Start-up businesses, however, have special marketing needs.  Many start-up business owners find marketing an essential task.  Once a business has established itself, the owner will find they are receiving repeat business and may not need to spend as much time on marketing.  But in the beginning, marketing will be a key ingredient to success.

Of course, start-up businesses are usually on a tight budget, which can make it harder to make a marketing splash.  The following are a few marketing tools that every start-up business should have, and the best part is that they are also very budget friendly.

A website is your virtual storefront and it can welcome customers from around the world, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  Every website should contain at least some basic information about the business, including an “about us” page and a “contact us” page.

A blog is another essential tool that some business owners often overlook.  They may feel that if they have a website, they don’t need a blog.  That is not true.  A blog and a website have very different purposes.  A website is there to greet customers, provide information about the business, and, depending on the business, it is quite possibly the way a person can buy things from the business.

A blog, on the other hand, is there to communicate with the public and develop relationships.  Blogs let potential customers see a more personable side of a business.  People want to do business with people they feel they know and like.  A blog can help a business establish that kind of connection with a person who lives hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Business cards are important, even if a business owner plans on doing business solely online.  There will still be people in your local market that need your services, as well as people who know others who are in need of them.  If passing around a few business cards can help bring an extra couple hundred dollars in sales, why not do it?

Social networking is huge, and taking part in it can help a start-up business gain a lot of publicity fast.  There are many networks to choose from, including Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook.  The point is to find one that suits your needs and start establishing some relationships.

Marketing can be a very fun activity for any business.  Since start-up businesses need to spend so much time on this activity, it’s important to relax and get creative with it.  Remember – it should be fun.

There is little point purchasing 100,000 visitors to your site if not one of them buys your product, clicks your Adsense ad or makes an action through your CPA form. You are simply wasting your money. Countless webmasters have conducted tests with pop under traffic with little luck when it comes to return on investment. In many cases it would only take one affiliate sale to make the money back on the traffic investment cost; however this rarely occurs due to the low quality of the traffic sent.

Why is pop under traffic so bad? The main reason is that it is completely untargeted. There is no demographic targeting or anything that would result in an increased chance of conversion. Some testers have stated that pop under traffic can work if there is a lot of it. This can mean purchasing hundreds of thousands of visitors in order to make just one or two sales. It has to be asked whether it is worth the money and effort required, or if the money is best spent elsewhere. Indeed, if 100,000 visitors were to be generated from a much more targeted source it could result in a conversion rate of 5% or more compared with a 0% conversion rate from targeted traffic.

Here are some prices for several pop under traffic providers:

i-web-marketing.com: 20,000 visitors for $149

EasySiteHits.com: 10,000 visitors for $89.95

WebHitsDirect.com: 10,000 visitors for $89.95

SiteGadgets.com: 1000 visitors for $2

People buy pop under traffic mainly through impatience - it results in almost immediate traffic. If you still choose to proceed with a pop under traffic campaign, make sure you track your statistics in order to confirm that you are receiving the traffic number stated. You should also ensure that the pop under provider has a money back guarantee if they do not provide the stated unique visitor numbers as outlined on their website.

Pop under traffic is otherwise known as ‘junk traffic’ and with good reason. For this reason it is best to spend your time and money on more reliable sources of traffic such as organic search engine traffic and pay per click advertising.

WAHMs in direct sales are very often faced with childcare predicaments. A main portion of their business is conducting sales presentations, usually held at someone else’s home. If you are a party plan WAHM, the most obvious choice would be to schedule these presentations when your partner can watch the children, but what if your partner has an odd work schedule or you are a single parent? You can hire a local high school student to come to the party and be the “party nanny”. Check with the hostess first, but she will probably love the idea (and so will the other guests – since they won’t have to worry about getting a sitter for their children, they will be more likely to come to the party and the more guests you have, the bigger your profits!).

If you just need an occasional sitter, try setting up a “child care group” with your friends and neighbors. Each woman can designate a time frame on a certain day of the week or month to be “the sitter”. Any of the Moms in your “child care group” who need a sitter that day can drop their kids of at the “designated sitter’s” house. The children will get to play and interact with one another and each Mom can get free childcare on an “as needed basis”.

