Use Social Media and Social Bookmarking Websites. Social Media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are beneficial network and marketing websites. Social Media websites can prove to be valuable in marketing your website and the services that you offer to potential clients.

Social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit, are simple; yet profitable when wanting to drive traffic to your website. These websites will aid you in establishing your brand and encourage traffic to your website. There has been an increased trend with internet based business owners; therefore, implementing a strong marketing platform will improve your website’s traffic and your
client base.

Use Blogging. Blogging is another website in the form of social media. A blog combines commentary, images, and/or links to your website. A blog allows you the opportunity to keep an online “diary” of your thoughts, progress, events and articles that pertain to your website and business. Additionally, your blog encourages user participation and allows your readers to comment on the information posted in your blog. Furthermore, several social bookmarking sites will allow you to link your blog to your social bookmarking account; which will increase your targeted audience.

Use article marketing. Writing articles for publication is an effective tool for driving traffic to your website. Websites such as Ezine Articles and Aweber allow you to share your knowledge, expertise, wisdom and in return you can receive traffic back to your website. Many article publishing websites allow you to post a profile of yourself, your business and your website at the end of each article; which will promote your business and build increased traffic to your website and/or blog.

Describe your services offered accurately. Your website is your blueprint for the service that you are offering to potential clients. When listing your services you want to be accurate and precise without becoming too wordy. Using keywords to give a description of the services you offer will amplify your potential client contacts.

Offer discounts for those who book your services through your website. Promote your services and make use of your website traffic by offering online discounts and/or specials. Also, rewarding your current client base for referring friends, family and colleagues is an attractive incentive and will increase client retention.

Provide testimonials from current or past clients. Posting testimonials on your website is an effective tool in gaining prospective clients. Potential clients will relate their business needs with your current client base. Therefore, reading testimonials from current or previous clients provides potential clients with a history of your work ethic. It will entice prospective clients to contact you.

About Us/History Page. Listing your experience, expertise and/or education will provide your potential
clients with an outline of your background. Your experience, expertise and/or education will lay a foundation for you and your new client to build upon.

Staying one step ahead of your competition is essential when marketing your website and business. Consider implementing the tools listed above and you are already on the course for success.

Our e-zine templates are designed to fit seamlessly into 1 Shopping Cart, Aweber, Constant Contact, iContact and more email marketing clients.

See our portfolio of E-zine & Newsletter templates.

Firstly, writing articles is one of the few ways to show that you are an expert in your field or market. So providing valuable information to your audience on a particular subject area or topic helps in developing a connection with  potential clients or customers by giving them a quick snapshot of what you do and how they can gain from it.

Submitting your articles is a gift that continues to give for a long time, and here are some of the reasons:

• It increases traffic to a website, giving a lot more people the opportunity to find you, your services, products, etc.
• It sends one way traffic back to your website from other valued ranked sites (if your articles are submitted to the highly ranked sites).
• This does not involve link exchange with other websites that do not complement your business, vision or goals.
• Your article could be re-posted on other blogs and websites by people who found them to be of value.
• Your article could be tweeted about and re-tweeted many times over, and fed through all the many viral marketing avenues.

Also, here are a few tips on article writing: Be specific about your subject area, kept your article short and informative, proof read for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes and give a straight-forward title that is attention grabbing.

And if you haven’t started using email marketing in your business, now is the time to start. It definitely is for me, as I’ve finally just sent off my first email newsletter blast to my mailing list. Yes, it’s taken me this long…3 years! The funny thing is I do this for clients regularly. I design their newsletter templates, input their content and send out blasts via their email marketing clients, but never for myself. My excuse..too busy doing for others. Doesn’t this sound familiar.

These are the things to take into consideration when planning your email marketing strategies.

• Have a custom designed newsletter template to complement your brand.
• Keep your message simple, clear and speak directly to your audience.
• Personalize your message, include your recipients name where ever possible.
• Ensure your content will be of value to your readers
• Include a call to action.
• Keep your newsletter clutter free.
• Include the capability for readers to have access to past issues.
• Use a reputable email marketing client.
• If you can’t manage your newsletter activities, DELEGATE it!

Here is a link to my first newsletter. I do two versions of the newsletter, one that goes into the email marketing services and a second one, a web page for people who don’t have html enabled email services and also for the purpose of having an archive of past issues.

Don’t hesitate to contact me for your business newsletter design and management needs.

1. Always have the email come from the same person at your end. It helps to create a sense of rapport and stability.
2. Never use a subject or title line that is misleading; always make it descriptive of what is in the body of the email.
3. On the other hand, keep it snappy. Instead of “Your November Newsletter”, use the title of one of the more important articles in your newsletter.
4. Make it clear that it is okay to forward the email to others, if the subscriber likes. This form of viral marketing can grow your subscriber list over time.
5. Always include links to your product pages in the body of the email.
6. Also include an easy opt-out link at the bottom of the communication.
7. Be sure to solicit responses and comments. People love to share their thoughts.
8. Formatting is especially important in plain text messages. Keep the attention going by using bulleted lists instead of lengthy paragraphs.
9. Stay away from using all capital letters or italicizing words, as they can be harder to view on a computer screen.
10. Watch the use of color in your emails, especially with text; lighter colors tend to be hard to read, especially on a white background.
11. Use fonts that are similar to those used in most email clients; it will make it easier to arrange the text to best advantage, especially for plain text emails.
12. Include some incentive to visit your website, such as promoting a new product or noting a new blog entry.
13. Don’t forget to include a special offer or a discount from time to time.
14. Always thank the subscribers for their time and support.
15. Before you send the emails to clients, send them to an email address of your own, with one in HTML and another in plain text. That way, you know exactly what the subscriber will see.
16. Don’t be afraid to try something different now and then. Vary texts, layouts, and other elements to see what subscribers respond to best.
17. Keep the text of the email focused; rambling will lose your audience, just as wandering text on your website will drive visitors away.
18. Use a reliable program to blast mail to your subscriber list; most allow you to review a report of successful deliveries once the job is complete.
19. Review the reports regularly, and compare them to spikes in your web site traffic, and the responses you get about specifics of the emails.
20. Used software to tabulate and categorize the responses. It will make it much easier to process them and turn them into usable data.
21. Assess the percentage of response you get. The industry standard is between five and fifteen percent. If you are getting less than that, it is time to rethink your approach.
22. If a response serves as the inspiration for an article in the next newsletter, ask the subscriber if it is okay to mention them by first name and initial. This is enough to maintain anonymity, while still recognizing their contribution.
23. Ask subscribers to submit some of their own copy once or twice a year. You may be surprised with the quality of what you receive. Reward the best one with a free ebook or other product.
24. Send out special holiday emails along with your regular weekly communications.
25. Listen to the feedback from your subscribers. It will help you refine the mailings as you go along.