Web logs made easy

That sounds soooooo boring – but that’s where the term ‘blog’ came from.  It was originally a sort of online diary – think ‘Captain’s log web date …’ from Star Trek.

These days a blog article is so much more than a diary post, but if you remember the origin of the word, that might help to give you some ideas for what to write.

You could:

• Write about something that has happened to you this week, using it to make a point.
• Explore a question someone has asked you, in detail.
• Write a case study (a story) about a project you’ve worked on.
• Think about something you’ve done for a customer and explain how it all works.
• Pick something that’s been in the news and write something topical that relates to your business on the subject.
• Take a testimonial you’ve received from a client and explain what you did to get the accolade.
• If your business lends itself to before and after pictures, you could use these to explain the transition from before to after.
• You could do a profile of one of your team, explaining how they help your customers, the problems they solve and outcomes they get.
• If you support a charity, you could write an article about the charity, how you work with them and why you chose them.
• If you use particular equipment to deliver your service to customers, you could talk about how it makes life better for them (and your team).

Take a look at your diary and see what you’ve been doing during the week and then get creative.  However, there must be something that makes that interesting and/or useful for the reader. 

It’s all about structure

If you’ve never written a book before, it can seem like a mammoth task, but, if you get the right structure in place, writing is made much easier.

There are three elements that create your building blocks in a non-fiction book:

1: The chapters and how they flow.

2: The ‘recipe’ that you’ll apply to each chapter, so you have a pattern into which your content fits.

3: The content for each chapter.

Build your ‘story’

If you’re writing non-fiction, it’s easy to ignore the story aspect.  But even in a non-fiction book there must be flow, so the chapters need to move logically from one subject to the next.  

Even if you write chapters that can be read in isolation, like in a handbook or a ‘how to …’ guide, there must be some progression in from chapter to chapter.  For instance, when I wrote The R.A.V.E. Toolkit, I wanted to give people a reference book that would help them to market their small businesses, but the chapters began with the basics and worked up to more complex marketing tactics as the book progressed.

With The Reputation Gap, my co-author, Peter Roper, and I started by setting the scene and then progressed through various aspects of reputation building, with sections featuring case studies and then the action plan.

Every book is unique and needs a structure that works for the subject and the author.  It may not be a story in the traditional sense, but there needs to be something to lead the reader on their journey from subject to subject.

Once you have your chapter subjects established, it’s time to go a step closer to your content.

Create your chapter recipe

This is particularly relevant for non-fiction books.  Before you begin writing, create a format that you will apply to each chapter.

This may include:

• Quotations
• Stories/anecdotes
• Case studies
• Models
• Examples
• Practical things to do
• A summary – either at the beginning or end of the chapter

Or anything else you want to include.

The chapter recipe means that each chapter will look similar and give the reader a ‘comfort blanket’ to keep them engaged.  This means that if you start Chapter 1 with a story, you should do the same for all the other chapters.  If you end with a quotation, do the same for each chapter.

This may sound tedious, but in reality it will make life a whole lot easier when you start writing.

Gather your content

Now you have the subjects and format for your chapters, it’s simply a case of gathering the information to populate them.  Effectively, you’re filling in the gaps!

If you take the time to build the structure, the writing will be much easier.

What is your website’s prime purpose?

Isn’t that obvious?  It’s to present your business to the digital viewer, of course.

People talk about ‘brochure’ sites, in other words, websites that display your wares.  But a good website is much more than that.

It needs to

• Engage potential clients quickly
• Have enough energy to keep people’s attention
• Solve – or at least indicate that you can – the visitor’s problems
• Operate seamlessly with no requirement for your visitor to work hard to find what they want
• Speak to your visitor directly in their language, but your voice.

To write great headlines and compelling copy you need an in-depth understanding of what your visitor wants.  What problems can you solve for them?  What is keeping them awake at night and what solving their problems will do for them.

It sounds pretty simple … so why do so many, otherwise attractive, websites start with a headline: 

Welcome to our website

Which of those 5 points above does that tick?

