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The following is a listing of just some of the excellent free site promotional resources as covered in Bob Cefail’s training.

These sites are used by pros and novices alike and actually get results generating quality traffic from quality prospects.

Free Press Release.com – great site to post your press releases free. This site gets tons of traffic and the releases posted there get read by lots of people.

Reddit – Here you can post interesting stories. It’s free & people vote on the stories. It’s a good idea to do a press release first then post the link to that to Reddit.

Stumble Upon – Post sites free. People vote on them.

Technorati – Post your blog here. Technorati is used by millions to index the most popular blogs on a wide variety of subjects.

Idea Marketers – A great free article posting site that gets a lot of traffic. You can take your press release and convert it to an article format then post it here.

Alexa – The “Neilson” of the internet. Make sure your site is listed here. Site also has fantastic tools for checking rankings and other cool tools for analyzing site traffic data.

I get so many clients who have not taken the proper technical steps in securing their logos for future use. It just happened today for the 2nd time in as many weeks. So I’m doing a post about it in the hopes that it helps both my clients & visitors in the future.

When you create your company logo IT IS AN IMPORTANT ASSET and needs to be properly configured for future use by your company.

Now I’m not talking about legal protection. Yes, that’s important too. But that’s one for the attorneys and I meet more clients who have their legal in place but DON’T have their technical in place with their logos.

Here’s what I mean.

When you get your logo created, it’s usually by a logo artist or designer. You need to make sure that they give you ALL of the proper file formats for your logo.

You need to make sure that they give these files TO YOU. Not just your printer or other designer (web, print, etc.). ALWAYS get copies of ALL of your logo files. ALWAYS.

This way you’ll have them all for future use whenever you need to create any branded promotional materials.

Here is the basic rundown on file formats you should have and what they would be used for:

1. Vector Version – MOST IMPORTANT – it’s called a “vector” version of your logo and is usually the original file that your logo was created in. It’s called “vector” because it is “drawn” in the program using vectors (lines & shapes).

Interactive Facebook TeleVision [ iFBtv ] is here now! Check it out and get your FREE fan page!

Get your free fan page now!

Is Your Marketing Just A One Night Stand? Or is it the REAL THING?

If you’re looking for instant gratification, online marketing, and in fact marketing of ANY kind, is NOT for you.

Many times, I’ve seen business executives begin an online marketing project with unbridled enthusiasm and stars in their eyes.

They salivate over the “millions of people” they will reach for “minimal cost” and fantasize about the thousands of customers they will get “instantly”.

They’re delusional.

Marketing, whether online or off, is a PROCESS. Instant gratification is RARE. It takes TIME to develop a successful marketing procedure and even longer to perfect it.

The so called “internet gurus” that you see who have these online marketing “systems” took YEARS to develop and perfect them. They may have spent only months developing their software for the system, but they also spent 20 years learning to write ad copy, 15 years learning marketing, and an equal amount of time learning about their market.

They are also continually modifying, testing and updating these systems to keep them working if at all. This is because the internet is constantly changing. There are more savvy internet users than ever and they don’t go for the “guru hype” that was so successful just 6 or 7 years ago.

In short – to repeat – marketing is a PROCESS.

Think of it like dating. If you want someone to fall in love with you, you can’t expect that to happen on the first date. Sometimes you may get lucky and it happens. But this is rare.

The reality more often than not is that you have to woo the person. You have to get to know each other. You have to learn each other’s likes & dislikes, how each other responds to different types of communication and environments. You learn how to make each other happy. You learn what NOT to say and who not to invite to their birthday party. You try different approaches. You make mistakes. You make some hits too.

All of this takes TIME. But eventually, through knowledge, trial, experience and persistence you get it right and perhaps fall madly in love with each other.

And then, AFTER you fall in love, you have to work to MAINTAIN and IMPROVE the relationship. You can’t take anything for granted or you’ll end up DIVORCED.

And so it is with your prospective customers. It is a PROCESS, not for the impatient or the lazy and definitely not for the faint of heart.

