If you're like most designers, you slapped together a Web site and called it a marketing tool. Guess what? There's more to online marketing than creating a Web site. In fact, you don't even need a Web site to master online marketing. What you need is an online presence, which means having the capacity to either 1) send samples of your work via email; or 2) post samples in cyberspace, either at a fee-based online directory, such as Theispot.com, or a free portfolio site like About.com or Portfolios.com.

Whether you call it marketing or not, every single contact you have with a client or prospect is a marketing opportunity, as is every email message you send. So whether you're researching a prospect, following up after a meeting or delivering a proposal via email, treat this correspondence as a marketing tool and it'll have a stronger impact.

1. It can provide an informative, soft-sell introduction to prospects.

2. It can provide them with information they will can use.

3. It can keep you in touch on a regular basis, without being perceived as a pest.

Your One-Page Marketing Plan
The truth is, you don't have to have a marketing plan. It is quite possible to run and even grow your business without one -- most people do. However, without a plan, your marketing is probably haphazard, scattered and disorganized. If you want to have more control over your flow of new business, you will need a plan. In fact you'll probably need more than one plan; you'll need a few plans running simultaneously. It's best to start with two plans that balance each other: one for the real, long-term goals, the work you really want to do, and another for the bread-and-butter work that is less interesting, but easier to get. Here's a standard format to work with:

Have you ever noticed that most news articles draw you in with a tale about one person, while simultaneously illustrating a broader issue? When you hear a speaker at a conference, isn't it when they tell a story to demonstrate their point that your ears perk up? And don't we spend an awful lot of time watching TV and movies, listening to songs, and (hopefully) reading books. Well, these are all based on stories, other people's stories.

10 Things You Must Understand About Your Prospects

by Ilise Benun
founder of Marketing Mentor

1. Your prospects need you. Do you imagine that by promoting yourself, you are intruding on or interrupting your prospect? Are you thinking, "They won't want what I have," or "They've probably already got someone." Well, as Stock Photography Guru, Rohn Engh, likes to say, "At this very moment, your prospects are waiting for you." Whether it's true about a specific prospect is irrelevant; if you approach each prospect with that frame of mind, you'll make a better presentation.