Would you like to get better results from your marketing and really start taking your business to the next level? Sure you would. I hope you're all planning to make this year your best year ever.

One of the things that I've found is that most small businesses can do much better if they just start avoiding some common marketing blunders.

The good news is that if you're willing to critically evaluate whether you make each of these mistakes, you can find immediate room for improvement.

Here are some marketing mistakes to look for and avoid this year and beyond:

1. Not clarifying your purpose and vision.

2. Not having a marketing and sales system. You have a system for most of your major business functions - billing, accounting, human resources, etc. The one function that usually goes without a system is marketing and sales.

Without a marketing and sales system you'll never grow your business to its full potential. A marketing system will help you break your marketing down into a series of connected small steps to generate more leads consistently and convert them into clients.

3. Never really determining your customers' and prospects' needs. So many small business owners are stubbornly offering their clients and prospect what they want to do.

If you never ask your clients what they value, want and need from a business like yours then you're making a huge mistake. Use customer surveys, focus groups, and stay up on industry news all you can.

4. Not clarifying and articulating your uniqueness throughout all your marketing. How do you stand out and make your message memorable in a crowded marketplace of "me too" alternatives to your business?

Most small businesses never communicate their uniqueness. It's not that you don't have a uniqueness that's significant for your clients, it's just that most don't ever draw it out of their business and articulate it in their marketing. Spend some time to determine how and why your business is different and special. More importantly, clarify how and why that difference benefits your clients.

5. Launching into marketing without preparing. This might seem like a somewhat obvious summary point after the first four mistakes I listed above. Have you spent the time to clarify and define your target niche, your core marketing message, your uniqueness, your packaging, your results and benefits, your risk reversal, your irresistible offers, etc?

Too often I see people that get into business and feel like they have to just start marketing without any preparation. They throw together a brochure, get some business cards, buy some yellow pages advertising, and then rush out to start networking everywhere they can. These are all fine tools. But, without any planning or preparation they often produce poor results.

6. Not using enough marketing lead generation tools. If all you've done is buy a Yellow Pages ad and put up a web site, you're practicing marketing invisibility. Many times I see small business owners implement one idea and then wait to see what kind of results it's going to produce before they try anything else.

Imagine what you could do if you used 5, 10, 15, or more marketing lead generation tools together to grow your business? What effect could this have if each tool was producing some results for you? You sure wouldn't be practicing marketing invisibility.

7. Not having any tools for introduction or follow-up from your business. Unless you're selling a very small ticket product or service, chances are good most prospects won't hire you when they first learn about you. Most people still buy from those they know, like, and trust. Without introduction and follow-up tools to show a little bit of who you are and what you're capable of, establishing those levels of know, like, and trust often never happens.

You need to develop some low-cost, low-risk tools to introduce people to your business and use throughout your follow-up cycles until they are ready to buy. Articles, special reports, tip sheets, newsletters, tele-seminars, invitations to networking events, and free trial periods are all examples of low-risk and low-costs (sometimes even free) ways to accomplish this task.

8. Never giving clients and prospects reasons why. You need to give your prospects and clients reasons why you're doing the things you do. This fits right along with the previous point, but also with other elements of your marketing such as why you're running a special promotion or why you're offering special pricing, etc.

When you offer reasons your prospects and clients will appreciate what you're doing at a higher level. They'll be more likely to believe in you and trust you. Above all, they'll be much more likely to take action.

9. Not creating marketing and advertising that is direct-response-oriented. So many small business owners are creating marketing or advertising campaigns to "get their name out there." But, the problem is there's no call to action to generate immediate response.

You need to create marketing and advertising that gets people to act as soon as they see it. Simply listing the name of your company, a few bullets on services you provide and a phone number to call won't get it done.

10. Not testing and tracking. Once you put your marketing out there, how do you know if it's doing the job of attracting prospects and clients? How do you know if you could be getting 20, 30, or 70% greater results? Too many small businesses simply don't test and track their efforts.

Testing and tracking may not be as hard as you think. For example, when sending a direct sales letter you could split your list in half and test a different headline, offer, or price with each half of the list. You could send the same letter to two different lists to see which list is more responsive. Tracking could be as easy as putting a code on each and asking the prospect for the code whenever an inquiry comes in.