I know it is polite – it’s like saying ‘How do you do?’, but you really don’t want a conversation around that!  If I’m in a hurry to identify if you’ve got what I want, you’ve now made me jump over an obstacle that hasn’t helped me.

Using digital devices has decreased patience – everyone wants instant gratification and, if they don’t find it, they’re on to the next on their list.  Flick, flick, flick.

Take a moment to think about the last time you were looking for something specific online.  Did you care about being welcomed to the website?  Did you even notice the headline?  It wasn’t useful information, so you were already scrolling down looking for what you wanted.

The problem is that, if the website owner has started with a ‘nothing’ headline, it doesn’t bode well for what is further down the page.  

The days of 300 words to describe your offering are long gone.  You’ve got 100 words, if you’re lucky.  Your headlines have to work harder to get people’s attention and encourage them to read even a single line.

The language needs to be focused on ‘YOU’ (not ‘we’) to reassure your reader that this is for them.

The sentences need to be crisp and concise, the paragraphs very short and the call to action impossible to miss.

Your website’s role is to persuade the visitor to take action; not to think about it and come back later (they won’t).  Not to search through the menus for what they want (if they don’t find it at first look, they’ll go elsewhere).  Not to try to look behind your polite headline and proud copy to see what good guys you all are, (they don’t care).

It needs to be obvious.  Knee-jerk reaction – ‘Yes, found it’.

And every page on your website needs to do that – in isolation.

Presenter or Narrator?

You may have heard of ‘death by PowerPoint’, but how do you avoid becoming a perpetrator of this?

Just in case this is a term you haven’t come across before, I can almost guarantee that you’ve been on the receiving end!  Essentially, it was coined to describe a presenter who has far too many slides and too much information on each slide.

If you’ve every been in the audience where the presenter read great tracts of text from the screen, you’ll know what I mean.

When PowerPoint introduced lots of bells and whistles, excited slide deck creators grabbed them and their audiences had to suffer through text that spun into place, sound effects and images appearing from all directions.  

Good presenters realised that less is more and that the slides are a support act, not the headliner!

Slides are a VISUAL aid

It can be tempting to use your slides as an aide memoire, but too much text on slides makes it harder for the audience – and harder for you too.

Put yourself in one of the audience’s seat.  A slide appears with a lot of text, what do you do?  Most of us start reading.

While you’re reading, you’re not really listening to the presenter, so you may be missing key information.  Now comes the next stumbling block, if that slide stays on the screen, a good percentage of the audience will read it again!  If the presenter moves on a chunk of the audience will have missed the bus!

Our brains react differently when it’s just an image.  It doesn’t take up the same kind of brain space as text.

Less is more

I once was given a presentation to deliver on behalf of someone else – it was a 15 minute presentation – with 83 slides!

I defy anyone to maintain concentration when the screen is whizzing by faster than you can digest what’s on it!

Only use slides when you need a visual to help people understand what you’re talking about.  Things like:

• Before/after images
• Graphs and charts (but keep them simple)
• Models
• Diagrams
• Stand out quotes (not yours!) that help you to make a point
• Pictures that help to demonstrate what you’re talking about

When you’ve finished talking about the current slide – turn it off.  If you haven’t got another slide yet, click the B key on your keyboard (some remote clickers have the option for ‘blank screen’).  B = black – so this will turn your screen black, click B again to return to your presentation.  W turns the screen white, but them you become a black silhouette against a massive, square, bright background!

Remember you’ve been asked to make a presentation – so the spotlight should be on YOU, not on your slide deck.  You’re not there simply to read the slides.

How busy are you?

I think the word ‘Business’ evolved from ‘busy-ness’!  Lots of businesses are created because someone has a passion for something – and then they discover that their business needs more than their passion.

When your passion is your core offering, the other ‘stuff’ that goes with running a business can feel onerous.  The administration, the accounts, the customer acquisition, recruitment, management, marketing – the list is a long one.

It can result in you being very busy, but not doing the very thing you started out in business to do.

If I had to recommend just one book for a potential business owner to read it would be The Emyth Revisited, by Michael E. Gerber.  This outlines the pitfalls of not giving enough thought to how you run your business and offers lots of practical advice to help you to stay ‘in love’ with your business.

