Make Money Online with a Home Business

Introduction...

If you're looking for the opportunity to make money online in your own home business, it is absolutely a realistic goal. There are a lot of self-taught entrepreneurs who have learned how to make money online from books, courses, newsletters, and web sites that specialize in strategies and techniques for people who want to make money online.

Avoid unrealistic expectations

A home based business opportunity is not a get rick quick scheme. Just about anyone who makes money online can tell you that -- like any genuine business opportunity -- it takes time, patience, work, and knowledge. Since the quickest road to failure is to try to reinvent the wheel, it makes complete sense to learn how to do it from others who have succeeded. If it's your objective to make money online in a home business, you can learn the steps through the books, courses, and other resources listed below:

"E-commerce"

A word pervading our society, making headlines around the world, and causing the stock market to rise and fall with startling ease.

It seems every business news story centers on some technology company’s "DOT-com" or "DOT-bomb"!

With all the positive and negative hoopla, business owners of any size company can throw up their hands and feel the "E" world has left them behind.

Every business owner, salesperson, or professional asked one of two questions in the past year, either "Am I using e- commerce correctly?" or "How do I effectively get involved in e-commerce?"

You can buy hundreds of books and pay thousands in consulting fees to analyze and debate the answer to the first question.

To answer to the second question just follow these 12 steps.

Step 1 - Buy a domain name (your own DOT-com). Go to www.NetworkSolutions.com and research names. Can a customer easily spell and remember it?

Step 2 - Write down your online goals and prepare a time and money budget.

How soon do you want your e-commerce site up and running?
How much will you spend?
How many hours will you devote to the site and when?

Step 3 - Surf the web to find other sites you like and dislike. Learn from others’ successes and mistakes by taking the best of what their sites offer and adapting it for your own use.

Step 4 - Design your site on paper. Define elements, look, feel, colors etc.

Step 5 - Hire a professional to set up the graphics and navigation, but with the intention of you or your staff maintaining the site’s day to day operations, communication and updates.

Step 6 - Invest in a digital camera and web publishing software such as Microsoft Front Page or Adobe Acrobat to keep up with the site’s maintenance.

Step 7 - Maintain, change, and update your site at least once a month. (The one exception to this rule are those one- page, sales letter websites. Once you have one of those that performs well and makes sales, don't change it!!)

Step 8 - Promote your site at every opportunity. Tell people about it. Put your web address on your business cards and in all your ads. Some companies even advertise their web address when they put you on hold on the telephone.

Step 9 - Give people a self-serving reason to visit your site. Coupon savings, discounts, special incentives, free information, and free newsletters represent excellent enticements for attracting visitors to your site.

Step 10 - Concentrate on obtaining an email address from every customer and potential customer.

Obtain permission to send periodic, value-added malings to your database.

Use a list server to organize and maintain your mailing list.

Step 11 - Always look for and use the simplest solution or option.

Whether adding a shopping cart, database or other option to your e-commerce operation, seek out and use the simplest answer for your needs.

Step 12 - Become educated and stay current in the world of e-commerce.

10 Ways To Increase Your Online Orders

1. Persuade visitors to link to your web site. Give them a freebie in exchange for them linking to your web site. It could be content, software, etc.

2. Link to web sites that provide useful information or services for your visitors. If you have many useful links on your site, they may make it their start page.

3. Spice-up your web site's wording using plenty of adjectives. It gives your visitors a clearer vision of what your explaining or describing to them.

4. Don't make your banner ads look like ads. Most people ignore banner ads. Design them to look like content and have them click to read the rest.

5. Join affiliate programs that go with the theme of your web site. You'll just be wasting valuable space and time if your visitors aren't interested in them.

6. Market your web site as a free club instead of a web site. This'll increase your repeat visitors and sales because people enjoy belonging to groups.

7. Interact with your online customers on a regular basis. This'll show them you care about them. You could use a chat room, forum or message system.

8. Check your web site links regularly. After people click on one link, and it doesn't work, they usually won't risk wasting their time clicking on another one.

9. Give visitors a positive experience when they're at your web site. Provide them with original content and free stuff. They'll tell all of their friends about it.

