How to Create Online Promotions for a Digital Consulting Agency

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How to Create Online Promotions for a Digital Consulting Agency

The digital age is not done claiming victims in stagnant businesses and industries.

Even the oldest traditional bricks-and-mortar businesses are being disrupted in surprising ways.

Thus, digital consulting businesses simply must walk the walk and talk the talk in maximizing digital methods, starting with the basics like online promotions.

Here are some basics

Dont You Know Who I Am? Do You Know You Are?

Online promotions leverage the near infinite connections to customers of the internet.

First, they give the chance to grow awareness about your brand and company. Second, they give you control over your identity. Even when people dont know a business, a solid marketing plan via online promotions can still create a good impression.

But what will those perceptions be? A good marketing department will have already developed those core ideal. That creates the foundation for any other promotions online or otherwise.

First Impressions Matter

They really do, its how peoples brains work. The first time a potential customer interacts with your business sets expectations and leaves long-lasting impressions.

For digital consultants, that first impression needs to be both online and impressive.

Know your audience

Another way to say this is to do your homework. The internet has given birth to big data. Doing an online promotion campaign only make sense after identifying who the targeted customers are and how to get to them.

Online Promotions Need to Inspire, Prompt, Excite

These online promotions should prompt business leaders to learn more about how to take their businesses boldly and successfully into the digital age.

Digital technologies have enabled all businesses to do more than any other tool in the history of humanity, especially small business and startups. Thats exciting and potential customers need to feel that excitement when they experience your promotions.

Visuals? Yes!

Powerful digital tools unlock the ability to create, distribute and consume bigger and better visuals. No space online should ever be wasted on weak visual appeal.

Visual appeal not only draws more eyes, it also increases perceived value. If it looks expensive, it must be expensive, right?

What will customer see after clicking through to a website is just as important as the initial promotion they saw. This is a good place to go visual as well. Consider a carousel of relevant and compelling images to hook visitors.

Create Content to Impress

Once someone is on a site, something needs to keep them there.

Great content on a site is the closer for a digital operation. This is where a team of inbound marketers can come in and help make the most of the promotional activity.

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How to Create a Strong Promotion Strategy for Your Clothing Business

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How to Create a Strong Promotion Strategy for Your Clothing Business

Youve spent years coming up with the perfect clothing brand. After studying everything there is to know about fashion culture, youre ready to release your clothing brand to the world!

How exactly are you going to get people excited about it? Its estimated that 8 out of 10 businesses will eventually fold, you dont want to be another statistic.

Thats why its important to come up with a great fashion marketing promotion. By using the right tools, youll get the word out about your clothes and have fans clamoring for your goods in no time!

Not sure where to start? Heres a quick how-to thatll help launch your promotion strategy with a few easy steps.

Understanding The Ideal Customer

Before you can conquer the catwalk at Fashion Week, youll need to understand who youre selling to. Ultimately, your target audience is going to determine how and where you set up your marketing campaign.

For instance, are you looking to sell exclusively to businesses? Or perhaps to consumers? Maybe both? Make sure you have a clear sense of your customer base.

Once youve settled the basics, its time to move on to the more complicated aspects of promotion strategy: demographics.

Every business has a demographic. Those who tend to ignore that demo are the ones who are likely to shut their doors within a year. Dont make the same mistake.

Understand the following about your ideal customer:

Where do they live?
How much money do they make?
What is their age?
Where do they tend to shop?
What sites do they spend their time on?

With this information, youll be able to pinpoint ways to reach your audience.

Set Up a Great Looking Website

These days, a business without a website may as well not exist. Think about how you can leverage your website to really cater to your audience.

For a prime example, lets take a look at the website for Nickis. Take a moment to look over the homepage. A few things will immediately stand out.

For instance, a rotating carousel of brands lets you know the types of clothing they sell. Furthermore, the 3 large images (Girls Boys Babies) lets you know who theyre selling their clothes for.

Why is this such an important feature? Because it takes the guesswork out of browsing. You dont have to wonder whether Nickis has your favorite brand for your child the info is all right there.

Also, make sure you have a blog set up. You can use it to post content, but also advertise to your market. Its a win-win for your business and SEO!

Use Social Media in Your Promotion Strategy

If you want to find your customer base, go where they already are: social media. Millions of people use social media on a daily basis, so finding your customers is all about a few things. First, join public fashion groups.

Be upfront about who you are and what youre hoping to achieve with your business. The contacts in these groups are absolutely invaluable.

Youll also want to make sure youre engaging with your customers on a regular basis. Ask questions and be sure to respond when customers have questions of their own. The more you respond, the more theyll relate to you as a brand.