I’ve got the T-shirt

I’ve been self-employed for 30 years and have made most of the mistakes small business owners make.  These are the key challenges – and my suggestion for not falling into that particular pit!

Challenge:  I don’t need a bookkeeping system, the business isn’t big enough yet.

Suggestion:  But it soon will be and trying to backtrack when you’re really busy is not good news.  My advice, get an accountant and/or a bookkeeper at the beginning and that’s one worry off your mind.

Challenge:  I can do the administration during out-of-office hours.

Suggestion:  You can, but that’s a recipe for burnout.  My advice, allocate a time every week during working hours for administration.  As you get busier this is something that you could outsource to a good VA if you’re not ready for an employee yet.  Alternatively, you could take on a part-time person.

Challenge:  If I tell enough people about my business I’ll start to get customers.

Suggestion:  Networking definitely works, but pick your networks to ensure you’re connecting with the right people for your business.  If you’re trying to reach the trades, networking in groups full of accountants and solicitors isn’t going to work!  My advice, invest some time in developing a detailed ideal client profile and then go where they hang out.

Challenge:  If people like what I offer, they’ll give me a testimonial.

Suggestion:  They are probably willing to, but they won’t do it unless you prompt them.  My advice, have a system for asking for feedback.  This may be on the email that accompanies their invoice, or a phone call after every order is completed (this will depend on the type of business you’re in, it’s not practical for high numbers of sales).  Many companies have an automated system that sends a reminder to provide a review.  Find what works for you and then automate it.  Third party validation is valuable.

Challenge:  I don’t have time to do marketing/social media/write blogs and newsletters etc.

Suggestion:  If you don’t do marketing you’ll struggle to keep your business afloat.  People forget quickly and are attracted to the next ‘new shiny object’ (i.e. a competitor they’ve just seen a social media post by).  My advice, get a system and set aside a couple of hours a week to populate it.  You don’t need to post on social media every day – but you do need to post good quality material.  When your company grows and you can afford it, outsource it to experts.  An hour or so a month of your time can give a marketing service enough material for a month of content for your blog, social media, newsletter and email marketing campaigns.

These are just a few of the typical challenges, but they’re not uncommon.  I did get an accountant the day I started my business, but I’ve fallen into the other pits at various times.  I’m always learning!

How good are your stories?

Everyone loves a good story, but when you’re running a business finding good stories can be challenging.

There was a time when a regular press release would go out to the company’s press list, but how many of these got published?  The answer is ‘very few’.  But why?  Simply because what you think is interesting is not necessarily the same thing that a publication’s editor would classify as interesting.

Editors have to publish material that keeps their audience engaged, or they stop buying/reading the publication.  Lower reader numbers mean less advertising revenue – and most publications depend on their ad revenue to stay afloat.

For many companies, regardless of size, coming up with a good story is a major challenge.  And, different types of publication will be looking for different styles of story.

What works – and what doesn’t

Let’s start with the down side:

Nobody is interested in a new team member – unless there’s a powerful story about how their appointment will impact on customers/the environment/the community.

Opening a new office or branch won’t get anyone’s attention - unless there’s a compelling reason that affects the readership of the publication.

The launch of a new product has to be sufficiently innovative and leading edge to get past an editor.  Editors are not interested in anything that smacks of a business trying to get free advertising, so your latest product needs to fill a gap in the market, fulfil a burning need or be a completely new concept to rate any column inches.

What may get attention:

An interesting profile of your CEO/MD or one of the senior team, with some background and their take on something relevant to the readership.

A thought-leader article.  In the right publications, your opinion and strategies on something that your potential clients will find useful could be a good way to get published.  Sharing your expertise will add to your authority.

A project that works with a charity – particularly a local charity for local publications.  Charities generally get good coverage locally, so something that your company does to support them, consistently and beyond simply donating or volunteering, could make a good story.

Go niche

The challenge for most businesses when setting out on the media trail is to look at the local newspapers and magazines, then at the national dailies.  But are they where your ideal clients are looking?

You’ll be far better off getting published in The Caterer if your audience is in the hospitality trades, than in the Daily Mail.

