Online Marketing Strategy

The Art of War For Online Marketing Strategy

What is it that really separates those in your industry that become the big players and those who just stumble along, never really getting a foothold in the market? It isn’t just access to funding, or a unique product, it is all about marketing strategy. As an entrepreneur it is quite likely you have already heard of the ‘Art of War’, the military strategy book from perhaps the most highly respected general and strategist in history, Sun Tzu. So what can be gleaned from this master strategist and applied to your online marketing so that you can dominate your industry?

Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from the Art of War is to avoid head to head confrontation with bigger and better equipped competitors. Let’s be honest, if you try to take them on at their own USP (Unique Selling Proposition), go after the exact same customers, talk badly about them in the press or drag them into a price war there is a good chance they will annihilate you. Or at the very least cause you to waste so much of your resources that you have nothing left to fight with. In order to win online you need to be able to laser focus your resources on your ideal customers in order to make maximum impact until you can build up your finances.

This means it is much better to begin by honing in on one niche in your market and making it yours. This could be a specific demographic in your industry or by positioning yourself as the faster or easier option. Don’t worry this doesn’t mean that you can’t eventually dominate your entire industry. It is just easier and wiser to take it down one segment at a time.

How can you apply this to your online marketing? You should be using all aspects of your online presence to target your niche from the toll free numbers you use on your web assets to your domain names, the verbal branding you use and the prospects you focus on with PPC or CPM advertising campaigns. Going further you can take various actions to confuse the competition and even cut off their supply lines by making exclusive agreements with other online marketers. Though perhaps most importantly this means making better keyword choices which will yield a higher return for your marketing budget.

 

Offshore

Live and Incorporate Offshore

Globalization and the ease of making money online means that there is now no reason for you to be tied down to a specific location or suffer from high tax rates.

Savvy entrepreneurs know that minimizing taxes is often just as important as generating income and new wealth. Asset protection and minimizing your tax burden by incorporating your business offshore is now easier than ever. Depending on your exact needs and which location you find most attractive for incorporating you will find business formation services offering assistance from as little as $100 to several thousand. Today most will also include registered agents and can get you up and running with a new corporation, trust or partnership in a tax free destination in almost no time at all.

It is important to note that some of the old so called ‘tax havens’ are no longer as appealing. Many have entered into new agreements to disclose information or have become prohibitively expensive. Among those you probably want to cross off your list are Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. So make sure that you consult an expert who is up to date on the latest tax laws before you spend money.

Some items that you need to keep in mind when deciding where to incorporate your business offshore include easy access to your money, whether your incorporation service offers a privacy guarantee and the prestige associated with the country.

In some cases, depending on your country of citizenship you can also avoid taxes by spending a certain amount of time outside of your home country for each tax period. With the dramatic advances in technology and communications you will now find that you can run your business seamlessly from almost any corner of the earth while enjoying better weather and living like a king on a small budget. Making millions is great, but if you are wise it doesn’t have to take millions to live like the rich and famous. However before you jet off to a new sunny destination, it pays to check out their immigration laws and determine which locations are the easiest and least expensive for obtaining permanent residence or even dual citizenship.

If you would like to find out more on the world’s new tax havens and the best destinations for relocating offshore contact us and we will be more than happy to refer you to one of our asset protection partners to help you get the most out of your new wealth.

Social Media

The Way Forward for Business Owners Who Need to Promote their Business Through Social Media Sites

Social media have taken the world and advertising by storm and everyone wants to cash in on it. Companies these days are using the internet to advertise and promote their products at a cheaper rate than it would cost to advertise traditionally. Social media seminar tends to teach people how sites such as FaceBook and Twitter is a marketers dream as these sites have millions of members and sees hundreds of thousands of people each and every day.

 

However the problem faced by many businesses is that they do not know how to effectively use this form of advertising. If you are one of the many business owners that need to advertise and promote your business and is looking o use social media marketing to do so then you should think about social media seminar.

The use of social media seminar is very beneficial to all business owners; especially small ones. Because these websites see so many people on a daily basis it makes a good advertising avenue. Businesses need to therefore learn how to use the power of the social media sites to their advantage in order to get the desired results and the possibilities are huge.

