One of the most stressful activities a human can perform is the process of making a decision.  Research shows that making a decision can expend as much energy as running a lap around the block.

So, it makes sense then that it would be worth your while to help your customers with this process without exerting any pressure to buy.

Offering free information (not slick sales pieces, but non-biased, no-pressure information) is a great way of helping and reducing stress for your potential customers.  Not-to-mention, this also helps build a relationship.

Advertising Only Takes You One Fifth of the Way ...

If you're like most small business owners, you've run ads in the local newspaper or shopper, mailed out discount coupons, put up flyers, ran in directories ... pretty much tried everything there was to try ... with very limited success, if any ... but don't worry, there is an alternative that works ...

Most small business owners (after receiving years and years of discouraging results from advertising) conclude that advertising simply doesn't work or at least, not very well (but what else are you supposed to do?).

The Truth is that One-Shot Ads (or Silver Bullet Ads) don't work and that's exactly what running that little ad in the local shopper is ... a silver bullet (and unless you're going after were-wolves in an old-fashioned horror flick, it's probably not going to produce much in the way of results).

The Reason the silver bullet approach doesn't work and why the Big Boys pour millions of dollars into saturation campaigns instead is that the public is literally bombarded with advertising. 

Imagine standing in a crowd of salesman all yelling at you to buy their product.  Would you?  Or would you tune most of them out?

That's what happens to your little ad in the local paper.  It gets tuned out, ignored, overlooked.  But like we said above, there is an affordable, effective alternative that works ...

An Effective Alternative to Advertising ...

The Answer goes back to old-fashioned customer service and word-of-mouth.  Bottomline:  advertising simply does not work, unless you have a multi-million dollar ad budget.  It's that simple.  I can see the television and radio ad salesman pulling out their charts and studies right now, but you don't need their statistics to know what you can afford and what works and doesn't work for you.

Think about it.  Your customers depend on you for knowledge and expertise.  That's what keeps them coming back year after year.

Putting the needs of your customers first, providing answers to their problems, is what has been your most effective marketing tool so far.  The problem is that your Potential Customers don't know that.  They don't know how knowledgeable and helpful you are. Why?  Because you haven't show them.

But what if there was an affordable way to let them see those qualities before they become your customer?  What if you could show them that you are a valuable, dependable resource that they need upfront?

The idea is to put your company in the forefront of their mind, so that when they have a problem in that particular area (your area of expertise) that the first thing they think of is turning to you for help.

How to Make Your Business a Valuable Resource

There are many affordable ways you can position your business as a valuable resource for potential customers:

• Provide a Helpful Tips Guide online
• Conduct an online Workshop
• Create a downloadable Newsletter
• Write a Helpful Tips column for online
• Become an online Expert and answer questions

The key is to make yourself available and helpful.  Show potential customers that you are willing and able to provide valuable information that the big chain store down the street either can't or won't provide.

How to Promote Your Helpful Image

This is where My TrafficBuilder comes in.  It is basically your small business survival kit, a collection of tools that make it easy, practical and effective to position yourself and your business as a valuable resource for potential customers.  Your kit provides you with extremely easy-to-use tools that assist you in creating helpful tip articles, online groups where potential customers can get together with you and ask questions, surveys and polls that help you know what potential customers think and need and are looking for (no longer will you have to guess at what customers want). 

My TrafficBuilder makes it easy for you to create eye-catching flyers, posters, newsletters and t-shirt iron-ons that will help you inform potential customers about the really helpful articles, workshops and events that you are providing online.

How You Can Do This for Free or Low-Cost

Sounds great, but ...

How much does it cost?  Well, that depends on how involved you choose to get.  Some of it is actually free.  Here is a list of free alternatives. 

Of course, not everything is free.  But there are some very effective ways to promote yourself through low-cost methods (and by low-cost, we mean between $10 and $20 per month). 

If you choose to do something more elaborate, the cost could go above $40 per month.  But that's the high end of the proposals we will present to you.

Imagine being able to position yourself as a valuable, needed resource in the minds of your potential customers for as low as ten to twenty dollars per month.

You can ... all you have to do is take that first step.  Make yourself available to potential customers by answering a few questions for them.  It's not difficult.  You already know the answers.  You answer their questions everyday.  You have been for years.

But now, with My TrafficBuilder, you are simply going to reach a lot more people with your knowledge.  Here are some ways you can do that.