Category: Market Maker

I’m Thinking About Short Term Memberships

I’ve made several attempts to provide a product of value to the home staging industry.  I am about to embark on a third effort.  I will be spring boarding off a class I will be teaching as part of Allegra Diogurdi’s new course for Home Stagers, called Home Staging Training by Design.  Allegra is a Parson’s School of Design Graduate and long time home merchandiser.

She has asked me to teach one of nine segments of her course. I will focus on how to get more of the home stagers ideal customers to visit their web sites and suggest some strategies to get those that do to do something once they are there. IE.  Opt in to their lists.

For information on Allegra’s course go to: www.stagingtraingingbydesign.com.

The best skill I have to offer these home stagers is my knowledge of internet marketing.

Most of the home stagers have a limited, if any, hands on web site management skills.  While home staging is still relatively new,  some markets have significant numbers of home stagers vying for the top listing in their local markets.  The Home Stager who understands and acts on what I will teach should be able to eventually dominate their local markets – but it can take time.

It’s easy to list 20 things to do, it’s difficult to work ones way step by step through the process.  Especially when busy trying to build a home staging business.

That’s what I will do.  Break the steps into bite sized pieces and then feed it to them – one step every week,  or once every two weeks or every month, with separate prices for each option.

Everybody active gets free access to monthly 90 minute tele-seminar. 20-30 minutes on selected topic, 1 hour Q&A.  Go till all Q’s answered. During Q&A any topic from the lessons is game.  Invite Q’s in advance.

Upsell from course and tele-seminar is coaching.  On same schedule as their lessons.  $47 per half hour

I am planning on taking the material in my two ebooks, Why Most Small Business Web Sites Stink and my more recent one on How Main Street can climb to the Top of the Search Engines, and turning them into a specified term membership course.

Between the two eBooks I do a pretty good job of outlining the key functions of a web site stressing the need for an auto responder and list building. That covers what they are trying to accomplish online to market their home staging business.

The main street book deals with search engine ranking.  It’s easy at first to rank high in a town with no other home stager.  But as the recession has deepened, thousands of new people have entered the field.

Basic SEO tips on both on and off page factors will give even the hands off stager a better understanding of what’s important from a marketing perspective and how to get top listings, whether they do the work themselves or hire it out.

Part of my plan is to reuse the material in my two ebooks for the courses and still sell the combo package of both books for $9.97 or more. I have given the Main Street book  away to over 3000 people in the past 2 months and haven’t had a complaint yet.  I will retire it from the free realm and start selling them. Should I go to ClickBank? Maybe I can ask $17 and give Click Bankers 60%

I will email my list and ask for any testimonials I can get for one or both.  If you have enjoyed either, please let me know.

By chance I learned that the venerable Jimmy Brown will be broadcasting a VideoCast this Thursday that appears as if it might be right up my alley.  I know he does good stuff, so I am going to give it a good listening too.  It’s free and I can’t wait.

Free VideoCast Thursday.  http://cli.gs/vJv852 I will be discussing this new plan as it develops here and probably on my www.HomestagingBusinessTips.com/blog

PS:  If I can polish this approach up and make it work for Home Stagers, it would certainly work for many other occupations and businesses as well.

I am wide open to suggestions on my plan, items I should be sure to stress with my home stagers and any other question or comment you may have.

Small Business Marketing: Why Market Maker?

Why Market Maker? Podcast

Home Staging Marketing: Why Market Maker?

The Market Maker program is now live and available for Home Stagers interested in getting more business from their existing web pages.

I did a survey of home stagers last year. One of the things many expressed disappointment in was how little new business they got from their web pages.  This is true of almost all small business people.  For most, their web sites are little more than electronic yellow page ads, showing address, hours and contact info, with maybe a fancier display ad.

Since I did my survey, I have held a tele-seminar, and written dozens of articles on how to turn that around. Yet relatively few home stagers have applied the secrets well known and taught in professional internet marketing circles.

I recognize the problem in myself. I often know what to do, but doing it is often another story.

Properly setting up your web page to get customers isn’t about nicer and fancier before and after pictures. It’s about attracting people potentially interested in home staging from YOUR market place, and getting them to identify themselves, so you can directly market your services to them.

The steps required include: changing some techie things about your web site; adding an opt-in box, which used to mean you needed to redo the front page of your web site; writing a special report; and then a long series of email marketing pieces.

Now none of these are too difficult, if you know how to do them, and seemingly impossible if you don’t.

And so, most people didn’t.

That’s why I developed Market Maker. Market maker will do all this for you. Develop new Meta Tags for your web site that will help more people from your town find your web site. Create an opt in form that doesn’t require you to redo your existing web site. It provides a great “ethical bribe” that will encourage people that visit your site to let you know they were there. Let you know they are interested in home staging and most importantly giving you permission to tell them more about you and your services.

Market Maker will dramatically boost your business.

Market Maker improves your marketing in two ways.

First it helps your home staging company stand out among your competitors. You will be the one that catches and keeps your prospects attention. This will get you a larger percentage of the existing business in your community.

Secondly, not everyone who thinks about using a home stager ends up doing so. With Market Maker, a larger percentage of them will, and when they do decide to use a home stager, it’s highly likely they will pick you.

To get more information go to Market Maker

And if you think that market maker will work for home stagers, let me suggest I can make it work most local businesses, even yours. Drop me an email.  enetwal@gmail.com