11. Not sticking with marketing tools that are still working. This is often a direct result of mistake number 10, but also happens because people think they need to keep things fresh. Sometimes business owners think something has been running for too long or they're simply tired of the same old thing.

If something is working, then you need to stay with it. The key here is to be always tracking your results. Chances are good you'll get tired of a certain marketing activity long before it stops working for you. Resist the temptation to change something up just because you're bored with it.

12. Stop marketing once you get the client. Too many small business owners focus all of their marketing energy on acquiring a new client. This is a big mistake even though most say they recognize it takes seven to eight times as much to get a new client as it does to sell to an existing client.

Two things you don't want to hear from a client are ... "I didn't know you guys did that..." and "I wish we would of thought of you when we just bought that last week." Marketing shouldn't stop once you get the client.

Put clients and prospects on your stay-in-touch marketing list. Keep them informed and continue to share information of value with them. Share success stories. Ask them for feedback. Ask them how else you can help them. Ask them who else they know that you can help.

13. No plan or system for generating referrals. Almost every small business owner I meet tells me most of their business comes from referrals or word-of-mouth. But, when I ask them what they're doing to guarantee a consistent flow of referral business, they just don't have an answer.

It feels great when a happy client tells someone else about you and that new prospect becomes a client. But, if you're just passively sitting around waiting for others to refer you, then you're not maximizing your growth potential. You need a systematic approach to generate a constant flow of referrals. Take a look at John Jantsch's Referral Flood.

Service contracts are key for the busy computer consultant. They will help you to manage your time when you have many clients all needing service at once. By setting up computer service contracts you will be able to maximize your utilization rate while still having enough time to deal with client emergencies when they crop up.

When you have a bunch of clients who all have an emergency of some sort you can't be everywhere at once. To deal with this you need to narrow down the list of who you are obligated to respond to emergencies for. You do this by creating computer service contracts.

A service contract business model is so important because what you are doing is forcing the people you service to make a decision. Are you in or are you out? Your service contract model weeds out those who are just testing the waters. Without a computer service contract it is you who decides if you can handle their emergency or not.

By using computer service contracts you can manage everyone's expectations effectively. Those who have a service contract know they are top priority. Those who don't, know that you have clients with service contracts and that they are the ones who are dealt with first.

The Bottom Line on Service Contracts

Service contracts keep expectations in a nice neat package. You don't have to stress about trying to be everything to everyone. You can concentrate on providing top quality service to those clients you have a service contract with. The rest will simply have to wait in line.

In business management classes across the country MBA students study business ethics. In fact, there are now MBA degrees available that are called Ethics MBAs. But in the real world how ethical is the business community? How ethical is our own government?

How many business travelers for their corporations charge personal items to their credit cards of their corporations? Corporations watch this very closely to make sure everyone follows the rules. Not everyone follows the rules and often there are people who go to extreme lengths to hide their misdeeds.

From a business ethics standpoint corporations and their workers are much more honest and forthright than those who work in government. In fact government credit card abuse at all levels of government is at an all-time high. It is so bad that the federal government actually had to make another law to try to curb the abuse of government credit cards. Has this new law helped?

Actually it looks as if it has on paper audits but in reality those fine folks in government still abuse their government credit cards, which is taxpayers money. The problem is so severe and the punishment so little that nothing is really being done. That is to say the problem is running rampant still.

Simply instituting controls and checks and balances on government credit cards does not alleviate the fraud. Dishonesty in government is the norm and although many people believe that those who work in government are of less IQ they are still clever enough to beat the system and steal taxpayers money.

From an MBA standpoint of fiscal management this is a good case study. A piece of corporate credit cards or government credit cards must be followed up on. It is essential to make sure that the purchase is made by government employees are indeed for a facial government business and not personal pleasure; such as gentlemen's clubs, personal car washes or a dinner for a family of four for personal use.

The widespread government credit card abuse has forced the federal laws to change to protect the American taxpayers money as government workers would violate the trust of the American people and spend money, which is supposed to be used for official government business.

The Government Credit Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2006' has so far it not been able to cure the fine folks in government from cheating us and stealing taxpayers money. When a government worker it uses a government credit card for expenditures of personal use they are stealing and yet we are not putting these people in jail but rather reprimanding them and in many cases not even taking away their government credit cards. Does this mean the American taxpayer is forced to endure widespread government credit card abuse?