If as a business owner you are not comfortable with doing the promotion and advertising of your business yourself then you still stand to benefit from social media seminar. How? For starters you never know who you might meet at these seminars. Take for instance you could meet someone at the social media seminar that could very well be the person that you employ that markets your company. Or you could strike up a partnership – an exchange of a service for marketing services.

Additionally if you intend to hire someone to do your social media advertising for you then it is also advised that you also make yourself aware of how the system works; and social media seminar will show you just that. Sure you can employ someone than calls themselves an “expert” however, can you really tell that they `00% know what they are doing? If you do not know how (or even have an idea) of how the social media system works then you will not be able to truly comprehend what someone else is recommending for your organization.

A good social media seminar will provide you with the skills and knowledge about how to use social media forums (among other things) to effectively promote your company. Whether you choose to do it yourself or employ someone attending a seminar will work for you.

Marketing Seminars

The Benefits of Attending Marketing Seminars

As a business owner one of the ways of broadening your horizons and gaining knowledge that can take your business one step closer to success is marketing seminars. These seminars (especially internet based marketing seminars) are specifically geared towards adding value to business owners like you. The main focus of these seminars is to guide you on the right path while teaching you how to effectively market and promote your business. You see typically business owners tend to hire someone else to take care of their marketing needs. However, these seminars are aimed at putting the power back into the hands of the owner. After all who better to promote your company than you?

So how can you benefit from attending a marketing seminar?

One

You have the opportunity to learn from the best – the experts in the field. Very rarely does a small business owner have the opportunity to be in the presence of a marketing expert; therefore these seminars give them access to these people.

Two

Someone once said “why go to a seminar when you can read a book”? Well can the book answer your questions on spot? Can you have a conversation with a book if you need further clarifications? The answers to these questions are clearly NO. Sure reading a book can provide you with answers; however there is no interaction from a book. When you attend a seminar you are able to ask questions and even solicit discussions from the speaker or even other people that are in attendance.

Three

They say that great minds think alike; if so then a marketing seminar is the perfect place for you to be as a business owner. In a forum like this you are able to shine as you can discuss your issues with people that are experiencing the same problems. Here you will be surprised at the solutions that you can conceptualize both for your problems and that of others. Also you would be surprised at how motivated and inspired you feel when you are around people that are similar to you.

Four

By far it can be said that the single most significant advantage of attending a marketing training seminar is the opportunity to network. A marketing seminar could end up being the next big break that you and your business need.

Five

Another benefit to being at a marketing seminar is the chance for it to become your life changing event. There have been many business owners like you that have reported that attending a seminar they experienced some form of event that either changed the course of their lives, business plans or them. Attending a seminar can open up something inside of you that you never knew. It is like opening up the gates to your awesomeness. So the next time that someone invites you to a marketing seminar; instead of shrugging it off, think about it as your big break, the opportunity for this to be your moment to shine.

Social Media Training

All you need to Know About How Social Media Training can Help Your Business

Unless you have been living under a rock you would have realized that social media has taken the internet by storm. Once thought of as only a means for interacting and connecting with friends; social media has evolved into so much more. Now business owners have begun to use social media as a means of effectively and inexpensively promoting their business. However, most business owners have no idea how to use social media effectively to promote their business. It therefore becomes important for business owners to acquire some form of social media training.

Social media can help your business in so many ways and the best part is that it costs a fraction of the cost of advertising. Have you seen how big Twitter and Facebook are? Those 2 major sites see millions of people on a daily basis, making it an advertising heaven. Now not because there are millions of people on these sites doesn’t mean that you can simply place an ad and the business will come rolling in, as there is more to the use of these websites than that. In order to effectively promote your company and product you must be able to understand how the people that frequent these sites behave. Again in order to do this yourself you need social media training.

But I have no time. This is often the cry of many business owners as they generally have a lot to do in the day to day operations of their business. In this case the best option for them is to employ someone that has had the necessary social media training. Having someone with this kind of experience allows you to have an “expert” develop your social media marketing strategy and actively market you, your product or your service. So how much will a service like this cost?

You would be surprised to know that having someone that has had social media training market and promote your business is not costly at all; especially if you compare it to the cost of traditional advertising. Often times these “experts” will charge you a fee then outsource some of the tasks to freelance contractors that have the experience in carrying out the duties needed to promote businesses via social marketing mediums.

