I am looking for guest writers for my blog. If you cover the topics of marketing, public relations, blogging, content marketing, inbound marketing, social media, social media marketing, campaign planning or writing, I would like to offer you the opportunity to write for my blog.

Please respond with topic and article length. Original posts only please. Post should be no longer then 750 words.

If you are interested please email me at guestposts@wordzopolis.com

Thank You,

Jennifer

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Everyone seems to be into social media these days. Whether its LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Google Buzz or the hundreds of other sites available, everyone seems to be doing it.

Think about where you spend your social media marketing or networking online.

Here are today’s Open Mic questions:

Has social media marketing or networking helped your business?

What is your favorite social media platform?

What do like or dislike about your favorite social media platform?

Has your favorite social media platform brought any new clients to your business?

Share your answers in the comments.

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Amber Weinberg wrote a great article on “How to Find Your First Client,” on Freelance Folder that is a great read. I would like to add some tips on prospecting and finding clients that you may find helpful and easy to implement.

10 Tips to Growing Your Prospect List and Finding New Clients:

• Develop a list of potential clients that include the prospects email address, snail mail address and phone number.
• Send the prospects a Letter of Introduction, introducing yourself and the services you offer. Make sure to tell them of your background specific to their industry and include links to your portfolio, online articles or blog if you have one.
• Create a set of post cards that you can send to them as reminders of your services. If you are not a graphic designer get with a designer and have them, design a series of postcards highlights a service you offer and some tips and send them a postcard every month or six weeks.
• Call them and check to see if they have received your information and if they have any available projects. At this time, you can also ask if they can refer any names to you that may be interested in your services.
• Join online groups and offer advice and assistance to the group members. You can also offer special discounts to people that are members of the group.
• Offer a free report or tip sheet to those who sign up for your newsletter. You can also offer discounts or specials to readers of your newsletter.
• Create a press release and send the release to the media, bloggers and post on your website offering your free report.
• Create a contest to grow your blog and/or newsletter readership. Make sure that the prize is something related to your business so that you will not have tire-kickers signing up just to win your prize.
• Offer referral gifts or discounts to people who refer people to you. Make sure that the person understands that they receive the gift or discount if the person they referred actually uses your services or buys your products.
• Offer to write guest post on blogs that share similar readers of your blog.

These are just some tips that I have found to be useful in growing my prospecting list and finding new clients. The most important is to keep in touch with prospects and develop a relationship.

Your Call To Action:

What are some successful ways you have found to grow your prospecting list or find new clients?

Whether you are a freelancer, consultant or small business owner, marketing can be time consuming and a constant struggle. With so many choices and for many a limited budget, deciding where to spend your time and marketing budget can be a big headache.

While the idea of working for your self can be exhilarating, many people do not take into account the amount of time that is to market a business to make the business successful. Whether you are networking, social marketing or traditional marketing, successfully marketing your business is the key to business success.

Here is today’s open mic question:

What is your biggest marketing struggle?

Please share your marketing freelancing struggles in the comments.

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Competition is fierce. We are in the information age and everyone is on information overload. The internet has made it easy for buyers to research your company, products and services before they buy. Buyers are spending more time making a decision before making their purchases. They are checking websites, reading blogs, asking questions on social networks and comparing your prices against your competitors. So how in the hell are you going to get your business to stand out?

One surefire way to stand out against your competition is by writing articles. You can reach your target audience buy writing quality informative articles for your website, blog or publication. A well-written article is a cost effective way to market your business.

Not sure how writing articles will benefit your business.

Here are 18 sure-fire ways that article writing will benefit your business. Writing Articles can:

• Help you reach your target audience that needs your products or services
• Educate your target audience about your business
• Build trust and credibility
• Increase website and/or blog traffic
• Build your company brand and establish you as an industry expert
• Engage prospects and help build relationships
• Bring readers back to your site and build loyalty
• Help spread the word about your business
• Bring publicity to your business
• Show prospects how have solve similar problems they are experiencing
• Show how your company uniquely deals with their problems
• Build links to similar website and blogs
• Increase your website or blog ranking
• Make readers feel as if they know you
• Help you better understand your prospects through the responses you receive from readers
• Increase a prospects desire to work with you
• Tell your readers what you want them to do next, by giving them a call to action

Article writing is a cost-effective way to market your business online and offline. The largest investment is the time it takes to research your audiences, topics and writing, but it is well worth the time and effort. If you do not have the time or expertise to write, then hiring a professional writer is the way to go. When hiring a professional writer make sure that you do not hire by cost along. Choose a writer who understand your business and industry and can effectively get your message across.

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Your Call To Action:

Are you currently writing articles to market your business?

If so, how has article writing helping your business?

If not, why not?

