You need more customers, yet the traditional avenues you’ve been using just aren’t delivering as many as you’d like.

Another option, submitting press releases, also works to some degree, but the press release sites that bring the best results can be rather expensive. And for most people, even press releases generally just bring in a few leads at a time, unless you hit the jackpot and get covered in the national media.

Obviously, an occasional lead here and there isn’t enough to create a thriving business. You need lots of leads, and targeted leads at that. And you need them fast. But how can you get them?

One way to get leads quickly is paid advertising. However, unless you have plenty of experience and really deep pockets, experimenting with pay-per-click advertising can leave you broke faster than you can say, “Bless my heart!”

But fear not. There are plenty of out-of-the-box ways to connect with potential customers. As you look at the list of possibilities in this report, from online forums to social media to blogs to bookstores and even in-person events, you may think that you’re doing most of those things already.

But read it anyway! You might be very surprised. Sure, you may already be blogging and using social media. You may already be visiting bookstores and attending in-person events.  You’ve also likely visited forums and may have even attempted some kind of forum advertising. Yet, no matter what you’ve done, you’re sure to discover a number of new ways to use those familiar avenues and get much improved results.

So dig in, pick out your favorites, apply them, and watch your business grow.

Unusual Places to Find Customers is available for VIP, Gold and Platinum Members. Log-in to your account now to access this new special report on the Special Report page.

Not a member yet? Visit Join Us! and you can sign up and get right in.

Want to see everything that’s inside this site? Visit What’s Inside for Members to learn more.

Members-Only Benefits — Not yet a member? Join us here.

You can always navigate to What’s Inside for Members to find out what’s new inside the Circle.

OPEN OFFICE HOURS: Be sure to schedule your complimentary half hour with me, Marty, during my Open Office Hours on February 16th. (Remember, the FREE.) If the slots are all taken for February (and they were going fast last I checked) check availability for the next month or the next. Learn more about that here: Private Coaching with Marty

MEET RHONDA McNETT…

First up, I want to introduce you to a new Contributor to your Inner Success Circle —

Rhonda McNett is not only a great friend (and client) of mine but she is amazing when it comes to helping people organize their lives and take control of their time.

In the Personal Development section of the site you’ll find a brand new report that Rhonda has written for you called “Putting Paper In Its Place.” It is a wonderful step-by-step guide for finally controlling the paper in your life. Most of us suffer from paper-overload and Rhonda tells you how to fix that. (Thank you, Rhonda.)

If you’d like to learn more about Rhonda, you can visit her on the web at SoSbyRhonda.com. You’ll be hearing a lot more from Rhonda here at ISC on a regular basis as she’s agreed to contribute some great stuff over the course of the next year.

Here’s the skinny on Putting Paper In Its Place – Who’s the boss of all the paper on your desk, in your office? Are you overwhelmed by it? Has it taken over your space and your peace of mind? This report will show you how to take control of your work space; where to start; how to proceed, and discover that calm and clarity are right around the corner. Check out the Personal Development section inside the Circle.

GOT SOMETHING YOU’D LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE YOURSELF?

If you’d like to become a contributor yourself, I’d be delighted to talk with you about that to see what you can offer our members here. (Hint: It’s a great way to get additional exposure for your great stuff.) Email me and tell me what you’ve got in mind.

Gathering Call on February 10th – Our monthly chatfest is coming up next week, so get the details and mark your calendars now. Check out the MartyLive! page inside the Circle.

Did you get your copy of the 2011 Planning Guide: How to Have Your Best Business Year Yet? It is also available inside the Circle in the Marketing That Works! section along with a replay of the teleclass I did a couple of weeks ago. Even if you don’t listen to the recording you’ll benefit from the Guidebook.

Here’s what Barbara Ling of www.IndianaTeamVirtual.com had to say about it:

“I was not able to make your class, but I did download your Guidebook and I LOVE it!  You are so creative and I love the fact that you share this kind of information!”