I find it ironic that we already know that stealing is against the law no matter who you are and we are told that no one is above the law. But apparently those people who work in government do not believe they are to follow the law in Washington, DC and this is the exact attitude that is causing problems. We need to start putting people in jail for stealing in our government.

There are so many cases including law enforcement, the Justice Department and many agencies, which are supposed to help the American people doing this. And it yet we still do not have this problem solved. Why do we need another law or federal legislation to prevent government workers from stealing? Why can we trust our own government and why should we listen to them when they are ripping us off blind?

When networking in government circles in Washington, DC it would behoove you to learn a little of the homosexual lingo even if you are not gay. There is an incredible underground gay network in Washington, DC that runs our government and they are highly involved with the Congressmen and Senators at the staff level. Many homosexuals are also very involved, as bureaucrats around Washington and you will need to work with them if you want to get anything done in that town.

Why is this you ask? Well, probably because homosexual men are generally very social and they are good relationship builders kind of like women and without getting too much into stereotypes or prejudice let's just leave it at that. And really it doesn't matter why the fact is that it is and you will have to deal with it if you want to get things done in Washington, DC, as it is very much part of the social networking of the humans to try to run our government.

Of course there is a group that is very anti-gay but not in a vocal way. Instead they act a little standoffish when they believe they are talking to someone who is a homosexual. Many homosexuals in Washington, DC believe they're just homophobic and perhaps they are, as this would explain their attitude. Perhaps homosexuals challenge their manhood or the way they were brought up.

At the outset, let’s accept that there is no such thing as an ideal candidate, and there is no employer who is ideal for everyone. Still, every time we see someone change his or her career or make an upward move, we say or at least think that he/she is brilliant and was the ideal candidate for the position and that the company is lucky to have hired him or her. But did the candidate really get lucky, or were they just smart?

Is Career Networking So Important?

Don’t have an iota of doubt about this in your mind: networking plays an important role in career moves. Despite having reasonably strong work experience and skills, lacking in networking abilities could jettison your chances in finding a good job. Your networking contacts can help you beat the competition and open the door to mostly unadvertised job openings through referrals. That the ‘Wall Street Journal’ claimed a couple of years ago that ‘94% of successful job seekers claimed that networking had made all the difference for them’ should go on to prove the point.

Let’s take a hypothetical case of a person in her middle age attempting a career change. The point of contention is not whether or not that person got a raise or a promotion. That worker was traveling to her job a distance of 12 miles every day for the last twelve years and she was beginning to develop frustrations about the employers and her job. However, she could not afford to just quit. She watched the classifieds of local newspapers and lodged her resumes with dozens of recruiters. She knew there were some companies closer to home, but she had been told that there were no vacancies that matched her job profile.

Combine the power of the Internet with the evolution of digital media, apply the principles of “Social Networking” and you have the main ingredients for the recipe that is revolutionizing how business is being conducted today. All you have to do is look at the tremendously successful companies that have been built upon the platform of social networking (MySpace, Ecademy, Linked-In, Flickr, Facebook etc.) or the unprecedented growth of the Blogosphere and you will quickly recognize that social networking is here to stay.

While social networking is clearly allowing major corporations to be more productive by extending their brand and having better communication throughout the entire value chain, it is its impact on small business that is perhaps most impressive. The ability of social networking to level the playing field for the individual practitioner and the small or medium enterprise is truly awesome. It was the Internet that established the global economy, but it is social networking that is making it a reality.

A bit of background…The term “Social Networking” in its most classic sense is best defined as the study of how people interact with one another. It studies the dynamics between nodes (people) and links (their relationships). Since the term was coined in 1954 by J.A. Barnes its significance has leapt from the halls of academia to gain visibility in the boardrooms of global corporations. It has evolved from the study of human relations in sociological, anthropological and psychological settings to the study of professional relationships and organizational theory in business environments.

When all the buzzwords and techno-jargon are removed social networking is about aligning interests and motivations to create influence. There are intelligent and well established business people with virtually non-existent networks and little true influence, and there are what would on the surface appear to be obscure individuals with huge networks who wield tremendous amounts of influence.