Before you start looking at sending out unsolicited material to the press, do some homework and find out:

• What your target audience actually reads
• Whether these publications accept unsolicited material
• Whether you can contact the relevant editors and open a conversation

Every publication has its own style, so ensure you’re familiar with the publication before contacting the editor.  This will ensure that any suggestions you have for articles are relevant to that particular publication.

It’s better to have a small press list of highly targeted publications than a long list of random newspapers, magazines and digital publications.

A little planning and a sound strategy can really pay off.

When did you last ask for a testimonial?

Testimonials are powerful and most of your customers and clients would be happy to provide one – but they need to be asked or it just doesn’t cross their minds.

Testimonials are third party validation.  They’re great marketing tools – providing they have the right information in them.  And there lies the challenge – if you leave people with a blank piece of paper (or screen) to write on, what you get may not be what you need.

For instance, how would you feel about receiving this testimonial?

Acme Business Services are a pleasure to work with, always friendly and approachable and come into our workplace with a smile.

On the surface that seems like positive feedback, but what does it say about your services?

Does that mean that the person who wrote this doesn’t value your services?  Of course it doesn’t, it’s just that the first thing that popped into their mind when asked to write a testimonial was how friendly you (or your team) are.  If you leave people with no guidance, you’ll get a lot of this as people remember how you made them feel.

That’s lovely feedback to get, but it’s more therapy for you, than useful business information to help potential clients make a decision.

The three questions approach

To best way to get a comprehensive and focused testimonial is to ask your client to answer three questions.

1. What did we do for you?  (The project, services, product supplied)
2. What was it like working with us? (This is the bit they want to tell you)
3. What were the outcomes you got from what we did?  (The measurables, results, changes that happened, impact made).

There are two advantages to asking questions.  

One, you get specific outcomes that will tell potential clients the value of your work.  

Two, when someone has a question to answer it’s much easier for them to write the testimonial, so you will probably get more responses than if you just ask for ‘a testimonial’ or ‘recommendation’.  That blank page is too easy to ‘do later’!

Better still, if you know someone is busy and it’s going to slip down their to do list, you could always give them a call and ask the questions verbally.  Some people find this much easier.

Question 4

When someone has just said positive things about you, it’s a great time to ask them that extra question.

“Thank you, I’m glad you got so much value from what we did.  Who else do you know who might value that kind of result?”

Ask for the introduction and you have a very warm opening to another client.

Does the headline grab your attention?

When you pick up a newspaper or magazine (or visit that publication online), you choose which articles you want to read by the headlines.  Some of the more nefarious publications use misleading headlines just to try and get your eyes on their article.  

You’ve probably seen some of those ads with headlines like ‘The terrible tragedy that ended [celebrity name]’.  These articles usually turn out to be nothing like the headline teases.  However, there is a lesson to be learned if you are writing a newsletter.

Your headline needs to grab attention.

It has to be something that your reader is interested in – not what you happen to be excited about in your business.

And there lies the 64 million dollar question – what are they interested in?

If you know your clients well this should be reasonably easy to work out.  If you’re still unsure think about the questions that people ask you in your professional capacity.  What are the big issues they don’t understand or are concerned about?  How could you help them in relation to these?  That should give you some ideas for your lead item.

We use our blogs as they are always focused on helping people like our ideal clients with various aspects of their marketing.  It also offers an opportunity to take people to the website with a ‘read more’ button.

There’s usually a promotion or offer that will also appeal to our ideal client base – and then more value!

So, when you’re putting together your next newsletter these are your key things to think about:

1. Will this deliver value to the reader?  And how?
2. Will my subject line for this email get their attention and enough interest or curiosity to open the email?
3. What do I want them to think/feel/do when they’ve read it?

If you’re tempted to add a bit about what’s going on in your business, then try and position it in terms that demonstrate the value of it to your customers, rather than just an exciting ‘We’re moving!’ or ‘We’ve got a new team member!’  You need to answer the question that your reader will almost certainly be thinking – ‘So what?’

But always lead with value!

Is your social strategy working?

Making social media work well is like walking on ice.  The social platforms are forever changing their algorithms.

