Chances are you have heard about this before, the idea of the funded proposal. There are several ways of designing this system and I am certain that you can think of more and better ways if you remember the goal. In the best marketing systems, prospects flow seamlessly from step to step, in fact they are not even aware that they are being sold. When designing your funded proposal, keep it simple. I will give you a beginner level example to look at, then an intermediate and then an advanced. If you do not currently have a system up like this one that attracts customers into your marketing system then start with the beginner level, move to the intermediate level in a couple of months and then to the advanced one.

 

        Before I get to the first model, let's get back to you. Who are you going to be to your niche? What will you be the source of? What solutions will you offer to their problems? While I'm on this topic, let's talk about nicknames. Ideally, when you are clever enough to come up with a nickname you will use it for branding purposes not to just give yourself some arbitrary title. It should remind you what you are building, the niche or niches that you are positioning yourself to dominate and communicate to your market what you offer. A title like "The Richest Bahama Dweller" will not necessarily serve you well because your prospects will strug and say to what or yeah and "I'm The King of York!" This is the reason why some marketers simply let their work speak for them. I'm Joe Smith the creator of "Fast Niche Profits" and author of "I Own Your Mind".

 

FUNDED PROPOSAL MARKETING SYSTEM - BEGINNER LEVEL

 

        You have to learn to crawl before you walk right? As tempting as it might be for you to start with the advanced level as a new marketer, I have to tell you it's suicide. It's like trying to climbing Mount Everest without a guide. Studies show that one of the main reasons why students fail at learning any new subject is because the level of the material is too advanced. The other two reasons are unfamiliarity with new words and the absence of hands on training. Lets lay the foundation from which you can build into the intermediate and advanced marketing systems later.

 

        Have you decided on a niche? We won't go too in depth on that subject here because this report is about dominating your niche through the use of social media marketing. But a general guidelines are to choose a niche that has fanatical buyers. You can even create a niche if you see a group of people not be served. An example of this would be a social network of honey farmers. Choose an area that you are passionate about or have a real interest in, however, so that you feel good while you are creating content for your prospects.

 

        Begin with a marketing center. A destination for explaining and displaying all the content that you will provide for your niche. I recommend starting with a website with social capabilities blogs like the free ones provided by Blogger.com, Ning pages, and Wetpaint pages are some of the best options because they allow for interaction between you and your prospects and do not require lookers to create an account to interact, unless you design it that way.

 

        If you already have a basic website, good news, you can embed the Wetpaint software to add social capabilities or use another service like Google Friend connect. Every piece of content that you make as well as all of your profiles on social media websites will link to your marketing center to begin.

 

        Now, go to where your prospects are hanging out already and interact with them by asking questions, and posting content you know they can use.

 

 

Great Video Ideas for Niche Marketing on YouTube

1) Piggy-back on popular videos within your niche. Reply with a video to the popular video and use similar tags and keywords.

 

2) Make Informational Videos. Show your prospects how to do something within your niche using screen capture software or live video.

 

3) Make controversial Responses to News in your niche. First hook yourself up with the latest news buy using a RSS feed reader service like Google Reader, Bloglines, MyYahoo or a paid service. Do a search within Google News and/or Yahoo News and subscribe to the feed for "products" or "popular key words" within your niche.

 

>>Perhaps you're clueless on how to discover what your prospects are searching for use: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
or another keyword suggestion service.

 

If you want you can use Facebook Page or Myspace Profile for your center as well.

 

Break Down of necessary actions

Create a marketing center

Interact with your prospects at hang outs.

Website

Youtube, niche specific social networks and

Blogs, niche specific forums or chat rooms.

Blog

Social Network or Page/Group

 

        If you are currently operating without a product you should be referring people to services or products that can solve their problems. And you will know those problems because you will be in the forums or interacting on the top blogs in your niche in order to know this, as well as researching the most popular keyword searches within your niche.

