Author: Dana

Dana Susan Beasley is publisher/principal of AngelArts, a creative arts agency and publishing house. While Dana's expertise is in graphic arts, writing, publishing, and music, she also is a homeschooling mother devoted to working at home. Her desire is that AngelArts, and her work, be a vehicle for God's glory. Because she is always reaching for new heights in her life and beyond and wants to inspire others to do the same!

Branding Strategy–Steps to Making Money Immediately with Your Brand

4 comments

Make money immediately imageYou have a brand or are developing one. So now what?

You need a branding strategy. A branding strategy that makes you money immediately!

How is that possible? I am going to spend the next few posts on some ideas that will help you gain not only name recognition, but monetary reward!

Make sure your brand is consistent across all mediums, both online and offline.

Inconsistency makes your prospects confused. Whether it’s signage in front of a brick and mortar store or a banner on your blog, differences in the application of your logo can derail your profits.

Why?

Because it creates a lack of trust and a gap in credibility. If you don’t take your brand seriously and protect its integrity, why should your potential prospects?

Make sure your brand is the same on your website, on your blog, on your business cards, and your signage, if you have a physical office or store. Invite your target market into an experience with your product or service.

And not only make sure your brand is consistent, make sure it is of high quality. If you don’t take your brand seriously, why should your prospect take your business seriously?

Lessen confusion and communicate trustworthiness and you will increase your ROI!

To show you the immediate value of a consistent brand, let me tell you what happened to me last week. I received a call out of the blue from a retired photographer looking for graphic design help with a photo book. He had discovered me through a Craigslist ad I had posted nearly a month ago.

On the Craigslist ad, I included a link to my website. He had visited it and so was already familiar with my brand when he called to inquire about a job.

He wanted to add me as a Facebook friend, so he looked me up while we were on the phone and he immediately recognized me because my branding, including my personal photograph, was consistent!

Now here’s another story to illustrate what happens when your brand is not consistent: several months ago my husband and I were looking for a jazz club I had heard about. We really wanted to listen to live music. I had the address and the name of the business but I saw no sign. It was confusing and this uncertainty led us to ditch the idea of going to the club. We went to one that was already familiar to us! It’s brand was definitely strong and had burned into our minds that it was reliable!

Do you want your brand to make you immediate money? Join my webinar mentor program starting September 14 where you will learn how to make a brand that sizzles! Sign up now! The quicker you get started, the quicker your brand will make you money.

GREEN DOLLAR SIGNS CASH MONEY
© Madartists | Dreamstime.com

Just Finished a New Video for My Brand Identity Mentor Program!

4 comments

I am happy to announce I finished a new video for my brand identity mentor program!

[stream provider=youtube flv=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DwPSIfVB-8b0 img=x:/img.youtube.com/vi/wPSIfVB-8b0/0.jpg embed=false share=true width=580 height=400 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high autostart=false /]

Want to get started on your brand image? Click here to sign up today! The webinar starts September 14 and space is limited!

Branding Strategy–Build Your Brand Identity Through the Five Ws

One comment

Branding strategy. How do you do it?

The other night I was thinking about the classic questions asked in journalism: who, what, where, when, why, and how; and it occurred to me this would be a fantastic tool to developing your brand and reaching new levels in your business.

So I came up with a laundry list of brainstorming questions:

1) Who

Who are you in business for? Whom do you serve? Who runs the company? Who is your staff, if you have any? Who are your important resources? Who are your mentors? Who are the business owners you admire? 2) Who motivates you to be an entrepreneur, especially in hard times? Who do you need to delegate tasks to?

2) What

What does your business do? What is the history of your business? What is your history? What do your important publics think of you and your business? What is your business perceived to be by your target market? What motivates you when you experience roadblocks? What resources do you need to really achieve the level of success you are aspiring to? What skills do you need to learn? What equipment do you need? What are your products and services. What tasks can you delegate? What obstacles are holding you back?

3) Where

Where do you serve? Is your business in geographical in nature or is it online? If you are primarily a regional business, can you expand your business online. For instance, if you teach a class in your town, can you teach it via a webinar? Or, if you teach a webinar online, can you form a local class?  Where is your audience located? Where do they hang out? Where on the Internet do they surf?

4) When

When does your target market get on the Internet? When is your target market able to make purchases? When do they have cash flow? When do they have the least cash flow and therefore in the most pain? When do they need your products or services?