Gone are the days where 15% of your page followers on Facebook saw your posts.  Today almost zero see them, unless they actively visit your page – unless you invest in Facebook ads.

On LinkedIn you get rewarded for posting, engaging and other things, by your posts being shown to more people.  Of course, your reach is limited, unless you subscribe to a Premium account.

The writing is on the wall – to make social media really work as a lead generator, you need to have a robust system AND be ready to invest a little in advertising if you really want to reach more people.

Pick your platform

I’m not suggesting you start advertising on all your social platforms, but it is important to raise your profile on the one where your ideal client is most active.

How do you work out which platform is the right one?

That should be part of your ideal client avatar.  If you have a detailed description of your ideal client, you should already have a clear idea about that so, if you haven’t done that yet, maybe create that first.  You might find this template useful to do that.  

If you’re still not sure a bit of research will help.  Look at your existing clients social media.  Where are they most active – not just broadcasting, but actively engaging with other people?  How long is it since their last post, their last reply to a comment, etc?

I’m not suggesting that you totally ignore all the other platforms, you should maintain a presence, but your focus needs to be on the one where you’re most likely to get results.

Create a plan

As Hannibal Smith (the A Team – you have to be a certain age to get it) said “I love it when a plan comes together!”  However, a good plan doesn’t depend on chance, it should be based on strategy and a clear follow through set of tactics.

Your plan should include:

• The subjects you will post about
• The style of your posts – e.g. image, text, infographic, video, etc.
• The frequency of your posts
• Your follow up and monitoring strategy

And, on your number one platform, what your paid advertising strategy will be:

• Your budget
• Your offer
• The headlines for your ads
• A clear call to action for each one – what do you want people to do?
• A testing process to see what works best (try different headlines, images, calls to action, etc.

You might also need to create a lead magnet and an automated funnel to capture interested people and enable you to nurture them.  Remember, that unless you have a means of capturing their data, every penny you spend on their click is wasted.

A print ad costs money and the wider the circulation of the publication the more expensive it is – online ads are comparatively cheap.  Most platforms allow you to set a daily cap, so you don’t suddenly find you’ve gone through hundreds of pounds.  This can be as low as £5 a day.  

Facebook, Instagram and TikTok all have this kind of advertising.

LinkedIn does offer ads, but a more effective way for most people is to use the Premium account and invest some time in reaching out and building relationships with your ideal clients.  This is something worth exploring.

Monitor and measure your results daily – you should aim for a ROI of 1:4 (for every £1 you spend you make sales worth £4).  That may seem low – but when you spend £100 and get £400 back it starts to look really healthy!

What’s your influence strategy?

Your reputation depends on what other people say and write about you.  If you have a good reputation, it means you’re doing something right.  But what happens if your reputation is good, but is almost a trade secret?

Lots of people do a great job for their customers, but only those customers know about it.  The problem is that people expect good service, so they only talk about it if it falls short of expectations.  The stats used to be that you told 5 people about an exceptional experience and around 20 about a bad experience.  With social media, the potential is to tell thousands about a bad experience – and it’s not ‘news’ if you’ve had a good experience, unless it was mind-blowing!

While we’d all like to be known for exceptional service, the truth is that people are amazed at first, then accept it as the norm, so talk about it less.

To expand the community that know how good you are, you need a strategy to influence more people.

What to include in your strategy

Know your audience.  Sharing information randomly, will be a long, uphill struggle.  If you know who you’re trying to reach and know what they’re reading, where they’re active online and what they’re interested in, everything you do will be much more likely to hit the target.

Get the testimonial habit!  Ask customers to give you feedback – ideally when they’re happiest – and always ask for permission to publish.  Put them on your website, use them on social media, add them to your marketing material.

TIP:  Always ask the customer what their outcomes were, this is the most powerful part of any testimonial.

Be visible.  This might be on social media, at local networking groups, or in online communities.  If nobody knows you’re there, they can’t enquire about your products or services.

TIP: Put time in your diary to maintain consistent activity in your chosen places.

Share your expertise:  Showing off your knowledge and expertise is an excellent way to influence people.  You can do this on your blog, on social media, in articles for selected publications, through lead magnets and in your networking presentations.