Check with your place of worship as they may offer a “Mom’s Day Out” type of program where you can drop your children off for a few hours per day, a couple times per week. This may be a free or low-cost service. Also, check with local library as they may have “story hours” where you can drop your children off and the librarians will read the children a book and after the book is read, the children can participate in a craft, game or activity.

If you just need some “quiet time” to do some work, you can hire a neighborhood teenager to come over and play with the kids while you are tucked away in your office. You will have some uninterrupted “work time”, but will still be there in case ‘something comes up’. If you have regular meetings that take you away from the house, check with friends and family to see if they can help out by watching the kids. Offer your product or service in exchange for their time. They may jump on the offer!

And don’t feel guilty if you need to put your children in daycare part-time. Yes, you may have had every intention of working at home in order to spend time with your children, but, there may be times when your business will need your total focus. By taking that time and completing your business tasks, you will be able to focus 100% on your children during family time.

It may not be easy, but it isn’t impossible, either. By using some simple time management tricks, a WAHM can find time to “get it all done!” One thing every WAHM should have is a planner. Schedule your family time first! Then schedule in the time you are going to work your business. Once you have your “work time” scheduled, make it a priority to stay focused on your business during those hours. It is very easy to procrastinate when you are a WAHM.

If your work requires you to do lots of different tasks, try to group similar tasks together. For instance, if you are in a direct sales business and you have a team under you, designate one day to be your “training day”. Instead of helping various team members throughout the week, schedule all of your mentoring sessions for one day. Set aside an hour in the morning and an hour in the late afternoon to respond to email and/or return phone calls. By scheduling that time in, you will find that you are able to get more work done and feel less scattered.

You might also consider outsourcing some of your activities. If you find that you are spending too much time on responding to email, returning phone calls, or updating your website, hire a virtual assistant to do those tasks for you. This will free your time up to work on your business, and by spending more time on the parts of your business that actually bring in money, you will be able to increase your profits.

You can also save time by setting aside a block of time each week to do your “regular” errands, such as grocery shopping. If you plan your meals for the week and go to the grocery store once, you will save lots of time during the week by not taking those daily “quick trips to the market”. And while you are planning your meals, try to schedule a few “cook once, eat twice” days. For instance, you can plan on having spaghetti on Monday and tacos on Tuesday. So, on Monday, brown the hamburger you will need for both days. On Tuesday, half of your work will already be done. And if you are making a meatloaf or lasagna, make two and freeze one for later.

Most importantly, do not feel as if you have to do it all by yourself. You are not a super hero. If you have a spouse or significant other, ask them to chip in on household chores. Children love to help out, and depending on their ages, there are multiple things they can do. And when it is all said and done, don’t forget to take out some time for yourself. Everyone needs a break– WAHMs included!

So things may be a bit messy around here for the next few days. So please excuse the ugly logo and annoying “image pending” spots on the site. I’ll have it all fixed up soon and looking purty…

Thanks for understanding,

Gina

The first question anyone asks is, “How can my business be losing money? It was doing so well.” Losing money is not a matter of just one thing. Usually it is a combination of things that somehow got overlooked.

Unfortunately for us, those things don’t show up at the beginning, or even in a form that is easily pinpointed. It will take a directed effort to find out what is causing our business to operate in the red. As soon as the money drain is noticed, finding it is a top priority.

Luck can play a part in our business. Some think that this is a good thing, but luck will only get you so far. When luck runs out, the business will suffer.

Insufficient marketing analysis will put the kibosh on your business profits. Marketing research determines if you have a viable product or service that the consumer wants. It is not easy to tap into a new market. Even if you happen to luck up on something, analysis of the market will show if this will be a long or short ride.

Lack of a strong advertising campaign will eat into your profits. With so many businesses out there, finding a new spin to sell a product is not easy. Starting with one medium is okay, especially when money is tight. But, as the business takes off, the only way it will survive is with a more diverse plan. Limiting advertising is a bloodletting. Slowly, your business is being drained of life.

Maybe you only have experience in one type of advertising. Make it a point to learn others. Connect with other business owners and learn their secrets to advertising success. Customers are always looking for the latest thing to catch their eye. If your business is not meeting that need, customers will flee for other venues.