5) Why

Why are you in business? Why do you serve your target market? Why did you start your business? Why are you an entrepreneur? Why did you choose your target market? Why did you create your products and services?

6) How

How does your target market benefit from your products or services? How does your business work? How do you promote your product or services to your target market? How do you get paid?

That’s a lot of questions, but brainstorming the answers may help you build a brand that gets noticed and reach a new level in your business!

Want more help with your brand strategy? Join me in a journey to unmask your authentic identity! Several programs available, including webinar workshop series starting September 14! Space is limited, so reserve your spot today by clicking here!

 

BRAINSTORMING
© Kineticimagery | Dreamstime.com

Courses in Online Marketing–How to Create Your Own Self-Study Marketing Course

6 comments

Creating a course in online marketing is an extremely beneficial investment in yourself, especially in this information age where learning is literally accessible under the reach of your fingers.

Years ago, upon earning my Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing, my college guidance counselor told me I was a good candidate for graduate school.

Since then, I have wanted to go back to school and get my Master’s Degree. But time and money were not there. I had other duties as a wife and mother.

And then I started my home business. With so many resources available on the Internet, I realized I didn’t need to take formal classes.

I could make my own course of study. After all, education is a life-long journey. The credentials don’t matter in the long run, especially as an online at-home business owner.

What matters is that I apply what I learn on a daily basis.

So that’s why a couple of years ago I started my self-paced study on Internet marketing. I made a plan to study each day and to apply what I learned immediately in my own business.

The result? I am becoming recognized as an expert and attracting clients to my graphic design services business like never before!

How did I do it? Here are some ideas to get you started:

1) Ask yourself this crucial question: what does success look for YOU? Not anyone else. What is it that you want to accomplish in your life and business? The next 10 years? Five years? One year? Six months?

One of the most valuable insights I got from studying online was learning to make decisions from where I want to be instead of where I am now.

Keeping the end in mind will help you create a vision for your life and business, which will in turn help you decide on what and how to study.

2) Analyze what kind of learner you are. Do you learn best in an analytical, step by step method? Do you learn best by studying what truly interests you? Do you process information better by hearing or seeing or doing?

As a homeschooling mother to a special needs child, I have learned the value of this knowledge of learning style for both teacher and student. This is crucial information as I choose and develop my son’s curriculum and has at times prompted me to throw out everything I have and create my own curriculum more suited to his learning styles and challenges.

3) Find the people in your field you admire most and want to be like. Make sure they are truly successful at what they do. You don’t want the blind leading the blind! Invest in yourself by buying one course to start with.

Many online marketing gurus have packages with several different learning styles in mind. The first one I bought was from Ali Brown, her Online Success Blueprint, which included a workbook, CDs, and DVDs. This gave me a birds-eye view of what I needed to do to accomplish my online business goals.

Other coaches offer continuity programs through email. This is a very effective way to study. They break it down into weekly assignments, which forces you to immediately apply what you’re learning to your business. Taking one of these continuity programs is how I learned to create my own online course based on my particular area of expertise–branding.

Be careful of information overload, though. Once you start taking courses from “gurus,” you will be inundated with offers. In the online marketing world, this becomes like candy. “Oh, the next best thing that will bring me success,” you think. Don’t look for magic pills that will make all your dreams come true in one easy shot. Actually, lifelong learning and life success is a journey of hard work. But it is a journey abounding in rewards, both personally and professionally.

After you take your first course, drill down. What area of learning do you need to pursue in order to reach your goals, both short term and long term? Master one skill at a time and put everything you learn into practice immediately.

4) Find a business coach or mastermind group. This is an extremely important step! After you have gotten your feet wet, join a coaching organization. Find a mentor who will help you step by step. Be involved in a mastermind group.

I have never heard of a successful online marketer who didn’t invest in themselves through one on one coaching and mentoring. There are many ways to get involved to fit any budget. I started with Ali Brown’s lowest mentorship circle, which consists of monthly teleseminars. Now I am part of a coaching group called Internet Marketing, Mentoring and Coaching Center and I have mentors who are constantly cheering me on. I could not have gotten a vision for my marketing plan without them. In fact, I wouldn’t even be writing this content without this coaching program! My involvement with iMMaCC has given me incredible focus and direction that I lacked before.

Facebook groups are also a great source for this. I have found tremendous support there, not just professionally, but personally. Take advantage of social media, not just to be a sponge of new information, but to be an authentic voice in a community. This is a very rewarding activity when you can give and take with like-minded people.

