5 Easy and Effective Holiday Marketing Ideas for Your Business

It seems that, at least in the US, the holiday season starts earlier and earlier, with Christmas cards taking over most of the card section of any store right after Halloween (if not before!).

And while it bugs me to hear holiday music over the store speakers while I'm shopping for my daughter's Halloween costume (because by the time Santa does visit, I'm quite tired of dreaming of a "White Christmas"), as far as planning on how to market for and during the holiday season for my business, it's almost never too early.

As you may know, one of the mantras of Client Abundance is "Giver's Get," in the sense that you are giving from a place of having no expectation of getting anything in return.

What follows are 5 ways that you can give in your business, feel really good about it, and reap the rewards from the Universe.

1. Thank your clients and customers.

An obvious one to do around Thanksgiving is to show your gratitude to your current clients and customers for their business. But you might be surprised at how few business owners actually take the time to do this.

It could be something as simple as expressing your thanks in a short email. Or you could send a thank you card in the mail. Or you could take it a step further and do what I'm doing this year - sending a postcard expressing my gratitude with a link to a special - and fr*e - gift to my VIP clients and customers.

Taking the time to say thank you goes a long way towards deepening that all-important relationship with your current clients and customers. If you do nothing else this holiday season, at least do this.

(See this article for many more ideas of how to show appreciation to your clients and customers.)

2. Give your ezine list a gift.

Your 'pot of gold' in your business in your email list of potential clients and customers. You should always be treating them well, but at least once a year, offer them a gift - no stings attached - just because...

This year, I'll be offering my second annual 12 Days of Christmas series to my ezine subscribers (that's you!), where they will receive something of value that will benefit them in building their business once a day for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. This was a huge hit last year, and it was a blast for me to come up with something new each day.

You don't have to offer 12 gifts, however. Just one will do very nicely as well.

3. Give a holiday coupon.

As a gift to your list as well as to give you a boost in your income, why not offer a coupon towards one or more of your offerings. You could offer a 2-for-1 coaching session, or a 20% off discount for one of your ebooks or ecourses, or you could offer a special price for the month of December only on one of your programs.

4. Give your affiliates a gift.

Your affiliates are also one of your greatest assets in your business. Show your gratitude to the folks who have chosen to join your 'sales force' by increasing their commissions for the holiday season.

Ideally, your commission rate should be at least 25%. Why not reward them further for promoting your offerings by doubling their commissions to 50%?

5. Give yourself a gift.

And don't forget yourself! If you haven't already, hire a virtual assistant*** to help you now so you can enjoy more of your holidays. You'll be so glad you did and you'll never go back to being a lone ranger!

I'd like to invite you to choose at least two of these ways of giving in your business to implement this holiday season. And then let me know how it goes - email me directly at alicia@clientabundance.com.

© 2006 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.clientabundance.com/, and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.clientabundance.com/

What Makes Up YOUR Brand?

Your Two-Minute Brand Tip:
What Makes Up YOUR Brand?

Building a strong brand takes time. Even the most successful brands take years to develop…then refine…develop some more…and refine. So, what makes up a brand?

Here is your two-minute tip to building your brand.

• Explore and determine your core values and mission. What do you stand for in your business? Successful brands take a stand.
• Have a compelling story to tell. Why did you start your business? Some people start their business because they were seeking a better quality of life and health, so they found a business where they can enjoy optimum health and quality of life. Sharing your story helps make a connection with your ideal audience.
• Logo mark or word-mark. A logo is a graphic representation or symbol for a company name or product, often uniquely designed for immediate recognition. A word-mark is a logo created from type, such as FEDEX and Oprah.
• Clear, compelling tagline. Does every brand need a tagline? A tagline is useful to conveying what your brand is all about in a few words. The intention is to immediately connect and attract your ideal audience. A tagline is highly recommended, even if you are just personal branding yourself to apply to jobs.
• Build credibility and trust through consistent use of your visual and verbal brand messaging. This includes your colors, typography, images, logo, tagline, etc. Keeping these elements consistent through all of your brand communications is what helps build credibility, recognition, and makes your brand memorable.
• Communication style and reputation with your internal and external clients and vendors. Every interaction that you have online and offline contribute to your brand development. When building your brand, you always want to ensure that you are communicating in the way that you want your brand to be known.
• Build your professional biography and resume. An updated biography and resume is not just used for landing a job, it’s also utilized to attract clients and quality partners.

