You get what you expect

I meet a lot of business people when I’m out and about, networking and getting to know my existing connections better.  Most are entrepreneurial, positive people, but I meet the occasional Mr or Ms Negative!

When someone starts telling me how difficult they’re finding a particular aspect of their business, I sometimes ask them what a successful outcome would be.  The answer is often laced with – BUT [insert reason why not],

They are suffering from the blue elephant syndrome!

If you haven’t heard of this – try this:

Close your eyes and think of a blue elephant.

Yes, I know this animal doesn’t exist, but your imagination should make the transition easily.

Got it?  OK.  Clear your mind.

Now think of anything EXCEPT a blue elephant.

What happened?

I bet that you immediately thought of the blue elephant and then had to push that out of your mind and try and find something else to think about.

Most people end up thinking about another coloured animal – pink rhinos, red dogs, green armadillos, have all come up when I’ve tried this exercise on other people.  If you managed to banish the blue elephant completely you may have come up with a rose or a chair or something unconnected, but it’s hard not to picture it when someone says ‘blue elephant’.  It’s where your focus goes.

What’s this got to do with being positive or negative about your business?

If you’re thinking about how hard things are or all the things that can go wrong, you’re pretty much manifesting whatever you’re thinking about.  You know the saying ‘Energy flows where attention goes’.  In other words, if you’re thinking about something it’s more likely to happen.

Think of your mind like a juice machine.  If you put apples in you don’t expect to get orange juice out.  With your mind, if you put negative thoughts in, don’t expect to get positive results!

So what are you expecting to get?  Does it need changing from ‘I can’t do this’ to ‘I can do this’?

A book or a business card?

If you’re having a business meeting with a potential supplier and, instead of a business card, they put a book in your hands, what does that say to you?

Most people perceive a book as having value, outside the materials it’s printed on.  So it has a more positive impact than a business card, no matter how high quality that business card might be.

If a business contact gives you a book, most people will see that person as of higher status than their competitors who haven’t produced a book.  This can mean they expect to pay a bit more for your services!

Giving a book creates reciprocity (hard to pronounce!) in other words, a feeling that the recipient ‘owes you one’!

But I can’t write!

If the idea of scribing 30-40,000 words fills you with dread, don’t worry.  A book doesn’t have to be a big production.  A booklet of tips or ‘How to ...’ can be just as effective.

Given that a printed version needs to have a multiple of 4 pages, it can be as little as 20 pages, with a heavier, card cover, that leaves 16 pages to fill.  If the page is a third of an A4 page, you shouldn’t have any trouble filling that up – and you can always add diagrams, models and other graphics to help get your message across.

If you’re still stuck for ideas – think of all the questions your customers ask and use them to create your content.

Why do I suggest one third of an A4 page as the optimum size?

That’s easy, because it slips into a jacket pocket, a handbag, briefcase or computer bag easily without getting scrunched up.  An A5 size can be a tiny bit too big to fit some pockets.

Invest in a smart cover design and ensure all your contact details – phone, email, website – are on the back cover and you’ve got a valuable alternative to a business card.

Downloaded!

If you’ve been building your list based on a free download in return for getting an email address, you may be wondering where you stand in relation to the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).  Can you still offer a free download document with valuable learning for the reader as a part of your marketing strategy?

The answer is ‘yes’, providing you make it clear what you intend to use that email address for. 

The right message in the right place

Of course, nobody wants to clutter up your download box to be cluttered up with lots of policy information so here’s a suggestion (bear in mind this is based on practical experience rather than as a GDPR expert!)
The first thing to address is your Privacy Policy on your website.  This needs to clearly state:

• What information you store obtained from anyone completing forms on your website
• How it’s stored
• For how long you intend to keep it
• What you intend to use information for
• How someone can have their information removed from your list

Ideally, you should have a data management policy for all the data your company has, for customers, suppliers and other miscellaneous contacts.  This should also address all the points above, but for each category of information.

The next step is to ensure that someone who has completed the box offering a free download, knows what they’re signing up to.  I use a double opt-in system like MailChimp or AWeber (there are lots of others) so they get an email asking them to verify they definitely want to be on this list.

When they click the verification link they are taken to a page on my website (hidden to everyone else) where they can download the free document and read the information about what they can expect from being on the list and how to get off it.

For instance on the entry page for my Treasure Chest it says:

If you sign up to gain entry to the Treasure Chest you’ll not only get access to various free documents (and some paid for) to help your business, but you will also receive occasional emails with additional information or offers that are aimed at helping your business.

You can unsubscribe from these emails at any time by using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in the footer of the email.

If you have an existing list it’s wise to drop them a note outlining these points and reminding them that they can unsubscribe.

