Why Consider Online Printing

As printing is time consuming especially if your artwork involves multiple colors, online print shops can deliver the job with ease and speed.

Keywords:
online, printing, service

Have you experience calling a printing company asking for their services and when you do go to their store to give your files you found out that they don’t carry the printing process that you want? Or you called a print shop, asked for a quote and when you were about to have your file printed the amount of printing service changed? This can be quite frustrating especially if you need the file immediately. When this happens to you, you can always consider online print companies.

Maybe you need something in an instant? Or you want to know every process that your print job goes through? Or you want to see how your print job will look like before it’s printed? If your answer is yes then online printing may be a good idea for you to try. Online printing offers several perks that are not available with traditional printing companies. As printing is time consuming especially if your artwork involves multiple colors, online print shops can deliver the job with ease and speed. Additionally, with print shops available 24/7 in the virtual market, there is no hassle waiting in line until your order gets taken, hence, allowing you to have more time in getting the services your project needs.

With this new technology, it is much easier to upload documents for printing. Clearly, you are not only limited to the printers in your area. Hence, you can make sure that your print job is handled by the best qualified to do the job for you. On top of this, you can have your print job delivered right at your doorstep. There is no hassle in driving down to the shop just to get your printed materials. Print jobs are also done professionally having a crisp and sleek look less the glitches that traditional printers often provide. If ever you need your documents in the future, you can always retrieve it with ease and efficiency when you have printed it with online printers.

Nonetheless, when you look for the printing company to do your print job, make sure to do your homework and choose the right printing service for your print project. As much as possible, send your documents to established printers who have years of experience in the business. This way, you can be sure that you print job is in good hands.

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What is Marketing

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas or goods and services, that will ultimately satisfy a customer demand.

Keywords:
Market, Marketing

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas or goods and services, that will ultimately satisfy a customer demand.

Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or another, maybe an idea even. So why there such a high percentage of products on the market that just don’t survive? Well in most cases, the problem lies not in the idea or service itself, but in the cultivation thereof.

Lets try and analyse where most businesses go wrong:

Most small businesses don’t have a Marketing plan
Successful businesses thrive because every single person in the organisation is aware of where the business is going. In other words, the business is as a result of one mans vision, and with the help every employee, the company as a whole is dedicated to see that vision through.
A Marketing plan helps to achieve this kind of focus and when used effectively, it will ensure that the business is able to adapt to todays dynamic business environment and changing customer needs.

They tend to confuse Sales with Marketing
One important fact to remember is that Sales is a direct byproduct of effective Marketing. The objective of sales is to increase revenue that the company generates by distributing products and services, none of which would be possible if the consumer of that product had no information on which to base their purchase. Although it is important not to confuse the two, Sales and Marketing together with PR tend to work hand-in-hand and removing any one of these from the chain could result in failure.

“We don’t need marketing, we’re a small company”
That should be that exact reason as to why a business does need to have a marketing process. Lets be honest, no business owner wants to remain the same size forever and to just keep breaking even. But the only way of changing that is to be proactive, know what the market is, where its going and where you fit in.

Marketing gurus say that Marketing is an art, not a science. We could argue this point forever but the bottom line is that I don’t believe it is. You can learn how to Market but can you learn how to draw beautifully. Marketing is not some God given talent that only those born with can exploit, it is a process, a method, a way of succeeding that you can start learning right now.

Take a look at our download sections where can find all the necessary stuff to get you started. A Marketing plan template, Sales forecasting and much more. Alternatively, you could download our e-book that contains brilliant insight into Sales, Marketing and PR and all the tools you need to get that Marketing process started.

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How To Build A Booth Specifically Targeted for Each Tradeshow Without Spending More!

With so many different trade show booth options out there, it can literally make your head spin. They all have their advantages-and disadvantages. How do you know which is best for you?

Keywords:
portable trade show booth, portable trade show booths, portable booth

With so many different trade show booth options out there, it can literally make your head spin. They all have their advantages-and disadvantages. How do you know which is best for you?