Social networking analysis has shown that the greatest amounts of power and influence inside the corporation don’t necessarily reside at the top of the org chart as one might think. Studies have concluded that the individuals who possess the most influence in a company are the most trusted people with the broadest base of connections, and not necessarily the person that has the highest rank or biggest title. Likewise, the same holds true for external networks…It is about the quality (are the people in your network significant?), character (do the people in your network trust you and do you trust them?) and relevance (are the people in your network capable of wielding influence that is aligned with your needs?) of the people in your network that matter.

The last and most important ingredient in the construction of your network is that you must be a contributor…The old axioms “you’ll reap what you sew” or “give and you shall receive” have never been truer than when applied to social networking. If you are truly motivated to provide value and benefit to those in your network then you will receive value in return. However if you are a user and abuser of your network, only taking from others and giving nothing in return, you will bleed your network dry only to watch it crumble before your eyes.

With proper motivation, careful construction and active management of your network there is no reason to assume that it won’t be a success. Focus on leveraging the most important spheres of influence for the mutual benefit of those in your network. If you adopt the suggestions contained in this article your network will grow with geometric progression while spanning industries, geographies and cultures.

Networking is all very well, you say, but what if I don't know the right people or I'm not really sure yet what I want to do?

It might be the most effective way of finding a new job but without some contacts you really are going to struggle. Naturally there are rules to follow when you start networking but before you get tied up with the rules, think about this:

The job you want will be determined by the skill analysis exercises you should have already done and by your heart-felt interests.

So start by thinking about your interest areas - what jobs might include both your interests and your skills. Lets say you're passionate about horses, but your skill-set is in financial management. Why not see if you could combine these two into a fulfilling occupation.

To find out if it's possible you need to speak to people who may know. These will be people who are already involved in the general area of activity that interests you.

But I already said I don't know anyone!!

In that case you must approach it as a different kind of project. What if you thought of yourself as a journalist writing a story about the workings of horse breeders or stud farms. You would need to identify people who are involved: feed suppliers, farm managers, the owners and breeders, financial advisors; even people who just ride for pleasure.

AS A JOURNALIST WRITING A PIECE YOU WOULD NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT CONTACTING THEM.

So act like a journalist and when you make contact you are not looking for a job or even going to be talking about yourself - ONLY your interest.

If the journalistic angle is difficult, why not consider yourself as an academic writing a thesis?

1. Formulate your questions;
2. Gather the information;
3. Sort and re-order what you know;
4. Draw your conclusions;
5. Take action

Armed with your information, you can decide who then to approach to discuss your proposals which are drawn from your information gathering. Don't forget you've already met these people so now you do know who to contact; you also know how things work from several perspectives, so you can put forward a case to use your skill in the area that most interests you.

Networking has rules that are no more than the strongest possible guidelines for your effective use of this most important of all job searching skills.

Every day we meet new people. It doesn’t matter how it happens or why it does, but it is essential to notice that we are constantly connecting with fresh faces. These new countenances could be our future employer, a potential best friend, or simply another person to pass on our services to. With hundreds of meetings each month, it is no surprise that the public is now taking advantage of these meet and greets.

Business networking is a great way to make connections with others. Although we meet new people on a daily basis, we don’t always keep the relationship going. We all want to be known in our specialized field. Therefore, having an array of business cards would create more opportunities and a plethora of open doors.

If you are running a small or large business, then it is necessary to have a great business card. One must always remember that this is an affordable way to advertise your services. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. However, it does need to include vital information such as a phone number, e-mail address and website address if you have one. Many people also prefer to spice it up with a bit of color. After all, color business cards will most certainly stand out in a pile of black and white cards.

It is very important to remember that business cards are piece of paper that is marketing your services. It should reflect your company’s image and of course portray the type of feeling you want. For instance, if you are an artist, it would be wise to create a professional yet artsy business card. Perhaps a colored business card with a logo of your art work would show others that you are ready to work for them.

By handing them out to anyone you meet, you are setting up a new contact. Even if you do not see them again, they will still have your business card. Therefore, you’ll never know when they will need your expertise. They may even contact you when a job opening is available or when another client of theirs is in desperate need of great service in your field.

It is extremely simple to create them yourself. Most drug stores carry business card paper which is usually only a few dollars. Many stores even have patterns and color business cards in a variety of hues. This will allow you to be creative and make your piece of paper stand out! If you are computer literate, it is easy to design everything on the computer and then print it out with the paper you bought. There are special printing options for business cards, so it is crucial to change the preferences beforehand. On the other hand, if you are too busy or computer illiterate, perhaps you should hire a professional to create your business cards. There are many businesses including Kinko’s, who will design a wonderful color business card for an affordable price.

