Time is precious to a business owner.  Are you using yours wisely?  Do your marketing strategies allow you to leverage your time and reach an abundance of prospective clients?

If you’re spending the majority of your time marketing one-to-one you may be missing out on a lot of business.  One-to-one is you communicating with one other person; one sender and one receiver.  This could be a conversation in person, on the phone, or via e-mail.

A more effective marketing approach is one-to-many.  This is you communicating with many people at the same time.   

Here are some one-to-many marketing ideas using three different marketing strategies: speaking, writing, and on-line networking.

1. SPEAKING

* If you enjoy being in front of a group, speaking live in person for people who are interested in your work is an amazing way to connect.  People get to see you and hear you speak which is very powerful.

* Getting interviewed on the radio, TV, or by someone with a large website presence will get your message in front of thousands of people.  Just be sure the audience matches your ideal clients.

* Another way to reach a large group of people is a teleclass (you speaking on the telephone with many people).  Using the phone you may be able to reach even more people than you could at a live event because geography isn’t an obstacle for attendance.

There are a multitude of companies who provide teleconferencing services.  One I have used, which is free and offers a private bridge line and free recordings of your calls, is http://www.freeconferencecalling.com/.

* You can share the digital recording of your presentation with groups of people on the internet.

* The digital audio file can also be burned on to a CD and you can give away the CD’s to groups.

2. WRITING

* Sending a regular newsletter (ezine) to people who have requested to receive information from you is a superb one-to-many action.  In addition to valuable information be sure to make an offer with a clear call to action.

* Articles you write, for your ezine or otherwise, can be posted on article database websites.  This multiplies the number of readers.  Many people can read the article where you posted it in addition to places where your article is re-published.

* Posting new content on your blog (or other people’s blog) gets your message out to many as well.

* Interviews can also be done in a written format.  You do the interview once, and it goes out to numerous readers.

3. ON-LINE NETWORKING

When you post messages, comments, or updates on the various virtual/social networking websites your communication reaches everyone who is connected to you.

So if you don’t have many connections, make the time to invite people to join you.  Here are some popular places to network on-line.

* Facebook.com

* Linkedin.com

* Twitter.com

* Plaxo.com

Are you starting to see how you can invest less time and reach more people simultaneously by using one-to-many marketing?  Review your current marketing strategies and think about how you can incorporate the concept of one-to-many into as many activities as possible. 

Make the decision to implement your new strategies and see the difference it will make in your business.

(c) Stephanie Ward, 2009

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Stephanie Ward is the Marketing Coach for Entrepreneurs who want to set their profits on fire!  Grab your FREE copy of the special report ’7 Steps to Attract More Clients in Less Time’ plus business building tips, at: http://www.fireflycoaching.com.

How often do you actually get to speak to prospective clients?  Do you believe that it would help your business if people could hear your voice? Imagine if you could ‘talk’ to loads of prospects without having to do it one-on-one.

The great news is that you can!  It is possible to convey information, once, and have it be heard an unlimited number of times.  How do you do it?  By creating an audio recording.

The human voice can create much more of a connection than the written word.  The spoken word is more personal than text on a page.  When people hear you speak, your passion and personality come across. 

Quality content for your audio recordings is critical.  They must contain relevant and helpful information that your prospective clients want, and need.  The content is absolutely not a sales pitch or the history of your business.  Think about topics like:

* Mistakes to avoid when…(fill in what your business offers)

* The best way to…(fill in what your business offers)

* How to…(fill in what your business offers)

* Steps to…(fill in what your business offers)

Think about how effective it would be to offer prospective clients valuable information in a format that they can listen to at their own convenience.  People can listen to audio recordings:

> On their computers

> In their cars

> On portable mp3 players (like an iPod)

Thanks to technology it’s easier, and cheaper, than ever to create your own audio recordings and share them with people.  All you need is a telephone and a computer.  There are several options available and one I have successfully used is Free Conference Calling and guess what, there’s no charge. 

Simply sign up, get the phone number for your bridge (this is just a name for a phone line) and you’re ready to go.  You can record the call and then download the file from their website. 

Once you have your .mp3 file (.mp3 is an audio file) you can copy it to a blank CD and give it away.  You can also make it available on your website. 

The phone number for this service is in the U.S. but that’s not a problem for people living outside the U.S. because there are many inexpensive options to call America, just do a search on the internet.

