Virtual tips for the savvy business owner!

There’s so much to do and so little time to get it all done. The good news is that there are several easy things you can do to help yourself stay on track and make money as an information marketer.

 Be disciplined and stay focused.

Every day presents its own unique challenges and opportunities and it’s up to you to develop habits of discipline that allow you to effectively manage your time. Block time each day to concentrate on those tasks that make the biggest impact on growing your business.

• Develop and be focused on sticking to a daily schedule that allows you to dedicate the appropriate amount of time to each weekday’s must-do activities, whether that’s writing a blog entry, launching a new product or recording and uploading a podcast.
• Do not let other projects encroach on the time you need to focus on your high-impact activities. Schedule these tasks for early in the day and early in the week. The rest can wait.
• At the end of each week, review how you did in sticking to your plan. What got done? What didn’t? How should you approach next week differently?

 Implement recommended strategies.

Whatever information marketing program you have chosen to implement, it may have come with recommended strategies. You were advised to use these strategies because they work for that particular program. If PPC advertising and a blog are the recommended strategies to begin with, focus on those first and put off plans to write that ezine. Each strategy was designed to maximize your sales during each stage of your business’ growth; follow those recommendations as they were laid out for you throughout each stage.

 Do not get overwhelmed and side-tracked.

You’ve carefully crafted a marketing plan for yourself so that reasonable goals are always within reach. You’ve set milestones all along the way that help you stay motivated and focused and that clearly show progress toward your goals.

• Analyze every task that is commanding your attention. All of them seem important, but are they bringing you closer to reaching your goals? That’s the lens through which you need to filter every task, project, and new idea.
• Your friend is launching a new landing page to sell copies of his latest book and he’s offering you 50% commission to market his book to your list. Does it make sense for you to do this? Is this something your followers would expect from you or be interested in? If not, they are not the right target for this book and this might not be the right time for you to get side-tracked from your own business in order to earn some additional income.

 Don’t expect immediate returns … building an online presence takes time.

You will not have 1,000 instant friends after you create a Facebook page. Even if you do, not all of them will immediately begin reading your blog or sign up to receive your ezine. Some might not come to your landing page for days or weeks. But don’t give up. It takes time to build an online following using all of the different tools you have at your disposal.

• Your online strategy includes several marketing tools that may include PPC (pay-per-click advertising), blogs, ezines, podcasts, teleseminars, article marketing.
• And then there are the little things that are so often overlooked - like your email signature line. Does it include a link to your blog … to your landing page? Have you branded it with your logo and designated colors?
• Is your contact information easy to find on every page of your website? Focusing on details that impact sales and customer service help you build your online presence.

 All of these tools are powerful in their own way. None of them will get you to your goal by themselves. But together, they create a powerful arsenal that you can use to create a successful online business. It doesn’t happen overnight. So,

• stay disciplined and focused on your most important tasks,
• don’t get overwhelmed and side-tracked, and
• remember that building an online presence takes time.

Filed under: Info marketing assistance, small business owners, small business support, virtual assistance, virtual assistant