Changing gears

It’s been a ‘mare of a year with the pandemic, lockdown, people out of work, companies collapsing, so, if you’ve kept your head above the water - take a bow, you deserve it.

We’ve got a new vocabulary with ‘lockdown’, ‘furlough’, ‘pivot’ and ‘PPE’ all becoming mainstream lingo.  For many small business owners there’s been new ways of doing business too - what with online networking, virtual conferences, digital sales and all kinds of meeting taking place on Zoom (other video platforms are available).

But 2020 is nearly over and, while the pandemic is still likely to have an impact well into 2021, it’s a good time to take a fresh look at your plans for your business.

One plus about the enforced change in the way we live our lives has been that companies of all sizes have had to look at business differently.  What used to work may not do so any longer - at the very least, you’ll have had to find new ways to get the same results.

When you’re planning for 2021 reflect on what you have learned from 2020.

• Are there other ways to carry out your business than you’ve used previously?
• Can you extend your reach geographically by using online options?
• Can your usual service or product be delivered remotely?
• Is there a way to enhance what you do with a digital addition?
• Can you add income streams with new products or a knowledge-based programme?
• Do your team need to work from the office? (and don’t forget that if they’re working from home, they need suitable equipment, computers, chair, etc. as well as digital access to shared files.)
• What new skills do you and your team need to develop to succeed?

Remember that, to achieve your goals, you need a detailed action plan with every task from who to phone, websites to research, learning to complete and anything else needed to move you one step closer to success.

Keep the list of actions somewhere you’ll see every day and put the actions into your diary to ensure they get done.

This review will help to guide your goal setting for the next 3, 6, 12 months.  If you’re smart about how you use what you’ve learned in 2020, there could be a silver-lining to the pandemic cloud.

The importance of an editor

If you’re writing a book and thinking of self-publishing don’t underestimate the need of an editor.  In fact, most smart writers will engage more than one editor.

Why is this so important?

Firstly, it’s almost impossible to edit your own work.  You tend to see what you thought you’d written so don’t always see things that need fixing.  The only remedy is to leave the manuscript for at least a couple of weeks before you go back over it, but that still doesn’t give you an objective perspective.

Secondly, a good editor looks at your content and the concept of your book and will then make suggestions for:

• Where a point or section needs developing
• Where content may need to be relocated in another part of the book
• Where you’ve gone into too much detail
• Where you’ve got off topic
• Where you need to add something - a story, case study or model

This is in addition to correcting grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Typically your first draft would go to your editor for this process and then come back to you for you to work through, accept corrections, do any development work and find additional material where necessary. 

The manuscript would then go back to the editor to tidy up.

Finally - and this is usually the last job before the book goes to be laid out and printed - it goes to a proof-reader to pick up typos and any other anomalies.

If you’re thinking ‘doesn’t Word do that?’, the answer is ‘not everything’.  If you’ve typed ‘where’ instead of ‘wear’ sometimes Word won’t spot that it’s incorrect - it recognises the word.  So ‘there’, ‘their’ and they’re’ are easy to use incorrectly. 

So, I hear you ask ‘why doesn’t my editor do that during the first and second edits?’  They will usually pick most things up, but with corrections and sections being rewritten or moved, it’s easy to overlook the odd thing.  Even in the most reputable publishing houses, the odd typo or apostrophe slips through the net!  The proof-reader doesn’t have anything else to think about - just spotting things that aren’t right.

If you get a contract with a mainstream publishing house, they have editors and proof-readers in-house who do this; that’s why they only pay you 7.5% of net in royalties.  If you’re self-publishing you will need to pay your own editor.  This can range from £15-50 per 1,000 words (more if you need help with the writing), per edit.  Less for proof-reading. 

This may sound like a lot, but it’s worth it as it will affect the impact of your book.  Most self-publishing companies don’t offer editing and proof-reading and will literally publish whatever you give them, regardless of whether it’s good or bad.

When you self-publish your royalties are likely to be 33% to as much as 90% depending on the cost per copy of printing and the price you sell the book at.  This means there are advantages to making the investment up front.

Allow time for editing.  Even the best editors will only edit at around 3,000 words an hour for a first edit and probably won’t want to do more than a couple of sessions of 2-3 hours a day.

Get a good editor and you won’t regret it - it will make a significant difference to the feedback you get from your book.

Don’t frighten the visitors!

When you land on a website, you need certain information quickly to help you make the decision whether to stay or go.  As a website owner, you need to know what your visitors need to know, to help them to make the decision to stay and reduce your website’s ‘bounce rate’.

While web design has evolved over the years, visitor behaviour still relies on engagement.

Put your other hat on - the one where you’re visiting someone else’s website.  When you land you want to know:

• Are you on the right website?
• What does the company do?
• What’s in it for you?

So that’s what needs to be visible on the first page.  The company’s name/brand at the top, something above the ‘fold’ that tells you what they offer and what you get - or at least the kind of problems they help with.

What you don’t want:

• Whizzy graphics
• A video that launches without you asking it to with no indication of how long it lasts
• Not enough information to understand what’s on offer

Every picture tells a story

Images are powerful - but only if they’re relevant.

This means that you need to invest time and thought into finding images that help to get your message across and aren’t just ‘eye-candy’.

Moving picture a.k.a. scrolling marquees can actually dislodge your visitor.  It’s popular to have an image across the top of the page, sometimes with a headline across it.  That’s fine, but if every couple of seconds that whips away to be replaced by another one, that can cause too much distraction for your visitor.