10. Share customers with other businesses that have the same target audience. Offer their product to your customers if, in exchange they do the same for you.
EDITOR's NOTE: "Sharing customers" should not be misinterpreted to mean sharing email addresses or failing to have or live up to an online privacy policy.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing is a topic that has been generating a tremendous amount of interest, lately, among web site owners and webmasters. Why is search engine marketing such a hot topic? Well, for anyone with a halfway-decent website and a worthwhile produce or service to offer, effective search engine marketing is like money in the bank. With literally millions of other Internet entrepreneurs vying for a top-10 ranking on major search engines, especially Google, MSN, and Yahoo, it really pays to know the proven search engine marketing techniques that translate into getting a high search engine ranking.

Search Engine Marketing Overview
Search engine marketing, also referred to as Search Engine Optimization (or SEO), is not as complicated as it may, at first, sound. Knowing a little basic HTML is a good start, and that information is readily available on the web for free. When you gain a little expertise in search engine marketing, you’ll begin to pick up and understand important terms, such as ‘key word density’, ‘link popularity’, and ‘meta-tags’.

Learning even the basics of search engine marketing will help you improve your web sites search engine ranking, increase your visibility, and generate more web site traffic.

Another search engine marketing avenue you might want to consider is ‘Pay Per Click’ advertising on Google, Yahoo, Overture, and a handful of other search engines. With this type of search engine mareting, you’re paying a set amount, usually anywhere from five cents per click and up, for each potential customer that arrives at your site by clicking on a search engine ad you’re running. This method of search engine marketing can get expensive fast, so it’s advisable to start conservatively and experiment with different ad copy. Tracking results is also the ideal way to make the most out of this technique.

Search Engine Marketing News

If you’re interested in Search Engine Marketing Trends, here’s a relevant press release from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO):

Search Engine Marketers Spent $5.75 Billion in 2005, According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)

Google and Yahoo! Continue to Dominate Internet Advertising in North America

WAKEFIELD, MA– January 9, 2006 – Advertisers in the U.S. and Canada spent $5.75 billion on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in 2005, a 44 percent increase over 2004 spending, according to a report released today by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), a non-profit professional association working to increase awareness and promote the value of Search Engine Marketing worldwide.

The report, “The State of Search Engine Marketing 2005,” also projects that SEM spending in North America will reach $11 billion in 2010. The annual totals include payments to search engines and search-related media companies, search engine marketing agencies and in-house expenditures in support of such programs. The programs include paid placement, paid inclusion, organic search engine optimization and search engine marketing technology platforms.

The report is based on an industry-wide survey of 553 respondents conducted in November 2005 by Radar Research, LLC and Intellisurvey.

The survey found the bulk of the SEM spending was spent in 2005 on paid placement, accounting for 83 percent or $4.7 billion. While four out of five advertisers report they engage in organic search engine optimization (SEO), organic SEO accounted for approximately 11 percent of overall spending; paid inclusion accounted for just 4 percent of overall spending; and SEM technologies, including leasing, agency solutions and in-house development, accounted for less than 2 percent of overall spending. “The data shows that 2005 was a good year for search, but 2006 should be a great year,” said SEMPO Research Committee Co-chair, Gord Hotchkiss. “The growth shown has largely been driven by maturation in existing segments. Future growth will be fueled by an increased search presence from major advertisers and new monetization strategies from the major engines. The increased competitiveness in the marketplace will really drive the industry forward in the coming year.”

The survey also found:

Google and Yahoo still command the lion’s share of Internet advertising.

Branding, sales, leads and traffic are the top objectives of paid placement programs.

Little SEM funding is newly created; most is shifted from other programs.

Advertisers and agencies are approaching their pricing limits.

SEM agencies need to prove their value-add to advertisers.

The Mental Process of Achieving Financial and Personal Success

The amazing paradox of success is that everybody knows the ‘secret’ of how to achieve it, but few are willing to apply the principles that virtually guarantee the attainment of almost anything you want. It’s no mystery that if you identify a goal, write down a plan for reaching it, and follow that plan with persistence, determination, and focus, you stand a good chance of realizing your dream or, at the very least, creating an outcome that puts you in a much better place than you were before making the attempt.

Why doesn’t everybody make a plan, take continuous action, and pursue their dreams? Why do so many people settle for a measly paycheck, an unsatisfying life, and a humdrum existence? In our society, there’s a rampant epidemic of undeveloped potential. The solution will continue to elude the masses because it’s not something that can be seen, touched, or measured. If you’re not producing the results you desire in your life, the problem could stem from concentrating too much on the ‘here-and-now’ instead of what could be.