If you own a business and are looking for a marketing consultant you need to determine the best place to find such a marketing guru. There are many people out there that can help you with your small business or large business as far as marketing is concerned. But choosing a good marketing consultant is not easy.

You need to find someone that has expertise in your industry or similar business models. Hopefully their experiences have been successful and hopefully they have had some failures so they know what not to do.

After all they will be spending your money and there is little risk for them. Of course they want to do well because that means you will keep hiring them and paying them.

Even if you already have a good marketing program you probably realize that you need to upgrade and give it a makeover once in awhile. Your goal of course is to get new clientele and get them to be down your door instead of chasing them. That sounds simple, however you know that it is not as easy as it looks.

You must be aware of fake marketing gurus who teach seminars and have trained thousands of people in workshops, as many of these people are only trying to sell you on their program, cassette tapes and marketing books.

Authors and solo professionals can grow their businesses by mastering the seven mental marketing principles outlined below:

1. Try new things. It is crucial that you stay involved in your industry and network with other professionals. You will learn the techniques that really work and build phenomenal long-lasting partnerships this way. For instance, have you considered hosting an online radio show, podcasting, or blogging to promote your books and other products?

2. Recognize fear and move through it. Are your fears keeping you from trying new marketing techniques? Pick up the phone and ask for advice from someone who is already doing what you want to do. Buy an infoproduct that teaches you--so you can learn at your leisure. I do this constantly. For instance, before I started recording teleseminars, I purchased--guess what--a teleseminar on doing teleseminars. Doing so alleviated my questions and it was easy to do the first time because I was prepared. Now I do a handful of these every month and they generate a significant amount of book sales for the NAWW. You will have fears... arm yourself with knowledge and move through it.

3. Revisit old ways of thinking and be willing to change--don't stay set in your ways. I have worked with writers and authors that were very reluctant to change some of their marketing efforts. They got set in their ways and became fearful of wasting money on new techniques. I taught them that successful marketers are in a constant state of evolution--always changing and adopting new strategies; using feedback from their customers and their bottom line to figure out what to change.

4. Dig deep into your programming--be aware of the preconditioned beliefs of your parents and family. It is never too late to make improvements. For years, I remained my own worst enemy. I had decided before I even started that I was only going to market using A, B, and C techniques and against D and E without any testing or research. I had already decided it wouldn't work. Why? Because I had preconditioned beliefs about the value of what I was offering and about my customers. Sometimes, we actually think we can read our customers' minds. We can't. Get feedback and they will tell you what they want.

5. Keep an open mind. How did I reprogram myself and let go of my preconditioned beliefs? I began to open my mind to the many possibilities and I actually started testing marketing ideas instead of letting them dart around in my head. I continued the process by studying my competitors, successful colleagues, and assembling my own group of advisors. Remember that success is meant to be shared. Help others and they will naturally come back to help you.

6. Measure results and then reinvent yourself and/or your company as often as needed. Measure your results by conducting surveys (www.surveymonkey.com is a great tool) and keep an eye on your bottom line. If you aren't meeting your financial goals, it is time to eliminate what isn't working and create new products (books, audios, etc.) and create processes that help you work more efficiently. Hire a professional coach or mentor. Don't rely on your friends and colleagues to give you honest feedback. That is too much pressure on your relationship. Pay a qualified person instead. With my mentees I have one goal in mind--helping them succeed and I can't do this if I don't give them the honest feedback they need to make more money. It is my job to help them make a plan to make the necessary changes.

7. Take risks! You must get used to taking risks. The best marketers take risks and put themselves out there. They are often controversial, on purpose, to create a buzz about their book. Take calculated risks by continuing to focus on learning new, proven promotional techniques that have worked for other professionals in your industry. Marketing is definitely a numbers game. You will try 3 techniques for every 1 that works for you and your particular book. With every risk you take, you will learn more!

Start using these mental marketing principles and I promise you will see positive results. And if you are overwhelmed, just remember what Henry Ford said, "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small parts."

Does your small business have goals? Goals and objectives for how much its sales you wish to accomplish? If not, how can you adequately planned your marketing for your company? I guess what I am saying here is; If You Don't Know Where You're Going Any Road Will Take You There. Yes that is an old famous quote and know I did not make it up. Granted, however what are your marketing objectives? Do you have any?