With stop-start motion, every time movement starts again, the visitors eye is pulled back to the image.  If they’re just trying to read the content below the image, that’s not good news, because then they’ve lost their place.  Most of us will only give it a couple of goes before giving up.

The best you can hope for is that the visitor will click to another page on your website, but if they haven’t processed what their next step is, they’re more likely to just exit the site and find something ‘easier’.

Where text wraps around an image, make sure the image is on the right so the visitor reads into it.  When the image is on the left, the eye tends to scan down an image, rather than across it, then reading starts underneath - meaning the introductory part of the message can be skipped altogether.

What’s the moral of this tale?

Think like a visitor when briefing your website designer - and ensure your site is really ‘sticky’, not the equivalent of a trampoline!

Nurturing your list

When someone signs up for your lead magnet, you’ve got their name and email - so now what?

Most email management services include autoresponders as part of their package - and this allows you to nurture your relationship with the people who have shared their contact details.

This is not an excuse to spam them, but it is an opportunity to add value and help them get to know your worth.

Is your lead magnet on target?

If your lead magnet is focused on delivering information that will attract your ideal clients, then creating your autoresponders should be pretty straightforward to plan.

If your lead magnet is more general, it will be harder to follow it up.

The lesson here is that the lead magnet you offer must be exactly that - a lead magnet i.e. it must attract potential clients.  It should not be a carrot for anyone who only wants some free stuff.

Consequently, you need to ensure that both the title and the content of your free giveaway are very specifically targeted to people who need your services.  It’s the difference between:

7 key strategies to finance your next property investment - and get your money out fast

NOT

7 tips for property people

People who subscribe to your highly focused lead magnet have now self-identified themselves as potential clients.  Yes, a few will be tyre kickers, but they will be tyre kickers with a demonstrated interest in a very focused subject.

Follow up is critical

How many documents have you downloaded at some time - and never read?  You meant to read them, but got busy and forgot all about them.  So your next job is to ensure your subscribers don’t just forget the massive value you’ve given them.

The secret is to set up a series of follow up emails to pull out the key points in your free document and encourage them to read and apply.  For instance:

On sign up:  Thanks for requesting [lead magnet name], I hope you find it useful.  If you have any questions get in touch.

Day 1: Have you started reading yet? Best tip is on page X

Day4:  Did you check out [key point].  What difference will it make to your business?

Day 8: Have you had time to apply any of the tips? Which was the most useful?

Day 15:  Have you put your action plan together?

Etc, etc,

With autoresponders set up, these emails are automatically scheduled from the point the subscriber signs up.

You could add some P.S.s to remind them about other opportunities you offer, but don’t launch a big sales pitch.

Providing your newsletters are full of value, you can send these as well.  Everything is aimed at educating your list about how good you are at what you do and leading them to take the next step and pay for your services. 

Become a vlogger!

There are lots of people who make a considerable income from video content - mostly on YouTube - they’re known as vloggers (short for video web loggers).

YouTube is a powerful platform - it’s not only the second largest search engine that people use (after Google), but when people search on YouTube, they stay on YouTube - they don’t immediately go off to another website.  That means that, if your channel is set up properly, you’ve got an already engaged audience, ready for the next video you’ve got to offer.

The challenge for most people is that they don’t have a fully functional video-recording suite installed - and having professionally produced videos can run up a substantial bill.

The good news is that there are some handy ways to give even an amateur video a little polish.

1. Today’s mobile phones have high quality cameras, if you choose to talk to a camera, it’s going to be good enough.

a. Go for a plain background.  Anything cluttered will take people’s attention off you.  If you have the facility for a decent greenscreen then go for it, but a plain wall is absolutely fine.

b. Record in landscape - not portrait.

c. Invest in a holder for your mobile phone.  I use a small tripod so I don’t have to worry about holding the phone.

d. Place your phone at eye level - never look down into the camera, it looks as though you’re looking down on your viewer, which sends the wrong subliminal messages (and gives them a view of your double chin and nostrils!) 

2. If you don’t want to appear on camera there are plenty of ways to create videos without having to do that.

a. Create a PowerPoint of your presentation and then record it with you doing the voiceover.  You can subscribe to a service such as ShowMore or, if you have Zoom or a similar online meeting service, you can open a meeting and record it as a screenshare and download the recording.

b. You can subscribe to a service such as Doodly, to create animated content.  This creates an attractive and professional video - BUT, if all your videos use this, people can get bored, they all start to look the same after you’ve seen a couple!

c. The software we use most in-house is Vidnami (formerly Content Samurai).  This lets you create a script, then automatically adds scenes (images and film clips) to this script - all of which is editable.  You can add a voice over - either automated or your own voice - or choose just background music from their royalty-free library.  You can upload video clips and your own images too.  

3. Set your channel up professionally.

a. Pick your core key phrase or words and name your channel with that - use SEO tools such as AnswerthePublic and UberSuggest to help you to refine this.

b. Create thumbnails for your videos so the opening screen looks good.  You can do this with a free graphics programme such as Canva.  This is a great tool for creating your banner for the Channel too.

c. Create playlists to link your videos together around each subject.

d. Learn how to optimise your videos so they come up at the top end of searches for your key phrase.

This should be enough to get you started as a vlogger for your business.

How to make your sales funnel work

 

If you haven’t read the blog on How to build a sales funnel , read that first.

