bizsolutioncenter.net

For me, the most difficult part of writing ad copy has been to come up with great benefit statements. And, second to the headline, the benefits are what sell people on your product, service, idea or even political opinion.

Coming up with headlines, stories, price offers and all the fancy Buy Now! buttons you’d need to fill a sales page was easy for me in comparison. What drove me nuts was coming up with a benefits list; that is until I discovered how to develop more than one benefit a minute.

You may recall from Sales 101 that benefits are what sells your product or service, not features. Understanding that, I wanted to understand what exactly benefits really are. They’re action items, right? As an example, you “build” muscles or “create” more time. So, what do you think about starting out each benefit statement with a verb that takes action? This is the process to take:

1.  Alphabetize a long list of action verbs.

2.  Put the list on your desk or computer screen where you can see the entire list
.
3.  Make up a sentence describing your product or service using each verb on the list.

”Accelerate” is the first word on my list of verbs, for example.

Then, my descriptive sentence might be that my service helps “accelerate” the time it takes to learn to read Spanish.

4.  Write as many benefits as you can and don’t stop! You’ll weed out the benefits later that don’t have as much punch as you thought. You don’t need to stop to think if you are writing duplicate phrases down either, now is not the time. Just let your brain consider your product and freely create the benefits as they come to you.

5.  Prioritize your list with the most important benefit statements first and the least important last.

This process has worked for me to write great benefits statements, as well as when coming up with article ideas for my blog, such as “35 Reasons Why a Blog is Better than a Traditional Web Site for Your Business,” or “50 Ways to Kill a Perfectly Good Seminar”.

Use my list of verbs or create your own and start creating your killer benefit statements in just 20 minutes. In most cases, a good list of 20 benefits is all you will need for your sales page.

Marty Dickinson is an entrepreneur and the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for 15 years.  He specializes in Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors.  Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

If you write a blog and want to expand your audience, or a business that needs more customers (who doesn’t want that?) you need to create videos for your business and get them online for your customers to see!

Your competition is taking customers from you that have no idea you exist if they are uploading video and you are not. If they aren’t producing video for YouTube or their own sites then you need to make sure you get those customers they are missing.

Compete.com shows YouTube as having 85 million unique visitors July 2009! Just imagine what it could do for your site if you happened to create a viral video that got 100,000 views… 200,000 views…. 1 million views! A certain percentage of those people would visit your site and a percentage of those would sign up for your newsletter or buy something from you.

If I did the math correctly; a one million view video with just 3% of those viewers going to your site means 30 thousand visits! If only 3% were to opt in or buy your product that’s 900 sales or opt ins! Sound good to you?

I know it’s very difficult to get a video with 1 million views, but take a look at YouTube and see what videos are that popular. Why are they so popular? What is so good about them? It’s not because of the professional quality of the video or because they spent a bunch of money to make.

These videos are crazy popular because they are extremely funny, or cool, or amazing for some reason. The videos can be planned or spontaneous, but they are NOT selling something, they are NOT outwardly trying to get customers or build their mailing list. If you want to create a viral video you cannot be selling in the video, let the video sell for you!

In door-to-door sales years ago we had a saying that you should “sell the sizzle, not the steak”. What does this mean to you? If I’m selling plant food for gardeners, do I tell them how wonderful the fertilizer is and how many nutrients are in it? NO! I don’t want to sell the customer on the fertilizer, I sell them on the end result my product gives them: BIG tomatoes, and that’s the sizzle!

Give the viewer something in your videos for free. We are a camera repair shop and can’t make videos about how to repair every camera, but your customers are looking for something regarding your business, so find out what it is and give it to them!

Teach them something, give them information they are looking for, entertain them. Become an authority on your topic, and they will love you and gladly tell others about you.

No need to spend thousands on professional video production, but they must be easy to watch and understand.

• You don’t have to have an HD quality camcorder, but make sure that it is good quality and you have plenty of light!
• Make sure to have a good quality microphone. If your audio is awful then nobody is going to stick around and watch.
• Use a solid backdrop, don’t show your cluttered basement or office or bedroom unless this is part of your presentation
• Write a script or at least notes regarding what you want to say
• Practice and view your results before publishing it. Ask others for opinions and feedback!
• Everyone hates the sound of their own voice; but that is how we hear you so don’t worry, you sound fine.

Just go for it, things will get better as you go!

Now I’m off to try and figure out what my customers are looking for regarding camera repair or more specifially, Canon digital camera repair and then just give it to them.

It is next to impossible for a business, speaker or author to operate at their full potential without using Internet marketing strategies as part of their overall plan.  But the fact of the matter is, most people may use the Internet to find the products and services they need, but have no idea how to use it for their own profitability. 

Like many others, you may find the Internet overwhelming and have little concept where you should start in the whole process. 

Whether you are an author, speaker, or small business owner, the steps you will take to be successful on the Internet are the same, and have changed little over the past 15 years!  Where most people feel confused is that most of the resources educating you on a particular strategy in the Internet marketing process spend no time at all explaining how that particular strategy fits into the rest of the process. 

Try to avoid getting hung up on any particular strategy until you fully understand your P.T.A., which is the foundation for success on the Internet:

P:  Plug-In

Discover and “plug-in” to where you currently fit into the Internet marketing process.  Is this your first experience with Internet marketing?  Or perhaps you have some practical experience, but don’t know how to fit it all together?  Identify where you are, then plug-in to the tools and resources available to you to meet your particular needs. 