What are your goals for your business? When you hit a wall - and you might, new directions are in order. Goals that are not clear result in a loss of business revenue. Your money will disappear into that great abyss unless you branch out and use your current service as a stepping stone.

The business may start off as a service-based enterprise that meets the need for now, but where will the business go after that? People always want more. A business that can draw them in and keep giving them more options will stay afloat and become successful.

A business is more than one idea and one hook. Filtering all your ideas and creativity into it over time equates to a business that makes money now and in the future. If not, the business will lose money hand over fist.

Giveaways: What can give away to promote your business?

Pens – Wherever you go, someone asks to borrow a pen to write something down, and then forgets to give it back to you. Why not take advantage of this “natural” tendency and use it to your advantage? Check to see if your direct sales company has pens with the company name on them that you can purchase.

Better yet, spend a little bit of money and have them printed with your business URL. The next time someone asks to borrow a pen, you can give them one with your name and website on it. They will see this web address each time they use the pen and it might help generate a sale. The pens aren’t that expensive, so why not give them several? They can give them out instead of their favorite pen, and in that way they’ll have done advertising for you.

Mouse pads – If you work on a computer, you use a mouse pad. What better thing to give away than something that will be useful and that you know will be used? People sit at computers all day long with their hand resting on their mouse pad. If you have your website address printed onto mouse pads, and give them away, you’re keeping the name of your business before potential customers. Choose something that’s visually appealing, as well as functional. If the person you’ve given the mouse pad to has many people visit them during work, they may ask where to get one, too.

Contests: Use them to generate leads.

One way to generate leads is to have a contest that people will be eager to participate in. Choose an item, such as a gaming system or the newest MP3 player, as a prize and you’ll have people beating down the doors to your direct sales website to enter. Make sure the rules are clearly stated so people know what to expect and know when a winner will be announced.

Of course, for a chance to win, they’ll have to leave their name, address, email address, and telephone number. Make sure to advertise the contest with a press release, and you’ve increased the possibility that more people will sign up. Don’t forget, however, to issue another press release when the contest is over; you need to announce the winner.

Using giveaways and contests to bring traffic to your website accomplishes two things:
1) It promotes your business by giving people a reason to come to your website.
2) By providing these items, not only will you bring potential customers to your website, you can also take the price off of your taxes as advertising costs.

Take advantage of people’s desire to get free items, and you’ve taken a step into a new realm of marketing your business. Remember to choose wisely when to hold contests and what items to giveaway to advertise your website. You might generate so much buzz about your direct sales business that you won’t lack for customer and direct leads for quite some time.

Many direct sales businesses offer their sales associates a website that links directly back to the parent company’s site. You might even have taken a bold step and chosen to purchase a domain name and created your own business website. Those are both good ideas, but perhaps you should also add a blog to your arsenal of online marketing tools.

You want to use every available option when promoting your direct sales business, whether offline or online. You wouldn’t think of starting a new home business without purchasing business cards. Why would you consider having one without using a blog to help generate leads and possibly recruit new team members?

A blog can be effective for promoting your business. It can also help you meet new prospects, either as customer or as part of your downline. Blogs can also be a creative outlet when you’ve had to deal with the restrictions of some direct sales companies. A blog can truly help your business reach a new level.

Before you jump on the blog bandwagon, however, you need to read and understand your company’s policy about using the internet for marketing. If they do not allow personal internet advertising it would be better to set this idea aside. Use whatever means they allow to do your marketing.

Consider your goals for having a blog and write them down. Know what you want to accomplish with your blog before you write your first sentence. Think about the people that will be reading your blog, usually your prospective customers or downline, then design your blog with them in mind. Find an area to focus on – whether sales, recruiting, or training – and build your blog around that focus area.

Blogging about your direct sales business gives you an outlet to discuss new products and specials that will be coming up, and gives your team members and customers a sneak peak at new items before they are available. Blogs also allow you to share things that may be related to your business but not a direct part of it. For instance, if your products relate to cooking, use your blog to post recipes for your readers to enjoy. Try to remember who your target market is and provide them with things they will find valuable.

It is easy to see why blogging has become so popular. Millions of people use their blog to express themselves every day. Why not take advantage of this tool and use it to help your direct sales business grow? All it takes is a little bit of time and thought, and a desire to offer your customers and team members another outlet to success.