Now you have your plan in place for what you are going to offer at the four levels of your sales funnel:

Free

Low cost

Bread & butter

Premium

Now you need to know how to get people into the top of the funnel and what tools you need to make it work.

Entice people into the top level

First, create a lead magnet.  This is something you give away that has perceived high value for your target market.  Typically it is a pdf knowledge-based document that people can download.

It must have value for your niche.  The more specific, the better as that means that all the people who want to download it are potential customers.

You’ll need a landing page, a form and a means of capturing and storing names and email addresses in a list.

You’ll also need a thank you page where the download is available - only accessible after people have completed the subscribe form.  If you’re smart you can upsell people to level 2 on this page as well.

Then you need to tell people the document is available and give them the landing page link.  You can do this on social media, in your newsletter, on the foot of your blogs, on your email signature - etc. etc.

How to move people to level 2

Now people are on your list you can legitimately email them.  Ideally, you need to aim for good quality content to keep them engaged.  Alongside this you can upsell them to your low cost item.

You could also invest in some digital ads to bring in more paying customers.  You’d need some expert advice on your return on investment though.

Convert customers to clients

Time to add more value!  Two ways to do this are:

1. Run a free webinar where you share your expertise and knowledge, aimed specifically at the kind of people you want as clients.  Then use this to upsell to your next level (Bread and Butter) as paying clients.
2. Start a private group on Facebook or LinkedIn (depending on where your ideal clients hang out) and deliver lots of value.  Run occasional ‘live’ broadcasts to promote your paid service.

Whether you’re offering a course, a subscription or something else, this is the point where people can see what they’re getting free, which gives them an indication of what’s available in the paid level.

Upgrade clients to high value

Once people have committed to pay for your services, they’ve given you their seal of approval.  Some of these people will become raving fans - and they’ll be ready to pay higher fees to work with you on a 1-2-1 basis.  This will build your consultancy practice. 

Don’t forget to let your clients know that this service is available, whether it’s something subtle, like a line on the foot of emails you send only to paying clients or even on the invoice they get for their subscription. 

A robust sales funnel makes attracting clients much easier.

How to build a sales funnel

 

If you want to create an ongoing flow of leads, without spending all day doing cold calls, you need a sales funnel.

Before you get too excited this isn’t some kind of magic spell - but it is a process that can be put in place.  It’s not an accident that people refer to ‘building’ sales funnel.  There are a number of steps that you need to put in place one at a time.

The critical first step is to plan out your sales funnel; and the bonus is that you don’t need to have everything in place to get started.

Why is it called a ‘funnel’?

Typically a sales funnel has four key levels, although some people add one or two more.  The key levels to start with are:

1.      Top level: the widest part of the funnel.  This is your free level where you offer something that self-identifies the people who are interested in the service or products you offer. 

That means that your free offer needs to be closely aligned with what your core offering is.  Your aim is to get as many people interested as possible.  Not all of them will turn into customers, but some of them will.

In order to get access to your free offer, ask people to provide their name and email - and that builds your marketing list.

2.      Second level: the funnel is a bit narrower, but still pretty wide.  This is where you offer a low cost item.  This is something that will appeal to the same audience as your free offer, but provides a more in-depth level of information.

This could include a book, workbooks, a short course; it should be something with a clear outcome.  If you’re selling products, this level could be a webinar that shows people how to achieve specific result with your products.  You’ll need to be creative with how you present this!

Low cost can be anything from £5 to around £50.  This makes it accessible to people even those who don’t have a huge budget.

3.      Third level: the funnel is starting to narrow because fewer people will pass from the top level, through the second level and sign up here.  This is your main bread and butter level.

For many businesses this can be the ‘one-to-many’ model.  For instance, a private subscription membership that offers regular insights, learning tools, knowledge sharing, etc.

If your business sells products rather than services, this might be a more sophisticated product or something that does much more than the low cost level.

4.      Bottom level: the premium level where you work 1-2-1 with those clients who value your knowledge, skills and experience and are willing to pay a premium for that.

The idea is to get lots of people in at the top of the funnel and then encourage them to work through each level.  At every level you must deliver massive value - or people will opt-out.

Clearly, there is more to it than simply putting the levels in place - there needs to be activity around each level to make them link to each other. 

Look out for next week’s blog where I’ll explore this in more depth.

7 tips to get media coverage

When it comes to getting noticed you need to be media savvy and get the attention of the people who can get you into print (or broadcast).  Here are a few tips to help you make the right connections.

1: Search Twitter for #journorequest  

When freelancers are looking for content for articles they’re writing they often use this to resource potential experts.

2: Search LinkedIn for the publications you’d like to feature in  

There are loads of journalists and editors on LinkedIn and building relationships with them is a great way to open the door for being featured.

3: Make friends with your local radio station

Local radio stations are always looking for good interviews, if you have something worth saying or an unusual take on something you’ve got a good chance of getting on.  For the smaller local stations you may even be offered a regular slot if you can talk about your pet subject in an entertaining way.

Remember that your local BBC station is where the national news and magazine programmes look for interesting topics.

4: Know where you want to be featured

Put together your ideal publications list and get on the phone.  Talk to the relevant editor and find out what they’re looking for.  You’re far more likely to get published than submitting a random press release to dozens of publications.