Where do you want to go today? To effectively design a marketing strategy for your small business you need to have goals and objectives and you need to know exactly where you want to be and where you are now. You cannot design the perfect marketing strategy or implement it correctly unless you know what your objectives are.

There is of course such thing as dumb luck or beginner's luck, but I imagine if you are a small business owner you do not want to rely on luck alone. Why not take out a piece of paper right now and write down exactly what you want at of your business, what types of customers you want, how much money you want to make, how many new clients you want to have each week and how much you want each customer to spend on your business.

Most small business owners have heard of direct mail marketing, but may not really know what it is. And there’s good reason to consider direct mail to promote your small business.

It’s versatile, effective and affordable. It allows you to give prospects one-to-one direct attention, and it allows you more control over growth than nearly any other type of promotion.

Direct mail marketing is one of several types of direct response copywriting. I suppose it’s somewhat confusing, but most tend to think of the two terms as interchangeable. There is however, a subtle difference.

Direct mail marketing can be defined as one-to-one communication sent by mail directly to potential clients with the goal of specific action by the recipient. Direct response copywriting is basically the same thing, but isn’t limited to snail mail delivery.

Direct Mail Marketing is Versatile

Direct response is one of the most versatile forms of small business promotion there is. You are in fact, really only limited by your imagination. Some of the more common types of direct response are:

* Direct mail letters
* Direct post cards
* “Lumpy” mail
* Business letters of introduction
* Direct response brochures
* Flyers
* Direct fax
* Direct email
* Bulletin board letters

Of the eight different types listed above, only the last three wouldn’t be considered direct mail marketing, but would instead be considered a different type of direct response copywriting.

Most of them are self-explanatory, but you may not have heard of “lumpy” mail. Lumpy mail is simply direct mail with the addition of something related to your message in the envelope besides just a letter. It could be as simple as a stubby pencil, a sample-sized bar of soap, or even a child’s toy. It might cost a bit more, but it often leads to a surprisingly big increase in response rates.

And perhaps you haven’t heard of bulletin board letters. Technically, they’re not a form of direct response, since they’re not sent directly to a particular recipient, but rather are posted on a community bulletin board where anyone in the local area can find them.

Community bulletin board letters can be nearly as effective as a direct mail letter, but have the added advantages of lower costs and reaching a larger audience. They’re most often hand-delivered, stapled to bulletin boards in towns, in storefront windows, or anywhere else you feel they’d be seen.

Direct Mail is Affordable

Whatever the mode of delivery, dollar for dollar, direct response copywriting is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your small business. On average, a direct mail letter costs less than $1 per recipient. That’s including paper, envelopes, printing and postage stamps.

A direct postcard can cost even less because it costs less to mail—total cost is around 70 cents. However, higher paper costs could even out the cost difference.

Direct Mail is Effective

With average response rates between 1 and 3%, it’s one of the most effective ways to promote your small business as well.

Unfortunately, most amateur copywriters (and many professionals as well) don’t have response rates nearly that high. They’re soon discouraged, giving up on direct mail marketing when their first efforts show a poor, or no response.

One of the reasons might be that they’ve chosen the wrong goal. Keeping in mind that it takes an average of 5 to 7 contacts before a potential client actually buys something from you, your goal should seldom be a sale.

Most of your contacts will need to get to know you before they spend their hard-earned dollars on your product or service. Don’t expect a sale. Rather, consider any purchases from introductory direct mail a pleasant bonus.

A much better goal might be to consider direct response as lead generation instead of sales generation. For example, you might want your recipient to visit your web site, contact you for a free report, or call you for more information. Those types of requests are more likely to result in the type of response you’re looking for.

Direct Mail Allows You to Speak Directly to Your Recipient

What other form of small business promotion allows you speak directly to your recipient? Not television, radio, billboards, or your web site. Besides, with the exception of a web site, TV, radio and billboards cost way too much for most small business owners to consider.

Addressing your recipient personally, as in “Dear Joe” or “Dear Ms. Smith” rather than using “Dear Colleague” or “Dear Homeowner” increases response rates dramatically. And it improves the chances that your recipient will actually open the envelope instead of throwing it away unopened. (So does using an actual stamp instead of a postage meter by the way).