The ticket to a higher standard of living and a more fulfilling lifestyle is available to anyone willing to cultivate the states of mind known as faith, hope, and belief. Focusing on the concrete aspects of life rather than the invisible resources that our five senses can’t perceive is what 90% of the world does on a day-to-day basis. Obviously it’s the other 10% (or less) who have faith in themselves, believe in their dreams, and have hope that their actions will propel them to a more prosperous and joyful future.

On the journey to success or happiness, the biggest obstacles are not in the concrete world, but rather in the inner world of thought and imagination. Having your plans and aspirations obscured by self doubt, fear of failure, and the negativity of those around you is a surefire roadmap for going nowhere fast.

So can we blame our parents and teachers for telling us not to be dreamers and not to waste our time on what they viewed as unrealistic pipe dreams? Well, we could, but it would be a lot more productive to take responsibility for our own lives and focus on taking deliberate, consistent, daily action toward the realization of our goals.

A woman who cut my hair several months ago said she was tired of working three jobs for low pay, and was interested in starting an Internet business as I had. I emailed her a few step-by-step instructions for getting started, and, although I never heard back from her, I’d be willing to bet she never followed through with the information I gave her. My guess is that she didn’t have the courage to embark on something outside her comfort zone of cutting hair and waiting tables. She sounded intelligent and had even taken some computer classes, but her negative inner dialogue probably talked her out of it. What she may not have realized is that when you start moving forward and taking positive action toward a goal, new doors open up and guidance is provided.

Your life is not set in stone; it’s a continual work in progress. Change begins with a conscious decision, and is implemented one step at a time. ‘Comfort Zone’ is another way of saying ‘self-imposed limitations’. Unless you make yourself a little uncomfortable by expanding the boundaries of what currently feels safe and comfortable, your accomplishments will be unremarkable and your personal growth will stagnate.

Positive Thinking and Effective Marketing Go Hand in Hand

Successful sales and marketing requires persistence, continuous improvement, and the expectation of a positive outcome. If one doesn’t approach every aspect of marketing with enthusiasm, creativity, and a positive mental attitude, then it’s like embarking on schooner race with no wind in your sails. You’ll have no momentum or direction, and the competition is guaranteed to overtake you.

Attitude has an insidious way of infiltrating everything we do; and it can lift us up to great heights or pull us down to the depths of failure. It can energize us to do and say all the right things at the right time, or it can undermine our motivation and cause us to sabotage our own best laid plans.

The bottom line is this: either we own our attitude or our attitude owns us. Every now and then, it’s necessary to make a conscious decision to take charge of our thoughts, attitudes, and habits. An unfocused effort, whether it involves marketing or any other aspect of business, is sure to produce inferior results.

Allowing negative thoughts to infect your mind creates a cascading effect of self-defeating behavior. In direct sales, one needs to have a winning attitude and a magnetic personality to influence and persuade prospects to become customers. That’s only the tip of the iceberg, though, because a successful salesperson also needs to have the finesse and people skills to win back lost customers, negotiate the best deal, ask for and get sales referrals, inspire teamwork, and have the energy and optimism to overcome setbacks and keep moving forward in the face of temporary failure. Without a positive mental attitude, none of that is going to happen.

Cultivating a positive attitude also feeds the creativity and optimism necessary for nearly every other aspect of marketing ranging from sending out press releases and sales letters to placing ads or launching a web site. If you don’t believe it’s going to work, either you’re not going to try at all—or your efforts will be weakened and half-hearted. In both cases, you’re doomed to failure before you even get out of the starting gate.

On the other hand, if you make up your mind to be an ‘eternal optimist’, you’ll be willing to take calculated risks and put your best foot forward. Getting there may involve an integrated program of reading motivational books, listening to self-improvement CDs, making a concerted effort to identify and avoid (or filter out) a lot of the negativity in your environment, and establishing daily habits that will tend to attract beneficial people and circumstances into your life.

Being an entrepreneur and running your own business is an intrinsically risky endeavor. If an expensive marketing campaign falls flat or a major client signs on with the competition, you might find yourself scrambling to make up for the loss. A positive state of mind not only helps you be creative, resourceful, and energized, but it also enhances your ability to anticipate, adapt, and regroup.

