You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘content marketing’ somewhere in your travels. If you haven’t, rest assured you probably will. It’s often cheaper than traditional advertising, more easily accessible to an increasingly mobile audience and provides a more valuable and personal touch.

Content marketing can indeed be a powerful way to take your business to the next level. But to get started, you’ll need a plan that works with your existing business goals. Here are some things to consider before you put that plan together:

Featured Resource this week - Centerpointe

Did you know that if your head isn't in the right place, you can sabotage your business and personal success? Centerpointe's premier introductory product, Holosync, gives you ALL the benefits of meditation – in a fraction of the time – and without spending years learning how...

What if you could meditate like a Zen monk, literally at the touch of a button?

• Increase your threshold for stress…deal with the ups and down of life much more easily…protect yourself from serious physical and emotional problems caused by stress...
• Create whole-brain thinking…dramatically increase mental abilities, creativity, learning ability, focus and concentration...
• End anxiety, fear, anger, depression, sadness, self-sabotage, substance abuse, and overeating...
• Be happier, more peaceful, more compassionate, more at ease...

Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.

A double or single what? We’re talking about whether you have your new list members double opt-in or not bother with that ‘extra’ step.

You may be asking what the heck is an opt-in anyway, never mind the difference between a single or a double… I’ll bet more of you know the difference between a single or double glass of fine single malt scotch. So, let me define what I mean.

Featured Resource this week - iMember360

WordPress Membership Plugin for Infusionsoft™

Unleash the power of WordPress and iMember360 to create your Infusionsoft™ driven membership site instantly! iMember360 - a WordPress plugin that turns a normal WordPress site into a full-featured membership site with all the protection controls you can imagine, almost limitless customization, and driven by Infusionsoft’s second-to-none CRM and e-commerce engine.

Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.

Do you want to simplify your Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales marketing, make it more effective and serve your customers better? Automated emails to the rescue!

Once October rolls around customers are thinking about holiday shopping and are more apt to open emails that contain gift inspirations and deals. So even if you aren't participating in Black Friday or Cyber Monday, promoting your December holiday specials now makes sense.

You know you need a strong online presence and so you’ve created great content. You also have strong visuals and even some great video to go with it. That’s only part of the equation, however. You still need to upload it to your site in a timely manner, and it needs to look good when it goes live. If there are any formatting issues or long load times, it could blunt the impact of your message, or worse, cause it to be ignored altogether. If that weren’t enough, your content needs to look good on all sorts of different cellphones, tablets and desktops. It also needs to be SEO-friendly, otherwise Google may bury it.

Featured Resource this week - Time Fusion

Automate Your Appointments

Are you using TimeTrade or Full Slate to give your clients online access for setting appointments with you? If not, you should be!

TimeFusion integrates Infusionsoft with TimeTrade and Full Slate to automate your appointment scheduling!

Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.

When you get a new lead, how many times do you touch them before you give up? By touch I mean contact, not physical touching obviously… but if you can actually meet them and shake their hand all the better, although that is frequently not an option.

Or worse, do you get a new lead and immediately hard sell them… bad, very bad.

It’s your business. You’re the one who worked long hours and made sacrifices to make it happen. You took risks, gave up your weekends and put yourself on the line. Give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve earned it. And while you’re at it, give some love to those who’ve helped you along the way.

In football, the fourth quarter is usually the most critical time of the game. Athletes train so they can stay strong and sharp during those important last moments. How is the fourth quarter shaping up for your business? Are you in position to make those critical plays that will finish your business year on a high note?

Have you ever given any thought to what people will say about you at your funeral? Will they remember you fondly, tell delightful stories about your successes and describe how you were an inspiration to them?

We all want to have lived a fabulous life, a life full of satisfaction and meaning. We might want family, friends, and adventure. Or we may desire romance, a fulfilling career or engaging hobbies. Your life could have these and so much more. But how do we achieve this wonderful goal?

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

   ~ Sherlock Holmes, “A Study in Scarlett” (Arthur Conan Doyle)

The famous detective makes a good point—it's hard to say exactly how well your business is doing unless you have some numbers. Data is a tricky thing though, since not all of it is relevant. For example, having 2,000 likes on a Facebook page doesn't help you if none of those people have ever made a purchase. So what data should we track? How do we gather that data? What do those metrics mean?

Featured Resource this week - TurboDial

This Personal Communicator brings the Power of Infusionsoft to your Inside Sales Campaigns!

With turboDial you never leave Infusionsoft – place a phone call to any contact at any time right from MyDay, from a saved search or from contact and opportunity records!

Plan your calls in advance or make them spontaneously – turboDial is the only solution effective for both

Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.

We have been in an ever-evolving battle against internet bots….it’s almost like like a sci-fi thriller….we put up an anti-bot shield and the bots defeat it, so we put up a better one.

This anti-bot shield is known as CAPTCHA. You have all seen the different things on forms, such as typing in the letters that appear, or doing some arithmetic.

We’re often told that these days marketing is a visual art. You need stunning, dynamic images that will grab your audience’s attention and make your other content really pop. And to produce those images, of course, you’ll need top quality dedicated graphics professionals.

There is some truth to this idea. Quality images can definitely make your content stand out, and potential customers will quickly turn away from large, ungainly blocks of text. But do you actually need to spend a fortune on top quality graphic design? Should you attempt to do some of it yourself?