Well, a portable trade show booth is perhaps the best of all worlds. Portable trade show booths are generally cost much less than permanent trade show booths or rentals. Not only are they less expensive than other trade show booth alternatives, they’re usually a great deal easier to manage too.

That is, if they’re designed correctly. You want to be sure that the portable trade show booth is configured for easy set up and break down. The panels should be easily handled and not too heavy. A popular lingerie brand needed a portable booth designed that could be set up and broken down by four women. That was their only rule, and the design firm that took the project delivered a portable trade show booth that could be put up and taken down not by four women, but by just two! So before buying a portable trade show booth, you want to make sure that it is appropriately designed for use by your trade show booth event staff.

Another advantage to portable trade show booths is that they are normally designed using panels that can be shipped to trade show event venues and then easily assembled. The great thing about these panels is that they hold your marketing visuals. These panels can easily be updated year by year-or even event by event by having new ones designed and printed. And all the switching out can be done before the booth is shipped to the trade show event site, so there’s no last minute panic when you get there to find out a panel is missing!

This flexibility opens a world of opportunities for your portable trade show booth because it can not only be updated, it can be shared by different divisions of your business or company, just by switching out the panels. The panel inserts can be changed to make them appropriate for any trade show event your company may ever want to be part of-and when you only have printing charges to deal with, you will save literally tons of money on rentals or buying more than one trade show booth.

Portable trade show booths can also be designed so that it is possible to configure them in different arrangements. What this means is that you can add or subtract parts of your booth to fit the rental space. This allows you to take part in a wider variety of trade show events without having to spend extra money to do so. And there’s nothing worse than finding out your booth is going to be dwarfed or overwhelmed by either the available space or your competitors’ trade show booths. With a portable booth, you can get the right fit every time!

The key to getting a great portable trade show booth is in choosing a great portable trade show booth designer. Don’t just go with a cookie-cutter trade show booth designer. Hire graphic design firms to give your portable trade show booth some real pizzazz-and to ensure that all your specifications for size and assembly are met.

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Why And When You Should Raise Your Prices

Have you been thinking about raising your prices but you are not sure if you should? Well I’m here to tell you that you should.

So lets start with why? Because you want to raise your prices so you will always have room for new clients!

If you’re booked solid with regular clients, you will never have room for new clients, which is what keeps us creative. Being content with those same ole people every day will eventually end you up stuck in a rut and behind the times.
…

Keywords:
business, marketing, salon tips, salon

Have you been thinking about raising your prices but you are not sure if you should? Well I’m here to tell you that you should.

So lets start with why? Because you want to raise your prices so you will always have room for new clients!

If you’re booked solid with regular clients, you will never have room for new clients, which is what keeps us creative. Being content with those same ole people every day will eventually end you up stuck in a rut and behind the times.

So when is it time you ask? When your books are to the point you are turning away new clients. It’s a lot easier to get someone who has never came to you to pay your new prices then your old clients to pay more than they are used to.

As you raise your prices you will start to notice a change in your clientele. The higher your prices go, the more respect you will get from your clients and your new clients will be from a different income level.

Let’s say you used to do a lot of college students or stay at home moms and over the last few price increases you have noticed you are now doing a lot of corporate or management level people and business owners.

For example, if you raise your prices only 20% and you loose 10%, what just happened? You have increased your available time by 10% and you are still making 10% more money.

You have to have the mindset that loosing a few clients is worth gaining high-end clients to replace the ones you may loose. This is a tradeoff that is well worth your time and efforts.

So, don’t be afraid of loosing those few clients and focus on gaining better clients and making more money in the long run.

Thanks for reading and get more great business tips at my website.

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How To Improve Your Profit With A Better Google PageRank

Google’s page rank, which is Google’s business?, How to generate off-page criteria to gain a higher ranking

Keywords:
google page rank, marketing, page rank, internet marketing, home business

GOOGLE PAGERANK

Every one with a business web site knows that the lifeblood of their business is the traffic that they can get to it, and that the Search Engines are a sure and economic way of getting it…

If…

Your web site shows among the first 20 or 30 results when someone looks at a Search Engine For the keywords of your web site.
Google is one of the biggest Search Engines (or the biggest) and thatґs why Google is one of the most used ones.

