What an incredible month May has been. Every indication is that June will be just as amazing. Personally and professionally life is grand.

Over the Memorial Day weekend I had a wonderful visit with my folks in Citrus Heights, California. Losing at cards was not so wonderful, but hanging out with my mom and dad was. While there I visited with several of my nieces and nephews and my grand nieces and nephews. What I love most about being a Grand Aunt is the kids think I am grand. But of course, so are they!

Last month I mentioned I received a new bicycle for my 53^rd birthday. Since that time I have taken full advantage of riding whenever possible. Not only am I enjoying a great stress reducer, I am finding my jeans getting a bit loose. What a great added benefit!

An even greater benefit is the youthful feeling I get. Riding is great for mind, body and soul. Actually, any exercise is good. It seems to put life into perspective.

Speaking of perspective, some time ago I told you about my 16-year-old cat having a few health struggles. Although it seemed like he was on the mend, age and thyroid cancer got the best of him and he went on to kitty heaven. Making the decision to let him go became easier when I knew he would be out of any pain.  I believe our critters depend on us to make the best choice for them. It’s not always an easy choice and yet, it is a loving choice.

Over the last few months I have offered my Four Week Fast Track Street Smarts Marketing Mentoring Course. In that time I have had hundreds of people graduate from the program. I love hearing about the successes from so many of those who were in the course. Some have written their first book, many are gaining incredible visibility in their markets because of their new online marketing strategies, others are selling thousands of dollars worth of products back of the room at events and still others are doing joint venture partner campaigns for the first time ever.

If you would like to experience similar results I would love for you to join me for my next course beginning on Monday, June 4^th. Against the recommendation of some of my colleagues who also teach Internet Marketing, I decided to once again offer the course at an incredibly low price. All of them think I am way undercharging. They’re right, I am! Some even said I was crazy! They’re right, I am! Catch me at my crazy best and join in while the price is so low.

The next time I offer this course I guarantee the price is going up. If you are thinking of joining in, now is the time to do so. I have a few seats left. To learn more and register go to www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/fasttrackspecial2.htm

I am very excited to be offering a live event in July. If you live in or near the Eugene area (or will be here on July 10^th) I would love for you to join me for Secrets to Gain More Leads, Better Prospects and Close More Sales. This is guaranteed to be an incredibly content filled three-hour training on both online and offline marketing strategies. We just announced the event today and already seats are being reserved.

To learn more and register go to www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/market.htm

Have a great month. And remember to live with passion!

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketing Speaker and Author

The Truth about Generating Leads from Your Website
By Kathleen Gage

Although there are many savvy Internet marketers and companies who are fully aware of how to best utilize the power of the Internet in the overall marketing, even more have no clue at all as to how to best utilize the power of their website, the Internet and online marketing. The fact is, untold amounts of money are being thrown down the drain due to companies small and large not fully utilizing the power online marketing.

One of the easiest ways to gain value from online marketing is to build a database of solid leads. Unfortunately, far too many businesses have not put the kind of effort or resources into this aspect of their marketing and sales as they need to. With a good system in place to build your database you can actually lower the cost of doing business while increasing the lifetime value of your customers.

Generating leads happens in a variety of ways. With the Internet this includes, but is not limited to, gathering contact information from the people who visit your site, Joint Venture campaigns, affiliate programs, article distribution, pay-per-click and referrals. There is more, but you get the idea.

For the purpose of this article, let’s address people who visit your site. Here are some simple steps guaranteed to gain results:

• Develop a fully operational web site.

• Determine how you will capture contact information such as with a sign up form.

• Give people a reason for leaving their contact information such as an Ezine, free report or ebook, an article of interest to your target market.

• Develop a series of content driven messages that address your customers’ needs that are sent out to those who leave you their contact information. This is done with autorespond software programs.

• Keep your name in front of your market by sending the messages out consistently without being annoying. Depending on your market every other day can work, maybe once a week will work, bi-weekly or once a month may be better.  This is why you must know what your market will welcome and tolerate.

• Write articles that are pertinent to your market. Distribute the articles to various online resources

• Create a resource box at the end of the articles that contains your web address or some special offer with a link back to your site.

• Develop a list of forums and discussion groups you can participate in.

• Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

• Commit to the long-term.
  

Once you obtain a lead it is essential to keep in touch. This is yet another area many people seem to ignore. They get a lead, send out one follow-up message and expect people to immediately remember them or buy something from them. No, no, no! It doesn’t work that way.

Although you don’t want to be forgotten, you also don’t want to annoy people. It’s a constant balancing act between sending too much and not enough. Your goal should be to build trust, name recognition and credibility through a systematic approach to follow-up.

Most people would be amazed at how simple it is to build an incredibly profitable database by applying a few simple strategies. Remember, simple is not always easy. It takes time, commitment and focus. And systems!

In some cases, bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to your database. Depending on your industry and what you sell you may be well served to focus on the few dozen or few hundred who want to buy from you rather than thousands who don’t care about what you offer.

On the other hand, there will be situations where building a massive list is exactly what you need to do; especially if you have mass quantity products you are selling at a very low price. Then you may want and need to go for the numbers.

Maintain a company directive that you only send messages to people who have given you permission. If you send people commercial email messages without their expressed permission, you are spamming them.

When you have people’s permission to send them messages you are not spamming. To fully comply to Can Spam Laws you need to offer people the option to unsubscribe from your list anytime that they want to, and you must honor any remove requests that you receive. This is for bulk emailing you do, not for personal one-on-one emails.

By focusing on developing a solid database and providing incredible value to your market you can and will achieve success in your business. Guaranteed!

Kathleen Gage is a bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker and Internet Marketing advisor who works with individuals and organizations who want to increase their market position, sales and level of achievement. Access The Truth about Making Money on the Internet at  www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

To book Kathleen call 541.654.0426

Success formulas, 
tips and strategies addressing marketing & PR for:
Small and Home-based businesses, Retailers, Authors, Speakers, Consultants, Events Coordinators, and Non-profits