5) Develop a local Dream Team. Nothing beats face to face time. Period. No matter how sophisticated technology gets, personal interaction with other human beings is the best, most effective means of learning.

Recently, I met with a fellow homeschooling mother who is in the same position I am–we must get our businesses contributing to our families or we will be having to look into getting jobs in the marketing place. Not a great option when number one there are no jobs and number two we have children with special needs that require our full-time care!

So we decided to get together once a month to help each other toward our goals. We will barter services. We are both committed to seeing the success of the other person.

This is going to be a huge motivation. In a few weeks when we meet for the first time, you bet I’m going to want to report my progress to her! And I’m going to want to impart my knowledge to her as well. Teaching others what I learned increases exponentially my own course of study!

6) Get in the habit of learning on a daily basis. Instead of watching tv, watch DVDs on your chosen course of study. Listen to podcasts while you clean. Take audio CDs in your car. Read one chapter a day. Integrate it into your daily life instead of thinking, “Oh I’ll get to it after I…” You won’t! Do it now while you’re doing the ordinary tasks of life. Then use your learning to guide you in your business activity.

So there you have it in a nutshell. How to create your own course of study. Whether you want to study online marketing, writing, design, or fine arts, this method will help you reach new heights in your life and beyond!

Ready to start a mentorship program? Introducing my new Brand Identity Mentoring Program!

There are several levels to choose from that will fit your budget, including a webinar course, one one mentoring, brand development, and identity collateral design and printing.

Class starts September 14 so reserve your spot today! Space is limited!

 

Marketing Strategies for Women–Implement Key Offline Marketing Methods

Leave a comment

A marketing strategy is essential for you as a woman in business. Perhaps you are already a stay at home mom but need a way to earn some extra money. Or you may be stuck in the corporate world desperately wanting out so you can spend time with your family. You may be a seasoned business woman but are feeling stagnated. You might be an artist or writer, passionate about your craft, but you hate marketing.

Whatever your particular situation, how can you develop an effective marketing strategy that will propel your business to the next level? Or, if you’re just starting out, how can you get your business on a good, solid footing? If you are an artist or writer and hate marketing, how can you be better at promoting yourself?

One idea is to implement offline marketing methods.

Decide how you are going to duplicate your brand. One essential would be business cards. Design professional ones and keep them with you at all times. Have prepared a 30 second elevator pitch. What’s that? It’s the quick answer to the question, “So what do you do?”

When conversations naturally lend themselves to handing out your card, give one to your prospect and say, “You may or may not be interested, but I have this free….” Develop a free offer that your prospect can easily download online and have this printed on your cards.

Be sure to put your photograph on your card and all marketing materials. Be consistent with your brand. This lessens confusion and builds credibility with your prospect or customer.

Keep checking back for more ways to implement offline marketing in your business! I will be posting more in upcoming days!

Want more ways to make your brand sizzle? Check out my free mini video course and free report!

Can’t wait to get started on building an authentic identity! Join me in a journey to unmask your brand identity today!

 

A WOMAN WITH A BUSINESS CARD
© Raphotography | Dreamstime.com

Brand Identity Marketing-My New FREE 10 Day Mini-Video Course!

Leave a comment

These days, gaining brand visibility over a wide variety of mediums is crucial to a successful business, especially for online marketers.

But in order to be effective, your brand must soar above the competition!

How? By creating a compelling brand based on your authentic identity!

Announcing my new free video course for online marketers, entrepeneurs, business owners, ministry leaders, authors and writers, and high school and college students!

Here is the first video:

[stream provider=youtube flv=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dk9QV4gcbm2E img=x:/img.youtube.com/vi/k9QV4gcbm2E/0.jpg embed=false share=true width=500 height=300 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high autostart=false /]

Sign up below and you will get 10 free videos delivered to your email. While a few of them are available for public viewing, most are exclusively unlisted just for my subscribers!

Plus, every subscriptions comes with my free report, 10 Ways to Make Your Brand Sizzle. And, to give you ongoing support, you will automatically be enrolled in my ezine, BrandNotes.

Just enter your name and email below and you will receive your first emails immediately.

I hate spam as much as you do. I promise never to rent or sell your private information.








Name
Email
Company

Tips To Start Your Own E Business – 12 Steps to Creating an Online Presence!

One comment

So you want to start your own e business. After all, Internet marketing is hot. Not long ago I heard a statistic that more people look on Google to search for businesses than the yellow pages. More and more people buy online. It is a huge, growing market and one with endless possibilities.