5: Sign up to an online PR service

There are dozens of PR sites where you can submit your press releases.  Here’s a list of some of them.  There’s no guarantee that your press release will be picked up, but the better written and the more interesting it is, the better chance you have.

Although many of these sites are based in the US - that doesn’t mean they’re not used by the worldwide press.  Some are subject to a subscription.

6. Register as an expert source

There are sites where you can register as an expert - for an annual subscription - to put you in front of a variety of media.  One of the best known in the UK is Expert Sources.

7. Stay in touch with your industry leaders

Follow the influencers in your industry.  Keep in touch with what they’re saying - connect with them on social media.  The more informed and well-connected you are the more opportunities will come up.  It’s all about who you know!

 

I love it when a plan comes together!

In any business planning is important - but while some business owners set goals, they don’t always translate those into specific activities.

Creating goals is only the first step in achieving success.  You can’t ‘do’ a goal - it’s a result not an activity.  Every goal requires action and big goals may have a few milestones along the way to achieve first.  That means a lot of planning.

It’s easy to say ‘as long as I know what my goal is and stay focused, I’ll get there’,  That’s a bit like saying ‘as long as I know what this cake will look like when it’s cooked, I can guess at the ingredients and the cake will be perfect’.

OK, if you’re Mary Berry, you may be right, but we need to know what tools/ingredients are required, what process needs to be followed, in which order and how long it takes to bake.  Achieving any goal is no different.

Here’s my system.

• Write down all your goals
• Prioritise them so you know which ones are the most important
• Turn each goal into a ‘to do’ list, be specific and detailed - every phone call, every piece of information needed.
• Put the tasks into your schedule and do them when they come up.

If there are other people involved, get them to contribute to the list generation and put tasks into their diaries too.  Make sure someone (you?) is managing the plan - so things don’t get off-track.  Remind people of deadlines so the plan stays on schedule.

Apply this to all areas of the business

As a great deal of what we do is around content generation, I’m always astonished when people ask us to write a website or some blogs, but when we ask the question “Why do you need this content?” the answers are anything but specific.  We get:

“Our website needs updating,” but no reason why or what the new focus is or what the target for it is.

“We need to publish blogs,” good idea, but it needs some kind of rationale behind it.  Who are you trying to influence?  What are they looking for?  How can you help them?

“We need to be visible on social media,” an excellent plan, but which social platforms, what kind of material and what do you want people to do when they read your posts?

• Why are you doing this?
• Who is it for?
• Where do they hang out?
• What kind of material are they looking for?
• When are they active?
• Which criteria will you measure to know what is working?
• How will you convert them from ‘interested’ to ‘purchasers’?

When it comes to content it’s just as important to have a sound strategy with the activities that support it.

The truth about becoming an author

There’s more to becoming an author than planning and writing a book.  There are lots of decisions that you need to make - these are a few things to think about.

Is there a market for this?

While everyone wants to stand out and be unique, if no books are listed on your core subject you’ll need to find out why.  Of course, you may have hit on something absolutely brand new, but there’s a reason why most mainstream publishers are reluctant to take on something completely untried. 

Check out the bookshops - online or offline - and look at the catalogues of publishers that publish this genre.  This should give you an idea of what else has been written around your subject or style.  If there are a few popular books around the subject, that means you’ve got a good chance of building a good readership.

How will you publish?

When J.K. Rowling published her first Harry Potter book in the mid 1990s, most authors had to go through the mill of submitting their manuscript for review and getting rejection slips (J.K. Rowling got 12 rejections before Bloomsbury picked up the first Harry Potter). 

Self-publishing was considered to come under the heading of ‘vanity publishing’.  However, independent publishing (Indie) is now much more mainstream and there are many ways to publish your manuscript, whether it’s print-on-demand, ebooks, audio books or a combination.

Investment

The days of juicy advances have gone, even with the big publishing houses.  A well-known name might be offered an advance, but unknown authors rarely get them.  However, if you do get a contract with a mainstream publisher you will get editing, cover graphics, the cover blurb and the book layout included as part of the deal.  That’s why your percentage of net is likely to be less than 10%.

With independent or self-publishing you can set your book price and make a much higher percentage of net.  BUT you will need to pay for your own editing, cover graphics, write your own blurb (a different skill to writing the main text) and pay for the book to be laid out - at least if you want it to look professional. 

This means a substantial investment up front - editing of a 50,000 word book can cost at least £2,000 - if you use a professional editor (don’t be tempted by a third-world editor who is cheap - it will show).

Marketing

Mainstream publishers do far less marketing than you would imagine.  So, if your book is to be successful, you need to have a sound marketing plan regardless of how you publish it. 

Who are your market?  Where do they look for books like yours?  How do you engage with them?  What do you need to do to have a successful book launch? Your book will disappear with barely a ripple if you don’t put some effort into it (I’ve made this mistake and know what I’m talking about!)

You’ll need marketing pre-launch to build momentum and then continue to market your book to keep sales coming in.

A bit of planning and research is worth its weight in gold.  Get some training in book marketing and you’ll get a  bigger chunk of income.

If you want to do some video learning - check this out.

How to get your web copy on target

When you start writing copy for your website – or are about to undertake a revamp – you need to do more than decide what you want to say.

The first thing you need to do is to find out what people are looking for when they come to your website. 

• What keywords do they search on? 
• What are the problems they’re trying to solve?
• What information are the looking for?