However, regardless of whether or not you are opting to promote your business yourself or have someone promote the business it is advised that you get some amount of social media training for yourself. This is because it will help you to understand what the person that you have hired is doing, adds to your credentials and allows you to feel empowered.

Small Business Training

Avoid the Common Causes of Small Business Failure by Getting Small Business Training

 

We all want to be our own boss. We all dream of someday owning and operating our own business; however we are all not equipped to do so. This does not mean that one cannot successfully create and operate their own business. It is a well known fact that many small businesses fail in the first 5 years of operation. Though there are many reasons for this – for example the economy, one can say that small businesses fail because the business owner lacks small business training and sufficient business experience and knowledge.

How can inexperience and a lack of small business training negatively affect small business owners?

Well for starters many owners have a brilliant idea; they have either developed a product or a service that people demand. The challenge is that they have no idea how to effectively manage the operations. The reality is that a good idea is not the only thing that is needed as without the management skills and small business training you will not know how to deal with the everyday problems that all business and especially small businesses face. And as a small business owner I am sure you are well aware of the many issues that plague you on a daily basis.

So what are some of the problems that small business owners face that small business training can help them with?

One – Accounting

Many business owners have no idea about how to effectively balance their books, file their taxes or even the maintenance of the regular day to day financial needs. Simple things like a business owner taking money from the business for personal needs and not properly accounting for it is something that can overtime run the business to the ground. This issue can become major however; with the right small business training you will learn how to effectively manage your finances.

Two – Management Skills

Let’s be honest with ourselves here many people do not know how to effectively manage people and processes. The fact is that they need some form of help. Sure they have the ideas; however, they need to be able to develop processes and procedures and also manage the staff that carries out these functions. Now do not think that I am saying that all business owners are unable to do this; however, the fact remains that unless you have had some form of small business training you will most likely experience difficulties in this area.

Three – Leadership Skills

Another area that is significantly helped by small business training is leadership. Poor leadership is also another cause of the failure of small businesses.  For any business to survive it needs to have not only excellent product and staff; it also needs a good leader. Leadership skills can also be acquired with good small business training.

As business owners and especially small business owners having the tools needed to stay afloat is mandatory as you already have many challenges to face. Do not expose your business, your dream die because you neglected to get something as simple as small business training; as doing so could significantly improve your chances of success.

Small Business Conferences

The Best Way to Learn How to Solve Your Business Issues and Achieve Growth

To say that small businesses and large ones are the same is an incorrect statement as small businesses differ from lager ones. The problem that the CEO of a large corporation encounters is vastly different from the ones that small businesses face. Sure in the world of business small business experience similar problems as the large companies; however, the regular everyday operational challenges will differ greatly based on the size of the organization. The major difference with large organizations and smaller ones is that the larger corporations usually have experts to help them out whereas the smaller ones need to fend for themselves; hence the need for small business conferences.

Business owners like you who attend small business conferences are able to benefit from getting training that will prepare you for the challenges that you will face as a business owner. The aim of these conferences is to equip small business owners like you with the skills and knowledge that is needed in order to increase their productivity and efficiency thus leading to increased profitability.

For small businesses going to small business conferences is one of the best things that you can do for your business. One of the ways that attending these conferences is for the valuable information and training that they provide.  Remember that a lot of small business owners do not have the necessary business training that the larger corporations have (mainly because they are able to employ them).

So what kind of training would one expect to get from attending small business conferences?

For starters these conferences teach you how to effectively deal with the challenges that most if not all small businesses will face. You are therefore not only being taught about the problems but good small business conferences will teach you how to solve these problems and how to ensure that the same mistakes are not made twice.

Another benefit to attending small business conferences is that they are usually a wonderful place to network with other business owners. There are tremendous benefits to be derived from being in the same space with people that have faced or is facing the same problems as you. For instance you are able to learn how someone else solved the same issue that you may face. You can also tweak their ideas to suit your specific needs.

Additionally small business conferences can open up partnership opportunities that you otherwise might not have been able to access. For example if you are a small distributer then you might be lucky enough to meet a a supplier that you could partner with for cheaper products etc, therefore as a small business owner it is advised that whenever possible attend those small business conferences as you never know how you can grow both your business and yourself.