If your web site has a big PageRank, thatґs one of the easiest ways to reach the first places on a Googleґs search, so many people think that what you should look for, is to have a BIG Google Page Rank.

And what is the PageRank?

PageRank itґs a measure of a siteґs reputation according to the quality and quantity of itґs in pointing links.

How can you get in pointing links from the expert sites on your market?

You can do it with a link exchange campaign, but most of all you can achieve it:

Having good content!

So for the same keyword, the page with higher page rank will rank higher on the searches, and a page with higher page rank linking to your site, will help you more to get a better page rank for your site.

To determine the relevance of a web page, Google looks for keywords in various places of each web page, plus many other things and one of them is the PageRank, meaning that Google has a ranking where the best pages about each keyword have the bigger Page Rank.

So the marketers and search engine optimizers started to manipulate the keywords, in order to have a bigger page rank, and soon the Search Engines noticed it and started to counteract creating extremely sophisticated algorithms to evaluate each web siteґs real page rank and banned the the cheaterґs web sites.

And this is an endless dance, the search engine optimizers keep studying better ways to optimize the web pages, and the search engines keep evolving and creating evaluation methods that will tell them the truth about each web siteґs content and value.

Many search engine optimizers will tell you that they know how Google evaluates the web site, but the real truth is that no one of them knows it! Maybe two or three people at Google really know it, and they will never tell it to any one because that will ruin their business.

And which is Googleґs business?

Googleґs business is to recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it, because they want to sell advertise, and they do it providing the best results on each search (including the page ads on the results). So their business is to provide targeted surfers to their advertisers.

People find that the results are really related with what they are looking for, they click over the URL (sometimes over the free ones and sometimes over the ads) and they keep on using Google as their favorite search engine.

To recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it sounds reasonable and easy for a human being, but itґs not easy at all for Googleґs robots.

So Google creates algorithms to evaluate the sites and from time to time changes their algorithm in what it has being called “Googleґs dance”. This “dance” of course irritates many people (the ones that try to discover what the algorithm is about) because when they get near to know how to artificially inflate a web pageґs value, Google changes the relevancy criteria.

But the fact is that Google does the right thing. The want to be able to recognize what each web site is about and how good is at it, without mistaking good content web pages with well “optimized” web pages.

Search engines as Google need to recognize reality and to give the proper page rank to each web site, and how do they do it?

They check the on-page criteria and the off-page criteria…

* On-page criteria evaluates the content of a web page (keywords, title, meta tags, body, images, alt tags, etc.)
* Off-page criteria evaluates how the people react about it:

what URL gets the click
how much time people spends reading each web page
how many URL link to that page, and how relevant (how big is the PageRank) are the pages that link to it
etc.

And thereґs only one way to generate off-page criteria: with good content!

Itґs you who know your business, and you are the best suited to write your web siteґs content and this is the basic idea.

1) Create web pages with excellent content about your topic. This will tell the search engineґs robot what your page is about.
2) Once you create a professionally designed web page as the ones that “How to Sell on the Web” helps you to create, donґt loose your time tweaking it to reach better places with the search engines, use your time to create more good content web pages. Keep on creating good content web pages until you have 20 or more.
3) Submit your web page to the search engines
4) Start a links exchange campaign. This will not only help you reach a higher pagerank but some search engines do not allow you to submit your web site to them and will only be able to find you through your inbound links

This plan works as a snowball…

* You write 20 or more good content web pages
* You exchange links with some good content web pages
* The search engines find that people is linking to your web pages and give you a page rank
* You write more good content web pages
* People find that your web site is a really good one and start asking you to exchange links
* Search engines find that you have more good inbound links and give you a higher pagerank for more of your easy to win keywords (without tweaking your pages)
* The higher pagerank gives you a better position on searches, this brings more visitors to your site, some of them buy your products or services and some others ask you to exchange links with them as the snowball keeps on rolling and growing you will get higher pagerank for your most competitive keywords too and without having to tweak your pages

Is this an easy and fast process?