That might sound obvious, and the answer for most people is knee-jerk – “My services” (or “My products”).  However, it’s not as simple as that.  People don’t just buy what you do or what you sell, they buy the experience of working with you or doing business with you.

If you’re not sure of the answer – it’s time to do a little research.  Personally, I find key word research is mind-blowing, you get so much information it can put you into overwhelm.  However, it’s worth doing a little digging, to ensure you’re delivering the right information.

There are a couple of useful tools: 

Answerthepublic.com

This has a free option and a paid option.  The free one only allows you one search per day, but if you type your key words in, it generates ‘maps’ of all the questions people ask around those keywords.

Ubersuggest.com

You type your keywords in and this will give you a list of all the associated words, the number of searches, the cost per click and other useful information.  My advice to avoid getting bogged down in this kind of list is to just look at the top ten.  However, you can look at the top ten for more than one set of keywords.

Remember that each of your services/product pages will have its own keywords.

I was helping a client to get their marketing material focused; he was a business consultant that specialised in the people end of project management.  He thought that people bought his project management skills and understanding of how people approach a project, but, when he asked his clients what they got from working with him, he was astounded at the feedback he got!

“You do what you say you will.”

“You turn up on time, don’t make a big deal and get the job done on time.”

“We know we can rely on you to deliver what you promise – without disrupting our workplace.”

Now he has a completely different focus for how he presents his services.  He’s still delivering the same services, but he’s focused on the experience people get from working with him, not on what he does.

I always encourage clients to actively resource testimonials – real testimonials, not therapy!  Let me explain – left to themselves most clients are happy to provide a testimonial and most of them are along the lines of:

“Working with Susan was a great experience, she was easy to talk to and made the process really easy.”

If you think that’s a good testimonial – think again – that’s therapy!  It’s only one part of the three parts you need.  Most clients are delighted to tell you how much they like you, but they forget the critical parts of the equation – what did you do and what were the results?

An ideal testimonial should look like this:

“Susan took on our recruitment strategy development and not only made the process really easy, but cut our recruitment costs from £500 per new member of staff down to £300.  She’s also reduced the management time spent in interviewing by 40% and the candidates we’re recruiting are much better quality.”

Can you see the difference?  Anything that’s measurable in numbers is like gold dust as most people are very conscious of the return on investment in the services they hire in.

What else should you be asking your clients for while they’re happily completing testimonials for you?  That’s easy – referrals – “Who else do you know who would benefit in the same way as you have from my services?”  They always know someone!  Don’t forget to add “Would you introduce me?” and then watch your business grow without having to do cold calls.

When you have all the information about what people are looking for, it will make it much easier to create the content.  The result will be that visitors to your site can see you deliver exactly what they want. 

Why send a newsletter?

Newsletters are part of your email marketing strategy, but just randomly sending them out, isn’t good marketing.  They need to have purpose.

If you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll know that a newsletter that is simply keeping people up-to-date with your organisation’s progress, isn’t interesting or likely to keep them subscribed and reading.  A good newsletter is content-rich.

But we’re getting ahead of the game here - let’s look at your lists first.  Who is on them?  What steps did they take to get on your list in the first place?  They must have subscribed by a process - and, unless they already know you, the chances are they didn’t fill in a form on your website that invited them to sign up to your newsletter.  We all have far too much stuff in our inbox to ask for yet another newsletter. 

Most people sign up to a list in exchange for information of value to them - if that’s what got them on your list, most information around the same subject will be of interest. 

If people are on your list because they’ve bought from you before, that means they’ve already identified themselves as clients - that means they’ll be interested in other products or services in the same field.

I’m not suggesting that your newsletters should be sales pitches for something similar to what the people in that list have already signed up for - or, at least, not ONLY a pitch.  A newsletter is your chance to build rapport and develop the relationship your readers have with you.

That means a newsletter needs to be:

• Engaging - written in a conversational, rather than corporate style
• Educational - there needs to be content that will help people to understand or learn about something of value to them
• Entertaining - include stories (although you may call them case studies or customer feedback) - everyone loves a story!

In addition, you can sneak in your promotions - especially if they promise massive value to the reader as well.  If the lead article sets up how important a certain activity or tool is, then the promotion offers them access to exactly what they need - it enhances your sales potential.

These things don’t happen by accident!

My formula for a great newsletter:

• A headline that screams ‘open me’ - this needs to be something that they can’t resist finding out more about.
• A lead article that delivers fantastic value - or great entertainment.
• Your promotion
• Some more value. 

      You’ll find people actually look forward to getting your emails and it’s easier to convert them into clients.

All social platforms are not equal

Social media is a fantastic way to put your business in the spotlight - providing you do it in the right way - but which social platform do you choose - or should you just hit them all?

This is all about your client - if you know who you’re aiming to reach, that will help you to decide which social platforms will work best for you.  Also knowing who you want to talk to will also inform HOW you use your chosen platform too.

Let’s look at some of the big players.

LinkedIn

Ideal if you sell business-to-business (B2B), but it takes a lot more than just having a profile and posting the occasional comment. 

• Optimise your profile for your ideal client
• Have a content posting plan for both updates and articles
• Use the search function to find people in the companies you want to reach
• Join the groups where your target market are active (this is likely to be some trial and error, but persevere)
• Connect with existing and former clients and request they post testimonials (recommendations) on your profile.

LinkedIn advertising has not got a great reputation for success, but there is lots of engagement on the home page if you post good stuff, which often opens the door to useful relationships.