While many aspects of marketing are considered a gamble by anyone’s estimation, the best way to hedge your bets is by adopting a focused, optimistic, and positive mental attitude

Make More Sales by Counteracting Fear

Possibly one of the biggest obstacles to making a sale or increasing your client list is your prospects' fear: their fear of making the wrong decision, fear of being ripped off, or just the nagging fear of getting lousy service after the sale. Two things fuel that fear: personal experience and news headlines.

Case in point: A couple years ago, I tried out a new dentist based on a full-page ad in the yellow pages and the credentials listed on his web site. To make a long story short: After a couple visits, I decided I was extremely dissatisfied with every aspect of my experience as a patient of his, so I asked his office staff to forward my records to a different dentist that was recommended to me. The upshot is that about a year later, I saw a newspaper article about this first dentist saying that he was sentenced to five years of felony probation after pleading guilty to bilking dozens of patients out of almost 100 grand!

Another case in point: The state Attorney General’s office is now building a case against a contractor with whom I had some major service-related problems. Apparently, he has created a long trail of disgruntled customers over the years and it’s catching up to him. For the time being, however, his display ads in the local Penny Saver newspaper keep luring new, unsuspecting customers in.

The purpose of these two stories is this: Lots of people have been burned and many other people have heard news reports and stories about fraud, dishonesty, or just plain bad service. That’s one of the reasons it’s more important than ever to convey to your prospective customers and clients that you’re an ethical, respected, and service-oriented business person.


It’s All in How You Communicate

Similar to an integrated marketing strategy, one should pursue a combined approach to portraying themselves as an ethical, customer-centric individual or company. One way is to develop a mission statement, a values statement, and/or a vision statement that you can include, in some form, on your web site, brochures, press releases, newsletters, and other modes of communication. Those statements should convey a strong emphasis on client satisfaction and customer service.

Developing and maintaining a stellar reputation for excellent quality and value-added service is the foundation for gaining people’s trust and generating valuable word-of-mouth advertising. The more positive ways the public hears about you, the more receptive they’ll generally be to becoming your client, customer, or patient.

What a lot of professionals fail to do – and this is costing them clients and income – is to ask for referrals, especially at the moment when their client is at their optimal level of enthusiasm. Each situation is different, and everyone has to be their own judge of what’s appropriate, but one of the best times to ask for a referral is when a client has just profusely thanked you for the great service you’ve provided. The opposite side of that same coin is to give them a few of your business cards and ask them to selectively hand them out to friends, co-workers, or family members who might be in the market for your services.

Whether you’re talking about Internet marketing or traditional marketing, the more 'hooks' or 'nets' you have in the water, the greater your catch is going to be.

Get a Competitive Marketing Edge with PR Techniques

One of the least understood, most underutilized marketing techniques in the business world is public relations. That fact represents an opportunity for small business owners and managers who are willing to devote a little time to cultivating relationships with reporters and editors in their community.

Advertising is the obvious approach to self-promotion, so a lot of your competition is doing it. Generating free or inexpensive publicity through press releases and media relations is not as commonplace, so it offers a much more uncluttered arena for gaining visibility and name recognition. The 'cost of admission' consists of a newsworthy story and a little insight into how the process works.

Potential Pitfalls and Opportunities

The bad news is that editors, radio news directors, and other media gatekeepers receive dozens of press releases every day, and that's just in the small towns! Releases get tossed in the circular file for three primary reasons:

1) They look unprofessional, 2) They're an ad masquerading as a news story, or 3) They have little or no news value.

Three other fatal flaws in a news release are: a failure to get to the point right away, an abysmal absence of formatting, and glaring typographical mistakes and grammatical neglect.

Although it may sound like there are 101 ways you can go wrong (so why even try?), it's actually more a matter of common sense, persistence, and following a few basic guidelines. It might take a little experimentation to discover whether you get better results working directly with specific reporters, instead of editors (and using email vs snail mail), but as you fine tune your approach and make yourself known to local media people, your success rate should rise significantly. You may ultimately find that public relations is the missing link in an otherwise lackluster media campaign.

Cardinal Rules of Press Release Writing

As in any type of marketing, presentation and image can make a big difference in the quality of the results produced. Here are a dozen guidelines for putting your best foot forward with the media.