It should be easy for you to write about your topic, but it might take months to get a decent pagerank. You will find yourself writing pages and exchanging links without noticing any results…

Donґt worry!

* Keep on building good content pages
* keep on looking for good inbound links
* Keep on building good content pages
* keep on looking for good inbound links

Donґt worry, persist…

And you will succeed for sure!

If you want an automate reciprocal link exchange program like the one I use to build my Easy Home Business Ideas site, you can download your free copy of from here: http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/hts/zeus.html

And if you want to “Make Your Links Work” and grow your site to the first 3 % download this Google PageRank Profit free ebook:
http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/RB.html

Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi

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Free Directory Marketing

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of free directories on the internet, and you can use them to easily market your site – for free.

Directory Submissions

Submitting your site to free directories is the most obvious way to market your site via directories. Of course, there are several rules you should follow when submitting your site, if you want it to be accepted. Here are the most common site requirements:

1: Quality site. Meaning no adsense, porn, hate, or scraper…

Keywords:
directory,directories

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of free directories on the internet, and you can use them to easily market your site – for free.

Directory Submissions

Submitting your site to free directories is the most obvious way to market your site via directories. Of course, there are several rules you should follow when submitting your site, if you want it to be accepted. Here are the most common site requirements:

1: Quality site. Meaning no adsense, porn, hate, or scraper sites allowed. Unique content is a must.
2: No promotional language in your title or description
3: Use valid contact information
4: Use your official site name as your title

Use those rules, and of course, read the rules on each site you submit to, and more of your listings will be approved.

Are paid submissions worth it?

With the exception of perhaps Yahoo, I do not believe so. The increase in link quality is just not worth the expense, in my opinion.

Directory Marketing by owning your own directory

There are several free scripts available that allow you to run your own internet directory. The most common script is PHP Link Directory. It allows you to very easily run your own directory – submissions, approvals, payments, etc are all easily done with just a click of a button. What’s more – it’s free!

Of course, one must ask what advantage owning a directory will give you. Probably the two biggest benefits are:

Income
You can monetize your directory with pay per click listings (try SearchFeed.com’s XML Feed) and paid directory listings.

Reciprocal Links
You can offer webmasters preferred links in your directory in return for a link to your main website – voila! You have one way links for free!

Free directories are a great way to market your site. Of course, they are only one part of a balanced marketing plan, but you can’t beat the price, that’s for sure!

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Video And Meeting Presentation Tips For Newbies

I’m an A-V Geek, and for thirty years, I’ve sweated the big and small stuff as a producer of meetings, conferences, and sales rallies. During that time I have developed a checklist of five special “secrets” I use to insure that the meeting media will go right. Go right?

You see, the customer has paid big bucks for the video or multimedia piece that will help the crowd shake off the cobwebs (or hangovers) and get focused on the goals, spirit and business of the meeting. I …

Keywords:
meetings, presentations, meeting planning, event planning, video, slides, powerpoint

I’m an A-V Geek, and for thirty years, I’ve sweated the big and small stuff as a producer of meetings, conferences, and sales rallies. During that time I have developed a checklist of five special “secrets” I use to insure that the meeting media will go right. Go right?

You see, the customer has paid big bucks for the video or multimedia piece that will help the crowd shake off the cobwebs (or hangovers) and get focused on the goals, spirit and business of the meeting. I want my client to love the video, and the only way the client will love it is if the audience loves it.

Well, you can bring in Christopher Walken floating on air, and if the room isn’t right, the audience will be distracted and that major piece of genius the client contracted will be snoozed through, ignored, or poo-poo’d for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the media.

It’s all in the room. It’s a group experience, and just like in a movie theater, many things come together to make the experience right.

Tip One: Let the video be seen.

You have to create a theatrical experience. Using a TV Monitor, or even a large computer monitor for audiences over 5 or 10 people is folly.

Video projectors are cheap to rent or buy, and they help create the movie theater experience audiences expect. Remember, some people in the audience may have better home theaters than the environment you create.