LinkedIn launched in 2003, and was bought by Microsoft in December 2016.

Facebook

Most people are in ‘social’ mode on Facebook, so, while there are tons of business pages the most successful businesses are those selling direct to the consumer (B2C).  People do buy things on Facebook, but think gifts, learning and personal development, wedding-related things, sports equipment and self-help.

That doesn’t mean that businesses that sell to other businesses don’t hang out on Facebook, but they often find it’s a great way to build their lists with Facebook ads, with a view to upselling via email later on.

The big plus is that Facebook ads can be highly targeted with a wide range of demographics so only the people who you want to see your ad will do so.

Facebook groups are also a good way to promote your business - with a higher level of engagement than LinkedIn, but don’t use them just to sell or people will vote with the ‘leave group’ button!

Messenger is the Facebook messaging system (and Facebook also owns WhatsApp, although, at the time of writing this wasn’t integrated into the Facebook offering).

Instagram

This is a highly visual platform, owned by Facebook.  It’s all about images and short video clips.  As a business tool it’s great to show off products and visual results from services. 

For instance, Joe Wicks (the Body Coach) used Instagram to build his hugely successful fitness and nutrition business, with before and after images and high speed recipe demos.  His quirky personality came over loud and clear and gathered millions of followers.

It’s fairly random as a wide range of users are on Instagram, both personal and business.  Think of it as a shop window, rather than the sales counter.

For businesses that are more service oriented, such as coaches, consultants and therapist, you’ll need to be creative in getting your message across.  This might be using video testimonials or quotes presented in a visual format.

Instagram was launched in 2010 and acquired by Facebook in 2012.  It can now be managed directly from your Facebook page, which makes life easier for people working on a desktop/laptop rather than a smartphone.

Pinterest

Pinterest is also a highly visual platform, but the difference between Pinterest and Instagram is that, on Pinterest images are sorted by subject, rather than just by the user.  This means that it’s easy to compare similar items and Pinterest has become a very popular platform for people to check out products.

Although the concept is simple, based on digitally pinning images to a board around a specific subject, each image has the facility to add up to 500 characters of content and a specific web link.  This gives it the edge of Instagram, where words are few and the only link is the one you put on your profile.

The stats indicate that Pinterest sales outstrip Facebook by about 4:1.  Launched in 2009, currently Pinterest is owned independently of other social media/internet companies.

YouTube

Although YouTube is a video library, it’s also the second most used search engine after Google.  The difference being that when you search on Google, you leave Google to go where the link takes you.  When you search on YouTube your link takes you to somewhere on the YouTube platform.

If you’ve set up your YouTube channel well, it can be a powerful marketing tool, promoting more of your own content. 

It’s an opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise to help your viewer in some way.

Again it’s important to plan your content and create videos that represent your business positively.  You can use it for training, product launches, information, video blogs and much more.

YouTube was launched early in 2005 and bought by Google late in 2006.

Of course, there are other popular social platforms, such as Snapchat and TikTok, but they are still to develop the level of firepower that the well-established networks give business owners.

What’s the point of a blog?

 

If you’re not an enthusiastic blogger you can be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about.  You hear people rambling on about ‘Content is King’ and how important it is to be writing good content, but why?

The simple answer is ‘visibility’, but there’s much more to it than that.

An article can:

• Be a huge reputation builder for you and it gives you good quality content to share in social media, on your website and by email.
• Establish you as an authority in your industry and attract the media, giving you opportunities to be the ‘go-to expert’ for print, digital and broadcast media.
• Maintain your visibility without having to come up with fresh content every time you go online.
• Show off your expertise, demonstrate your knowledge and educate potential clients.

This last point is particularly important.  If someone is looking for the kind of help you offer, there will almost always be competition.  They’ll have a friend who knows someone, or a networking contact who does that, one of their clients might give them a recommendation.  But all these are contacts that are based on someone else’s opinion.

If you’ve been writing great content that shares your knowledge and shows people the depth of expertise you can offer, they don’t need someone else to recommend you (although it won’t do any harm if you have great testimonials too).  They can form their own opinion based on what they’ve read and can see you know.

Blogs are there to inform and educate, not to sell your services, but to demonstrate them.

Don’t reinvent the wheel

If you’re beginning to see the point, finding things to write about might be a bit of a challenge.  But I bet you talk to people about your services all the time.  You talk to potential clients, you talk to your networking connections, you answer questions people ask.  That’s all potential blog material.

You can write:

• How to’ articles explaining something that your clients find useful
• Tips to help people in your target market to make life easier
• An outline of common mistakes people make, and how to avoid them
• Your opinion on a topical item - explaining your rationale
• The answer to a frequently asked question
• What’s the latest new development in your industry - and why it’s important for your readers.

And that’s just for starters.

When you’ve written your blog don’t forget to share the link on social media - not just on the day you post it, but next week, next month and, if it’s not topical, next year too.

Get it out to your newsletter list - they almost certainly won’t have spotted it on your website and have already ‘told’ you (they signed up) they’re interested in what you do.

Don’t forget that fresh content on your website keeps the search engines interested too, so they visit your website more often.

Get on that keyboard and get yourself noticed!

5 steps to make a strategy work

When we meet new clients the first question is ‘what are your goals?’  This is not just for their social media, blogs, website or whatever they need help with, but the overall business goals.  

Why is this important?  Simply, because if we understand what their business aims to achieve, we can give better advice about what activities will help them to get there.

