You’ve declared your business, you’ve got a Web site, now where is everybody?

How do you get clients?

You’re cute!

You mean they don’t just come?

Uh, unh! It takes a lot of work and even more determination. But it can be done.

But where do you go from here? How do you build upon your current knowledge, skills and abilities as you work to increase your local/global awareness and visibility? How to you get those clients’ feet in the door?

You need a killer Marketing Plan

Some things to consider are:

Show and Tell
Develop sales and marketing letters and gear them toward your target market. Include post cards in your portfolio.

· Send your marketing materials to your prospects, and even to your regular customers via United States Post Office, or email, on a recurring basis.

· Attend Chambers of Commerce meetings; arm yourself with your business cards and make sure to get them into the hands of all those you meet.

“Word of mouth”
In this case, that “word” garnered from interaction with members and guests at industry message boards (like virtual assistant forums) can become the charcoal starter to whoosh your business into action.

Write a blog
If you decide to produce a blog, be sure to mark “post to blog” on your calendar “more frequently than once a year”! At least two to three times a week is ideal. Less than that, becomes more like the drudge of writing a letter to the bill collector to say your check’s in the mail.

What do you know, and how do you know it?

Pick a topic
Position yourself as an expert by increasing your credibility to your target market, write articles! Articles that offer a solution to a problem your visitor might encounter; submit the articles to article banks. And do it regularly. Grab articles of others from these data banks; make them available for your customers. But don’t stop there! Post the articles, with appropriate author credit, to your blog and at your Web site.

Continue your “blog missives” in a grander format
Create a newsletter; distribute the newsletter, optimally at least once a month, to your clients and those recently registered visitors.

Announce something
Not just anything. Make it something of interest to your readers. How about a “special” on your Services to coincide with some holiday of the year? Or maybe the first snowfall! How about the birth of your newsletter, or the xx^th customer to your Web site!?

Keep them coming back for more!

Make a joyful noise
Entice your public; include Podcasts as one of your “must haves” of the latest necessities of the 21^st century’s technological inventions. Visitors to your site will have an opportunity to immediately “hear” your message.

Go for free: do a give-away
Produce a little bit of something, perhaps from your Services repertoire, to share. Make it a tip of the day, a hand-out or download; your customers will go away smiling. And come back for more!