[Q20]Questions For Marketing Interview

Although most of the people I interviewed for my book were connected to internet marketing in one way or another, Thea Westra is not. Ultimately, this book is about perspective, and I wanted to bring you marketing information from someone outside of internet marketing. Thea is the perfect person to do that, as she uses articles to market her business. I think you'll find her interview refreshing, and you'll also see how anyone, regardless of what industry they choose, can succeed with internet marketing.

Thea Westra lives in Perth Australia with her partner Greg. She enjoys reading, conversations with like-minded friends, movies, painting, exploring internet resources in the area of personal development and a variety of creative expressions, both on and off-line.

She holds several degrees in the field of education, has studied countless personal growth videos/audios/books, plus participated in and contributed to, many self-development programs over 17 years.

After 23 years of working in education, then experimenting with her own life and establishing a non-profit group in the art scene, selling her home and moving to Perth then meeting her life partner Greg, Thea opened the doors to her coaching business in 2002, working with clients locally and internationally.

As your coach, Thea will enquire, encourage, advise, challenge, make requests and listen for your truth so that you remain aligned with who you are, your goals, your values and your vision. Her focus will be completely on you and what you want in life; Thea stands for you first and foremost, not just your goals.

Regardless of professional endeavor or place in life, all Thea's clients have one thing in common: they are all successful, resourceful, and intelligent individuals who want to get even more out of their lives.

Thea is passionate about providing personal development and self help materials that people can use easily so that they continue moving forward on their ?personal? goals.

Thea invites you to her series of daily 'Forward Steps'. Start your day with an empowering quote, a life question, a coaching tip, a personal growth web-link and a pinch of inspiration. You can sign up atat my site.

Jinger: Although your area of expertise is outside of internet marketing, what you teach is very relevant to internet marketing because developing the right mindset is crucial to any successful marketing effort. Would you tell us a little about how to develop the right mindset for success in business?

Thea: The first step is belief and trust in yourself, and know yourself as someone who provides value to others by way of the services or products you provide. The best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others. That is the only way you will be 100 commitment or less can become very difficult over time, however 100 commitment you will continue your work, no matter what may block the path.

Clarity, being clear, is essential. Have a crystal clear mental image of what you want to create and feel a genuine passion for that. Simplification of, and a singular focus on, my goals is my personal theme for 2007. If you're not thrilled by what you're doing, you need to create a bigger goal that encompasses your personal legacy.

Something that I discovered long ago, with other projects, is that you don't have to get it right; you just have to get it going. You honestly will find what you need, along the journey.

Whenever I see some of my earlier monthly newsletters, I cringe a little. However, I needed to go through the process to get to where I am with the production of my ezine materials today. In future, I'm certain that they might have me cringing too. If not, then I'm not growing. That is the upside of experimentation - I grow as a person within the process. This in turn gives me experience that I can share with others which adds another valuable commodity to my business services.

I have also have come to know that lasting business success is not overnight, and of course it is possible, though it is not the usual. It is important for me to maintain consistency with my actions, to focus on a few powerful marketing strategies and stick closely to those. This has taken me a while and I am getting much better at staying focused with the stronger marketing strategies that I know to be effective and high leverage.

This brings me again to the necessity of being clear about my intended end result. For every action, be clear about why you're taking that action and how that activity will move you toward fulfilling the desired end result. You may not always succeed and even if you don't, you'll still be certain of where you want to go so that you can continue to adjust and fit your actions toward achieving that end goal.

The right mindset for business success is a mindset of ?business success?. Know what a successful business is, for you. Know that you have a business and not a hobby, treat all your relationships with that in mind. Have a set of standards by which you abide, in the context of business activities. Respond to all communications as though your business is already at the level of success that you envisage for its future. Begin the way that you mean to finish.

Personally create your weeks, months and days. Know what you will accomplish at the end of each, set targets and determine the actions you must take to accomplish those targets.

Continually work on yourself and stay close to people who have similar aspirations to yours. Hang out with positive and empowered people. Listen to many audios and read many books related to personal growth. As you grow and evolve, so will your business and vice versa.

Jinger: How do you use the internet to market your business?

Thea:In every way available and known to me! I'm still learning and always continuing to learn. That will never stop because the internet is a living, growing, changing creature!

What I do know for certain is that building my list of subscribers is the most important work I can do. Most visitors don't buy on their first visit to your site; the most important objective of all business sites should be to generate a lead by capturing the visitor's name and e-mail address. In this way, you get to visit them daily, weekly or monthly in an email, you become known by your readers and you get to know them. Then you can begin recommending things for them to buy.

My newsletters never had that focused intention in mind, I wanted to provide great value and the rest would follow. I am now clear that I also need a slightly more strategic approach to what I do, yet without compromising on the original intention of providing quality to my readers.

I am still too broad with my marketing strategies. I need to focus and manage my activities better for time efficiency, however the facilities, online communities and marketing resources are expanding so rapidly. It is very exciting.

When it comes to Google rankings and therefore bringing more people to my website so that they will join my mailing list, my main focus is the blogging community and all that comes with it, plus writing and publishing articles. The following list by Seth Godin is a wonderful resource alexaholic.com/sethgodin and I get myself listed, and participating, at many of those links. I have also recently found this most wonderful resource that is definitely increasing my level of targeted traffic mybloglog.com/buzz/members/ForwardSteps/ Going out on a limb here - I think that this community site ought to be Google's next purchase!