 

        All the content that you create (which refers people to solutions to their problems) should be available at your marketing center. You can do this by embedding it or actually uploading it to your page/server. Organize each piece of content so that it's easy to find. That means if you're using a blog create a number of categories based on the keywords that interest your prospects. If you are using a social network, create appropriate segments for the forum, and appropriate tabs at the top of the page to help your prospects to quickly find the content they need.

 

        If you have your own product the process is similar, but a little different because your job is then to educate your prospects about your product so they can decide whether they want to buy it. You will combine the process of offering information about your product with the process of offering great content about other topics within your niche that interest your prospects.

 

        If all of this seems a tad bit confusing and you want to kick start your social media campaign with a trial of TrafficGeyser. There are two important reasons to begin releasing content with this service: one it creates a sense of urgency for you to create content, and two they have researched the best places for you to post content so that your prospects have an easier time finding you. Using TrafficGeyser will cause people to recognize you faster because it puts you on all the websites your prospects frequent, and you will come up multiple times in the search engine results for your niche’s keywords because search engines love social media.

 

FOCUS To be seen and recognized in your niche and make a couple thousand friends.

ACTION STEPS Before moving on to the next section you should have…

1) Created a marketing center

2) Established a presence in three popular spots for your prospects.

3) Began interacting by asking questions, answering questions, and posting information of interest to them (with links leading back to your marketing center).

Optional: Get a trial of TrafficGeyser to jump start your profits.

 

FUNDED PROPOSAL MARKETING SYSTEM - INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

 

        Alright so you have your marketing center and you have established a presence in your niche. You should be making a little stream of income through affiliate sales or product sales at this point and you want to up the ante. Time to add listbuilding to the process. Now this is a little tricky so pay attention. So what's the best list building service to date, did you say Aweber, Getresponse? Well those "list management" services don't actually build your list do they?

 

        Twitter.

        More specifically: http://search.twitter.com

        Look for people that are talking about your niche specific keywords and follow them.

 

        There’s friend adding software for Twitter. There’s friend adding software for Myspace. There’s friend adding software for Youtube, but Twitter is the best place at the moment to build a list because it is growing rapidly and the services for Twitter (i.e. mobile Twitter) make it the place to be online.

 

        Create a lead capture page using a service like: lead page generator or the free options like: http://www.imfreesoftware.com/p.html
or http://freesoftware.affiliatemarketerstoolbox.net/instantsqueezepagemaker.html


All your links will now point to your lead capture page which will connect to your marketing center.

 

        Add a subscribe box or link to you marketing center to collect leads. Subscribe boxes, particularly floating ones are ideal, but if your set up does not allow for this just yet go with this process now and you will have the time to simplify later. This link should go to a lead capture page where the prospects can fill in their information.

 

        Using text that says "subscribe to my newsletter" will not yield as the same result as if you are offering something in return. Some marketers like to offer trainings, some like to offer tips, I favor bundling your own ebook with free updates and tips for life to subscribers. Again if you do not have your own ebook look for membership websites (best) or product/service providers (good) within your niche that have affiliate programs and offer free information for their affiliates to give out. Clickbank is a good place to start your search.

 

        If you're in a niche like gerbil toys, then you have the unique opportunity to create your own free information to give out! I know you're saying, "Oh...joy", but it is easier than your think. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just desirable to your prospects.

 

        Use the Google keyword suggestion tool and type in your niche's key words:

 

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

 

        Then go back to Google.com and type in those keywords, you will see even more keyword suggestions pop up in a drop down menu. The ones with the highest numbers next to them are the greatest topics of interest.

Get yourself about ten topics from one category of interest and then go back to the social websites you've joined and ask people what they would like to know about those topics. Write about what they want to know about and then you can tell them about your new ebook at a later date.

 

FOCUS To begin adding prospects to your list and understanding your niche market.

ACTION STEPS

1) Find or create an offer for free information in exchange for your prospect's contact information.

2) Create a lead capture page using free or paid software.

3) Add lead capture link or form to your marketing center.

4) Add text/video educating the customer of the value of them subscribing to your list.

