As a successful, hard-working entrepreneur, you’re tasked every day with making smart decisions that pay off and get the job done.  In order to this, we know that using the BEST business tools can skyrocket your productivity, save you time, money, and help avoid hassles and headaches down the road.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of our favorite resources that will help you grow your business:

1. Our Blog: We update our blog often with specific and useful information for entrepreneurs – from how to get more clients through “vertical marketing,” to truths and tips on using social media for swift results!  This blog has relevant and timely information at no cost to you.  If you haven’t already done so, subscribe today and start receiving tips for working smarter and boosting your income.

See how our readers are getting results! Recently we conducted an experiment with one of our blog posts and invited readers to ‘ask for what you want to find if you’ll get results in one week.‘  By leaving comments and engaging in a ‘conversation,’ fellow entrepreneurs asked for leads, shared new resources and generously gave ideas for helping one another grow their businesses.  The response was astounding!  In just one week, 50% of the participants got what they asked for.  Check out Results In One Week!

2. Sending Emails to a Large List? You cannot send emails to hundreds of people through Outlook or they will be tagged as ‘sp^m’ by your recipient’s server, which would be a very bad thing.  Vertical Response is a low-cost, pay-as-you-go program that allows you to send large quantities of email without getting tagged as a sp^mmer.  And, get this, it only costs about $30 to email 1,000 people.  Now that’s leverage!

This powerful email tool also allows you to send your ‘designed’ e-newsletters.  Or you can just broadcast a plain, text-only email message to your entire lead list.  As a smart communications tool, Vertical Response will help you manage your email marketing efforts with ease and efficiency; giving you reports on the crucial aspects of email marketing: delivery rate, open rate, click-through rate, & unsubscribers. This valuable data helps you improve your marketing in the short and long term.

To get a step-by-step process for creating email campaigns that work, get our special report: 11 STEPS TO BUILD ENEWS CAMPAIGNS | cost: $12.99

3. Need a Website or Internet Marketing Advice? With all the ‘noise’ online, how can you be sure your website will get found?  And once people find you, will they buy from you?  These are the top concerns of every smart entrepreneur.  To ensure you have a website that gets results, we’ll either build you a fully functional and search-optimized site, or conduct a web marketing review of your current site.  Expert advising with a sales and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) evaluation can uncover all kinds of missed opportunities, or recommend small adjustments that can dramatically impact your bottom line.

Recently, we had the opportunity to work on the website of one of our heroes, Chip Conley, of Joie De Vivre Hotels.  If you haven’t read his book, Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, we highly recommend it.  Check out his Peak Organizations website to learn about their Peak Trainings, and get some inspiration on leading your own organization.

What was their experience with our service?

“Allison Bliss used a combination

4. Filemaker Pro. Like many entrepreneurs, we’re always juggling multiple projects, with multiple deadlines, involving multiple stakeholders who perform multiple tasks — all at the same time! But rather than pulling our hair out and losing sleep, we easily keep track of all those activities using a database called  Filemaker Pro. This robust program allows you to custom tailor project notes, and efficiently track your marketing campaigns and sales activities. And that makes you better at what you do.

There are many database programs to choose from, but we find Filemaker Pro to be the most adaptable for just about any type of company.  To get you up and running quickly with it, we can even train you to use it and add custom marketing fields, too.

6. Creating Breakthroughs. You will not find this marketing tool anywhere else!  We’ve just launched our novel ‘‘Creative Strategic Walks!” service this month. And…It…Works!!

These revelatory (and fun!) sessions literally take entrepreneurs out of the office and out for a walk along the water. Walking together with a marketing strategist to guide the conversation, the exercise and fresh air combine to increase your endorphins, foster more creativity and clarity, and set the stage for breakthrough ideas to emerge.

I’ve noticed over the years that when I’m  outside in an informal setting with clients or colleagues, we’re able to stimulate our imagination and innovative thinking. Some of the most successful ideas we’ve come up with for clients and colleagues have come from these ‘Creative Strategic Walks’.

