The Beginner's Guide to Home Business Marketing

Hello again, Lisa Lake here with more tips for the beginning home businessperson. As you may know from my past articles, after raising my kids I went back into the work force, and I faced down several challenges. I'm a non-traditional businessperson, and I had to learn the system the hard way. I didn't have a business degree, and I didn't have the years of experience my co-workers did, but, being a reasonably intelligent person and a hard worker, after only a glitch or two I found myself really succeeding. Well, after a few years of commuting, I found I really missed the freedom of being at home, so I decided to go into business for myself. I was not so surprised to find that I now was facing a whole new set of challenges. Working at a corporation I just had to show up and be good at the job I was hired to do. Working at home I soon discovered that I had to be an expert at everything, especially marketing. When you're in business for yourself, you've got to have a way of bringing customers to your business. After a few months of trying different approaches, I learned that the best way to market, at least for my business, is on the web. I've streamlined my best web marketing ideas into what I call my 1-2-3 program, and I'd like to share it with you. Here they are. 1. Get a great web site. Business is seldom done over the phone these days. It's all web based, and having a great web site is crucial, because it's the first impression the customer has of you. If your website isn't professional, people will just move on, won't they? There are several cheap and even free website services on the web. Just do a search and pick the one that works best for you. You can pick decor and font and all kinds of stuff to make your site seem more like you. 2. Get listed on search engines. This is really important, too. A great website doesn't do you any good if nobody can find it, now does it? This can be a little more expensive, but you'll find it pays off if you do it right. Choose a popular engine or two, and then register key words that you think people who are looking for your type of business might use. Most pay-per-click engines offer a ranking when you submit words so you know where you'll be on the list when you pay a certain amount. Try to get top ten listings with at least two of your terms. 3. Use Autoresponders to get in touch with prospective clients. Have a place on your website where interested customers can enter their email addresses. Then have an autoresponder service send out one, three, or even seven follow-up mailers. This is a great way to bring in people who can't quite make up their minds. There are lots of great sites that are cheap or even free that offer this service as well. Again, do a search and pick the one that works best for you. This combination of website, search engine listing, and autoresponder has worked great for me. My business is booming now, and I couldn't be happier. Give it a try and I bet it will work for you.