1) In the headline and the body of the release, emphasize the news value of your story. If it fails to catch an editor's attention or sounds remotely like an ad, the odds of it being published or broadcast are slim.
2) It will have more of an impact if the first paragraph contains the most important information, with the rest of the material arranged in order of descending importance.
3) One simple, but useful guideline for writing a press release is the old journalism standard of focusing on the five "W's", namely: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and sometimes, How?
4) Write it from the perspective of an objective observer, not from the point of view of a business owner or manager
5) Use short sentences and double spacing between paragraphs.
6) The last paragraph should be reserved for a brief bio or a few boilerplate sentences about your company. Journalists know to look there for that information.
7) One page is the ideal length for a press release. The media will call or email you if they have questions or want to interview you.
8) Formatting elements: After the headline at the top, the following information is generally inserted: the words "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE", one or two contact names and phone numbers, and, right before the first sentence of the release, the location and date of the news story.
9) Maintain an up-to-date mailing list of reporters and editors, and get to know them, whenever possible. Jot down a few notes about each one.
10) Suggest article ideas, occasionally, and let it be known that you're available for interviews. IDEA: One way to establish a reputation as a valuable resource for the media is by preparing for them a printed list of experts, spokespeople, and authorities on topics related to your profession or industry.
11) Emailing tip: Reporters and editors intensely dislike email attachments, as a rule. Get around that by including the press release in the body of the email.
12) Perhaps the most important consideration when working with the media is that they're always under an impending deadline, especially at daily newspapers and broadcast news departments. Among the worst violations of media etiquette is not returning phone calls promptly and requesting the chance to review articles prior to publication.


Opportunities to Send Press Releases

Countless opportunities to send out press releases and receive valuable, free publicity get missed every day. There are literally dozens of newsworthy opportunities for getting positive media exposure, including mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, office expansions, new employees, awards, workshops, speaking engagements, fund-raising campaigns, lobbying activities, the launch of a new web site, announcing survey results, sponsorships, or taking a public position on an industry-related issue. Business milestones are often a good reason to issue a press release, such as the grand opening of a new office or announcing a business's 25th anniversary.

The bottom line is that being written about (or broadcast) in the media conveys more credibility than messages communicated through paid advertising; and it can be a vital element of any integrated marketing campaign. Although 'Familiarity breeds contempt', according to Aesop, the ancient Greek fabulist, one area in which that usually doesn't hold true is modern public relations and marketing. With few exceptions, the more ways people hear about you, the better.

Proven Techniques for Writing Persuasive Ads and Letters

Whether you're writing a marketing message to one person or a million, your chances of having an impact on them really takes off when you understand what makes them tick. You're then in a strong position to tailor your message directly to their interests, problems, needs, and aspirations. Easier said than done, but that's where market research, asking clients the right questions, personal observation, and marketing plans fit into the picture.

A marketing plan, even an abbreviated one, can be an invaluable starting point in the development of an effective ad, commercial, promotional brochure, or sales letter. Doing an analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) associated with your business or the services you offer can serve as an excellent launching pad for writing persuasive advertising and sales messages.

Laying the Groundwork

In addition to a dash of writing talent and marketing knowledge, creating effective ads and letters require a clear focus. Knowing exactly what outcome you're aiming for before you begin writing is comparable to mapping out your travel route before embarking on a cross country drive. For example, if your goal is to generate leads or to qualify prospects, your strategy might be radically different than if you were trying to make immediate sales or simply attract visitors to your web site.

Sell The Sizzle! (not the steak)

The copywriting process tends to flow a lot more smoothly if you have in front of you three lists consisting of benefits, features, and competitive advantages. Organizing them on one page in a column format is the easiest, most efficient way to manage the information. F.Y.I.: There may seem to be a thin, if not invisible, line between "features" and "benefits", but understanding the distinction can make all the difference in your marketing success. Features are important and need to be mentioned, but benefits are the selling points that clients and prospects can relate to and identify with. Basically, benefits are features that have been personalized, elaborated on, and projected into the future. It answers the questions "What's in it for me?"..."Why should I care?"...or "How will my life be enhanced by buying your product or service?"