Having goals isn’t the first step - it’s what comes before the first step - let’s call it Step 0.

Here are the five steps to success:

1. Who are your target clients?

Not just a generic group, but a detailed profile of the people who would be an absolutely perfect client for you.  Get into the detail (this might help), this will help you to get really focused.

2. Why you?

Before you start trying to influence people, it’s important to know why they would choose you.  This is where you need to find out why your clients like you/what you do for them?  Don’t guess, ask.  It’s not about what you do - it’s about what they get.

3. Where do you find them?

When you understand who you’re trying to reach, you now need to work out where they hang out - both online and offline.  This will allow you to focus on the right people in the right places, rather than just hoping the right people will see - and get - your message.

4. Review your options

Now it’s time to look at the tools you have available.  If you’re trying to put a marketing campaign together, you’ll need to review:

• The social media that will best engage your target clients; whether LinkedIn will have a better reach than Facebook, for instance.  
• Which publications your target customer reads and how you might get published in those.
• What type of information they will respond to best, to inform what you blog about, put out on social media and include in newsletters or email campaigns.

Now you can create your strategy of what you’ll do, where you’ll do it and how it will be followed up.

5. Means, manpower and measurement

This is ‘who does what, when and how - and how do we know if it’s working?’  With a clear strategy, this is where tactics come into play.

None of these are set in stone, circumstances change, goals evolve and people have new ideas.  All these need reviewing regularly to ensure that your strategy remains valid to achieve your goals.

Is a book a step too far?

They say everyone has a book in them, but, if writing isn’t your primary skill, it can feel like an impossible mountain to climb.  However, you don’t have to write 50,000 words to become an author.

There are many ways to deliver your content, besides actually sitting down to plan and write a book.  My advice is to start with the baby steps.

Baby step 1:  Plan to succeed

You don’t have to have a massive creative mind to write good content.  Much of it is about planning, whether you’re writing a blog, a speech, a proposal or an academic dissertation.  A good structure to get you started comes in 5 parts:

1. Introduction: what is this about?
2. Key point 1: your first point with associated explanation.
3. Key point 2: your next point with any supporting facts/data
4. Key point 3: your third point with information that helps people to understand
5. Conclusion: the ‘so what’ of your item, why it’s important to the reader, how they can use the information, the benefits of applying it, etc.

As you get into writing regularly you’ll find you can create different structures, but this is a good place to start.  It makes writing your blog or article easy for the reader to digest - and easier for you to write as you have a framework to work with.

Baby step 2:  Get the blogging habit

Writing is a discipline and a habit.  If you find it tough to tackle writing a big project, start with a small one.  A blog doesn’t have to be a thousand words, it can be just 300 words as long as it makes a point or explains a useful process.

Baby step 3: Create a lead magnet

A lead magnet is a document that potential customers will find interesting, so it needs to have real value.  Whereas a blog may be your opinion, a lead magnet needs to have a solid ‘how to’ in it, to educate people and help them do something they don’t already know how to do.

Typically a lead magnet can be anything from a single page to around 20 pages, but there are no rules that say it has to be a particular length.  Plan your lead magnet as a longer article and ensure it delivers something you’re an expert in.  It might be 5 tips or 7 steps or 3 things to avoid, that will help you to get your structure in place.

Baby step 4: Write an ebook

If you’ve used planning strategies, written a regular blog post and created a lead magnet you’re ready for the next step - writing an ebook.  

The good thing about an ebook is that it doesn’t have to be any particular length.  You go about this in exactly the same way as your blog and your lead magnet, it’s just longer.  

The big tip is to review all your current blogs as you have almost certainly already got material you can recycle into a book.  I once wrote a blog every day for a month and then recycled them into a book - editing, reordering and adding action points every day.   

Baby step 5: The final one!

Now you’ve created an ebook - and you know you can do it.  Writing that full-length book is no longer a big step, it’s just another step along the way.

Of course, if you really find writing difficult you can get help with all of these activities - that’s what we do for our clients.

 

10 ways to make your lead magnet work

Lead magnets don’t work!  While the name implies that potential clients are magically attracted to you via your lead magnet, there’s no magic involved!

If you haven’t heard of a ‘lead magnet’, it’s something of value that you give away in exchange for the recipient’s contact details.  That puts them into your marketing funnel.  Typically, this is a pdf download that delivers information of value to your ideal client audience.

When loads of people use these to grow their lists - why don’t they work?

One of my clients asked me if I would guarantee that the lead magnet we’re working on would deliver results.  I had to say ‘no’.  I can help clients to create attractive documents with bags of value for their audience - but I can’t guarantee that their list will grow as I have no control over how they promote it.

If you rely on the odd person noticing it on your website and downloading it, you’re probably going to get one or two people added to your list a month.  However, if you invest a little in promoting it on Facebook ads or even Google ads, you could end up with hundreds of new sign ups every week.

If you don’t want to spend money on growing your list here are some other ways to get more sign-ups:

• Email all your existing clients with the link to sign up.
• Email everyone else you know with the link to sign up (you’ll need to do these individually if you want to stay compliant with data protection).  Don’t write off friends and family, even if they’re not in business they know people who are.
• Send new connections on your social media the link to your sign-up page and invite them to take advantage of your freebie.
• Put the link to the download in your social media profiles.
• Put the link into your email signature.
• Print the link on the back of your business card.
• Get a digital business card and have the form so people can sign up directly from the digital document.
• Tell people about it in your networking 60 seconds presentations.
• Get the document title and link signwritten on your company vehicle.
• Get leaflets or postcards made with the image of the document and the link to sign up made and do a drop round all the local businesses near you.