T: Team-Up

The next step is key to success for speakers, authors, and small business owners to succeed, and that is to find a team that will help you implement the process.  The success of your business relies on you being out doing your thing, not sitting at a computer trying to learn everything there is to know about Internet marketing (unless you are, actually an Internet marketer by trade).  And finding an inexpensive designer to throw together a website won’t go far in getting you ready to be successful on the Internet. 

What you are looking for in outsourced help is someone (or a group of someones) who are interested and sensitive to your unique business and concerns, and who has a wide range of expertise in Internet marketing.  Your goal should be to form a dedicated team that will work with you as your business grows that can help you will all aspects of Internet marketing planning and strategies. 

A:  Accelerate

Just having a website without a full knowledge of the Internet marketing process will result in never being able to fully realize the last step by accelerating your strategies to success.  Knowing a little of this or a little of that is useless unless you know the process and where you are in it, and have a team of resources available to help you implement it.  Once you have done that, your business success from the Internet will start to fly. 

Marty Dickinson is an entrepreneur and the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for 15 years.  He specializes in Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors.  Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

There are very few authors, speakers, or businesses that can be successful without using the Internet as part of their marketing plan.  But the fact of the matter is, most people may use the Internet to find the products and services they need, but have no idea how to use it for their own profitability. 

You may share the confusion of others as to how Internet marketing strategies can work for you and where to begin. 

The process for Internet marketing success is almost exactly the same for every business, author or speaker, and hasn’t changed in almost 15 years!  Where most people feel confused is that most of the resources educating you on a particular strategy in the Internet marketing process spend no time at all explaining how that particular strategy fits into the rest of the process. 

Avoid getting caught up on an individual strategy or tactic until you have identified your P.T.A., the basic steps you need to find success on the Internet:

P:  Plug-In

Discover and “plug-in” to where you currently fit into the Internet marketing process.  Are you a novice to the Internet?  Or maybe you have some experience, but haven’t pulled it all together yet?  Pinpoint where you fit into the process, then plug in to the resources and tools that you need for your specific situation. 

T: Team-Up

Probably the most critical to a small business owner, speaker or author, is t o find a team that can help make the Internet Marketing process happen.  The success of your business relies on you being out doing your thing, not sitting at a computer trying to learn everything there is to know about Internet marketing (unless you are, actually an Internet marketer by trade).  And finding an inexpensive designer to throw together a website won’t go far in getting you ready to be successful on the Internet. 

Your aim is to find outsourced help that takes time to learn about your situation and needs, as well as demonstrates a high level of knowledge of all areas of Internet marketing.  Since your business is always changing, you will benefit from forming a dedicated team now that will grow with you over the years and has the technical expertise to plan your business strategies for now and into the future. 

A:  Accelerate

A website alone, without analyzing where you fit into the process will result in not fully realizing the last step of accelerating your success.  Learning a few strategies or techniques will only cause to confuse you until you have plugged into where you are in the overall process, and found resources and team members able to lead you to success.  Once you have done that, your business success from the Internet will start to fly. 

Marty Dickinson is an entrepreneur and the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for 15 years.  He specializes in Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors.  Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.

It is next to impossible for a business, speaker or author to operate at their full potential without using Internet marketing strategies as part of their overall plan.  However, while most folks use the Internet for their personal needs, many have little idea how they can become more profitable using it for their products or services. 

Like many others, you may find the Internet overwhelming and have little concept where you should start in the whole process. 

Whether you are an author, speaker, or small business owner, the steps you will take to be successful on the Internet are the same, and have changed little over the past 15 years!  The problem is that most educational resources on Internet marketing tell you a piece of the process without identifying where on the timeline it falls or how it fits into the rest of the process. 

Try to avoid getting hung up on any particular strategy until you fully understand your P.T.A., which is the foundation for success on the Internet:

P:  Plug-In

Discover and “plug-in” to where you currently fit into the Internet marketing process.  Are you a complete beginner?  Or perhaps you have some practical experience, but don’t know how to fit it all together?  Identify where you are, then plug-in to the tools and resources available to you to meet your particular needs. 

T: Team-Up

The next and most important step for any small business owner, author or speaker is to team up with those that can help implement the process.  Unless you are making a living as a full blown Internet marketer, your principal business belongs out in the field doing your thing, not in front of the computer trying to figure it all out.  And most people’s strategy of hiring a random website designer from Craigslist or oversees just because they don’t cost much rarely works. 

Your aim is to find outsourced help that takes time to learn about your situation and needs, as well as demonstrates a high level of knowledge of all areas of Internet marketing.  You need to start now to form a devoted team that will be at your side for years to come to help you with technical challenges and smart, calculated Internet marketing planning for your business or service. 

A:  Accelerate

Just having a website without a full knowledge of the Internet marketing process will result in never being able to fully realize the last step by accelerating your strategies to success.  Learning a few strategies or techniques will only cause to confuse you until you have plugged into where you are in the overall process, and found resources and team members able to lead you to success.  Once you have done that, your business success from the Internet will start to fly. 

Marty Dickinson is an entrepreneur and the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for 15 years.  He specializes in Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors.  Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.