If you’ve got a marketing question you’d like answered, go over to AskMarty! at www.askmartymarsh.com and post it there. I’ll answer you personally by email and if your question is one that will help others, I’ll post it at the site.

Also, remember to check out the Ste-By-Step Guide to Setting Up and Managing Facebook Pages which you’ll find in the How-To section.

There’s more to come so stay tuned. When I get back from Mexico I’ll be announcing new stuff and a new teleclass. I’ve been working on a new ebook and it is almost ready to go. You’ll be among the first to know. It’s all about how to get people to want to open your emails and what I share may surprise you.

I hope you’re as excited about the possibilities for your business as I am for mine. I’m just thrilled to have you along with me for the ride and to have you as part of my community.

All the best,

Marty

P.S. I want to say a public thank you to Tom Armstrong who helped me troubleshoot a number of problem areas with the site late last week. If you had any problems, Tom probably had the same ones, and you should find that things work a lot better here now. Technology and gremlins. Fun, fun, fun.

If you find any problems, or have difficulty with anything, we really want to fix it, so please let us know if you encounter something. Best way to report a problem (or get help if you need it) is via the HelpDesk.

And the winner of the 3G+WiFi Kindle
in my birthday giveaway is…

Kristen Schwartz of Faery Medicine

Congratulations Kristen!

After reading so many real estate listings and the creative language that real estate agents use to describe properties – sometimes you’d wonder if they were describing the same property you were looking at – I was once again reminded how much words matter.

In the age of the internet our words are often the only connection we have with people who might one day do business with us. So choosing just the rights words to present your story online is a pretty important task.

Unfortunately, many folks don’t give much thought to the words they use, and consequently, lose a lot of sales that they might have gotten had they been more judicious in their choices. (And don’t even get me started on spelling errors!)

And thinking about how important words are, I was reminded of a newsletter article I wrote more than a year ago just after I had returned from a cruise to Alaska.

In that article I recounted how colorful the language was that described the various items on the dinner menu each evening. Descriptions that would make your mouth water just reading them. Descriptions that would have you a bit giddy in anticipation of the culinary delights promised. Those words mattered, and I included some of the selection descriptions so readers would know what I was talking about.

(You can read that article here if you like.)

I thought in writing about that that I was offering an interesting marketing lesson as well as sharing a bit about my life.

And that’s when I got my first F*** You letter from a reader.

And I quote:

“I am so damn tired of hearing about your f***ing vacation like so many other self made sales associates. Can you please quit rubbing it in? I don’t get a vacation and haven’t for a very long time. Can you please just get on with it and give me something of substance to assist me in becoming a better business owner?”

Well, I thought that’s exactly what I was doing… giving some assistance about better marketing, but that’s not how this reader saw it. He saw his own limitations magnified by me enjoying my own success.

I will tell you that that letter threw me for a loop and upset me so much that it was quite a long time before I ever shared anything about my personal life again for fear that others felt the same way.

All I could think about was that one awful letter, totally forgetting about the many I got telling me how much they appreciated the marketing lesson AND learning more about what goes on in my traveling life.

I’m not sure what that guy did for a living, whether he was self-employed or not. I suspect he was working a J-O-B at the time he wrote me, but his response to me is so illustrative of the many conversations I have with people who are self-employed in a business that appears to be going nowhere.

And what I discover almost 100% of the time is that these people are not doing any marketing at all. None! Not even an ezine and an ezine is the easiest form of marketing one can do. (And they wonder why their business is failing.)

People ask me, “how much time should I be spending marketing my business?” And I always ask, “how many clients do you have?”

“Well, none,” they sheepishly reply. And I always say, “then you should be marketing your business all the time.”

“All the time?”

“Yes,” I say, “you should be marketing 100% of the hours you are working until you have clients to serve. Then, keep marketing with any time you have left.”

