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Article:
Marketing Automation For Small Businesses And Web Entrepreneurs by: Abe Cherian Many Internet marketers wonder how they spend less time marketing their website so they can focus on delighting their clients and developing better marketing strategies to improve sales. They often ask: How can I be efficient as possible so that I don't waste time and money? How can I spend less time on activities so that I don't like (e.g. marketing and sales) and more time on activities I love. (e,g. delighting customers, improving sales materials and products)? Every time I get busy with clients, marketing falls behind, so I end up with a 'feast or famine' cycle. How can I avoid the frustration of being swamped with sales one month and famished the next? How can I get prospects, leads, customers, signups, and referrals come to me instead of having to chase them? How can I build a substantial 'contact list', fast, and manage it effectively? How can I organize my contacts, in one palce and build lasting relationships with them? How can I turn visitors into qualified leads automatically -- instead of losing them to my competition? How can I follow-up with my prospects and turn them into paying customers, even if I am on holiday? How do I organize my ad-copies/sales materials all in one place, and use them whenever I need -- from any computer, anywhere in the world? How do I schedule an update/mailing for a future date, and have it delivered even if I am not in front of my computer? How do I know which advertising is pulling better results for me? How do I know the cost of getting a prospect, and the cost of getting a paying customer? How do I know what my time is exactly worth? One answer to the above questions is to develop 'Automatic Marketing Systems' that do your marketing for you while you do other things. Marketing automation and CRM (customer relationship management) is not just for big corporations -- it must be implemented to your marketing even if you run a home-based business or promote an affiliate program. When your marketing is effective and runs on auto-pilot, you enjoy a number of benefits: You spend more time on the tasks that you like to do, which usually are those that got you into the business in the first place. Clients come to you, and already know about your products, services, or an opportunity, so you don't have to chase them. While you're busy delighting current clients, you're still getting the word out about your services, so you can smooth out the 'feast or famine' cycle that plagues so many Internet marketers. You get leverage to grow your business faster. Marketing is a science. Everybody has a marketing system -- manual or automated. Yet, all results are not equal. Some marketers emerge as giants, and others, including those that started marketing at the same time as the giants, either give up and go out of business or struggle to stay afloat. Why? What are the variables that make a difference in the same thing? I'll tell you why... The successful ones are better able to relate the needs of the marketplace by using the right automation tools and analytics -- which helps them save time and money and make good judgments. Tools To Automate Your Web Business: There are several affordable (from $20/month to $149/month) Marketing automation websites/services that can help small business owners automate parts of their marketing chores and save time and money and increase your return on investment (ROI). Some websites do part of the automation for you (like follow-up auto-responders, and ad-tracking services -- but very few will satisfy all of the above concerns for a small business Internet marketer all in one place. A service specifically targeted towards small businesses, home-based entrepreneurs, and affiliate marketers will be www.iMediatools.com. iMediatools provides a solution to all of the above concerns that is affordable ($39.99/ month) and practical for Internet Marketers. You can even try the full version for a period of 15 days before you get the Enterprise version. Having total control over your marketing, lists, databases, and leads pays off thousand times over. About The Author Abe Cherian is the owner of Multiple Stream Media and publisher of weeklytips.com newsletter, where you will find hundreds of Internet business building tips. Visit www.weeklytips.com to read more tips like this one. submitnotify@weeklytips.com This article was posted on December '04
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