Marketing Tips for your Virtual Business

Do you find yourself so busy working IN your business that your own marketing efforts get shuffled off to the side? If so, you are not alone.

Many virtual professionals get so busy working with their own clients, that they don’t regularly market their own business.

This can lead to dry spells in bringing on new clients, or even lost networking opportunities. It’s important to make sure that you are maintaining your marketing all year round, and of course bumping it up when necessary to bring new clients or prospects into your ‘funnel’.

Here are a few ways you can bolster your marketing efforts:

1. Network regularly. Think about what it is you want to accomplish, and make a plan to get it done. If you attend a live networking group, ask yourself what it is you want to get out of the group – and what you want to give. Analyze those results regularly. Is the group an effective source of networking for you? If not, what can you do to increase your participation or your results? If you are networking online, do the same thing. Weigh the time you are spending networking against your results. If you are not seeing results, assess what it is that you are doing wrong. If you aren’t interacting enough, plan to do that. Networking is supposed to be something that enhances your business – but it doesn’t take the place of all of your marketing activities, so be sure to give yourself a scorecard and make changes where necessary to make it an effective use of your time.

2. Plan, plan, plan. Get out your calendar and literally plan to market your business. If you are planning a product launch, set your date and work back so that you can market it properly. If you want to add some new clients to your business, do the same thing. Select the date you want to have those clients come on board, and then work back to set your strategy to bring them on. You will know how much time you need to do that based on how many you need, and how well you are communicating with them already. Proper strategy will yield you faster results, but planning is essential.

3. Nurture constantly. Once you bring people into your circle, you want to be able to stay in contact with them so that they get to know you. It’s not enough to meet someone in a networking situation and then three months later contact them to see if they need support. It’s important to nurture the relationships you are building – otherwise your efforts will be lost. People will most often choose to work with a person that they have gotten to know (even briefly) because the trust factor can get built up quickly by a nurtured relationship. Get to know the people you network with, and you will be farther ahead of the pack when they are in need of support.

Marketing your business is much more than just directing people to your website and hoping they will buy from you. As a small business owner, you want them to buy YOU, so you need to be sure to show them YOU.

Through careful planning and regular contact with your prospects, you’ll be the name on their lips when they are seeking support.

For more tips on marketing your business, check out these blog articles: www.yourvamentor.com/blog/tag/marketing-your-services

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