And that’s precisely what they don’t want to hear. I’m still amazed that some folks still believe that clients will magically show up at their door just because they’ve started a business.

Most folks tell me they don’t know how to market. And I say fooey on that. There is no shortage of marketing how-to information on the internet. There is no reason for marketing ignorance in the 21st Century.

You can find a wealth of marketing information right here at my Inner Success Circle site. There are special reports, how-to programs, and step-by-step guides covering a wide variety of marketing topics with more being added every week.

I’m going to extend my birthday sale until the end of this week, Friday, January 28th, 2011 until midnight Eastern time so that you can get a full year — yes, a FULL YEAR — of Gold Member access for a one-time charge of just $19.95. What you’ll find as a Gold Member is much, much more valuable than that, but this is my way of celebrating my birthday with you. After Friday, the price goes back up to $27 PER MONTH. So get in now while the getting’ in is cheap.

You can learn about all the benefits of being a Gold Member here.

So after you’ve joined the Inner Success Circle and learned a thing or two about marketing, get yourself into action. Start doing something to market your business. Publish an ezine. Go to a networking event. Call some prospects. Get up an hour earlier and get a plan together.

Speaking of plans… You can get access to the recording and guidebook for the “How to Have Your Best Business Year Yet” marketing planning teleclass that I presented last week by clicking here.

That doesn’t cost you a thing. So there is no excuse left for not marketing your business.

Now, send me an email or comment below and tell me how you’re planning to have your best business year yet.

Let’s all thumb our noses at those who say things are too bad to succeed and get out there and prove them wrong.

My favorite magazine is Woman’s World. There. I’ve said it out loud for all the world to hear.

There are many things I like about this magazine – I just skip all the girlie parts that don’t apply to me – and go straight for the recipes and other goodies they have each week.

One of my favorite sections is a new feature they started sometime late last year called “Old-Fashioned TV Wisdom” where they share some wise words gleaned from old TV shows. Many of them shows that younger folks might not even be aware existed.

One of these tidbits of wisdom appeared a couple of weeks ago and was from the old Cosby Show.

One of the daughters, Vanessa, was talking to her little sister Rudy:

Vanessa: Rudy, what would you do in life if you only had a fourth-grade education?

Rudy: Teach third grade.

And when I read that, I realized that there is a wealth of wisdom in Rudy’s three little words.

So many of you, I know, let fear get in the way of sharing your gifts to the world. (Me included!)

Fear that you don’t yet know enough.

Fear that someone will think you’re a fraud.

Fear that you really have nothing to give.

Fear that people already know what you know and don’t need you.

Even without knowing you personally I know that those fears are groundless.

And you do remember what FEAR stands for don’t you? False Evidence Appearing Real.

I get paralyzed with fear all the time for the same reasons that you do. But I’ve also come along far enough – and have enough people around me that believe in me – that I can usually press through that fear and get something done.

It is not always easy to do.

The point that Rudy was making – and this is the lesson for us all – is that even if you know just a little bit more than those you are teaching, you can still make a huge difference in their lives.

I know way too many coaches out there who are nearly starving because they think their own lives must be perfect before they can help anyone else. Nothing could be further from the truth. If we all waited until we were perfect or circumstances were perfect to start anything, nothing would get done.

If you’re still in the mode of learning more, or buying just one more program, and always preparing but never “doing,” then I invite you to choose just one thing that you know you are capable of helping other people with and then help someone.

Once you get started, once you start enjoying successes – even all the little ones – you’ll be able to keep going and do more and more and more.

So, how about you? What is it that you’re not doing out of fear that you’re not yet quite good enough?

Please share any comments below or if you feel the need to make any confessions you are welcome to do so here.

If you’ve been watching the news lately you may have bought into the idea that all is doom and gloom and that the end of the world as we know it is nigh, that business is bad and that no one has any money and that small business is doomed to failure and… well, you get the picture.

Listen to too much of that and you’ll find yourself cowering under the bed covers not wanting to so much as to put your head out, let alone get out there and try to sell something.