The hotel’s a-v tech can help, or your staff a-v squad member can lend a hand. Screens beginning at 4×6 feet work for crowds if up to 25 people; after that, you’ll be looking at 6×8, or for much larger crowds, 12×16′ or larger (much larger than that and you’re not reading this article, anyway.)

Tip Two: The sound should be as “BIG” as the video.

This is true even if your meeting is just a sales call between you and a prospect in a closet-sized office. Sound is your secret weapon. Words should be understood, music should be felt, and emotions should be driven- just like in the movies. Bring along those portable speakers, or in a larger meeting, rent a really good stereo sound system to make sure your audience is enveloped in the words and music you or your producer created.

Tip Three: Control the lights.

Imagine a movie theater where they leave the lights on. Pretty weird, right? Now think about your meeting. To maximize the impact of your media, you need the picture to be seen, and your audience to feel comfortable reacting to what’s on the screen. There’s no room for a person to feel self-conscious about laughing, applauding, or even crying. Only in the anonymity of the darkened room will they truly react to your message and internalize its meaning. Shutter the windows. Turn off florescent lights (they’re a real meeting killer). Slowly fade the room lights as the video begins.

Tip Four: Rehearse.

Run through the technical aspects of what we’ve discussed. Know when the video is supposed to roll, when the PowerPoint is supposed to be played, and practice switching, dimming the lights, adjusting the sound (both in volume and EQ), and switching between the inputs if necessary. You don’t want to be stumbling instead of speaking, and if you’re behind the scenes, you don’t want the speaker calling you out for being asleep at the switch (you’d be nasty too if you were left hanging there with nothing to say or do while the a-v guy is farting around with the media in the back of the room.)

Tip Five: Use the Letterman effect.

In short, chill the room. David Letterman runs his studio at 60 degrees. It keeps him and his audience sharp. I’m not saying keep it that cold, but if you have more than 50 people, you have an audience that is a walking furnace. Body Heat is real, and many bodies mean a warm room. While the room may seem comfortable to you at 7:00 am, at 8:00 am attendees may be sweltering, because you didn’t anticipate how the room would warm. A warm room means sleepy viewers. Sleepy viewers don’t applaud, will not retain your message, won’t get excited or enthused, or may not even keep their eyes open. When you walk in the room, feel the room. Is it slightly chilly to you? Good. Is it quite comfortable? Bad. And don’t wait until it gets too hot. When you need to lower the temperature, the hotel contact will be no where to be found, and even when they do grace you with their presence, it will take a good hour to “chill” the room. The walls retain heat. So do people.

I know these tips will work, since I discovered them by real life experience. I’ve seen great media play poorly because the shades were open and the room was warm. I’ve been yelled at by the presenter. I’ve fumbled around in the back while Mr. Rome burned.

But once I adopted these five basics, things began going my way. The videos were the same, but suddenly, people were applauding.

That’s what I call cheap insurance.

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For Business Names And Tag Lines, Popularity Shouldn’t Rule

Don’t turn your search for the perfect name or tag line into a popularity contest! Two instances of this have crossed my path recently.

First, someone I know asked people to vote on the best title for a forthcoming book. That’s unwise, because what people say they like in a book title:

* Doesn’t necessarily distinguish the book from others
* Isn’t necessarily clear, spellable and free of negative connotations
* Doesn’t mean those who are the best audience for the boo…

Keywords:
business names,company names,naming,startups,contests,marketing,sales,logos,tag lines

Don’t turn your search for the perfect name or tag line into a popularity contest! Two instances of this have crossed my path recently.

First, someone I know asked people to vote on the best title for a forthcoming book. That’s unwise, because what people say they like in a book title:

* Doesn’t necessarily distinguish the book from others
* Isn’t necessarily clear, spellable and free of negative connotations
* Doesn’t mean those who are the best audience for the book will “get it”
* Isn’t always easy to remember and repeat
* May not perform well in search engines

Second, according to The New York Times, the state of New Jersey put its prospective new tourism slogan to a vote. The winning entry, “New Jersey: Come See for Yourself” received just a few more votes than “New Jersey: The Best Kept Secret.”

