Marketing has increased importance now as the economy changes from the go-go period long ago (1999) and morphs into a real-world, making-customers-delighted world of the 2000s. Here are some times that can help you get the edge. Marketing Coaching

Getting the proper coaching is essential in any field. In marketing success there are several websites that can help you as you build your business.

www.Bplans.com - This site provides business plans in addition to marketing that can help ask the right questions. It can help you to focus on the right market and learn which markets to reject as inappropriate for what you're doing.

www.gmarketing.com - The Guerilla Marketing Group provides this site chocked full of useful articles and tips on marketing and how to make it happen. In addition to lots of tools you'll find the much-needed motivation to keep going when times get tough.

www.advisormarketing.com - Learn about marketing for financial advisors. Don't worry if you're not in that field as you'll be able to take a lot of the ideas communicated here and translate them into your particular field. Learn from successful people in many industries, particularly those outside of your industry. If your competition is reading only what is in your industry, you'll have a decisive advantage!

www.office.com - Learn about running the business and get practical marketing tips for your small business. This site is packed with useful features on marketing and other areas to give your business an advantage.

Getting Prospects

Here are sites that provide lists of names for your marketing. Most who receive e-mail mass mailing today are very resistant to spamming, or sending a lot of unwanted e-mail to masses. Frame the initial mailing as an offer that they must opt-into (key term meaning they choose to be part of the list) to stay on the list. Drop them immediately if requested and don't annoy people. It is easy to put the word out on the Internet that a particular vendor is annoying and bothersome.

www.listebazaar.com - From InfoUSA which has been a source for names and leads for years. They've taken their expertise online now and provide a wealth of targeted mailing lists that can assist in your marketing.

www.targetpacks.com, www.bulletmail.com, www.liszt.com, www.yesmail.com, www.netcreations.com and www.matchlogic.com all provide lists of names that can be helpful in building your customer database.

Doing the Marketing

You can have all the lists you want. Until you actually do something effective and sales-generating with them, they aren't worth the stock in a has-been dot com company. Here are some pointers to make it work for you:

www.aweber.com - This site provides a service so you can send out a series of e-mail messages to a given group at certain intervals. You set up the procedures and you determine the message and the frequency. This can be very helpful for the busy executive who doesn't have time to do the necessary marketing. Take the time in advance to plan your marketing campaign and then let the system implement it for you. You will then monitor and track the results.

ACT! 2000 - This long-standing industry leader now has been purchased by Interact Commerce Corporation, a newly founded company consisting of those that designed ACT! years ago. In addition to tracking contacts the service tightly connects with the Internet giving uses the benefit of both a contact manager on their system and online support in the form of leads, marketing information and assist. It is like buying a software package and getting a marketing department that is there to help and assist you as you make your way through the marketing you need to do.

www.eletter.com - This service blends the best of the Internet with paper printing and mailing. In an age when we are inundated with e-mail often a blend of e-mail and tastefully produced paper mailings can help you stand out in the crowd. With E-Letter you send the document in a Microsoft Word or other popular format and the company will print, fold, insert and mail the pieces for you. You'll know the cost before you click to accept. It is done online making the work easy for you and simple to implement. For a busy small business with limited personnel and budgets, this is a service well worth investigating.

Listing with Search Engines

Using a search engine for prospective buyers to find you can enhance your marketing. Several services are available that can help you to get optimal positioning and avoid being shut out of the popular search engines for breaking the rules.

www.submit-it.com - This popular engine provides the ability for you to list with up to 400 search engines. This is now part of Microsoft.com for a fee of $59.95 per year you can make sure your site is submitted properly.

www.searchenginewatch.com - This is a service that provides the nuts and bolts of education to learn what is happening with search engines and how to get the most out of them. Good starting point for learning how to do it and what to avoid.

www.selfpromotion.com - You can submit to several websites with this tool. The service is free. You are requested to pay only what you feel it is worth after you've received the results. Not a bad approach!

Advertise Your Business

Why reinvent the wheel? Why pay exorbitant prices for the design of an ad when one already exists that you can use? Check out www.adstogo.com and find hundreds of ads that already exist with pictures and text. You can insert your own text and even your own pictures. Prices range from $49.50 to $297.50 depending on the ad you select.

Get Started

So, you've got some starting tools. However, the prime element is that you can't wait for the technology to do the marketing for you. You have to have the mindset and the drive to make it happen. Without that, you have merely read an interesting article in the Business Journal about neat marketing tools.

Go out and make it happen today!

Terry Brock is an internationally recognized professional speaker, consultant and author in the fields of business productivity, technology and marketing. His is a syndicated columnist for Biz Journals across America and can be reached at 407-363-0505 or by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com.