10 Ways to Market Your Business This Holiday Season

10 Ways to Market Your Business This Holiday Season

So thrilled that BrowardNetOnline picked up our holiday marketing article! That's my local community. Fortunately I met them on Twitter. Social networking rocks!

Diana Ennen / Virtual Word Publishing / www.virtualwordpublishing.com
follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/dianaennen

Tips for a Stress Free Holiday with Your Business

Here are my tips for a stress-free holiday! I'd love your tips as well, please comment away!

1) Let clients know well in advance your holiday schedule and try and stick with the same schedule if possible year after year. For example, I normally take the same days off each year so my clients know this and can work around it. What I find is that when I do this they know in advance so the few days before I take off I don't get tons of work.

2) Have a subcontractor who can help for a few hours. There's no better feeling than being out there shopping and knowing that the work is still being taken care of. You normally still make money on the work that your subcontractor does and it can alleviate so much stress.

3) Really focus and have a daily to do list. Also, keep track of the time you spend on tasks and write it down. During the holidays time flies by and we don't even realize where the days go. By staying focused you can get so much more accomplished. And with writing down your time, you can see that work is getting done. Watch your emails and only check them so many times a day (this will depend on the type of your business.) One small change can make a huge difference. For example, during the holidays you normally get tons of coupons, which you really want to check out. When you do though, you get sidetracked and don't focus as well. I set up in Outlook a rule so all coupons go into a folder first. That way I'm not tempted to look. And when I do look, all my coupons are together.

Thanks! Diana Ennen/ www.virtualwordpublishing.com

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It's a great time to do some holiday marketing. Here are some tips we think will help you. Please post yours as well.

Top 10 Publicity Ideas to Market Your Business This Holiday Season

The holidays are upon us. For most business owners that means an increase in sales - or at least it used to. In today's frustrating economy, small and large businesses alike are facing record lows when it comes to sales. Even those in the service industry are seeing less and less clients. So what’s the answer? Think 10? Try these 10 ways to survive and thrive this holiday season.

Top 10 Publicity Ideas to Market Your Business This Holiday Season

1. One great way to boost sales and awareness of your company is to enlist the help of a publicity virtual assistant. These experts specialize in helping you to get more publicity. They can handle everything from writing and sending out press releases to creating entire media campaigns. Let them write better descriptions for your products, find the best keywords to drive traffic there, do research to find where best to locate your target audience, and then finally handle all your PR needs. Publicity virtual assistants take the time to learn their niche and to develop a relationship with their clients so that they can bring amazing results. See, your holiday sales can meet and exceed last year’s sales after all.

2. Do specialized holiday marketing. It’s not too late to take advantage of all that can be done this year to make more sales. Consider having a Black Friday sale or a Cyber Monday sale. Add a contest to your site. Send out postcards and gift certificates.

3. Article & Press Release Writing and Distribution – Article marketing works. It’s a great way to get more exposure for your business and when done right, can result in front page Google rankings, more clients, & lots of sales. Get active and write a press release about your business making a holiday or New Year connection. For example, share how you are giving back during the holidays, any promotions you have, etc.

4. Get speaking -- Set up speaking engagements for the New Year. In January businesses go back to all work, no play after the holidays. It’s a perfect time to get out there and connect with businesses and line up speaking engagements. Also, consider a teleseminar series too.

5. Create a Holiday Blog Tour. If you have products or tips for the holidays, connect with other bloggers. Ask if you can provide some holiday tips. Bloggers are busy this time of year too so they will appreciate the added help. And the best news, you get more exposure.

6. Set up a Google Adword Campaigns – More people are online now because of the holidays. And a lot of those people will be checking out the search engines to find Christmas Gifts. It’s a great time to set up a Google Adword campaign and get that added exposure for your business.

7. Reconnect with ALL your clients and let them know how you appreciate them and perhaps how you can help them with other needs they may not even know you offer. Send a personalized holiday card or greeting. For local clients stop by their office and drop off presents, popcorn tins for the staff and/or their favorite coffee for their afternoon pick-me-up. For potential new clients, drop off a Holiday cup full of wrapped candy with your business card or perhaps get your business name printed on the candy bar.

8. Set up a marketing campaigns designed especially for and around your company or brand. Write down a marketing plan for the year that will focus on brand recognition. Most importantly, make sure your brand represents your company the way it should to your target audience.

9. Update your website. Take a look at your website and see if it is the best that it can be. Pay special attention to your homepage and keywords. Look to the overall appearance, the professionalism of your wording, the explanations explaining the benefits you provide, etc. In fact, everything in your site needs to convince a client to work with you. Now ask yourself, does it do that? Is this something I can be proud of? Too often we throw together a website, just to have it done. Remember this can often be a client’s first impression of you. Is it selling you well?

10. Don’t forget your social networking. Even ½ hour a day can make a considerable difference, Remember to build relationships and share more than sell.

The holidays are a great time to make money, even in this economy. If you’d like additional tips stop by SoYouWantToBeaWahm.com today. Also, share with us your tips for the holidays.



Jill Hart, Founder of Christian Work-at-Home Moms http://www.cwahm.com and Diana Ennen, President of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com have teamed up to write So You Want to Be a Work at Home Mom: A Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business http://www.soyouwanttobeawahm.com. Start or expand your business today with their help. Article is free to be reprinted as long as bio remains.