Crafting the Message

Catching people's attention and arousing interest can sometimes be as simple as incorporating your strongest selling point into the headline or the first sentence of your ad or letter. Several tried-and-proven headline devices for drawing people into your message include asking an intriguing question, making a thought-provoking statement, or beginning the headline with the words "How To". Headlines that convey a sense of urgency, contain a short testimonial of a satisfied client, or have the feel of a news announcement also have been shown to get people to stop and read.

By the way, one of the most powerful and successful advertising headlines of all time, which was also the title of a best-selling book written in 1936, is "How to Win Friends and Influence People", by Dale Carnegie. The title/headline is filled with benefits, it contains the words "How To", and it speaks directly to everyone's strong desire to be well liked, to be in control of their lives, and to feel important. Another popular book Carnegie wrote tapped into that same formula. It's entitled "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living." Apparently, that double-barreled approach was especially effective for him.

Many well-intended ads, brochures, and letters start out with a good head of steam, but peter out as they approach the moment of truth, namely: the call for action! If you don't make it 100% clear exactly what you want the prospect to do after hearing/seeing your message, and if you don't give them a compelling reason to do so, there's a good chance you'll lose them.

As the acronym AIDA suggests, a response-producing ad or letter must first grab the Attention of the target audience, arouse Interest, trigger Desire, and then prompt Action. Without all four of those "cylinders" firing at the appropriate time, that delicate sequence of events could quickly come to a grinding halt.

Mom, apple pie and how to tout a family business

More than a third of the Fortune 500 companies are family-owned. Family businesses account for nearly 80% of all new job creation, 60% of employment and a staggering 50% of the gross domestic product. Three of the country's top 10 billionaires owe their wealth to a family biz — Sam Walton's kids at Wal-Mart.

So when it comes to marketing and growing a company, the decision to put the family front and center is serious business. It's a strategic marketing choice, not a way to save money or resources.

Connect family values and work ethics to a product or service and — boom! — you announce to the public that an honorable leader is in charge. There's a mama or a papa at the helm who takes responsibility. There are hard-working offspring or relatives who care passionately about success and service — after all, the future of the family depends on it. Customers applaud that.

The family-ness factor works well in marketing," says Ira Bryck, who directs the Family Business Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. "Just as long as the business is treated like a business and the family is treated like a family."
Family marketing success stories

In this demanding climate, building strong customer relationships is once again in vogue — very simply because keeping loyal customers is a lot cheaper and smarter than trying to acquire new ones. And when the name of the game is "trust the brand," the image of a family business is an immediate winner. Customers and stakeholders see family-run shops as nurturing and more ethical, especially in these Enron-ized days. They become emotionally invested in its success.

In the early 1980s, Columbia Sportswear owner Gert Boyle, then in her 60s, began appearing as "Mother Boyle" in ads for the Portland, Ore., sportswear firm, which was founded by Boyle's parents in 1938. Aggressive and humorous, the campaign pitched the notion of quality, emphasizing Gert Boyle's exacting matriarchal standards: "One tough mother" ran the tagline, and later, "Don't forget who makes the pants in the family." Though the company went public in 1998, Boyle, still chairwoman, remains Columbia's face.

Likewise, Frank Perdue appeared in TV commercials during the 1970s with his own tough bird message: "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken." That worked, too. Shoppers began asking for roasting chickens by the producer's name — unheard of at the time.

"Marketing the family is an enhancer," agrees Peter Tourtellot, managing partner for a Greensboro, N.C., corporate turnaround firm and the former chairman of the Turnaround Management Association, a 4,800-member group for corporate renewal and turnaround. "When the family has been in business for years, you're saying the firm can be trusted."

6 ways to build trust and ramp up your marketing

You ought to focus on how you can demonstrate to customers that, no matter what goes on around the world, you, at least, can be trusted. Mind you, trust isn't something you can fake. You must sincerely mean what you say and do. But there's no reason to be shy about getting out the message.

Here are six practical ways to market trustworthiness.

1.Honor exceptional promises. Many companies tout service but few deliver. If you make promises you cannot keep, you're doing business on the consumer fault line. Then it's only a matter of time. Customers will eventually cease to believe anything you have to say or offer. False promises not only waste resources, they bankrupt brand equity.

To gain market share, think creatively about what you can guarantee that will make you stand out. "Tell customers you'll return every inquiry within 12 hours or that all appointments will be met on time," suggests Sharron Senter, a marketing consultant based in Merrimac, Mass. "State some facts that distinguish you from the competition and fulfill them over and over again."