Final Thoughts on Running a Promotion Strategy

Running your promotional campaign isnt going to be easy or quick. Itll require patience and a ton of learning. Be sure to follow these tips and pay attention to your analytics.

Its okay if you need to make changes along the way! Whats important is that youre getting yourself and your brand out there.

For more great content, be sure to keep checking Article City. Whether you need help learning about websites or want some more marketing tips, were here to help your business grow.

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How to Choose Mold Removal Contractors

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How to Choose Mold Removal Contractors

Mold can be exceptionally unsafe to your wellbeing. In the event that you come in coordinate contact with Mold, it can be the reason for different hypersensitivities. Particularly kids and more seasoned individuals who have less invulnerability are inclined to get different respiratory related infections and medical issues. In this manner it is critical that the Mold is Removal as right on time as could be allowed. Shape impacts the strength of your family as well as your home. It exhausts the feel of your home and may even harm your exorbitant furniture.

Yet, this doesn't imply that you need to employ proficient help to dispose of mol when you identify it. According to Environment Protection Agency, you ought to have the capacity to expel the Mold yourself if the affected territory is under 10 feet which is around 3 feet by 3 feet. You can do as such effortlessly by your some Mold Removal item openly accessible in market or utilizing a hard brush with some cleanser.

In the event that the affected territory is progressively or the shape is poisonous in nature, at that point you unquestionably require assistance from a specific Mold expulsion contractor. mold removal contractor has practical experience in expelling the form with the end goal that it is appropriately wiped out and in addition there is no probability of it returning.

Before concluding a Mold expulsion contractual worker, you have to see first that there are no industry guidelines or accreditation identified with mold removal. You should choose absolutely in light of reputation and experience of the contractor chicago. Progressively the experience, more are the odds that he is a decent contractual worker. Something else you should see is the specialisation of the contractor chicago. For instance, if the Mold is developing in your home because of intemperate dampness, the contractor chicago ought to know about procedures to take out the main driver or shape separated from simply the shape. In the event that then again, your Mold development issue is packed in the HVAC unit, at that point you will require a Mold Removal Contractor Chicago
who has encounter disposing of shape from the frameworks.

The most ideal approach to discover a mold removal contractor chicago to discover him on web. You can look for contractor chicago in your general vicinity, read about their experience level, specialization and client surveys which will enable you to settle on the best one.

How to Become a Life Coach

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How to Become a Life Coach

If youve found this article from a Google search, I assume that you are already familiar with what a life coach is. Even if you are, reading my article "What is a Life Coach" will provide you with valuable information on what exactly a life coach does, how coaching contracts work, what typical coaching formats look like and how you might want to focus your business as you consider becoming a coach.

This article is geared towards the logistics on what you can do to become a life coach and start your own business.

What Credentials do I Need?

At the risk of turning people off to life coaching in this article, I am going to give you the facts about people that are calling themselves coaches. Truth be told - there are NO job requirements to become a coach. Sounds scary huh? Put a sign up, print some business cards, call yourself a life coach and you are good to go. Pretty easy business to build eh?

Lets take a bit of a closer look here. What I am really saying is that by law, no professional certification is required for someone to call him or herself a life coach - or coach (often the word life is either omitted or replaced with a different word such as executive, wellness, lifestyle management or business). So unlike a psychologist, a physical therapist, registered dietician, a contractor, or a lawyer, the state and country (USA) does not recognize a life coach as a credentialed profession. Therefore, no license is required to call yourself a coach (at least as of the date this article is posted).

Lets look at some other examples of similar professions that might fall into the same category. How about that big one of consultant. There are lots of consultants out there consulting on everything you can think of - typically a consultant needs no license to be a consultant, just experience doing so. Similar to a coach, a consultant with no experience at all can draft up a business card and start doing business. Of course the big question is whether or not youd be able to sell anyone on your services given that background. A computer consultant would probably have trouble selling themselves if they knew nothing about computers!

Before Calling Yourself a Coach

If you are intending to call yourself a coach, please understand what it means to give yourself that title. Without government regulations, I admit you can stake your claim at coachhood with relative ease, however its a discredit to the professionals with years of experience and training if you simply use the word as an allure for clients and in any way you are misrepresenting what the coaching profession is all about. Id suggest reading a coaches code of ethics (the ICF offers a good one here) to see if what you are offering could truly be considered coaching.