So, if you’re not earning enough income, not sure why your clients don’t get the value of your offerings, or realize things just aren’t working for you, this just might be that magical answer you’ve been looking for!

7. Do You Need a Blog? When you’re using this medium the smart way, it’s a powerful marketing tool that reaches new prospects, provides value and education to your existing clients, and builds Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits right into your website.

But technology and content seem to be the biggest concerns among our clients when it comes to incorporating a blog into their marketing plan.  Fortunately, we’re able to eliminate these worries through our Create A Blog Package. We’ll work with you on planning, design, and content, while making sure the technology and training are in place to ensure your success.

And if you want a first class education, inspiration and support for your blogging, I highly recommend my colleague, Cheryl Liquori’s Breakfast Blogging Club’ events. Don’t miss her terrific event coming up June 26th.

8. Article Marketing. Publishing articles online is one of the most effective strategies for marketing your business and sending traffic to your website.  And ezine articles is the best place to start.  Once your article is posted on this popular site, we’ve found that it’s often picked up and posted by numerous other websites as well.

NEW UPDATE 7/9:

9. Doodle.com allows you to schedule with multiple people without having to weed through dozens of emails to coordinate. So easy to use. Creates a form allowing invitees to schedule online, privately. Saves time!

10. Tweetdeck all0ws you to manage twitter- when you’re being searched, track categories, various communications all in one place. use on iphone or ipad, too. Saves time!

When you add an author bio at the end of your article with a link back to your website, you can really begin to improve your web traffic and getting found on Google.  Contact us to get dozens more smart resources for article marketing! Call 510-879-7600 or email to: abliss@allisonbliss.com.

LET US KNOW YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCES BY ADDING A COMMENT TO OUR MARKETING COACHING BLOG (click on ‘comment’ below).

Bookmark this page to find periodic updates. After all, knowledge is bliss!

Need more results from your marketing efforts? We have a full service marketing agency standing by to help you increase revenues with social media, websites, planning, marketing strategy, SEO and more!

Here’s a principle from my upcoming book on “Marketing That Fills the Soul”. This section I’ve cut from the book to only allow for my blog readers:

PUTTING OUT TO THE UNIVERSE: THE CLARITY OF PROMOTION

There is little doubt that by expressing what we need, or putting out our requests to the universe in a clearly defined manner over a regular period of time, that we’ll receive what we ask for. Devout worshippers and business leaders have been utilizing this practice for centuries. Politicians develop slogans to espouse their merits throughout their campaigns. Mohammed and Jesus preached their beliefs to the masses to bring their followers joy, peace and education.

With the same purpose, albeit not as deep in spiritual focus, advertisers create commercials to educate and entertain with the purpose of helping people find what they want or need.

Critics feel ads compel people to be greedy and create desire for unnecessary items. While there are certainly plenty of unneeded items advertised on tv, magazines, newspapers and websites, it is not the advertiser creating greed, but rather the value system of the person watching or reading the ad.

UNDERMINING OURSELVES

Naturally, if we are undermining the ability to receive what we want, get in our own way, or are not qualified to do what we promote,  our requests won’t be met.

But, my experience working with business owners is that they are usually quite realistic in knowing what they want, they just need help defining it in specific terms and they don’t ask for it in their promotion. They don’t “put out to the universe” their true spirit or unique attributes and explain how that will help their prospective market.

Appropriate methods for this practice, such as a series of educational articles, blogs, presentations or similar – when sent to potential clients – can prove exceptionally successful when the message rings true to the reader. More importantly, it allows the business owner to express their own spirit and beliefs, so they will attract like-minded clients who want what they have.

There are as many ways to apply this spiritual practice of ‘putting out there’ or promotion as one can creatively dream up—from postcards to websites, from live events to billboards or sliding down a chimney—to get your point across.