But how do you start an e business? What is the process?

Here are 12 steps to building YOUR own e-business!

1) Thoroughly analyze the following: what’s your passion? What do you love to do? What makes your eyes light up when you talk about it? What are your skills, gifts, talents, experience?

2) Choose one of these passions and consider business start-up ideas. Love organizing? Start a professional organizer consulting business. Is your passion to create crafts? Select on online store like Etsy and build your business around that. Do you have a skill or experience that can be turned into an ebook or Amazon book? Become an author! Want to produce and sell music? There are several outlets for independent musicians, like CDBaby. Interested in writing a book? Learn how to sell books on Amazon.

2) Once you have selected your business concept, ask yourself who your target market would be. Whom would you serve? You might want to select an affinity or niche market. What group of people do you most identify with? For instance, if you are a homeschooling mom, then your affinity market might be homeschoolers. You might consider developing a product or service homeschooling moms need, want, or desire.

Get to know your audience. Do thorough research. What is their pain? What are they afraid of? What do they desire? Whom influences them?

3) When you have gathered all this information, decide on a name. You may want to promote your name as the business or create a descriptive one. It’s whatever excites you and keeps you motivated that matters. You might also want to create a slogan. Make sure the name is not trademarked with the U.S. trademark and patent office. At this point, you may want to register as a sole proprietorship or Limited Liability Company. Weigh the options of both. Talk to your attorney and tax accountant for legal and financial issues. If you plan on selling retail products, get a sales tax license through your state and city.

At this point, you may want to do a professional business plan written, as well as a cash flow projection chart. What kind of capital do you need to get started? Unless you are involved in something technology driven, it’s probably smart to not go into debt over your new business but let it grow slowly. All you absolutely need is a computer and a fast Internet connection.

4) Have a professional photograph taken of yourself. If you can’t afford a professional photograph session, make sure you trust the abilities of the one who takes the photo.

5) Choose an image that represents your business. Build a brand that communicates the essence of who you are and what you do. Include your photo and slogan, if you have one. If you have a descriptive name for your business, you might want to consider putting your name somewhere as part of the logo.

6) Set up your sales funnel. Decide where you are going to sell your products and set it up. Are you going to take orders through a site like Etsy, or do you need PayPal? If you are taking recurring orders, you will need your own merchant account.

7) Purchase a domain name for your business. Develop a free product, something of value, that will entice your target market to give you their name and address.

8) Sign up with an autoresponder. Create a weekly online newsletter. You want to share gold nuggets of information with your prospects. Give them valuable content and also include a small promotion about your business.

9) Make your marketing plan. What balance of offline and online marketing will you do? Offline ideas include business cards, postcards, bookmarks, display advertising, or door hangers. Online includes article marketing, video marketing, social media marketing, pay-per-click ads, banner ads, online classified ads, and ezine ads. Decide what frequency you will do these actives.

10) Develop your product or service. If it’s a product, like an ebook to be downloaded from the Internet, test, test, and double test.

11) You may want to make a launch plan and stick to it. Write press releases and send online and to local venues.

12) Launch your product or service. Work your marketing plan consistently. Make sure you have a system for your finances and administration. Have fun and enjoy your new business!

Follow these twelve steps and you will build an e business that sizzles!

To learn more about creating your own brand image and how you can make that brand more effective, download my FREE report, 10 Ways You Can Make Your Brand Sizzle at http://www.makeyourbrandsizzle.com

Want to get started right away to make your brand sizzle? Check out my extensive course at http://www.brandidentityquest.com that will teach you how the basics of brand design and marketing.

Dana Susan Beasley is principal and publisher of AngelArts, a Creative Arts Agency and Publishing House, and the author of a 3-month graphic design and marketing course called Brand Identity Quest. An experienced and creative graphic artist, she has been helping companies, organizations, and artists reach new heights in their branding for over 17 years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6411392

Small Business Women Start Up-How to Market Your Product of Service for Free!

2 comments

So you have a vision for your business, you’ve started your company or signed up as an associate for a direct selling organization. You have built your brand. You are ready to start flying!

But your budget is tight. Perhaps you don’t even have a budget!

Thankfully, with the advance of the Internet, you can promote your business for free or for very cheap!

What do you need to promote your brand? Here are some ideas to get you started:

1) First you need a domain name. This costs about $12 per year at GoDaddy. You also need personalized emails. Gmail and yahoo email addresses are not professional and come across as “spammy.” You can also get custom email with GoDaddy for minimum cost.

