New entrepreneurs frequently hear the advice to “be unique” in their marketing. The basic idea is a valuable one — to get attention in a crowded marketplace, you must stand out in some way. Distinguishing your product or service from the competition can make your marketing more effective. Crafting a novel marketing message can attract the notice of more potential customers.

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A friend of mine is an IT consultant. He’s been an independent contractor for the 20-plus years I have known him, and gets all his consulting contracts through agencies. Even when he works a year or two for the same client, the agency takes 15-20% of what the client is paying for his services. I once asked him why he didn’t find his own clients, and he said he didn’t know where to look.

You’ve heard it many times before: you need to sell benefits to your clients, not features. Whether you are writing copy, talking about what you do, or engaged in a sales presentation, it’s the benefits and results of the service you provide that you should emphasize, rather than its features or how it works. But it’s not always easy to get this right.

“I’ve done everything I can think of to get clients,” a desperate self-employed professional wrote to me. “I launched a website, I had a brochure designed, I’ve been sending out mailings, and I’ve placed all sorts of ads in print and on the web. But no one is hiring me. What am I doing wrong?”

We self-employed professionals spend a great deal of our marketing effort on searching for the right words. We read books, take classes, and hire consultants to help us write copy for our marketing materials. Writing sales letters, drafting brochures, and composing web sites consumes hours or days of precious marketing time. But it appears that many professionals have mistaken all this wordsmithing for productive action.

“Will this marketing approach be worth my while?” It’s a question independent professionals often ask. But there’s a related question that, unfortunately, they ask much less often: “How much will it cost compared to what it brings in?” Surprisingly few professionals know the answer to this crucial question, and many admit it had simply never occurred to them.

Many of us are working diligently towards building a large responsive list which is not easy and takes time and work to accomplish. One way to build a large list is with a JV Giveaway or Joint Venture Giveaway. Doing so can make your list building endeavors a bit easier.

“I don’t have time to market.” It’s a common complaint from self-employed professionals. When you are the only one who can serve the clients, manage the business, and perform all the sales and marketing functions, time becomes the most precious commodity you have. How can you find time for marketing with so many other important priorities?

When business is slow, every lead has to count. If there may be fewer opportunities for you to pursue, you need to take maximum advantage of every one. When you pursue a prospective client all the way through the sales cycle, but in the end they choose someone else, the rejection can be painful. “Why wasn’t it me?” you keep asking yourself.

In the wake of disasters like the Sept. 11th attack on the World Trade Center and Hurricane Katrina, there are many question marks in the air. When a tragedy strikes, I hear clients, students, colleagues, and the people from around the world who correspond with me asking many things, of themselves and others.

There’s no question that the economic news of the past few weeks has been alarming. The stock market has dropped, unemployment is up, and consumer spending is down. We’re seeing banks and brokerage houses collapse, retirement account values plummet, and working families lose their homes. It’s pretty scary stuff for independent professionals who rely on other people’s budgets and spending habits to pay their own bills.

Article marketing is one of the most popular ways to improve your search engine optimization efforts. With the introduction of article submission tools, the task of distributing your articles across the Internet is easier than ever before. There are a number of rules you should follow if you want to get the most from your article marketing.

Okay, so we’re in a recession. Now what? Is it time to throw your marketing plan out the window? Cut your prices? Close up shop and look for a job?