The point is that the marketing tactic cannot be properly selected until the request is defined. Mistakenly, most businesses put the tool before the horse, to horribly mix metaphors, and don’t clearly define their request or their message first. They create materials with vague or nebulous messages that confuse their market and waste thousands of promotional dollars.

Once promotion is clearly defined, it’s relatively easy to select and test the various tools to determine what attracts the kinds of people you want to help. A marketing consultant will know which tool to use to send which message to each market over time for each specific product saving the company expense and time.

YOPLAIT’S EXAMPLE

For example, Yoplait yogurt decided to promote their product to a health market by becoming a prominent sponsor of “The Race For the Cure”, proceeds of which go to find the cure for breast cancer.

They were clear about what female market they targeted with their product and found a visible way to reach them through publicity for the races, signage at events, handing out their product to race runners, and visibility in just about every direction at the race itself.

Additionally, they run broadcast commercial promotion to a wide consumer market. Selecting these two avenues for promotion in tandem has not only given the product exposure but also helped them develop an image of healing women. Most people feel better buying products they know are using proceeds to help support a cause they believe in called “cause marketing”.

When Fedex created its “Absolutely, positively gets there overnight” campaign, don’t you think they were obviously responding to an unfulfilled need in the market? They used this extremely clear message to easily demonstrate exactly how they helped people and businesses? Sure, it was a huge risk to guarantee overnight delivery, and they paid dearly in their learning process. But the company developed such careful management systems for distribution and verification that they set the standard for their industry and have branded their service far faster and more clearly than any of their competitors.

That’s good promotion! How can you apply that to your business?

Sharing wisdom is actually what advertising and promotion is all about. Educating those who need our help is the soul of marketing. And helping our clients is the purpose of our business. That’s why I think of marketing as if it’s a kind of ‘spiritual’ practice. No, not religious, but soulful or the outward direction of the spirit of our business goals.

Almost every spiritual practice has a priest, wise woman (or man), holy person, shaman or spiritual leader who professes the truth to those who wish to learn.

As a business owner, it is our own spiritual quest to profess this truth—our knowledge or education about how our products/services can help others—in an inspired message to those in need.

A common mistake of business owners, usually in their early stages of development, is a lack of sharing this specific, critical information.

For example, common marketing wisdom states that if a company plans to run an advertisement, it should run at least 6-12 times before evaluating its effectiveness, as it takes that many “impressions” of seeing it before it sinks in and takes hold of the very busy people from whom we are trying to evoke a response.

It is important to educate your customers or potential market so they can understand how to use what you offer. The world’s great leaders, like the Ghandi, spent most of their lives educating their “market” -their constituents-  or those they were trying to influence through their teachings, prayer, and practices. As business owners, we could learn a lesson from them: If we spend more time teaching and less time telling people they need our products, we may move further along in our divine purpose.

As one observes the great world leaders from the Dalai Lama to Martin Luther King, we notice that even our great leaders spread their message through the use of many media—from word of mouth, to television interviews, direct mail, teaching and lecturing, and e-news or websites.

It is important to mix our messages into many type of media in order to reach as wide a target market as we can since not everyone watches tv, opens direct mail pieces, or follows Twitter.

And lest you think I’m being sacreligious comparing the gospel of our great leaders to marketing, well, it’s time you rethink your perception of marketing: It’s a practice that’s all about helping people. And in the thousands of clients I’ve helped, I’ve only ever met one person who was just in business to make money and not truly devoted to helping people in some way.

If you need marketing insight and services, we’re here to help. After all, Knowledge is Bliss.

from my old blog: Saturday, August 25, 2007

What is it that an entrepreneur needs help with the most once their service or product is developed? I’ve found that it’s marketing–getting their baby out the door.

It took me 10 years of helping business owners start up and grow their businesses, before I realized what they truly, desperately needed was an ongoing marketing coach to guide them through huge changes.

With a 50% failure rate, I’m hoping more entrepreneurs will succeed knowing how to find a marketing coach in this article on sideroad’s expert interviews:

http://www.sideroad.com/2007/08/what-is-marketing-coach.html.