 

FUNDED PROPOSAL MARKETING SYSTEM - ADVANCED LEVEL

       

        Sign up with a list management program like Getresponse, Aweber, or iContact. Have a copywriter at Guru.com or Elance.com create an autoresponder email series for you, also called and email drip. Make an account that tracks page views and traffic like Google Analytics.

 

        Continue dialoguing with your customers to find out their needs and continue to outsource the work to ghostwriters at Guru and Elance. From here you can connect with services like Createspace.com for product fulfillment. The advanced level is about building yourself out of your business and automation.

 

        Create a high priced item like a DVD or CD series (you can offer digital access with it). Add the freebies from your affiliate programs to your bonuses. You might also look for products or services that compliment your product and strike a deal to offer it free or at a discount after the original sale. Arrange this mutually beneficial cross-promotion of this other product or service by having the other marketer set up their sales page with your product in their bonuses.

 

        Have a sales page created for the high priced item a freelancer on Elance or Guru. There are instant sales page generators if you'd like to go that route, but you need to have the ability to go in and edit the page later so it makes sense to go with a human and not software on this one. Now embed the code from Google Analytics or Statcounter.com, (there are many paid ones that are better) so that you are able to track your page hits and prospect behavior.

 

        Now outsource the creation of a series of landing pages, each designed to speak to a different segment of your marketplace. To start with you will need to outsource or find out the demographics of the people that are looking for your products and services. Each segment of your market will speak a different way; have different concerns, and different motivations for buying your products or services. It’s difficult to tell who you are selling to, and this is the most important information for you to have.

 

        Outsource content creation based on what your prospects are asking for; it also might be a good time to pick up a support team. And periodically, 2-3 times a week give your list of subscribers content they can use. You can move on to promoting complimentary products to your list through informational webinars, mini-trainings and/or a variety of other methods.

 

        Keep your name and reputation clean by always delivering the best material possible. There are many shady marketers out there, and although the level of trust is being restored to the online marketplace since the anti-spam laws were created, treat your customers as good friends that will buy from your for years not as short-term sources of cash and they will love you, respect you, and tell their friends about you.

 

        By the time you are at this level you will have branded yourself and your services. You might have a nickname like youngentrepeneur or thelinkbuildingguru but most definitely, you will have learned that you must put in the hard work consistently at first to be able to sit back and watch your income roll in while you’re on vacation or visiting a friend in Japan.

 

Automation Tools of the Trade

1. Ping.Fm Update your status across social sites using Ping.Fm. I am a huge fan! 

2. Posterous.com Offers a similar service to Ping.fm, includes Blogger.

3. TweetLater.com or Hootsuite.com For Twitter.com - Manage multiple profiles and schedule your tweets. It allows you to automatically follow new followers.  

4. Twollo Ever wondered how to follow authors or radio show hosts or people who love ball point pens? It doesn't matter - you can type in keywords at Twollo, and it will automatically follow those people who match your keywords.

5. Twitterfeed Uses RSS to send your latest blog posts to Twitter.

6. SocialToo Very similar to tweetlater. It allows you to schedule tweets, automate follows and direct messages.

7. TubeToolbox Youtube friend adder and automated interaction.

 

FOCUS To have fun increasing your profits by leaving the mundane work to others.

ACTION STEPS Bet you can think of more, and that’s really the point…never stop growing.

1) Sign up for a list management service.

2) Plan your topics for continued dialogue with your customers and keep interacting.

3) Design a high-priced item for your sales funnel.

4) Outsource sales page building and lead page building management.

5) Get your tracking and reporting systems into place.

6) Focus on market segmentation in your marketing, cater to each audience differently.

7) Keep building your reputation within your niche and offline, give, give, and give more to your subscribers and occasionally throw a special offer in there.

Optional: If you don’t mind creating your own content instead of having someone else do it you can try a podcast, vodcast (video podcast) or live show on for size. I-tunes service and Justin.tv are great places to start.

Created by Lis Carpenter and Christian Fioravanti

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