One problem that I see is that many people who are misrepresenting the profession do not even recognize what it means to be a coach. Ive seen MLM (multi-level marketing) companies give their marketers buttons to put on their shirt stating Wellness Coach - when all they know is a couple of herbal supplements that the company sells. Ive seen Real Estate Agents call themselves Real Estate Coaches because they wanted to differentiate themselves from the crowd of agents. Clearly these people are marketing themselves as coaches with little understanding of what a coach really does. If youve read this far it shows youve got a true interest in becoming an ethical coach and Ive no doubt that you are doing your homework!

What Background do I need?

This is an interesting question. Coaches come from all backgrounds. As previously mentioned there are coaches in the health and wellness world, in the executive development world, relationship coaches, coaches for families with children that have special needs, stress management coaches - the list goes on and on. Of course there are many coaches that cross pollinate and have several areas they focus on.

If you choose to focus your coaching on a specific area - lets say parenting troubled teens, then its a good idea that youve got a background of working with troubled teens so that you can best understand your client. Now a pure life coach is committed to recognizing that a client has their own answers and that the coaches job is to empower the client such that they see this clearly for themselves. Therefore, a coach is a generalist - their training and skill is really in communicating with people such that they can identify and build appropriate goals and actions that fulfill their dreams. If you naturally have this skill, youve got the greatest asset that a life coach needs. Some people have an innate tendency to be coach. If you dont naturally have this skill, rest assured that wish practice you can develop it.

What Education if any Should I Get?

If you are considering becoming a coach, I definitely recommend that you get training. A coach training program often has coaching and mentorship not only on how to be a better coach, but also on how to build your business. Whether or not you choose to go through a full coach training certification program is a big decision as it will typically involve a commitment of 1-3 years, up to $15,000, and will require that you obtain between one and two hundred client hours to become certified. Prices, times to certification, and program depth and intensity vary greatly dependent on the program you choose.

Typically after an introductory class, you are encouraged to begin enrolling coaching clients. Therefore, you can charge what you are comfortable charging while you are going through the certification process (remember, you dont need a license to be a coach). I wish I knew the percentage of professionals out there calling themselves coaches that have gone through a certification program. I am sure that someones put an estimate out there but Ive yet to find it. My suspicion is that it is less than 1/3 of all coaches. So being a certified coach differentiates you for sure, however at the moment a typical coaching client probably would not know the difference.

If you elected not to become certified, my recommendation would be that you take some introductory courses, become familiar and comfortable with what coaching is, then try your hand on clients willing to work with you. If these classes are too expensive, read through this whole blog, read as many books as you can find on coaching and develop a toolset which you can stake claim to and comfortably use to team with clients to promote their advancement and self discovery. Make yourself an expert coach based on the knowledge of what a coach is and what they do.

I remember having a conversation with one woman that a friend referred to me. She wanted to change careers, she was very interested in life coaching and she felt she had been coaching friends and co-workers for years. She did have a good understanding of what life coaching was. Furthermore she said she new a number of people that would be willing to pay her for coaching! As I coached her, all she needed to hear was herself confirming that it was OK to get started - even if she had doubts and worries as to what a formal coaching session would look like. She had a fantastic motivation to learn regardless of whether or not that would be in the framework of a credential program (and I dont know if she elected to enroll in one).

What is the ICF

The ICF (International Coach Federation) is the leading coach credentialing agency on the market. Many coaches have opted to become a member of the ICF (by paying an annual fee to be a member), but this is certainly not a requirement to be a coach. The ICF is strongly supportive of coaching becoming a licensed field - similar as to what you see with psychologists etc. Clearly they have incentive as they would be the leading credentialing agency and this would greatly increase their membership. Many coaches believe that this will come to fruition in the next 5-10 years. At that point in time its likely wed see a large decrease in the number of people calling themselves coaches as well as an increase in the credibility and the stature of the industry.

I present this because if you did elect to go through a coach training program, the ICF provides a list of programs that are accredited. By training through one of these accredited programs, it is expected that your certification would be grandfathered into the status of a certified coach should a license become required. This might be one thing to consider as you contemplate what level of training and education you would like to participate in as well as who provides that training.

In Summary

To summarize, if youve been considering becoming a professional coach (life coach), its important to educate yourself on what a coach is and is not. There is a lot of information on the internet available (much on this site) that can provide you with a foundation for understanding coaching models and how to be coach.

Legally, at this point in time, there are no requirements to obtain a certification or license for someone to begin calling themselves a coach (in that regards, its similar to consulting). If you would like to begin coaching on a specific topic, its great to have a background on that topic but make sure that you know why you are differentiating what you are doing as coaching rather than consulting.

