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.