Direct Mail Gives You Control Over Your Growth Rate

Growing your small business too fast is almost as dangerous as not growing fast enough! What would you do if you suddenly grow way past your company’s capability? It’s a danger you might think you’d welcome, but there is such a thing as too much growth.

With direct mail, you control your growth as simply as controlling the number of direct mail letters you decide to send. If your goal is one new lead a month, knowing the average response rate is 1 to 3%, you can send between 33 and 100 letters for one response

No matter how you’re promoting your small business right now, I hope you’re convinced to add direct mail marketing as one of your strategies. If done well, it truly is one of the most effective marketing strategies available to small business owners.

Yesterday I met an old friend from school -- I had not seen her for several years. We talked about the old times, our kids and families, and what we do now. To my surprise, I learned she has an online business with 35 employees and over $1,000,000 in annual sales. Not bad, eh?..."What's your secret?" I asked her. "Keep them coming back for more!" she replied.

That's easier said than done...Well, let's pretend you have a great product and a web site -- sales are through the roof and you drive a Porsche!...LOL! You wish! Most of us work hard to provide a great service and make some sales. Having satisfied customers is the key to success. A happy customer is a customer "coming back for more"! A happy customer will also promote your products or services to other people. And this, in the end, could be the secret to good life and fortune!

Relying just on drop in sales is never a good idea. As more and more people visit your business/website, you should not miss the opportunity to get them subscribe to your mailing (this is called an "opt-in list" -- the subscribers agree to receive mailings like newsletters or catalogs updates.) This is of great importance as it gives you the opportunity to send promotional materials to them and boost your sales or traffic. Remember, "keep them coming back for more!"

Now you have to build a loyal customer base from your opt-in list. But how can you achieve that? The main thing about a newsletter is it has to have value for the client. Otherwise, it will be deleted and the client will be gone.

So, when you create your newsletter, keep those tips in mind:

1. Provide information! Have good product knowledge and be passionate about your business.

2. Keep it simple! If you can't write it yourself, hire a professional! There are writers that will do a great job for a minimal fee. The investment may lead to more sign-ups and potential sales.

3. Use creativity in your promotional materials. Build around your product or service. For example, if you are selling home furnishings, insert some pictures of what is new in the house furnishing industry in your promotional mailings.

4. Research current treads in your field and keep one step ahead of the competition. Your clients will look forward to receiving your newsletter. Keep them happy with fresh, new things and ideas to share with them.

5. Keep an eye on the competition. Sign up to their newsletter and see what they are up to. Look out for cheaper prices, better customer service, newer products etc.

6. Offer special discounts for your products. Add eCoupons in your newsletters that will give your subscribers a special discount.

7. Hold special contest. Reward winners with bonus gifts. That way you will give your subscribers one more reason to stay on your mailing list.

8. Give away freebies! People love them and will spread the word! However, don't overdo it:-)

9. Add some entertainment value: a daily cartoon like business cartoons (http://www.etoon.com/ ) or newsletter cartoons (http://www.bettercartoon.com/) will do the job. People love humor and will spread the word!

10. Keep your subscribers happy and eager!

When we exchange resources, goods, time, inventory, skills, equipment, goods and services, we’re bartering. Instead of using cash, we can barter underutilized time, space or other assets and even future services and production, especially if the products and services have big margins. And they may be depreciating, hard to sell or easy and cheap to produce. Extra capacity is as good as hard cash when bartered.

I know a dentist who bartered his services for advertising time on a radio station and a restaurant that bartered meals for cleaning services. Hotel rooms and staff training, consulting and legal services, high margin electronics and a host of other products and services lend themselves to barter. Barter conserves cash, and the goods are always bartered at their retail price! That means that if your food cost percentage is 34%, you’re buying at a discount of 66%!

You can even pay people to work for you with barter. And with redeemable coupons and gift certificates, you are essentially being loaned money at no interest until those coupons are redeemed. “Breakage” makes barter even more attractive – a certain percentage will not be redeemed.

Barter is like printing money! Deals can be triangulated and cash flow can be relieved and ramped up. Plus, one barter transaction can lead to repeat business and thus an exponential return on investment (without a cash investment!) Bartering services and slow moving inventory for advertising is extreme leverage. Barter can produce cash customers. Think about the resources you have and who would want them. Work ON your business instead of IN it.