Both the winning and the runner-up New Jersey slogans flunk an elementary test for the effectiveness of a tag line or slogan: It should distinguish the company, or in this case the state, from most or all others. Try this out yourself by plugging in names of other states besides New Jersey – most of the time, the slogan becomes no more and no less applicable. This means the slogan cannot make a strong case for the Garden State. More bluntly, it’s mainly hot air.

The New Jersey contest had another serious flaw. To be eligible to vote on the best slogan, you had to be a New Jersey resident. While residents do have the greatest stake in improving the reputation of their state, they by definition don’t belong to the target market of the tourism slogan. To understand what would appeal most to non-New Jerseyans, don’t look to New Jerseyans en masse. Many will be clueless about this and get it upside-down. Outsiders are the ones who need to understand the slogan and respond.

I’ll never forget an ad for a Great Plains software company that obviously assumed that a photo of a flat-to-the-horizon landscape without trees was an appealing image. For me, a die-hard New Englander accustomed to heavily wooded hills, this picture had the opposite effect – it filled me with horror.

Of course, someone who lives in New Jersey or North Dakota may be perfectly capable of portraying their region appealingly to outsiders. Instead of asking any group to vote on a winning name or tag line, set up your contest so that people can submit suggestions. Then have either one person or a committee cull the entries according to a list of criteria drawn up beforehand.

By selecting and judging rather than mass voting, you’re most likely to end up with a name or slogan that wins over your audience.

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What to Know Before Printing a Poster

Before bringing your document to the nearest printer, you have to make sure that the content and design of the poster is done effectively.

Keywords:
poster, printing, online, digital

Are you a business owner looking to advertise your products or services through posters but you do not really know what to include and how to print the poster? Before bringing your document to the nearest printer, you have to make sure that the content and design of the poster is done effectively.

Poster printing companies have varying paper stocks used in printing posters. Posters can usually be done on 100# gloss text paper stock instead of 12 pt. cover card stock that is used for rack cards and postcards.

Posters are usually better than a talk. During tradeshows or conferences, although you could communicate your product or service through a fifteen minute talk, a poster presentation can allow you to personally interact with the people who are interested with your products. Likewise, posters are more efficient than a talk because they can be viewed even while you are away or napping off.

The trick to producing an effective poster is to adopt the rough draft process. Rough drafts are especially important in deciding whether you need to add text or resize images and illustrations. These are decisions that can involve long hours of fretting and gnashing of teeth. Keep in mind to make the rough draft at least a month before you need to present your poster. You can bribe some of your friends or even strangers to look at it when you are not present and ask them to leave their suggestions.

And when you are ready to print, you have to make sure that you find the printing company that will meet your printing needs. To make sure that you are getting the quality that you want, ask your chosen printing company to provide you some sample of their work. If the printing company taunts at this request, then it is time to look for other printing companies. Printing companies should realize that you are investing hard earned money in your posters and thus, they should have no problem in providing you with a sample or two.

As with many advertising products, you can spend a whole lot of money on your poster but not necessarily come out with a high-quality product. As much as possible make your poster attractive, attention-grabbing and not too crowded with information. So, if you are like most business owners and you are looking to maximize the dollar, it pays to carefully evaluate your poster design and printing needs to be able to find the right printing company.

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Your Marketing Efforts Sink, Swim Or Soar Depending On How Well You Satisfy The

A few years ago I created a to-do list for my business (different from my to-do list for clients). Nearly every day I would add something to the list. Soon, I had over five pages of things to do – tasks I viewed as important enough to interrupt what I was doing so I could add them to my list.

Before long, every time I opened the document I got depressed. I was always adding to the list, but almost never crossing anything off.

Why? I discovered I had a number of well-…

Keywords:

A few years ago I created a to-do list for my business (different from my to-do list for clients). Nearly every day I would add something to the list. Soon, I had over five pages of things to do – tasks I viewed as important enough to interrupt what I was doing so I could add them to my list.

Before long, every time I opened the document I got depressed. I was always adding to the list, but almost never crossing anything off.