You just need a bit of creativity - and your list will grow.

Get your web copy on target

When you start writing copy for your website – or are about to undertake a revamp – you need to do more than decide what you want to say.

The first thing you need to do is to find out what people are looking for when they come to your website. 

• What keywords do they search on?  
• What are the problems they’re trying to solve?
• What information are they looking for?

If you’re not sure of the answer – and your friendly web designer can’t tell you from the statistics – then you need to find out what your existing clients buy from you.

That might sound obvious, and the answer for most people is knee-jerk – ‘My services’ (or ‘My products’).  However, it’s not as simple as that.  People don’t just buy what you do or what you sell, they buy the experience of working with you or doing business with you.

I was helping a client to get their marketing material focused; he was a business consultant that specialised in the people end of project management.  He thought that people bought his project management skills and understanding of how people approach a project, but, when he asked his clients what they got from working with him, he was astounded at the feedback he got!

“You do what you say you will.”

“You turn up on time, don’t make a big deal and get the job done on time.”

“We know we can rely on you to deliver what you promise – without disrupting our workplace.”

Now he has a completely different focus for how he presents his services.  He’s still delivering the same services, but he’s focused on the experience people get from working with him, not on what he does.

When you’re writing content for your website it’s not about what you do (or sell), it’s about what the reader gets.  That means your content should be focused on ‘you’, not ‘we’.

Third party validation

There’s nothing like someone else banging your drum for you!  People expect you to say you’re good at what you do on your website, but it’s much better when someone else says it.

Most clients are happy to provide a testimonial often along the lines of:

“Working with Susan was a great experience, she was easy to talk to and made the process really easy.”

If you think that’s a good testimonial – think again – that’s therapy!  It’s only one part of the three parts you need.  Most clients are delighted to tell you how much they like you, but they forget the critical parts of the equation – what did you do and what did they get?

An ideal testimonial should look like this:

“Susan took on our recruitment strategy development and not only made the process really easy, but cut our recruitment costs from £500 per new member of staff down to £300.  She’s also reduced the management time spent in interviewing by 40% and the candidates we’re recruiting are much better quality.”

Can you see the difference?  Anything that’s measurable in numbers is like gold dust as most people are very conscious of the return on investment in the services they hire in.

What else should you be asking your clients for while they’re happily completing testimonials for you?  That’s easy – referrals – “Who else do you know who would benefit in the same way as you have from my services?”  They always know someone!  Don’t forget to add “Would you introduce me?” and then watch your business grow without having to do cold calls.

5 tips to make Pinterest work

Pinterest is one of those social platforms that people either ‘get’ or don’t.  People have heard about it, but don’t really know how to make it work.

It’s particularly good if you’re selling products or services direct to the consumer, but it can work for B2B too.  Here are my top 5 tips to make Pinterest work for you.

1: Focus first

Before you start creating content, think about who you want to influence.  When you know that you can do your research to find out what they are looking for.  A good way to do this is to use one of the free SEO tools to see the kind of thing people are talking about.

Try Ubersuggest.org or Answerthepublic.com (the latter only allows you one free search per day, but you could upgrade or just do your research over time).

This will ensure you create content that will attract those people.

If you don’t do this you’re likely to end up taking the approach of ‘if you create enough content someone will notice eventually’.  This means you’ll end up putting a lot of effort in to get a result you might get far more easily.

2: Plan your boards

Consider what subjects your boards will be.  I made the mistake of not doing this when I started on Pinterest and ended up with some random boards. 

Remember that Pinterest is, effectively, like having a bunch of pin boards that you pin images to around a subject.  The subject is important as images tagged with the board will have the board name attached as a tag.

If you have areas of specialism then that’s a good place to start, but always remember that what you DO isn’t what people GET.  If you can come up with a board name that reflects what your potential customers will search for, you’ll get more views.

3: Create a content plan

The biggest challenge for any social media platform is generating great content.  If you want to avoid that ‘blank-screen’ syndrome the best way is to have a plan.

I suggest you make a list of all the things you deliver, whether that’s products or services and then sub-divide these into more specific categories.  So, for instance, I might have a board called ‘Social media’, but that would include subheadings such as LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn company pages, Facebook pages, Facebook groups, Facebook ads, etc.

Then you need to look at what might make interesting images around each subheading.  It doesn’t have to be just an image - it can include words; infographics work well on Pinterest, but don’t overload the image with content, just because there’s more space!

4: Add a description

When you’ve created your graphic (check out Canva.com for loads of professional templates) you’ll find that there is an option to add a description (that’s the ‘tell everyone what your Pin is about’ section).  Don’t ignore this - write a description that includes at least one of your key words and phrases, and add hashtags too.  This will help your pin to get found in searches.

Also add a destination link - this is usually your website, but, rather than just stick your web address in, link the pin to a relevant service or product page or a blog around the subject.

5: Check out other people’s pins for more great content

Like all social media, Pinterest should not be a one-way street.  Pinterest is good at finding pins that are around the same keywords your boards and previous pins carry  and makes it easy by emailing these to you for review.

Do make it a habit to repin other people’s posts around your core subject boards - it adds depth and variety to your boards and engages other pinners.