How does your brand compare?

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Article featured in the Hromada Brand Newsletter. Subscribe with Lisa Hromada at www.lisahromada.com and get a free e-book gift*

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Is your brand not up to par? We are about the change all that!
Rev-up for brand distinction beginning in 2010!

The Unearth Your Brand Excellence program is expected to arrive by the New Year. The Unearth Your Brand Excellence is a powerful preparatory course to building a brand foundation for your business to set you apart from competitors who seemingly offer the same products and services. In addition, the program is specifically designed to give you the tools to effectively communicate your unique brand promise. Are you ready for brand excellence?

Check out www.lisahromada.com for details coming soon

3 Keys to a Solid Brand For Your Business

Are you like many online business owners who are confused or stuck when it comes to creating a unique, memorable, and authentic brand? If so, you're not alone. I've been there myself, so I understand the frustration of feeling stuck on this whole branding thing.

But once I discovered that if I looked at it from a completely different perspective, that my brand wasn't just about my business, but about ME, everything shifted.

Creating your brand from the inside out allows you to fully step into your business identity in a truly authentic way. It's also the easiest way to stand out in the sea of others who do what you do.

So, if you're stuck, let me give you three things you must be clear on in order to create a truly compelling and unique business brand.

Strategy 1: What results do your clients experience from your service?

One of the exercises I do with my Platinum clients is have them generate a long list of the results their clients get from working with them.

You can easily do this right now. Just complete this sentence 30 times:

"The results my clients get from working with me are ___________________________."

If you get stuck, here's my secret: Send this question to your clients so they can tell you the kind of results you're helping them create!

For example, when I asked my own clients this question, here's some of what they shared:

"The results I get from working with Alicia are...

- clear, easy to follow instructions on strategic Internet marketing techniques

- insightful advice from a trusted mentor who understands my business

- generous knowledge and expertise, honest feedback and support, focus and direction

- more clarity on which steps to take to experience more alignment with my business/life purpose

- I now see the bigger picture and base my decisions on the 'whole' of my business, rather than just the next thing.

- stretching me in ways and areas that I could/would not do on my own.

- more clients, more money and more fun in working with my business.

- getting me out of my comfort zone so that I discover what is possible when I play a bigger game.

- more clarity and awareness around time sucking activities that I am engaging in so that I can STOP doing them.

Strategy 2: What are you an expert at? Once you have a solid and in-depth grasp of the value you bring to you clients and the results you help create with them, you should easily be able to define what it is you're an expert at.

Complete this sentence: "I'm an expert at________________________."

Strategy 3: What does your brand promise?

Let's take it one step further...

Your brand promise is a statement that is pretty specific. It's true regardless of the program, product or service you may offer. No matter what the program, product or service, it always fulfills your brand promise.

And just to be clear, I'm not talking about your marketing tagline. What I'm talking about goes much deeper than that, to the very core of what it is that you are so passionate about providing to others.

My brand promise is, "I passionately inspire women entrepreneurs to breakthroughs in their business so they create the life they ache for."

So, my Platinum programs, Online Business Breakthrough Brainery, 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System and Take Action Group, Coaching Cafe, and the rest of my offerings all fulfill this brand promise.

Here's one from one of my Online Business Breakthrough clients, Dale Carter at TransitionAgingParents.com:

"I provide trusted information and personal insight to inspire adult children to passionately pursue, for their aging parents, the quality of life their parents hunger for."

So everything that Dale offers to her specific market fulfills this overarching promise. Dale knows what she is an expert at and that shows up in her brand promise very clearly.

So, what does your brand promise? What is it that your clients can count on you for?

The formula for an effective, compelling, memorable, authentic, fun and fabulous brand is really very simple:

"I get X results for my clients, which makes me an expert at Y, which means they can count on me to provide Z."

Voila!

Alicia M Forest, MBA, 6-Figure Business Breakthrough Mentor, teaches self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create wild abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com