But that’s the answer right there.

Get out there and sell something.

And if enough of us do that, it won’t be long before this economy is looking better than ever. (Especially your own personal economy.)

I was having dinner with some friends the other night and one of them is self-employed and struggling. His take on things is that nobody has any money and nobody is buying anything.**

And to that, I say, “BULL!”

Everywhere I travel, the restaurants are full – even on Tuesday nights – the malls are full (and not just at Christmas) and people are vacationing and having a grand time.

So SOMEBODY has money somewhere. And they are spending it.

They are finding the money to spend on the things they want. Just as they have always done. And will continue to do so.

But will they buy from ME you ask? Will they buy what I’M selling?

And that, of course, is the $64,000 question:

Would YOU buy what you’re selling? And would you buy it from you?

Because if you wouldn’t buy what you’re selling, then I doubt anyone else will want to, either.

If your answer is “no” then it’s time to re-evaluate what you’re doing.

But if you can answer with an enthusiastic “yes” then you need to ramp up your marketing now and start selling more of it.

Our economy is depending on YOU!

**That self-employed friend of mine is, coincidentally, not doing any marketing. None. Do you think there’s a clue for him there? And you, maybe? Now is not the time to stop marketing, now is the time to ramp it up. Put yourself out there. Let the world know you are available to solve its problems and they will line up to get your help.

So how about you? Would you buy what you’re selling from YOU?

To celebrate Marty’s birthday on January 25th, we’ll be holding a drawing for a 3G+Wi-Fi Kindle eBook Reader (Amazon) from all the folks who are registered here including members of Good Company, Gold, and Platinum Levels. If you’re not a member yet, Join Now to be sure you get in on the drawing. No other obligation.

Drawing will be held at noon Eastern time on January 25th, so you must be registered by that time.

I’ve often said I’m not a procrastinator, I have just have way too much to do.

My head is always full of ideas and because I have the ability to create websites and cool graphics and fun things, I can just go off on a “toot and a tear” (as we say down south) trying this and that for every idea I have.

Now, while being able to do all of that stuff is great fun for me, it tends to mean that I start a lot of things that sound good at the time but that I don’t always see through to the end. I often say I’ve been successful in spite of myself.

Luckily, I’ve spent most of my life as a self-employed solo-preneur in a deadline driven business. Without those deadlines for clients I might not ever have gotten anything done. Oh, I exaggerate just a bit, but it’s mostly true. Deadlines have been my salvation all these many years.

It’s funny, too, that I’ve never had any problem meeting a deadline for a client, but make an appointment with myself or create a deadline for myself and those promises can easily go right out the window.

I break promises to myself all the time. (Maybe you break promises to yourself, too.) I promise myself I’m going to get something done and then either I get busy with a project for someone else or I just decide to do something else entirely instead that seems like more fun at the time.

That’s the way it WAS, until I got myself an accountability partner.

Ever since I got an accountability partner, I’ve been more productive than I’ve ever been in my life.

So you may be wondering what an accountability partner is. Well, it’s just what it sounds like. An accountability partner is another person (or a group of people) who have agreed to hold you accountable for doing whatever you say you’ll do WHEN you say you’ll do it.

An accountability partner is like your mother only nicer.

My accountability partner and I hold each other accountable to the promises we make. It’s a two-way street and is mutually beneficial for us both. We meet once a week on the phone, run down what we promise to do, when we’re going to do it, and then agree to check in by a certain time. If we haven’t checked in, then my partner gives me a gentle nudge.

But you know what? I am so committed to my partner that I’d be totally embarrassed if I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. Of course, the truth is I’m totally committed to my work, too, but having my accountability partner provides that little extra motivation I need to get more things done.

You might find that having an accountability partner will help YOU get lots of stuff done, too. I don’t recommend having a spouse, or a good friend or someone who knows you really, really well to be your accountability partner. Those people generally let how much they love us get in the way of pushing us too hard.