High Impact Emails from Template Zone

I had the pleasure recently of reviewing High Impact Emails from Template Zone - www.templatezone.com. Following is my review. Also, they have given me several copies that I can provide to businesses who would like to write a review. Please contact me at diana@virtualwordpublishing.com if you are interested. Thanks!

My review of Template Zones - High Impact Email Marketing www.templatezone.com

One of the most important things I've realized in marketing my business and in helping my clients get additional publicity is that you need to stay in contact with those who have contacted you. They have already expressed an interest in you and your services or products, yet might not have made the commitment to buy or use your services. I was never able to fully do this with my business, although I tried several approaches. Finally, I discovered High Impact Email from Template Zone. I needed something that was easy to do, walked me through the steps, and also created a professional and impressive marketing piece. High Impact Email did that and more. I especially loved the variety of templates offered. It allowed me to do more than just send out a newsletter. What was also amazing for me was how easy it was to import my contacts. I believe a lot of people don't market this way for fear it will be time-consuming and difficult. Thankfully, it's none of that. I highly recommend High Impact email for small and large businesses alike. I do believe it will be especially helpful for those who work from home as well.

Diana Ennen, President of Virtual Word Publishing www.virtualwordpublishing.com

Opportunities Abound for the Administrative Assistant To Work From Home

Administrative assistants are moving from the office back into their homes as the opportunities for working in a home-based environment are growing daily. As modern technology allows for the transfer of information quickly and easily, administrative professionals are finding it has never been easier to do the office work at home. Letters, memos and reports are just a click away. Web conferencing, marketing, publicity, and even bookkeeping can be accomplished from virtually anywhere.

Businesses are also realizing that the same work done at the office can easily be outsourced to a home-based administrative professional. In fact, many businesses find they are not only getting the same work done, but also experiencing better results. The home-based administrative professional is highly qualified and trained in the services they offer and therefore excel at these tasks.

These administrative assistants utilize their skills as a virtual assistant—virtual being the operative word. Being able to do work virtually enables these administrative professionals to do all those tasks normally done in the office. With all the downsizing and layoffs, businesses are thrilled to be able to have the support they need at a cost they can afford.

The services being offered by these independent business owners are varied and can be found to suit the job. The descriptions that follow are just a few of the services they can provide:

Press Release Writing & Distribution: Most businesses today could benefit from a great press release, especially when that press release is distributed to their targeted audience. Many publicity virtual assistants offer this service in addition to other marketing tasks.

Transcription services: Definitely in high demand today. Doctors, specialists, hospitals, chiropractors and many more use outside sources to transcribe their files. Lawyers also require this type of assistance in legal transcription.

Document formatting, data input, correspondence, and report writing: Work can be typed and sent via email, file sharing, fax, Skype—you name it. Keeping up with social networking, answering phone calls, managing email messages, and customer relations are more services that can be handled from a home office.

Event Management: Organizing conferences or workshops from beginning to end,is just another thing that can be done from a home office

Writing effective resumes: Resumes that get the attention of potential employers is a skill that is very useful, especially in the job markets of today. With downsizing, layoffs and business closures, landing that new job for many is so very important. On the employer side, a virtual assistant can set up screening of resumes from their home office.

Researching information: Research can be a task that few can spare the time for. With the amount of information available on the Internet, finding pertinent articles and company information can be very time consuming. There are home-based administrative assistants who enjoy this type of work and have developed methods of finding useful information effectively.


Article Marketing: Submitting how-to and informational articles on the Internet is fast becoming a great marketing tool. Articles are included in ezines and newsletters are often picked up by online news outlets.

For more information on partnering with a Virtual Assistant visit Another8hours.com and VirtualWordPublishing.com where you can also get a free informational PR package.

Kelly Poelker of Another8Hours, http://www.another8hours.com and Diana Ennen of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com are the co-authors of numerous books including Virtual Assistant – The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA, and its accompanying Workbook. For complete information on starting your own VA business or if you need a virtual assistant visit http://www.va-theseries.com. Article is free to be reprinted as long as the author’s bio remains intact.

Black Friday Specials

We have some major Black Friday specials going on at Virtual Word Publishing, www.virtualwordpublishing.com

Get 4 hours of article or press release distribution - Black Friday Special - $100.00

(Regularly $65.00/hr.)

Let us write your press release, regularly $250.00 - Black Friday Special $200.00 (Plus submission to the top 5 free sites.)

PR or Virtual Assistant Coaching - Regularly $75.00/hr - Black Friday Special - $50.00/hr.

Copy of So You Want to be a Work at Home Mom: The Christian's Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business by Jill Hart and Diana Ennen - Regularly $15.99 - Black Friday Special -- $13.00 plus free S&H

Copy of Virtual Assistant the Series: Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA - Regularly $29.95 - Black Friday Special - $19.95.

Copy of Zip, Burp & Hula - Black Friday Special - $4.95 (plus 2.00 S&H)

Black Friday Special - 25% off any books in the Virtual Word Publishing bookstore - www.virtualwordpublishing.com

Email me for details -- diana@virtualwordpublishing.com

Thanks! Happy Thanksgiving

Diana Ennen / Virtual Word Publishing / www.virtualwordpublishing.com
Follow me on Twitter - www.twitter.com/dianaennen