Research from dozens of studies on sales, leads and inquiry handling point to the same conclusion: although almost 25% of inquiries convert to a sale within half a year, most sales are longer-term.
Consider one study which Reed Business Information undertook about inquiry handling. They examined forty thousand inquiries from advertisements and magazine press releases focused on manufacturing businesses. After six months, the study found that:

- over sixty-five percent reported to still have plans to buy

- over twenty percent purchased the item advertised from the advertiser, or a competitor

When looking back at some of the older inquiries, it was discovered that:

- over ten perfect purchased within 90 days of inquiring

- seventeen percent make a purchase within four to six months

- twenty-five percent bought within seven to twelve months

- almost half took over a year to buy

However, although the amount of inquirers that become sales over time are high, most sales people think that ad inquiries aren’t worth following-up upon. Why is this? This is most likely because these inquiries are long-term prospects who won’t help sales make more immediate sales which are more valued for meeting seasonal quotes and commissions value. As a result, your company’s inquiry-handling process may only pass all inquiries on to your sales staff, representatives and distributors. However, they may be sifting through and neglecting the long-term prospects. The result could be a huge loss for your company, as over eighty percent of all potential sales may just be left in suspense.

You’re probably asking what you can do to convert more of these inquiries into sales. Just follow the four steps below in order to maintain a better inquiry-handling process to create sales-winning relationships:

1) Send requested information immediately to demonstrate your responsiveness

2) Follow-up with inquires on the telephone to find out more about their needs, budget, timing and authority to purchase

3) Keep in touch with long-term prospects with email, fax, mail and phone, keeping your products in mind while supplementing new information

4) When your long-term prospects are qualified and likely to make a purchase soon, get the sales staff involved

Your marketplace is like an orchard. Your marketing people are the planters, weeders, and waterers of the trees. When the fruit is ripe, they call in the pickers – your sales people, reps, and dealers. If enough seeds have been planted and trees tended, the orchard can be well-tended with follow-up, reaping a bountiful harvest. If not, pickings could be slim.

M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is described by many as one of America’s leading business-to-business sales and marketing consultants and an expert on sales leads. He is president of Mac McIntosh Inc., a B2B marketing consulting firm that helps companies get more high-quality sales leads and turn them into sales. More tips at Mac’s Sales Lead Insights: B2B Marketing Blog

Author: Mac McIntosh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Cellphone, mobile phone

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From time to time, people ask me how public relations has changed during the two decades in which I’ve been seeking publicity. My answer: technology. Twenty years ago, the fax machine was a newfangled novelty. Our primary means of communicating with journalists was the telephone and the US Mail. The advent of e-mail and the web has made life easier in many regards and tougher in others – namely, thanks to hordes of clowns with money making schemes and software that “blasts” press releases indiscriminately to reporters, it’s become very hard to get your e-mails through to spam-weary reporters.

But there’s another great advantage provided to publicity seekers by the Internet — the ability to create an “online news room”. In the “old days”, the press kit reigned. Big bulky folders loaded with press releases, glossy photos and slides were standard. They were expensive to design, costly to reproduce and required lots of manpower and postage to assemble and distribute. Today, you can simply direct a reporter to a web URL, where all your press materials and high definition artwork awaits, ready to be used. It’s a huge time and money saver.

A quick note: the traditional press kit isn’t dead. It’s still handy to create some physical kits to use with key journalists, as the very novelty of printed material can give you an edge at times. Also, some journalists still prefer a physical kit. Press kits are an important tool at trade show booths & press rooms, and special events. However, gone are the days of sending out large press kit mailings. Keep the kits for targeted use only.

Creating a useful online news room is really pretty simple. One of the main things a busy reporter wants is easy access to press releases, corporate and executive info and artwork. A well put together media room should provide a seamless walk-through.

Where Should the News Room Go?

There are two schools of thought on where to put your online news room. Some companies prefer to have it as a section on their main site, visible to all as a link on a menu bar or other navigational element. Others build entirely separate sites just for the media.

There are pros and cons to each. Putting it as part of your main site allows a journalist to “poke around” your site, absorbing more of the feel and culture of your company and its products. It also makes it easier if the reporter wants more information about a particular product than can be found in your media materials. Of course, since you’ll need to provide clear links to the online news room to help such reporters find their way back, anyone visiting your site can access your press materials. This is probably not an issue but, if you feel potential customers may become confused if they wander into the online news room, this could be worth considering.

Creating a separate site allows you to tailor everything to suit the needs of the reporter and prevents the possibility of confusion for potential customers visiting your main site. The reporter however, will be unable to quickly “poke around” the main site as described above, so you may consider that in your decision. If you do choose a separate site, give it a name that incorporates your company (if you’re the Acme Company, go for acmepress.com or acmeonlinenewsroom.com). Also, provide clear links to your main site throughout, and code them so that they open in a new window, allowing the reporter to see your main site without having to backtrack to the online news room.