2.Watch your language. Your fab new widget will not "revolutionize" business or "totally change" life as we know it. Consumers are dead weary of howitzer marketing. They've seen and heard it all.

These days, keep it straight and simple. "Use terms that are direct, on message," advises Winter Prosapio, director of marketing for Sports Clips, a Georgetown, Texas-based hair care franchisee. "Whether it's two-for-one or 0% financing, stick to the brand-sell formula." You can also use humor to crack the trust wall, she says, so long as it's on message and makes customers remember you. "Humor disarms the skeptic."

3.Work the relationship. The best methods for forging connections with customers will vary with the industry. But technology has multiplied your options. With the CAN-SPAM law and all the filtering software, e-mail marketing is used more effectively now to retain and reward valued customers — in other words, to build trust. (Customer acquisition is moving into direct mail and other channels.) Password-protected Web sites and premiums also provide possibilities that can satisfy your best customers. Still, you don't need bells and whistles to show customers you care. Send personal thank-you notes. Call valued customers to chat about deals and sales. Don't take any such customer for granted.

"Relationships are reciprocal, meaning I'll tell you a secret if you tell me one," says Steve McKee, president at McKee Wallwork Henderson, an Albuquerque, N.M., ad agency. An old ad adage says if you admit a negative, you gain a positive, says McKee. "So a car dealer might admit that shopping for cars is an awful process. Or a retailer could apologize for its poor parking situation." The idea is to admit sincere vulnerability, which, over time, builds trust.

4.Get customers to vouch for you. "To overcome suspicion and win trust, include lots of customer testimonials in your marketing, with full names, cities and states, to show the results that real people get using your product," says author and consultant Kevin Donlin at Guaranteed Marketing in Edina, Minn.

The cheapest and most effective marketing, of course, is one friend recommending your product to another. Whatever you do to build customer referrals and word of mouth — including frequent-buyer programs, prizes or discounts — will be well worth it. For more about referral marketing, see this story.

5.Adopt a cause. In 1991, Sunny Kobe Cook opened the doors to her first Sleep Country USA shop in Seattle. Less than a decade later, Sleep Country had grown into a 28-store retail mattress chain with more than $350 million in sales. Yet the startup initially had several strikes against it.

"We were a new business in a market dominated by a well-established, large retailer," Cook says. "We were in an industry that has many unscrupulous players." Dollars to spare for marketing were nil to none. The solution? "We got publicly involved with the community."

Cook recycled old mattresses for charity and made that part of the company's advertising. She partnered with local media to create drop-off centers in the stores to collect old coats, school supplies or holiday gifts for kids. Sleep Country donated mattresses to local homeless shelters and then paid to air radio and TV spots about the organizations. "The exposure was a huge benefit to small organizations that could never justify the expense. And we became known in the community as something more than just another retailer," Cook says.

The result for Sleep Country was a boost in market share. "More than 25% of our customers cited our visible community role as the reason for selecting our store," says Cook, who has since retired. (For more about cause marketing, see this story.)

6.Create missionaries. All the advice about how to treat customers also applies to staff. Treat employees the way you want them to interact with customers and you'll be developing brand missionaries.

"Role model how you want employees to behave and act, and they will follow suit," says Roberta Guise, a San Francisco marketing consultant. "Create messages that express these values. Hang message posters on the walls and in the lobby. Use the value messages as anchor themes for your promotions." That way, your marketing is seamless. Everywhere employees go, they will talk up the benefits of your company.

Today, amid mounting marketing clutter and ads beamed everywhere, from satellite TV and radio to elevator and doctors' offices, it's important to gain profile as a company that customers remember and can rely on. Says Cook, "Building trust with consumers is an essential element of success."

'Cause marketing' tips: Boost business by giving back

American Express first came up with the idea back in 1983. For several months, each time a cardholder charged an item, the company donated a penny toward restoring the Statue of Liberty. The result was a few million dollars to refurbish the Lady, plus glowing press, consumer goodwill, and increased sales for Amex.

Cause marketing has been growing ever since. For-profit businesses are expected in 2005 to spend more than $1 billion in sponsoring nonprofit causes, according to the IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago-based industry newsletter.

But forging a business partnership with a nonprofit can get tricky. Here are dos and don'ts for choosing a cause and negotiating an agreement, plus some real-life examples of how to get real business bang for cause-worthy bucks.

