Succeeding in business is synonymous with learning how to publicize yourself properly. You need to make your potential customers aware of your products and services to ensure that they recognize them as valid solutions to their everyday problems.The problem that many businesses face is that they don’t understand how to do this with the things that technology has made available to them. Most businesses are just starting to understand the importance of things like social media marketing and search engine optimization.The problem is that businesses that are just now investing in these practices are already miles behind businesses that invested in them from the first day they were available. That makes it hard to catch up.The good news is that local businesses have a shortcut available to them. By learning how to boost Google Places account, your businesses can become one of the top results for local searches.Let’s examine how to boost Google Maps rankings by looking at the factors that you need to pay attention to.1. Place Your NAP in the Correct PlacesWhen it comes to how to boost Google Places account, one of the most important acronyms you’ll ever learn is “NAP”. It stands for “Name, Address, and Phone Number”.It’s essentially how search engines like Google are able to recognize that someone is talking about your business in a local sense. By placing your NAP information in the right places, you’ll help Google associate the information it crawls pertaining to your business. This is just one of the ways you can learn how to boost Google Maps.2. Perform On-Site OptimizationLearning how to boost Google Places account can be as simple as learning how to optimize your already existing website. You need to ensure that the information that Google uses to match your business to your Google Maps listing is accurate on your business’s website.This is important even if you have multiple locations or franchises. You need to have your locations listed somewhere with the matching telephone number, address and name to allow Google to verify that your business is the right one.3. Create Local Buzz About Your BusinessThe third factor that helps to boost your Google Maps listing revolves around how popular your business is in a local sphere of influence. You need to have yourself, your customers and even other businesses talking about your business.This is how to boost Google Maps listings to the top spots. You’ll need every bit of buzz you can create about your business to ensure that your listing will rank that highly.The Importance of Google PlacesEnsuring that your business ranks highly when search engine users search for local results is key to promoting your business’s growth. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business, part of a franchise or a large corporation that deals with local branches. You need the traffic, because it translates into both walk-in and digital customers.Don’t downplay how important Google Places can be to your business. Start working to boost your listings so that customers can find your business easier while becoming more aware of your brand.
Ten Travel Tips You Need to Know
When I travel for any reason, I always need to be prepared. I need to know where I’m going, where I’m staying, and what I will be doing when I get there. So it would not surprise you that I would also need to be well prepared for anything when I pack my suitcase.Now I’m not talking about clothes…although I always bring enough of everything for 7 days of hot or 7 days of cold. But these tips I listed are good reminders of what you need to bring along.Here are the ten great travel tips you need to know before packing your suitcase and heading to the airport for your dream vacation. I would not want anything to happen to you that may spoil your well deserved vacation.Read and remember the helpful tips listed below to assist you in a stress free, relaxing vacation getaway!!TEN TRAVEL TIPS!!
Several months in advance, before you plan to travel, make sure you have a valid US passport and/or any visa you may need.
Research and read any public information, announcements or travel warnings for the location you plan to visit. You can find this information on the US State Department’s website.
Get familiar with local laws, customs, and currency exchange rates for the countries you are visiting.
Make 2 copies of your passport identification page. In the case that your passport is lost or stolen while you are abroad, you’ll be well on your way to getting it replaced and finding your way home. Leave one copy with family or a friend back home and take one copy with you (packed in a separate location from your passport).
Leave your contact details with friends or family, so that you can be contacted in case of emergency. Be sure you determine with them what actually constitutes an emergency, so that you are not called about something you can do little about…except worry.
Do not leave your luggage unattended at any time in public areas.
Do not accept packages from strangers. (What you were taught at a very young age still applys)
Avoid being a target of crime!! Do not wear conspicuous clothing or expensive jewelry. Do not carry with you large sums of money, a wallet full of credit cards or other gadgets not needed for travel.
To avoid violating local laws, deal only with authorized agents when exchanging money or making a sizable purchase.
If you find yourself in trouble, contact the nearest embassy for your country.
Enjoy yourself!! Have a lot of fun!! Vacations are designed to recharge your batteries and give you memories of a lifetime!
What’s the Hardest Part of Marketing Yourself?
In my Fast Track Marketing System I divide marketing into seven very specific modules:1. The Game of Marketing2. The Mindset of Marketing3. Marketing Messages (Your Value Proposition)4. Marketing and Selling Conversations5. Written Marketing Materials6. Marketing Strategies7. Marketing Action PlansAll of these have their particular challenges. But in my experience in working with thousands of Independent Professionals, it’s #7 that seems to be the hardest for most people.After all, most of the other 6 modules are all about preparation to market yourself.You learn the basics of the game of marketing, you work on your marketing mindset, you develop marketing messages, conversations, and written marketing materials, and ultimately choose the marketing strategies to get the word out.And then the rubber hits the road. You have to actually get out there and connect with potential clients through networking, speaking, an eZine, social media, emails, etc.For most, the bottom falls out of their marketing at this point. It simply goes nowhere, or more specifically it goes into the infamous “Random Zone” where things are done haphazardly and inconsistently.If people have worked to develop the whole foundation of their marketing first, know who their target market is, have put together a web site and have practiced their marketing and selling conversations, they are going to have more success.But even the well-prepared struggle with implementation.Why is putting action plans into action so hard? Here are three of the most common ones. Are they familiar to you?1. As soon as you start reaching out, you face possible rejection. What if your message, your talk, your emails fall on deaf ears? What if your potential clients could care less? What if they outright rejected your promotional efforts?We conjure painful mental images in our mind that stop us cold.For this one we need to work again on our mindset, on our thinking, realizing that if we reach out and people aren’t interested, that it’s not personal. They don’t hate us; either they are simply not good prospects right now or our message doesn’t have the impact it could.So reach out to new prospects and keep improving your messages.2. It takes way more time and effort than you ever thought it would. We think of marketing as a few promotional things we do here and there. This should be easy, we think. But it’s not.Time to do a reality check. Any marketing activity takes time, effort and commitment to make it work. Marketing is a bit of an art and nothing works perfectly on the first draft.You need to make detailed and realistic plans based on strategies that others have used successfully in the past. If you just make it up as you go along, your chances of success are very slim.3. It’s never good enough and although you might even know what you’re doing, you put off your marketing launches until everything is perfect… but it never is.What underlies this are beliefs about perfection, not being good enough and being judged by others. It’s not so much rejection you fear, but disapproval. What will others think of you?Well, if your marketing campaign isn’t relevant to those you are targeting, it’s not a big deal. They’ll just ignore it. They won’t think much about it at all. But for the ones that are looking for what you offer, they’ll not only be interested, they’ll respond.Your prospects are not looking for perfection from you; they’re looking for assistance and value. If you’ve got that, perfection is virtually irrelevant.I’ve done a whole lot of marketing action plans that were rejected by most people, took me a long time to implement, and were far from perfect. And most of them have made me hundreds of thousands of dollars!Marketing success is about know-how, value, commitment, and persistence. Everything else is just a distraction.The Fearless Marketer Bottom Line: There could be a lot of other things stopping you from following through with your marketing plan as well. The question is, where are you going to focus – on your fears and worries about rejection, time, and perfection – or are you going to focus on the value and difference you make and give your marketing plans a real chance?