to get a lot of clicks and traffic to your site, its up to the site to do the business you want it to. If it doesn’t it really doesn’t matter how many people see it.

Despite these caveats, it is quite clear that a top search engine showing is indeed a valuable asset.  It’s actual value to a home stager may vary from community to community, but it does matter.

Technorati Tags: Google, google Ranking, Organic Search value, top organic search, SEO, SEO Value, Why do SEO, Search Engine Optimization, pay per click

Technorati Tags: Google, Google ranking, Organic Search value, pay per click, search engine optimization, SEO, SEO Value, top organic search, Why do SEO

What Is The Life Time Value Of Your Customers?

A key concept in understanding your business and it’s marketing plan is the true value of your customers. Finding new customers is one of the primary functions of your marketing plan, but not the only. Think about the long term life time value of your average customer.

While you may make money on the first transaction you get from a new customer, the long term value is in all their subsequent purchases for most businesses. If a barber had a new customer who came in once, teh value would be that one haircut. If that person came in once a month, the annual worth of that customer would be tweve times as much.

If they get their hair cut every two weeks, they are worth twice as much. Suppose the typical person in the barbers home town moves every five years. In that case, they may assume a life time value of five times the annual value.

Now not everyone will keep coming back forever.  Therefore you need to estimate this lifetime value with as good a sense of attrition as you can come up with. Recognizing that people will leave is a critical reason to make sure you are constantly marketing to attact new customers. We will talk about this in another post.

If your product cost more than a haircut, that value is correspondingly greater. Now if your typical customer buys infrequently or only periodically your calculations need to reflect that.

Now there are several reasons to evaluate this concept of life time value. First, it can help you justify the money you spend on your marketing efforts.

Beyond setting your marketing budget, this concept should also help you think about ways in which you can grow that lifetime value. Is there anything you can do to lengthen your customers lifetime? Can you develop a personal relationship so they still come back for their haircut even after they move to new suburb in your metro area? So build a sense of identity or relationship with your customers may help build the long term value. You of course already know this. But think in terms of this constuct and build rapport with your customers.

If you can find ways to get people to spread the word, through positive reviews, outright referrals or just positve word of mouth, you have added to their value. Any new business they send is worth at least as much as you now have to pay to recruit a new customer. And probably more, as the new customer is already warmed up to you.

Additionally, you may well be able to move them up a ladder from a hair cut to a haircut and shave or what ever might be equivalent in your business. You may design your business around offering an entry value or deal and then move customers to higher level or services as they build trust and familiarity.

The hardest person to get to buy is someone who has never purchased from you before. Once they have, they are far more likely to be willing to do so again.

As you contemplate your business and your marketing you want to focus on both the new customer and your existing ones. As you put together your long term business and marketing plans be sure to keep the idea of each customers lifetime value to your business front and center.

Technorati Tags: Lifetime value, marketing tips, new customers, life time value, customer worth, marketing plan, marketing

Technorati Tags: customer worth, life time value, Lifetime value, marketing, marketing plan, marketing tips, new customers

Whether you are making your pitch to a prospect to be their home stager in person, in a brochure, online or in a talk to a local Kiwanis club, you must communicate your entire pitch in the first 30 seconds or less.  Otherwise, you will lose a significant percentage of your prospects attention.

In 1986 Milo Frank wrote a short book called, “How to get your point across in 30 seconds or less.”

This idea applies to personal presentations, articles, speeches and other presentations.

That’s not to say everything needs be communicated in that 30 seconds, but the key concept, justification and call to action, can and should be.

Below this article you will find a link to Amazon where you can buy the book if you want to read his justification and suggested techniques to accomplish this seemingly extravagant goal.

I want you to consider applying the idea to all of  your promotional materials and to your stock presentation, starting today, because you need to if you are going to get your message across before your reader skips past your article and goes on to the next.

Already, 10-20% of the people who started to read this article have stopped and gone elsewhere. This is particularly easy to do online.

Even “hot” media like videos get clicked past at an alarmingly fast rate. Tube Mogul, the video service which makes its business by monitoring and quantifying video viewers behavior, indicates that fully 50% or more of video viewers click away from the average video within 30 seconds. Twelve percent are gone in the first ten seconds.

The attention span of the general public has been short for a long time. No wonder politics is done in 10 second sound bites. And that reality applies to you and your articles and even in person presentations as well.

That doesn’t mean you can’t take the time to develop your thoughts in detail. It just means that you need to grab their attention and tell them what you are going to tell them and what they should do about it in your introduction up front. And don’t be too disappointed if a lot of people don’t read your entire article, or skip past your website without reading it all.

Just imagine how many more have left the written word in the same amount of time compared to a video presentation. Now some of that is probably because the viewer discovered that the video was not relevant to their interests and or needs.

As such, maybe we shouldn’t get too upset that they left before we get around to our point. But it could be that they made a mistake. Had they waited they may have discovered our cleverly designed plot to draw them into our proposition was just what they needed. If only they would have waited to see or read our sales pitch and dynamite close.

If you really want your readers to get your point, make it upfront and quick. Elaborate and explain in depth later to those hangers on who are interested in more detail.

How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less

Technorati Tags: marketing tips, Milo Frank, presentations, speeches

Have you been listening in?

Last night was the second session of the League of Extraordinary Minds, and what a great two hours it was.

While you as a home stager might not think that the internationally famous panelists that are participating in the program have anything to offer a small business like yours, you would be wrong.

I took a ton of notes last night, and got a lot of actionable ideas in the process. One I will share with you today is the understanding that people buy emotionally, and that they are motivated more by fear of loss than by hope of gain.

As an example a person is far more likely to take action to avoid suffering a $20 loss than they would be to gain $20.

What this may mean to a home stager, is that your clients are more likely to respond to a pitch that focuses on their risk of having to pay double mortgage payments, than they are to the hope of getting a higher price from a well staged home.

They may similarly respond to a pitch that details all the work they will have to do by themselves and the drudgery entailed rather than to the freedom they may enjoy by letting you do it for them.

That doesn’t mean the positive doesn’t matter, but rather that the loss elements are more effective in selling your services.

Now there was a lot more that I pulled out of last night, but I thought I would share that one.  It’s up to you to think about how you could apply that knowledge in your own interactions with prospects.

Replays of the League of Extraordinary Minds sessions are not available, as they are being turned into paid products.  But you are able to sign up and listen in to the remaining sessions for free, if you register at League of Extraordinary Minds. The next session is at 8PM, your time, next Thursday, no matter where in the world you are.

I encourage you to register and to listen in.  There have been two sessions so far and 7 to go. The first two have been very powerful, and have lead me to make several changes to the way I do things.  I am confident that you too will find value in each of them as well.