1.


Identify a cause that fits your business.

The goal should be to align your brand with a synergistic nonprofit cause or organization in order to create win-win marketing. Your customer will feel good about buying your product. Your company will gain profile, a reputation for caring, and, depending on the campaign, increased sales. The nonprofit will generate publicity and awareness for its cause. Win-win, indeed.

But all of that only works when your product and the cause share natural affinities. If you own a steakhouse, for example, don't partner with a group that promotes the vegan lifestyle.

"Look at what you sell and understand the targets you're trying to reach. Then align yourself with causes that will bring out the emotions of that audience, from a grassroots, a community and a media standpoint," advises Rodger Roeser, who, at Justice & Young Public Relations in Cincinnati, has concluded several deals for small businesses with such groups as Habitat for Humanity, March of Dimes and more.

For laundry services client Appearance Plus in Cincinnati, Roeser planned a three-month Coats for Kids campaign that began in October 2004 and ran through the Christmas holiday. "We ran promotions in newsletters and took out media ads to publicize the campaign. We agreed to dry-clean coats and blankets for free and distribute them to the needy during the holiday," he says. "The goal was to get people in the store."

Result: Appearance Plus saved a bundle on the cost of customer acquisition, which dropped from $150 to $50 per customer.

2.


Don't manufacture your concern.

There's no point in supporting an issue you don't really care about — people are bound to catch on. Having a genuine passion or interest in the cause means you'll stay engaged and you'll still feel successful even if marketing efforts fall a tad short. Plus, when the owner is engaged, employees tend to get involved as well.

For example, Lisa Bell, who owns Tivoli Partners, a Charlotte, N.C., direct-response marketing agency, chose a cause she cares deeply about that also resonates with her community and clients.

"For more than five years, we've been a major supporter of the Charlotte affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation," Bell says. "In Charlotte, so many lives are touched by breast cancer. Clients and potential clients appreciate our work for Komen and view us as a good corporate citizen. It's definitely helped our business."

"Cause marketing is most successful when the mission of the nonprofit truly resonates with the values of the sponsoring company," says Jeetendr Sehdev, a New York brand strategist.

3.


Define your marketing goals.

Decide upfront why you're getting involved and what you want out of the partnership. There's a range of possible marketing benefits from such sponsorships.

Non-tangible benefits include building company credibility, enhancing your reputation, differentiating the brand, strengthening customer loyalty, and improving employee pride and retention.

Tangible benefits might include increased sales and specific publicity, such as increasing the company profile by having the name highly visible on walkathons and festivals or on posters and Web sites. You also might seek local media coverage.

4.


Don't gloss over the business benefits.

Just because you're dealing with a nonprofit is no reason to ignore standard business practices. "The pitfall for small businesses in cause marketing is not understanding the basics — the equivalent of not knowing how to ask for the order," says Diana Kimbrell of Kimbrell & Company, a cause-marketing agency based in Sausalito, Calif.

Be specific about what you expect. Spell out the details and then get a signed contract. Says Kimbrell: "Calculate how many times your company name and logo will be seen, what kind of information will be placed on their Web site, how many banners will be seen, what kind of article will be written for the nonprofit's newsletter and how many people it goes to. It's simple math."

5.


Put metrics on the process.

You don't need to get carried away, but you need to measure results to learn what works and what doesn't. You can request a periodic report, as informal as you like, from the nonprofit. Or, assign an employee to track sales or promotions, preferably someone who cares about the alliance.

6.


Don't be modest about your involvement.

This is marketing, after all. That means you must spread the word. "For the past three years, Tivoli has sent out animated e-mails that tout the success of the annual Race for the Cure," says Lisa Bell. "I've shown these e-mail messages in meetings as an example of our work. And it's amazing how many people received it and passed it along to friends."

7.


Integrate cause marketing with your other efforts.

Partnering with a good cause is only one method of getting out your message, of course. You can't rely on that alone.

"Cause must be treated like any other campaign in terms of identifying audience demographics, defining the scope of marketing reach, media coverage potential, the costs of banners, ads, radio spots and so on," says Kelly Hayes, president of Milum Corp., an Austin, Texas, software company.

Harness the power of cause marketing — but make sure it's part of a bigger overall marketing strategy.