In reality, most people know that, if they sign up for a free download, they will get marketing by email.  As long as your marketing is loaded with value and written in an engaging way, you’ll keep most of them on your list.

Won an award lately?

If you’ve won an award what can you do to leverage that?  It’s all very well to announce it on the day you win and for the few days following, but then what?
Here’s my suggestions to get the most marketing from the award without people getting fed up with you banging on about it.

1: Write an article

Explain what the key things that contributed to winning your award.  Was it an innovation you’ve developed?  Great customer service strategies?  Spectacular business growth?  Superb staff development? 
Whatever the reasons, expand on them and explain WHY you took the steps you did and WHAT actions contributed to achieving the successful business outcome.  You might even find that there’s more than one article in there!

2: Post in more than one place

The obvious place to post this article is on your blog, but don’t forget to post it on your LinkedIn profile as an article and maybe on any community or industry blogging sites you belong to.  Also consider contacting the industry publications your target audience read and ask if they would be interested.  You might have to edit it a bit to fit a particular publication.

3: Soundbite it

Go through your article and soundbite it.  Take quotes or nuggets of wisdom that will engage and intrigue people.  Use these to create a series of short social media posts suitable for Twitter and LinkedIn updates.  You can post these more than once – especially if the article offers real value and learning for the reader.  If you get 7 posts from it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t repost these once a month.

4: Find a suitable image 

People read content that comes with an image more than content without.  If you have an image of you receiving your award, that’s great for your first social media post, but it’s not very interesting longer term and, as your article should be more about sharing your knowledge than boasting about your award, it’s probably not appropriate. 
Take a look at the royalty-free image sites – Pixabay, Unsplash, FreeImages – or get a bespoke image created by a graphic designer or take a photo yourself, if you can produce a professional looking image. 
If you have a great image you can post this on your Facebook page, Instagram and Pinterest to engage with a different audience.

5: Break it up

Break your article up into shorter pieces.  If you’ve structured it well each section should stand alone sharing one strategy.  These sections can make up a short email series to send to your opted in list.  You can use a P.S. to add a promotional message or call to action.

6: Go video

Video content is becoming more and more prevalent.  People consume it on every platform, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.  There are two ways to use your article – one is to turn it into a series of very short tips – great for Instagram where 15 second gifs are just what people want. 
The other way is to make a longer video where you talk through your article.  You could do this as a talking head (you talking direct to the camera) or as an animated presentation or a series of slides that you narrate.  You can put this on your website, on YouTube, Vimeo or on Facebook. 

7: ‘Rinse and repeat’

Have a posting strategy that isn’t just for the week or month immediately after you’ve won the award.  If your article has real value it will keep helping people for months after your award ceremony, building your reputation and keeping you visible.

Automated communication

If you have a form on your website that gather names and email addresses you’ve got a valuable trigger to build a relationship with a potential client.  It doesn’t matter if this is an enquiry form, a newsletter form or a free download form – if people provide their email address there’s an opportunity.

The problem is that keeping track of dozens or even hundreds of completed forms is a major challenge – and could require a full-time member of staff (or several).  So how can you build relationships without it becoming labour-intensive?

Automation!

If you use an online data-management system that offers an autoresponder service you’ve got a powerful tool (and one many people don’t make use of).  Online data-management tools include AWeber, ConstantContact, GetResponse, MailChimp (the paid version), Infusionsoft and many others.

If someone completes a form generated by one of these systems, you can set up a series of messages to be delivered at intervals of your choice.  So you might have the first message to go out immediately saying ‘thank you for your enquiry/signing up to our newsletter’ etc. and telling them what to expect next.

The second message could go a few days later with an appropriate follow-up message.  Then you can choose the intervals between messages, whether that’s daily, weekly, monthly or at random intervals.

Enquiries

If you have an enquiry form on your website you will almost certainly need a real human being to answer the question asked.  However, as long as you advise them that you will be sending further information and provide the means for them to opt out, it provides an opportunity to stay in touch.

Newsletter subscribers

If people sign up to your newsletter they will expect to hear from you at regular intervals – or even irregular intervals!

Free download

This is usually a document that your target audience perceives to be of value – and to give the greatest value, it’s worth sending some follow up messages.  These might be to encourage them to take action on what they’ve learned from the document – or additional value following on from the original free download.

There are other ways to gather people who may be added to your list of interested parties.

If you deliver any kind of training or run webinars you can set up a series of automated messages to remind people of the key learning points and encourage them to put them into practice.
If you have people who are one-off or occasional clients, you could ask them if they would like to sign up to a series of useful tips.

Staying in-touch with people who have expressed an interest in your business is a great way to ensure they don’t forget you and receive valuable information that creates reciprocity.