If you are self-employed or a business owner and you still haven’t utilised the internet to boost your sales, you are leaving loads of money on the table!

If you operate mainly through offline vehicles, this means you are using mainly the following methods to create income for yourself:

• Networking - attending events to meet as many people as possible and establishing relationships through constant communication
• Holding events yourself -holding free events for your prospects like an open house, or a taster workshop
• Exhibits - paying a company so you could set up a stall to exhibit your goods for X days
• Advertising- in magazines, newspapers, billboards, etc
• Press Releases
• Cold calling or door to door knocking
• Direct mail - catalogues, brochures, postcards, etc.

The above tactics are viable ways to reach your target audience, but there are common downsides:

1. They limit your reach - if you are networking, you can only talk and connect with one person at a time; if you are holding a free event or participating in an exhibit, you are only reaching a small handful of people at a time.
2. They require a big investment of your time - if you are networking, can you just attend 5 events and never have to attend ever again? Of course not. You have to keep going in order to get some results, probably see the same people and hear the same things. The same thing applies if you are promoting mainly via cold calling or if you are advertising. You have to keep putting lots and lots of time in.
3. The audience you are reaching don’t necessarily belong to your ideal target market - when you set up an exhibit stall, not everyone who will come to the event and browse through your goods has a strong interest in what you have to offer. When you go to a networking event, not everyone you’ll meet there will meet your criteria.

Case Study

Let’s say for example that you are using exclusively offline vehicles while working as a self employed sales agent for an investment property business. I am doing this for illustrative purpose only, but the principles I discuss here can also apply to Nutritionists, Life Coaches, Consultants, Therapists, etc. Let’s say that you tell me that the value you offer are:

• We carry out extensive research to be able to single out only the very best and most lucrative international properties.
• We offer honest, reliable and trustworthy choices, because we give unbiased advice without the hard sell.
• We do the hard work to give you only the relevant information you need to make the best investment decisions.

So you’ve got a great service. You prevent people from making costly mistakes. You educate people and arm them with viable ways towards financial freedom. You’ve got so much to offer!

But are you reaching enough people by using offline communication methods? I doubt it.

Because of the nature of your offers, your ideal communication channel is one that easily allows you to:

• Reach a GLOBAL audience- regardless of where they are and where you happen to be
• Send a consistent message to your target audience
• Get the right people to find your message at the right time - get exposed to people already proactively looking for what you're offering.
• Leverage your time, money, energy and resources

What communication channel can you use to do exactly all these?

A Blog!

I am not suggesting you completely do without your current offline marketing strategies. They work as well. However if you change your business model so that it also makes use of online vehicles like a blog, you could reap the following benefits if you do it properly:

Benefit # 1: You open up your message to be highly and easily accessible (24/7/365) to THE exact hungry crowd you are after

Think about it - once you have writtten your entry about say, “The top 12 Common Mistakes Overseas Property Investors Make and How You Can Avoid Them”, it will be there for anyone to read anytime, it can be accessed by many people at the same time, and it delivers a consistent message each and every time. Once you have put that work in, that’s it. You can then move on and work on another article that addresses a different angle of the same big problem that your prospects want to solve.

Benefit # 2: Build a relationship with a huge amount of people from all over the world interested in hearing what you have to say.

If someone goes to your blog, subscribe to your RSS feeds, or leaves comments on your entries, it means they're interested in you. If they’re not interested, they wouldn’t waste even 2 seconds on your site.

Over time, as they become more educated and well-informed, they will eventually make a buying decision. And who do you think they will buy from? YOU, of course!

Benefit # 3: Build your prospects database easily and automatically.

Opt-in boxes will allow you to collect names and details of people who is basically saying, “Yes please! Email me, I want to hear from you!”

These are people who want what you are offering. They want to listen to your message. These are people who will come to rely on you for advice and guidance, and when they continue to get immense value from you, soon everything you recommend to them will be taken seriously. Many list owners earn easy money just by emailing their list and recommending a useful product.

Can you see the potentials now?

Benefit # 4: Marketing Research is as EASY as a-b-c

Through the blog comments, your audience will be able to ask you questions, give you feedback, share their problems, doubts, plans, etc. This will give you the chance to uncover what your target audience is really looking for, what bothers them, what keeps them up at night, what they like and dislike - thus putting you in a strategic position to offer the solutions they want or need.

Benefit #5: No more Selling

As someone who is disseminating valuable information, you will NEVER need to sell ever again because your blog will PRE-SELL your offers. “Pre-selling” simply means building a trusting relationship with your audience which makes them eager to buy. People don’t like being sold to so you might as well stop trying.

Benefit # 6: You will be able to earn passive income while helping your customers and other businesses!

As someone who is knowledgeable in say, property investments - you will be able to write intimate descriptions of the properties you’re selling, and in the process you can recommend the best restaurants, reliable car rentals, the best night clubs, or any offline business in that particular area – and take a commission!

You can also do the same practice online. This is called affiliate marketing. In affiliate marketing, you recommend a product, provide a link the reader can click through, and if they buy you get an automatic commission. Have enough links in your blog and have enough people clicking and buying through your links and you will see the money roll in - while you’re sat at home sipping your wine.

Benefit #7: Targeted Advertising for your company

You can set up big banners in your blog displaying ads for your company. This will boost their brand and online presence through your blog. When viewers click on the advert, they can be taken to your company’s official website, where they can see all the other information about your company. Alternatively, you can use some of the banner space to rent out to other related companies, thus serving as another stream of passive income.

Benefit # 8: Sell Premium memberships

As someone who is in the information business, a particularly effective way to create an income stream from your blog or website is by selling Premium Memberships. You can offer to give Premium Members the latest news about the best properties available, give tip and tricks, special discounts, etc. Many people are willing to pay for this type of service as long as they perceive the information they are getting is worth it.

Benefit # 9: Create and launch your own products

As an expert in your field, you know enough already to write and produce e-books, or create audio CDs, educational videos, printed books, even create your very own branded t-shirts and mugs! When you create your own products, you boost your credibility to your audience.

Benefit # 10: You’ll establish your reputation and credibility and be known to a worldwide audience of HOT prospects who trust and like you - and you can work wherever!

If you give useful content constantly, people will look to you for advice and guidance, and they will trust you if they are really getting so much value from your contributions.

They will recommend you to their friends and their friends will do the same. They will forward your emails to other people they know, who in turn will get curious and read your message. It’s viral, and since it’s online you can be anywhere in the world and it wouldn’t make a difference. You can have a mobile lifestyle!

IN CONCLUSION

Nowadays, if you are in business, communicating exclusively via offline channels is just like trying to walk with one leg!

Succeeding in Business requires constant innovation and knowing how to LEVERAGE existing tools and resources - and this is what the internet can offer you, if only you are open to know how.

An effective, constant and impactful communication with your target audience is key to your marketing mix, and a Blog is a perfect vehicle that will be able to establish that.

The beauty of changing your communication channel from offline-only to mainly-online is that once you have set up the foundation, you need not spend as much time on it. Most of it will eventually be automated, and you will not need to spend as much time doing research and maintenance and relationship building.

Many business owners out there are already getting a steady stream of prospects because of the level of exposure their blog has generated for them. You can easily do the same, and you can start now.

If you require expert help in setting up your blog, contact www.easidesigns.co.uk now and get a personalised consultation about how to best leverage the internet to boost your business.

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