When you have a product or service that you want to market online (or offline) there are several things you will need to find out in order to market it successfully:

1. What is your product REALLY? – You need to clearly, cleanly and simply know exactly what your product is, what it does and what need(s) it fulfills. These answers should be easy to communicate to anyone in plain English.

1. What type of person wants your product and what type of person needs your product? These are not always the same. You also may have many different types of people who want or need your product. Each type of person may need to be marketed to differently as each responds differently to certain types of communication. For example what appeals to a 19 year old young man doesn’t necessarily appeal to a 45 year old woman yet they both need & use toothpaste. You would nevertheless, market to each differently.

1. What do the people who would buy your product or service want from it? What would they expect or require from your product? The answer to this should be known and if it is not known, market research should be done to get the answer. It can be as simple as asking a few people up to conducting comprehensive market research. Once you know the answer, be sure that any marketing done CLEARLY demonstrates that your product or service delivers “it”.

1. What type of promotion will your products public respond to? E-mail, banners, pop-ups, TV, radio, contests, word-of-mouth? What image appeals to your public? Conservative, hip & trendy, traditional, wholesome? Different people respond to different types of promotion, styles and images. Find out the answer and design your marketing campaigns accordingly.

1. And last but definitely not least – TEST, TEST, TEST and RE-TEST. Testing is the key to developing any successful marketing campaign. From the above answers, you will get bright ideas on how to market your product. Try them. Test different wording, different marketing vehicles, different publications, web sites, etc. Eventually, something will work. Tweak what works until it works well. Repeat these steps with each tested idea. Eventually you’ll have a number of things that work and there you have your system!

Sounds simple right? Well for some people it is and for some it isn’t. If you have a knack for marketing and plenty of time, you can do this and succeed relatively easily. If not, you may want to study marketing books and materials or hire professionals to help you.

Whatever you decide, be prepared to invest time and other resources in developing this “relationship” so that it is rewarding, long lasting and meaningful and not just a one night stand.

_________________________

Toli Cefail is co-founder, COO and Creative Director at In Touch Marketing and has been a marketing professional for over 30 years. Her experience, both online and off, spans all manner of products, industries and venues including, communications, fashion, corporate services, marketing services, food & beverage, regulatory affairs, music and more.

Linked in is a great social networking & connections tool for serious business people.

Here’s a link to their tutorial serious which will show you exactly how the system works and how to get started:

http://learn.linkedin.com/students/step-1/

What Your Web Site Should Be Doing? HINT: It’s not for generating leads!

I’ve had a number of prospective clients come to me asking for a web site because their current web site is not “selling their product” or “generating enough leads”. My answer to every one of them is “no”. Why? Because contrary to popular belief, a web site is not supposed to do your selling (unless the site is an online store).

Now I may have just shattered a ton of misconceptions and I may be severely upbraided for making such a bold statement – your web site is not supposed to sell unless it is an online store. But this statement is born out of years of experience in online marketing and is based on the fact that my own company employs the strategy I recommend and has not made a single cold call since its inception.

My company receives hundreds of warm, qualified and interested leads every single month and has NEVER MADE A SINGLE COLD CALL. That’s a fact. So grimace if you want but few marketers of any sort can make that kind of claim, especially in a service business.

Your web site should act as a sales tool. It is intended for your sales people to use during the sales process. It should inform, educate and position your company as knowledgeable and competent. It should have information readily available that your sales staff can show prospective customers. Information such as testimonials, case studies, service descriptions, service presentations, corporate biographical info and other sales tools as may be useful in demonstrating your product or service.

In short, your web site is an organized, electronic, global repository for anything and everything that can be used to showcase your company, products and services and present them in a favorable light. It can also serve as a customer service tool for your existing customers to use in getting help with, receiving and/or continuing their service. It is your presence on the World Wide Web.

But what about the selling?

Please don’t misinterpret this to mean that web pages are not for selling. Or that you cannot have a web “site” that sells anything. You can.

This is done with what are generally called “landing pages” or “lead generation pages”.