Educationally there are many coach training programs available. I suggest that you attend at least some coaching courses (or hire your own coach) such that you begin to understand how coaching works. If you do elect to go with a coach training program, a good thing to consider would be whether or not is is recognized by the International Coach Federation such that you will not to become re-certified in the future should this become an industry requirement.

I hope this answers your first set of questions on how to become a life coach - I am sure it will lead to more questions. Ill provide more coaching tips, tools and suggestions throughout the course of the year on this website- so visit often. Till then

"If youve found this site useful, please link to it so that others can benefit!"

Be Well

Written by Doug Nau, www.i-grow.net

How To Become A High-Paid Marketing Consultant Or Copywriter - FAST! Part 2

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How To Become A High-Paid Marketing Consultant Or Copywriter - FAST! Part 2

Question: Dan, if you were starting out and had no references or a substantial resume, how would you go about finding paying customers for your services?

To answer your question, I'll assume you're a junior copywriter or marketing consultant.

When I first started out and didn't know a soul, I'd open the yellow pages and cold-call the business owners. I'd go to networking events and try to get business. (Sucks!)

Sometimes I'd do a little 'switchcraft' and call the companies who sent me direct mail letters.

Before I had a track record, I wrote a lot on a results-oriented basis. This is also know as a 'sink or swim' or 'thrive or starve' approach.

I'd write an ad or sales letter for a client, with the guarantee that if the ad didn't work, I didn't get paid. If the ad did work, I'd receive a flat fee.

Once I'd proven myself as a credible, conversion-oriented copywriter, I switched to requesting compensation based on a percentage of the sales.

Ultimately, I changed to a flat fee, plus a percentage.

It wasn't easy. It's a good thing that 'thin is in' because I've been through a lot of lean and hungry months. I got ripped off so many times I can't even count them. Understand... I'm not saying this is what you should do, but that's what I DID.

In the beginning, you have to be pretty much shameless and willing to check your ego at the door.

Be prepared to take on any kind of job for any kind of price.

You want to make yourself damn busy. You want the law of supply and demand to work in your favor.

Your goal is to build up a portfolio of satisfied clients as quickly as humanly possible.

If it soothes your wounded ego, think of the process as 'earning as you're learning.' By taking a wide variety of jobs, you'll not only hone your skills a hell a lot faster, you'll also build up a reputation as someone who's 'earned his chops.'

And don't forget to collect testimonials.

Success breeds success.

Ultimately, just like me, when you're in demand, you'll be able to name your own price and do business on your own terms. If a prospect has a problem with how much you charge, you don't need to have a problem with them.

All you have to say is, NEXT!'

Don't worry, if you're good at what you do, you don't have to 'settle for less.' (If you're not good at what you do, and aren't striving to make yourself better, you have no business being in business.)

Here's another plus about providing good value: your clients will tell other people about you. You won't have to go looking for clients; clients will come looking for you. That's the position you want to be inat the head of the 'receiving line,' picking and choosing your clients.

Your skills are in demand. The business world needs good copywriters. And good copywriters are rare. So the pro's in this profession are always in high demand.

As a marketing consultant or copywriter, you're better off if you don't have to engage in actively persuading prospects to hire you. You're in a much more powerful position, of course, if they come to you.

An excellent way to make yourself the 'go-to' writer that everyone wants is to establish yourself as an expert. Writing a book, creating a website and speaking at events are all excellent ways to gain a reputation as 'Miss Information' or 'Mr. Know-It-All.'

How to Become a Consultant

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How to Become a Consultant

One of the options available in your business is to take your valuable expertise and step into the role of a consultant.

Being a consultant is essentially taking what you know and appropriately applying it to the client's situation to give informed advice.

When I work with a client to build revenue in their business, or even to determine what business they want to start, I always turn the process at some point to leverage.

The idea of leverage is pretty simple: how do you make use of what and who you already know? In the context of skills and experience, what is it in that mix that you can utilize for your and your business' best advantage?

One way to do that is to become a consultant.

You may already have built a lot of expertise in your career. Any job you have ever had has allowed you to learn and to apply what you know.

When you have developed a broad perspective, by multiple roles within an organization or by moving to different organizations, and also by extensive experience, either by years or by variety, you bring a unique perspective.

That background is a good foundation to the consultant role.

If you have an interest in teaching and giving advice, and either have or want to develop the confidence to do so, you may be able to work as an independent consultant.

If you are someone who has worked in the corporate setting for years, even if you are ready to retire from that environment, you may well have the capacity to take on this role. You can build an entire business around it.

Consulting back to your former corporate colleagues also has the added benefit of being well compensated. Like any business, as long as you add value, you can continue to grow your business in that role.