I'm not looking for high volume traffic for the sake of it. I want people who want what I offer and who know that I care. Therefore I tend to focus on communities and on article distribution. EzineArticles.com, ArticleMarketer.com and Buzzle.com are my main distribution points. You might find this old list of mine of use forwardsteps.com.au/ArticleSubmit.htm Download this tool quirk.biz/searchstatus/ to make life a little easier with regard to selection.

Giving you a list might be the most economical way for me to share with you the tools that I use for marketing. I'll let Google create that list for you.

Simply put "Thea Westra" in inverted commas in a Google search. Then, in a separate search also use "Forward Steps" life coach ? put the bolded characters into the search box, just as they are on this page.

Follow the links and scroll the findings to see all the places I'm listed and posted. Particularly places that I listed at most recently i.e. last 4 months. I have recently been more picky with my selections, using Alexa and personal traffic results to determine my participation.

I also experiment with search engine optimization at my sites. This is a good beginning resource submit-it.com/subopt.htm When considering which search providers to submit to, this data is handy nielsen-netratings.com.

Jinger: You offer both products and services through your coaching business. Do you think it's harder marketing programs outside of internet marketing, or do you think it's easier? If so, why?

Thea: One method of marketing is not necessarily harder or easier than the other. They are just different. For both, similar and foundation marketing principles apply. My marketing is about establishing relationships and building credibility whilst maintaining personal integrity.

You've possibly heard that thousands of times, however it is important to take it on board and not resist the idea. Regardless of which medium you choose to get your message across, the job is to develop relationships and get people to know who you are and to trust what you provide. Think of your own online habits as a consumer ?from who do you most readily make purchases?

One method of being known is branding and creating a huge name that everyone recognizes e.g. Mazda, Toyota, Coke, McDonalds and Target. However, for the smaller business owner, that is hugely expensive and a considerable challenge.

For the rest of us, it's within the first few moments of contact that people sense who we are.

Whether online or offline, how do you answer the phone, respond to email, appear on your website or appear on your brochure, do you greet with a smile, do you use people's names, do you remember the people you met, are you helpful, courteous, approachable and likeable etc?

The mistrust, disbelief, and skepticism that people experience in the real world are intensified in the internet world. Therefore, one of the primary objectives of your website should be to get your visitors to believe and trust you. Again, that's why I prefer to include them as a subscriber to my mailings and gradually get them to know me.

What I do find easier about online marketing is the referral aspect. I do find it much more challenging to find ways of having fellow business owners who are not online, to refer business. Whereas, if people like what you do or you provide something viral for them to pass to their mailing lists, then online relationships are much more effective for that referral aspect of marketing.

Business friends found at offline, live networking events may not always remember to include you in their next conversation, or place you on their next brochure, however once they link to you online at a website, in an article or in a newsletter, your message is everywhere and in no time at all.

Use the creation of this book as an example. Jinger invited me to contribute. A little while ago, I didn't know Jinger existed. ? My business is now exposed to all of Jinger's readers - yes, you wonderful guys! What's more, Jinger's information and links are now also being brought to my online fans when I share this downloadable book with them. See how wonderfully it all works? I have created a similar relationship with Christopher Westra. Take a look at freemoneyebook.com/dlthea.html as one example.

Jinger: What trends do you see in internet marketing? What do you see in the future of internet marketing?

Thea: Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed.

I really love the information at cluetrain.com/ You can read "The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual? online for free at their site. It really says more than anything I could write here.

The internet is becoming more and more community oriented. People want to find ways to really connect with each other online and are hungry for information from people they trust.

The Web 2.0 expansion and increased use of videos and audios is a manifestation of that desire.

"As Web 2.0 becomes a predominant online consumer model, traditional publishers are adopting interactive forums like blogs,? said Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of media analytics,
Nielsen//NetRatings. "It makes perfect sense for online newspapers, where responding to a blog posting is like writing an instant letter to the editor,? she continued.

The other thing I'm observing is the movement away from desktop computers and toward the mobile tools. For example, the CEO of Adobe was recently saying that the future of e-books is the Sony Reader. Go and explore that tool and you'll see amazing opportunity.

Small tablets, pocket PCs, smart phones, game machines, and even GPS devices are now capable of tapping into the web on the go, and many web pages are not yet designed to work on that scale.

Jinger: What projects are you currently working on, and where do you plan to take your business from here?

Thea: My primary goal for myself involves going back to square one and determining clearly for myself who I would most like to serve and who my target community actually is! That is currently such a huge gap for me and it slaps me in the face daily.

The name of my business ?Forward Steps? is a big clue! I am very passionate about moving people forward from where they are if they feel stopped. My ezine ?Triggers? was designed with that in mind. From personal experience, creative inspiration can come from the most unlikely sources and so I provide a collection of material from many places in the one ezine, using a variety of media to trigger ideas and actions for my readers.

I have a few people who I very much admire, with regard their clarity, and I look to model my business structures based on what they do, yet not doing exactly as they do, clearly leaving my own stamp on my work. Three sites, among many others, that have always impressed me are 43things.com, ezinequeen.com, and hellomynameisscott.com.

Beyond that, a few of my personal 2007 business goals are:

Growing my Triggers e-zine and Forward Steps notes mailing list to 10,000 readers, for each.

Developing a video or useful software that will distribute in a viral way throughout my target community. Something like these cards would be fun consciousone.com/c1Cards/

Writing and publishing a downloadable book that is a true gift for my chosen community and selling 5,000 copies of that book, using my own list, Clickbank and branding by others.

Consistently, regularly and securely generating a sustainable net income of $?[amount hidden], sourced from online business activity. The good old, earn while you are doing your own fun things or sleeping, dream!

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