A landing page is a page (or micro-web-site) that specifically features a single product or service and targeted toward a particular category of customer. For example: if you’re selling cars you would not promote to mothers the same as you would to 21 year old young men. These two distinct consumers would require two different landing pages with design and copy geared toward each.

The landing page for mothers might discuss how safe your cars were with pictures of mini-vans and SUV interiors.

The landing page for the 21 year old young men might discuss how great you’re going to look in this hot car with pictures of sporty looking cars with pretty girls fawning over them.

You could add a couple of extra pages perhaps with specifications or other targeted information for the given campaign. But basically the main page that your prospect lands on is geared toward a specific type of consumer and product.

Additionally, the page should align with the advertising medium that brought the prospect to the page.

You can execute pay-per-click campaigns geared toward specific types of consumers that arrive at focused landing pages. You can also build focused landing pages that are search engine optimized for specific keywords. (This works for online stores too!)

In any case, the key governing factor is precision, targeted promotion. People searching the internet are looking for specific things. If your landing pages deliver on what they’re searching for, those searchers will become leads for you.

8 years of no cold calling can’t be wrong! — Toli Cefail

Toli Cefail is a veteran professional marketer and entrepreneur. As a co-founder of the internet marketing firm In Touch Marketing, she manages the creation, development and operations of products and services and also serves as the company’s Creative Director.

I’m continually fascinated by people’s viewpoints on websites and what it really takes to create a website that gets results.

I’ve met many people who expect to just build a website and automatically have it start getting sales from day one.

Well… sometimes this happens but most of the time it doesn’t.
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Building a website is really like setting up any BUSINESS. You can’t really expect to open a brick-and-mortar store for example, and have customers just start coming in and buying things. I mean this can happen, but most often it doesn’t.

If you open a store you have to:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Stock the shelves with things people want

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Promote to get people into the store

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Observe the people while they’re in the store regarding their reactions to the merchandise

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Re-stock and add new merchandise according to those reactions

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Adjust the presentation and pricing of the merchandise according to those reactions

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Communicate with the customers both inside and outside of the store to get them to buy

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>And many more things.

In short, it’s a PROCESS. And it is a process unfortunately that many business owners are not prepared to confront when they set up their website.

The average lifespan of a website is about 18 months. I’ve built cutting edge type websites that have held their own for 3 or more years but you really should be prepared to redo your site at least once every 2 years. This is because the internet and web technology is constantly changing and improving.

It is also because the needs and expectations of your website visitors will also change as time passes. What a website will need to deliver today to be considered “good” or even “great” is not necessarily what will create the same effect tomorrow.

You should plan to adjust your web content on a monthly basis at a minimum. The more often your site content updates, the more the search engines will like it.

When launching a web site don’t be fixed on anything. Be prepared to change it on the fly, make corrections, add and remove features, etc. as you go.

Based on my experience, it can take as long as a few months to get a launched website really humming. And this is a few months with at least 2 people working on it full time – a site promoter and a webmaster/designer/programmer.

Some webmasters can do it all but this is rare. You will seldom find a good artistic designer who is also a good programmer and if you do, it will cost a lot to hire this person.

When hiring a company to build your site it’s fine to hire one that is great technically if you have in-house marketing personnel. But if you don’t have web savvy in-house marketing personnel (and I mean really web savvy with regards to internet marketing and promotion as well as marketing in general) then you’re better off hiring a web marketing company and letting them work with your webmaster to get the site built.

The way we work is we have teams of designers, teams of programmers (of all types) and our own in-house web savvy marketing experts who supervise these teams. Then when it’s all done, we turn the site over to our client’s webmaster with our recommendations and continue to work on whatever additional marketing plans the client wants and needs.

Many times we will work with a client’s in-house marketing team. I particularly like to work this way as marketers think alike and don’t overdue the technology forsaking the consumer.

So to sum this up: when you’re building a website recognize that it’s a commitment and a process. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves, make adjustments (many, many adjustments), and take the TIME to respond to your visitors’ behavior to make your site perform.