Some Do’s and Don’ts

DON’T force journalists to register or sign in for access. They’re busy folks and may very well decide not to bother. Make life as easy as you can for them.

DO offer the opportunity for journalists to enter their e-mail address if they wish to be kept abreast of the latest news from your company, but don’t link it in any way to the ability to access any portion of the site. DON’T confuse non-journalists who may wander into the site. Make it clear at the top of your main page of your online news room what it and who it’s for.

DO provide a link to your consumer FAQ page and an e-mail link for customer service to give non-journalists a place to go to get their questions answered. This will save you a great deal of time responding to messages from non-journalists asking “why am I looking at a press release? How do I download a new driver” or some such thing. Here’s what Gateway says, “Gateway press contacts are only able to provide assistance for qualified members of the news media. They are not qualified to respond to product or technical support needs…If you are not a member of the news media, please feel free to visit our pages for Product Service and Support.”

DON’T try to lay out the online news room if you’re not a talented web designer. Don’t use flash, heavy java scripts and other doo-dads. The face you put forth to the media must be highly professional, and the ease of navigation and logical flow of the news room is vital.

DO hire a professional designer who has a portfolio that includes simple, easy-to-navigate, clean-looking sites.

What To Include in Your Online News Room:

Personal Contact Info. The name, address, e-mail, phone number, fax number and cell phone number of your primary media contacts must be front and center. If you have an Instant Messaging ID, put it in there, too.

Press Releases. Place press releases in chronological order (most recent at the top). Keep traditional press release formatting and use easy-to-read fonts.

Executive photos, product photos, charts, graphs, and other appropriate artwork. Provide multiple versions — 72 dpi (lower resolution) for online publications and websites, and 300 dpi (higher resolution) for offline publications. Put instructions such as To download, right-click and choose “save” next to the graphics. Make sure your pitch letters and press releases provide links to the appropriate artwork on your site.

Backgrounders, executive bios, white papers, investor relations info (if applicable), fact sheets, speeches, awards, streaming media of: press conferences, product demonstrations, president’s speeches, etc.

Search Tool. Make it easy for journalists to find just what they want, by making all your press materials fully searchable.

Online News Rooms to Study:

The best way to learn how to put together an online news room is to see how some very smart folks have done it. Here are three outstanding examples….

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/default.asp
http://www.google.com/press/index.html
http://www.crayola.com/mediacenter/

Bill Stoller, the “Publicity Insider”, has spent two decades as
one of America’s top publicists. Now, through his website, eZine
and subscription newsletter, Free Publicity: The Newsletter for
PR-Hungry Businesses http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp
he’s sharing — for the very first time — his secrets of scoring
big publicity. For free articles, killer publicity tips and
much, much more, visit Bill’s exclusive new site:
http://www.PublicityInsider.com

Author: Bill Stoller
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital TV, HDTV, Satellite TV

The internet has moved us into a global market place and it is very important to understand and reach your ideal clients. Trying to reach any and every one will be a waste of time and money. Now is the time to define your marketing niche and target the markets that are ideal for your business.

Here are some tips to understanding your ideal clients:

• Define your target market:

Whom are you ideally trying to reach with your marketing material? Are you looking to reach solopreneurs, small business, medium size businesses, large business, non-profits, ECT? Are you trying to reach more than one market?

Action: List the markets that you are trying to reach.

• Define their age group:

Are you looking to reach young people, college students, middle age or older people?

Action: For each market that you have listed, add the target age that you are trying reach within that market.

• Define their education level:

Are you trying to reach high school dropouts, high school graduates, college graduates or advanced degree holders?

Action: Take out your list and add the education level that you are targeting for each market you are trying to reach.

• Define their income level:

Are you trying to reach people who earn a certain level of income? Understand that the more a person earns the harder it may be to sell to them.

Action: Grab your list again and narrow down the income level that is desirable for each market you are trying to reach.

• Define the solutions your product or service offers:

Do not tell people about the features of your product or service, tell them how your product or service will help them solve a problem that they are experiencing.

Action: Pull out your list again and write down the typical problem your ideal market faces and the solutions that you provide.

• Define the objections from your target market:

What objections does your target market generally give when it comes to purchasing your products or services? Do they generally complain about the cost, time or something else?

Action: Grab your list and write down the common objections that your target market usually gives. Then write down how you can respond to these common objections creating a frequently asked questions section used in your marketing materials to address their concerns.

These are some simple tips that you can use to start defining your ideal clients and reaching out to people who need the products or services that you offer.

Please download the Ideal Client Worksheet and Buyer Persona to help you develop your ideal client profiles.

Have you creating your ideal client profile and buyer persona?

If not, why not?

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