Format ideas for your audio:

- Have someone interviewing you on a specific topic

- Create a series of short audios of just you talking

- Put an inviting message on your website homepage

- Record a teleclass

- Record an audio ezine

- The length can be a few minutes up to an hour 

You can give a brief amount of audio information as a gift.  And you can sell larger audio recordings by themselves or in combination with an electronic document or printed workbook.

Are you starting to see the benefits of creating your very own audio recordings?  This is a super effective, low cost way to connect with prospective clients over and over again with a one-time investment of your time and energy. 

© Stephanie Ward, 2007

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Stephanie Ward is the Marketing Coach for Entrepreneurs who want to set their profits on fire!  Grab your FREE copy of the special report ’7 Steps to Attract More Clients in Less Time’ plus business building tips, at: http://www.fireflycoaching.com.

All the experts kept saying it was a great way to give value, gain free publicity, and position yourself as an expert.  It was something I had planned to do for years and I finally did it for the first time in May, 2005 and I’ve been doing it ever since.  What is it?  Writing articles.  Don’t be like me and wait, get started today!

OK, I can hear the moans of protest from here, so let me explain what writing articles can mean for your business and perhaps you will be willing to give it a shot?  For those of you who love to write this is your big chance to get started or to write even more.

You don’t need to have a weekly or monthly newsletter in order to consistently write articles although this is a good way to make sure that you produce at least one article per month (it sure keeps me on schedule).

Pick a topic you are passionate about, one that allows you to provide insightful information that will help your clients, and start writing.  An average length for an article is 500-800 words.

Once you have completed your article ask a friend or colleague to review it for you and give you feedback.  If you’re going to take the time to writing something, make sure it’s the best it can be!

There isn’t room in this article to go into all of the details of how to write, there are plenty of resources out there if you need help in this area.

The point is that you, as the owner of your business, know a lot about the problems your clients face and how you can help solve them.  You have valuable information that people want and need, so why not give it to them? 

Writing is like any other skill, it takes practice and over time you will improve and find your own unique voice.

So what’s the big deal, what can you do with an article?  I’ll mention a few here, be creative and don’t limit yourself:

1. When you meet people who fit your ideal client profile offer to send them an article.  No sale, no pitch, just sharing something that will support them.

2. Offer your articles to strategic alliance partners for them to give to their clients.

3. Place your articles on your own website so visitors can see the value you offer. 

4. Once you have several articles you can package them together and voila, an instant e-book you can give away or sell.

5. Finally, a highly leveraged action to take is to place your articles on the internet where publishers go to find content for their publications.  This is really simple and it will cost you nothing.

There are different places to submit your articles on the internet depending on your focus and content.  Here are just some of the websites where I place my articles: Ezine Articles, Go Articles, Article City, Amazines, Idea Marketers,  and Business Know How.

To find more places where can publish your articles, search the keywords ‘article submission sites’ and any other keywords related to your business.   

Be sure to include a brief ‘author bio’ with each article you write and publish (see mine at the end of this article).  This way, when people read your article they know how to connect with you in case they want to know more.

Include a “call to action” in your author bio that invites the reader to take an action like: sign up for your newsletter, get a free report, or receive a sample of your product or service.   

Because you can allow your article to be re-published without permission you may not actually know how much exposure you have received.  To find out where you have been published simply type the name of your article into Google.

In some cases you will be contacted for permission even though it isn’t necessary.  You may also hear from people who want to thank you for allowing your article to be reprinted.

What will sharing your articles do for you?

- Giving people valuable information they can use makes you a resource and increases the possibility that people will think of you, and your business, when they have a need.  This is a way to let people get to know you and start building a relationship with you.

- You will increase your exposure by publishing your articles in many places.  Increasing your exposure increases your reach to potential clients. Think leverage! 

- You position yourself as an expert in your field by writing about the kinds of problems you solve for your clients.  Everyone wants to work with an expert.

These things will all contribute toward the growth of your business.  Don’t look for results overnight and stay focused on serving your clients by producing articles that will help them be successful.

Writing is just one of many marketing strategies you can use to grow your business.  Remember, the most important aspect of any successful marketing strategy is consistent implementation.  So please don’t write one article and then decide it doesn’t work and give up.  If you choose writing as one of your strategies, stick with it and leverage everything you create!

(c) 2005 Stephanie Ward

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Stephanie Ward is the Marketing Coach for Entrepreneurs who want to set their profits on fire!  Grab your FREE copy of the special report ’7 Steps to Attract More Clients in Less Time’ plus business building tips, at: http://www.fireflycoaching.com.