Being a consultant requires a high level of people skills. Relationships are part of the consulting process, both in terms of obtaining and delivering necessary information and advice. One of the challenges in consulting is that you have no direct authority, yet you want people to listen to your advice and act. Something is demanded of you in those relationships: to know yourself and be authentic.

That place of authenticity is the perfect place to come from to enact another aspect of a consultant's role: to influence. When people know that you are real, that you are being present to them and their situation, your power to influence greatly expands.

Like any good teacher, part of your role as a consultant is to build your client's capacity to make assessments and answer their questions on their own. You're teaching them how to eventually become independent of your advice.

Consulting is a way to be helpful, to show others a way through their challenges. It is a way to use what you know to make things easier for others.

Peter Block, the guru of consulting, once wrote: "Consulting at its best is an act of love".

What an amazing way to be in your work. Will it be your way?

How To Beat The Lowest Home Loan Rates (taux hypothecaire)

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How To Beat The Lowest Home Loan Rates (taux hypothecaire)

Make sure you choose the right home loan strategy for you. You will be amazedat how much you will save if you concentrate on the right mortgage strategy, rather than concentrating on finding the lowest interest rate. Differences in interest rates are peanuts compared to the tens of thousands of dollars you will save with the right mortgage strategy. (Read How to beat the best rate! to see how this works.)

What's the right mortgage strategy? Well, you probably can't answer that question for yourself. What you can do is consult a mortgage specialist who specializes in custom mortgage packages. Why do you need to do this? The main reasons are:
- We don't know where interest rates are going.
- Economic conditions, both present and future have to be considered.
- A mortgage strategy is a complex, uniquely personalized approach that takes each borrower's situation into account.

All of these factors, and more, will be taken into consideration when you sit down with your personal mortgage consultant. He has the proper training to understand what affects interest rates, which mortgage products are available as well as current economic conditions and, most importantly, he has been trained to use this knowledge as it applies to each client's given status.

It takes years of study to understand the fluctuations of interest rates and there are economists who specialize in only that. Here is what the layman needs to understand about the basics of interest rates:
Interest rates follow an upward trend for a given period of time, they follow a downward trend for a given period of time, and the remain stable for a certain period of time. We have seen this trending in action from 1950 to 1980 when interest rates were rising, from 1982 to 2003, when interest rates were falling and from 2003 to 2006 when interest rates stayed in a fairly narrow range. If you do not understand how this works, you will end up paying too much for your total home loan costs.

Next, you have to understand the rules of interest rates:
Interest rates reflect inflation. If there is an increase in the consumer price index, interest rates should increase.
Interest rates are tied to a country's economic performance. A strong economy will mean higher interest rates, since there is a higher demand for money, and a weaker economy will mean decreased interest rates, since the demand for money will go down. It is also important to understand the rules of interest rates. Interest rates follow two rules, one, that interest rates are reflections of the inflation rate, and two, that interest rates are closely linked to the economic performance of a country. What does this mean? If the inflation rate(the consumer price index) goes up, rates will go up, if the economy is strong, interest rates will go up. (Of course, the opposites are also true.)

The exact prediction of interest rates is almost impossible. We have seen interest rates increase over the last thirty years, with the average rate being 9.25%. Today, however, it is at about 5%. Perhaps at this interest rate level, you think it would be wise\a good idea to consider a 5 year fixed mortgage. But if you had done that over the prior historic period, it would have been a disaster.

There are quite a few mortgage strategies that mortgage brokers have to choose from. An expert mortgage professional can pick and choose from this mixed bag of strategies and design the perfect one for you.

The basic mortgage strategies are:
- A five year fixed term loan, renewed five times (5 times 5)
- A 15, 20 or 25 year fixed rate mortgage (Long term).
- A mortgage with an interest rate that varies, based on the Bank of Canada base rate. (Variable rate)
- Deduct interest paid on the mortgage from personal income tax (Smith Maneuver)
- Use the equity in the residence to add to retirement income. (More retirement)
- Calculate the difference between saving for a 5% down payment while paying rent and taking out a larger loan and avoiding rent during that period.(No down payment)
- Fix credit using a mortgage in order to establish better credit later on. (Less than perfect credit)

The secret is to find the right strategy or mix of strategies for the borrower. In doing so, a mortgage broker can save a client a lot on the cost of the mortgage.

That's what a mortgage broker will do when he meets with a client. Each person's individual requirements and dreams are discussed, and then any mortgage strategies that may be open to him are applied to his situation, under the present and anticipated economic conditions. Not taking these steps with a professional mortgage broker can result in paying too much. A consultation is free, not having a consultation is very expensive.