Why? I discovered I had a number of well-worn excuses:
I don’t have enough time. The project seems too big. It won’t hurt to put it off a little longer. I feel no pressure to get it done. Maybe it isn’t important after all.

When I looked at the tasks I did complete, I assumed they would match my highest priorities. Right? Wrong!

I surprised myself to learn that priority had almost nothing to do with it. Instead, the major factor in my decision to complete these tasks was the “Big C” – Convenience.
I could finish them quickly and easily. I could complete them in one sitting. And I felt really good when the job was done: instant gratification.

So, what did I do with my 5-page to-do list? I deleted it. Now I feel much better.

When your prospective clients need to hire a lawyer, do they hire you? Or are they skilled at finding ways to “put it off until tomorrow” – or much later?

I encourage you to make every aspect of your law practice convenient for both your prospects and clients – because if they face any obstacles, they may have all the reason they need to do nothing.
Now, here are 12 smart ways to make your law practice more convenient:

Smart Way #1: Make sure prospects find it easy to learn about you. This includes having an education-based web site that answers their questions and explains in detail how you can help them. Also, I suggest you have an educational packet that contains articles and information about your services, which you can send by mail or e-mail.

mart Way #2: Make sure prospects find it easy to reach you. Do you accept phone calls from prospects – or do you insist that they come into your office before you’ll speak with them? Do you offer a toll free number – or do prospects have to pay to call you? Do you respond to e-mails from prospects? The more convenient you make it for prospects, the more calls you ll receive.

Smart Way #3: Make sure clients find it easy to reach you. Are you available by pager or cell phone in an emergency? Can a client reach you quickly and easily on the phone? Do you return calls promptly?

Smart Way #4: Make sure prospects find it easy to get to your office. Is your office on or near a major street? Is your parking area close to your building or office? Is your office at a convenient location in the building? If on the second floor or higher, is the elevator close by?

Smart Way #5: Make sure prospects find it easy to meet with you. If prospects have a hard time coming to your office, will you go to their home or office? If weekdays are difficult for them, will you meet with them in the evening or on a weekend?

Smart Way #6: Make sure prospects find it easy to hire you. Can they hire you without having to drive to your office? Can you send your engagement letter or contract by fax or e-mail? If you have an established relationship, can they hire you simply by calling you on the phone? Or by sending you an e-mail? Can they hire you without a retainer?

Smart Way #7: Make sure prospects find it easy to pay you. Will you accept personal checks? How about credit cards? Do you offer a payment plan? Do you provide postage-paid business reply envelopes to make sending their check more convenient?

Smart Way #8: Make sure prospects and clients find it easy to provide you with the information you need. Do you have a form they can fill out and send by fax or e-mail? For larger packets, do you provide self-addressed UPS or FedEx labels?

Smart Way #9: Make sure prospects and clients find it easy to remember appointments and other important dates. Do you send them a calendar of upcoming dates, including what you need from them – or expect of them – by those dates? Do you send letters or e-mails reminding them of appointments? (A more tactful way to remind them is to ask if this time is still convenient for them.)

Smart Way #10: Make sure clients know when to call you to update documents. You might provide them a list of criteria or events that should prompt them to contact you.

Smart Way #11: Make sure clients find it easy to refer their friends and colleagues. You might mail to each client your referral brochure, which contains a complete listing of your services and contact information. Consider providing clients with referral postcards they can give to friends and colleagues to request a meeting with you. Offer educational seminars so clients can bring friends to meet you and hear your message in person.

Smart Way #12: Make sure clients find it easy to remember you. You might provide things that contain your contact information, such as calendars and paperweights. Send cordial-contact letters. Mail them your newsletter. Don’t overlook greeting cards, gifts and donations given in their name. Also, consider hosting special events like art walks and wine tastings.

In Convenience is a big factor in how prospects and clients respond to your marketing efforts. Don’t allow even the slightest obstacle to come between your prospects and you. Instead, emphasize how easily prospects can do business with you. In this way, you melt the ice that freezes many prospects in place – and help them realize that working with you is an easy, positive, rewarding experience.

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