The best thing is to find a business associate or someone out of your immediate circle who will hold you accountable. The whole point here is to get more stuff done. Or at least get done the stuff that really matters.

So here’s what I’m going to do to help you:

There’s a brand new special report for members of my new Inner Success Circle site called Accountability Partners: The Why’s and How’s of Creating Your Own Support System to Stay on Track for Success. This special report is intended to familiarize you with the ins and outs of creating and leveraging accountability partnerships specifically for your business. You’ll get an overview of the benefits of having accountability partners, where to find potential partners, how to set up the relationship, and more.

Now, normally I would make this sort of content available only to folks who have paid for a membership at the site, but because I’ve benefited so much from having an accountability partner I want you to experience the same thing AND I want you to experience the great things happening at the Inner Success Circle. So I want you to have this new special report simply for registering at the site as a Good Company member. It won’t cost you a thing.

So not only will you get THIS report but you’ll also get some other cool goodies we have waiting for you there as a Good Company member, all at no charge: another couple of our special reports and a full-blown Marketing That Works! program along with some other motivational items. It’s a good sampling of what we are offering members at the Inner Success Circle and I want you to get a taste of the things to come.

But hurry, because I’m only going to make this extra special report available to Good Company members for a short time. In a couple of weeks it’s going back into the vault for paid members only.

THEN, if you’re interested in finding an accountability partner and you’d like to be a partner to someone else, then you can list yourself by following the instructions found here.

This is where the real value of a membership community like Inner Success Circle comes into play; when we can interact with each other to create mutually beneficial relationships of all kinds.

So if you haven’t signed up already, complete the mini-registration form here, choose a username and password and in a few seconds you’ll have access to this report and the other good stuff.

If you’ve already registered at the site at any level, just use your username and password to get access to this report, too.

Oh, I’ve saved the best part for last. On my birthday, coming up on January 25th, I’m going to draw a name from all the folks who have registered at Inner Success Circle between now and then and give that lucky person a new Kindle eBook Reader. One of the good ones that has both 3G and Wi-Fi capability. I love my own Kindle and if you’re the winner, I know you’ll love yours.

And if you already have a Kindle, or if Santa brings you one for Christmas, I’ll give you a gift card of equal value that you can use for anything you like at Amazon.

So go on over to this page, get registered for free, or sign-in to your existing account and get the stuff. I think you’ll be really surprised at how much you can actually accomplish with a good accountability partner. Plus, you just might win that Kindle.

Our inkjet printer recently entered its “terrible two’s” and got so ornery and temperamental that we finally just had to get rid of it, if for no other reason than to calm down all the swearing coming from both sides of this small living space.

It is just so nice when you aren’t having to fight the tools that are so vital to keeping us in business. (And the swearing has stopped, too.)

When it finishes printing a job, it gives this happy little chirp to let you know it is done. And Bill remarked this morning, after a print job was complete, “It’s so nice the way that printer sings a little song of celebration whenever it finishes something.”

Hearing this mindless machine singing a happy tune whenever it completes a task got me to thinking about how most of us humans rarely celebrate anything we accomplish. We check a task off our list and just go right on with the next item on our list, never stopping to give ourselves a little pat on the back for getting something done.

Back a few years ago when I was teaching a series of marketing classes for the Law of Attraction Training Center, someone showed up to class one day with one of those Easy buttons that you can buy at Staples. (The same one they use in all their advertising promotions.)

After we completed an exercise together, she hit that Easy button and we all heard it say “that was easy!” We had a good laugh about it and then realized how good that made us feel.

So we all bought Easy buttons from Staples and brought them to each class, and whenever we successfully completed something together, or when we were celebrating a success by one of the participants, we all hit our Easy buttons simultaneously which made a joyful noise and acknowledged a job well-done.