Time and money are the age old problems that we’ve all had since the dawn of civilization.

In the business of marketing, I have often had prospective clients come to me with little time and little money frantically wanting to accomplish an heroic marketing or sales feat.

If you’ve ever been short on time, or money, or both and needed to sell a lot of merchandise quickly, this marketing advice is for you.

First and foremost, you need to live in the real world.

In the words of the great Zig Ziglar, “Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance” and another popular quote: “time is money”; both of these sayings should be memorized by anyone who has anything to do with selling or marketing anything.

If you want to market something successfully and are on a limited budget, you need to start EARLY. Don’t wait until the last minute.

If you have a large budget you can get more done faster and with better quality.

Essentially, the more time you have the less money you need; and, the more money you have, the less time you need. So if your budget is tiny START EARLY and be prepared to invest a great deal of time.

Investing the time may seem difficult or unreasonable but this is reality and it’s important that you face it if you want to enjoy any success.

Conversely: if you’re short on time EXPECT TO PAY. The more quickly and professionally you want your project to come off, the larger your budget will need to be.

If you have both time and a decent budget you can expect to do well with professional help if you’re not a marketing pro yourself.

So save yourself a lot of stress. Plan your marketing early and make sure your budget allows for what you want.

—- Toli Cefail

Toli Cefail is a 30 year veteran marketing professional and has owned and operated businesses for her entire adult life. She is currently the Co-Founder, COO and Creative Director for In Touch Marketing, parent company of ITM Pro Solutions.

What is a lead capture page?

Businesses need “leads” – prospects who are interested in their product or service. The more the business has, the better they can get more sales.

A lead capture page is a web page that promotes a business and provides a specific call-to-action to visitors to that page. This call-to-action results in visitors completing a form to provide their contact information and get more information about the company’s product or service offering.

It creates interest and “captures” lead contact information.

Why lead capture pages? – Lead Capture Page vs. Website

Websites: Websites generally do not provide a clear direction or “call-to-action” to visitors that encourages them to give their contact information. This results in low visitor-to-lead conversion.

Websites also normally provide too much information and too many choices to a prospect. Prospects therefore get confused about what to do and end up just “window shopping” or “browsing”.

Websites are great for use during the sales process and for people who already know the company and know what they’re looking for.

Lead Capture Pages: In contrast, lead capture pages provide a clear direction to the prospect on what to do with only one choice. Good lead capture pages generally provide enough information to interest and enlighten the prospect so they can decide if they really want to know more, resulting in a high-quality lead.

They provide a clear call-to-action that gives the prospect ONE choice. Then the prospect can complete the lead form to visit the company’s website and be contacted by a sales person to learn more.

Lead capture pages usually also offer an incentive for completing the form such as a free gift, free report, etc. They historically produce a higher visitor-to-lead conversion ratio and help to create more sales as a result.

Why Lead Capture Pages? Nearly every business can benefit then, from using lead capture pages. And most businesses want them and seek them out, either having them created by a web design firm which is expensive; or getting an existing one from a company that provides them. These second types are usually unattractive and unprofessional as a quick web search will easily reveal. Here is the problem Chameleon Lead Capture solves and where and why it shines.

What Is ITM’s Chameleon Lead Capture Service?

Chameleon Lead Capture is a full-featured video enhanced lead capture web page and back-office lead management system. It is called “Chameleon” because the web page itself can be changed and adapted to suit any industry or product while leaving its core lead management software in-tact. It adapts to its “surface environment”.

Chameleon Lead Capture pages are professionally designed with a high aesthetic appeal and are enhanced with commercial quality videos that really create a high level of interest.

Each Chameleon Lead Capture site has 2 pages: a main page with video and lead form and a thanks page giving more info and instructions to the prospects on what to do next.

The text on the capture pages is written, as well as the video content, to do one thing: create enough interest from the visitor to make them want to know more right away and complete the lead form.

Use this info to help you create your own lead capture pages that get results or check out our Chameleon Lead Capture pages here.

You can also get your own lead capture page FREE here.