2) You need a website. The easier and cheapest way to build a website is a WordPress one. But go for WordPress.org, which means you need a hosting company. A really easy, inexpensive way to do this is to buy a hosting package from HostGator. If you buy their Baby package, you can have unlimited domains and emails. I highly suggest at least this one. You can also buy your domains through them, which I recommend. Through HostGator, you can also have autoresponders and many more features. Just check them out!

3) You need a blog. You can use WordPress again for this. Or maybe you just want your blog to BE your website. That is perfectly fine.

4) You need a Facebook account. Social media is big these days and is a huge avenue for promoting your brand. Who influences your target market? Find these people and become friends with them or like their pages. Comment often with these people. Be a thought leader. You will find your target market can’t wait to friend you!

Remember that with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, it’s about relationship marketing. Tell them about yourself. Don’t just post links to your product or service. This is tacky and will turn off your audience. Give of yourself, encourage others, engage in conversations with your friend. Cultivate a community. Join groups that align with your passions, your target market, and your business. Use the time on Facebook and other social media sites wisely. Balance your posts between authentic sharing of yourself and promoting your business.

5) Do keyword research and write articles around those keywords. Wordtracker has a very effective tool for this. Study how to do keyword research. Find out what information your target marketing is looking for and give it to them. Submit your articles to article directories like EzineArticles.

6) Make a YouTube Channel. Video marketing is hot. It’s immediate and compelling! You don’t need an expensive camera and loading your videos on YouTube is free! Again, use keywords. Give gold nuggets of information that people need, want, and desire!

7) Set up a way to capture leads, through an autoresponder. Produce a free item that will attract people to your list. DO NOT use your own email program. Use the autoresponder in HostGator, or a service like Constant Contact. A lot of these services have free trials. Develop a weekly email newsletter so you can get your brand in front of your prospects.

I hope these ideas spur you on in your journey to build a small business! It is a learning adventure and one that is very worth it, because, as the old L’Oreal commercial used to say, “You’re Worth It!”

And if you do this, you will have a brand that sizzles!

Car Magnets Advertising–The Pros and Cons and How to Do It

5 comments

Car magnets advertising is a very affordable way to get your name out there to the general public. Just think–you are driving down the road and thousands of people are seeing your brand over and over again!

But what are some of the drawbacks of magnetic car advertising? And how do you get that sign done, anyhow?

First off, the pros of magnetic advertising are numerous. It is relatively low-cost, it gets your name in front of a large group of people, and it travels wherever you travel!

This kind of display advertising is especially beneficial for local or regional service businesses, such as home organization consultants or property management companies.

But think before you delve into this form of display advertising. There are some definite cons.

For one, are you reaching your target market by displaying a magnetic sign? Just driving down the road you may not. When you have a niche or affinity market, this option may not be the best idea, unless you plan on spending a lot of time parked in lots where your affinity market is also hanging out.

Additionally, magnetic signs can fall off your car. This happened to me! And if your body is fiberglass, it won’t work.

You might want to consider vinyl advertising, instead, if you are worried about either one.

So, now that you know the good, the bad, and the ugly about car magnet advertising, how do you go about getting a sign?

Google car magnet advertising or some variation of the phrase. You will find many companies who do an excellent job. Some do only one or two color, others offer full color. Some companies have stock designs you personalize, others have an online design program.

Be sure to check what technical considerations are needed for your sign. Most websites list that under an FAQ section or a section devoted specifically to that. If you have any questions about it, don’t be afraid to call and talk to their technical department. They can guide you step by step what you need.

If you want to have a sign done locally, look at your local copy or sign shop. Copy shops often have reasonable prices, although they don’t seem to be as competitive as online shops.

Consider going with full color designs as opposed to one or two color. Color sells, especially in this Internet age we live in.

Make sure you use your brand consistently. What does this mean? Be sure your logo is the same as your business card as your magnetic sign as your website. Then when a prospect goes to your website after seeing your sign, they will immediately recognize that they’re at the right site.

You want to have one strong marketing message. Don’t list too many products or services. Keep it simple. Remember, white space is good! In design, less is more.

In other words, if you clutter up your sign with too many images and words, you will only confuse your prospect and you will not see any results.

Make sure the fonts are readable. Make your phone number and/or website stand out by putting it in another color.

By designing and purchasing a car magnet, your advertising will reach new heights and your brand will sizzle!

1 … 19 20 21 22 23