Today is Friday, and likely you’ve had a pretty good week getting a lot done in your business. You may have gotten some new marketing strategies in place, you may have stuck with a writing project even though finding the right words was a challenge, or you may have satisfied one of your clients with your extraordinary service.

But did you celebrate any of those small victories? (Maybe large victories?) Or did you just go to the next thing and now you’re just looking forward to the weekend so you can just put it all behind you for a couple of days?

I invite you – before this Friday is over – to look back over this past week and be like my new printer and celebrate everything you’ve accomplished right down to the smallest task. Do a happy dance. Sing a song, go get an Easy button and pound it a few times. Eat some chocolate. (I won’t tell anybody.)

In fact, today might be a great day to start a new habit: a Friday review. Take 10 minutes or so before you leave your office and reflect back on the week just passed. You can write things down or not, as you choose.

It may seem silly, but I like to write it all down on one of the diary pages in my planner, and then put a little gold star sticker at the top of the page. (I know; I’m just a big kid at heart.) It’s my own little “atta boy.”

While you’re doing that review, you might also want to stick around a little longer and look ahead to next week. Plan out everything you want to accomplish during the coming next week. It’s great fun to keep score andto see what you’ve actually done when the week is over.

The benefit of all of this: being more productive.

Try it. It’s fun!

And profitable in the long run.

If you do a Friday Review, I’d love to hear about it. You can share your thoughts about it below.

Today I want to chat with you about something that you might not have really considered before. And that is that every contact you make in your business is marketing.

From the name of your business to the way you answer the phone, to the look of your business card, to the conversation you have in line at the grocery store, to your packaging, to your advertising, to the way you deal with email, to the way you handle problems and complaints. And on and on.

Every contact you make is marketing.

This idea was driven home for me recently with an experience I had with the folks at Sitepoint.com. I had ordered one of their more expensive products which did not arrive when I expected it. I waited and waited and finally, after much digging, found out that the product was not scheduled to ship for at least 3 months. By that time, my immediate need for the product would have passed. (It was already passing fast.)

So I contacted them and asked to cancel the order and to get a refund. I also mentioned that the long shipping time was unacceptable because I had needed the product for a project I was currently working on.

The response I got was amazing.

The person who handled my request wrote to tell me that they were sorry that the product would take so long to ship, and that they could not control that, but they were most apologetic because they had failed to communicate with me about it immediately, and that was something they could control, and that they had failed. So not only did they refund what I had paid, but they went one step further and also loaded me up with products that I didn’t have to pay for.

They wanted to keep me as a customer and went out of their way to do so. I like their products very much so you can be assured that I’ll be buying more things from them in the future.

Now you may think, well, that’s just a good refund policy. Yes, but that’s also great marketing. (I’m telling you about it aren’t I?)

So this got me to really thinking about various aspects of my own business and looking for ways that I could improve my marketing:

• My outgoing phone message – pretty good, I think, because callers find out what they need to know and they get reminded to visit my website.
• Response to email messages – not responding fast enough so I’ve made it a policy to set aside time each day to respond to messages.
• Websites – page by page audit reveals missing links or non-working links, lack of clarity and so on. (I’ve got lots of work to do to bring my sites up to par.)
• Email Marketing – no real consistency, need to update my marketing calendar.
• Networking Opportunities – Since I travel, my opportunity for live networking events is limited, but I could certainly be doing more in the online social media world. Need to be more consistent about thanking people who follow me and then follow them back.
• Being prepared – Although I preach that you should always have business cards with you, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been out without mine and was very embarrassed to tell someone who was interested in my business that I didn’t have a card on me. (It just happened to me again, two nights ago. Dang!)

I could go on and on but I think you get the picture. There are many areas where I can improve my marketing. I need to especially keep top of mind that EVERY contact with the public is some form of marketing.

So, how about you? Are there areas of your business that you’ve not thought about being “marketing” before? If so, how can you improve in those areas? Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back where you’re doing well.

Take care and have a great day.