TIP: Have a plan for at least a few months, ideally a year ahead.  What will your subjects be and what will you share about them?

Have a punchy and memorable answer.  When people ask ‘What do you do?’, don’t answer with your industry.  Create a one liner that is different and helps the question asker to remember you.  For instance, I use a couple of different ones:

I help people to RAVE about you.  RAVE stands for Reputation, Authority, Visibility and Expertise.  Does your marketing tick all four of those boxes?

I have a magic keyboard that creates compelling copy and a talented team who manage all your content marketing.  When would be a good time for us to talk?

These took time to develop, so invest some time on creating something that really grabs attention and interest.

TIP:  When you’ve got your one-liner written down, practise saying out loud over and over, until it’s automatic and you don’t have to think about it.  Then it will emerge smoothly the next time the question is asked.

There are many more things you can add to your influence strategy – but these will get you started!

Leverage your blog posts

If you write regularly for your blog, you’ll be generating a wealth of information around your area of expertise.  If you’re running a business and understand the power of marketing you probably also create social media posts, newsletters, and, possibly, YouTube videos, a podcast, a lead funnel and even email campaigns.

It all sits under the heading of content marketing.  And it means you have to write a lot!

But if you already write a blog, most of these other things can be extrapolated from your original blog posts.  This is how we do it for our own marketing and for our clients.

Social media posts:  Take one line quotes from your blog post and use it on social media to intrigue and engage potential readers, then add the hashtags and link to your blog.  Sometimes I have to edit a bit to make a line work as a stand-alone, but that takes a moment!  From one blog post you might get five or more social media posts.

Newsletters:  Nobody reads newsletters that are literally your news.  They’re not interested in what you do (or have done), but they are interested in what they get.  That means you need to lead with an article that has value.  Your blog posts are perfect.  Maybe not the whole article, but the first 3-4 paragraphs, with a ‘read more’ button linked to your blog.  It will improve your newsletter open rates and people visiting your website

YouTube video: If you use a platform such as Invideo.io you can drop in your blog article and it will create a whole video for you.  Or you could simply do a talking head video and narrate it using an autocue on your screen, so you stay looking into the camera.

Podcast: This is even easier than video as you don’t have to tidy your hair or smile at the camera!  You can use an app, such as Anchor to create your podcast.  Find some royalty free music for your intro and outro (or persuade a musician you know to create something original for you) and graphics to represent your brand.  Once it’s set up, you simply upload to your chosen platforms.

Lead funnel: Building your list is a valuable way to grow a community of people who have actually told you they’re interested.  If you nurture them well, they’ll turn into customers.  A lead funnel is the most effective way to do this.  You offer something that is of specific interest to your ideal customer, your lead magnet – free of charge – and they provide their name and email in order to get it.  Usually this is a report or document that is available as a download from your website.  With a bank of blogs to draw upon, you can edit three or four blogs on one subject into a valuable report or guide that will help the reader.  However, remember that your lead magnet is only the first level of your funnel.  There will be other elements to build.

Email campaigns: Nurturing your list keeps them interested.  A newsletter will help, but if you want to promote a specific product or service, an email campaign that includes something of value as well as your promotion works better than just a sales pitch.  Draw on your blogs for relevant tips to lead each email with.

And don’t forget you can also post your blog as an article on your LinkedIn profile in its entirety and many community networks have opportunities to post member’s blogs too.

Reasons not to be an author

If you run a business, train people, are a consultant or a speaker, having a book with your name on the cover as author sets you apart from your competitors.  It positions you as an authority and extends your reach dramatically.

I was taught that there were two types of people – those that take action and those that, faced with an opportunity, come up with lots of reasons why not!  If you’ve thought about writing a book and haven’t yet done it, you’ve probably had a load of reasons why not occur to you – and your subconscious is very good at coming up with rational excuses.  Here are some of the most common:

Don’t know where to start

There’s a lot more to writing a book than simply having an idea and typing 40,000 words.  If you want a successful book, doing your preparation pays dividends – not least in putting together the whole plan from idea to achieving best-seller status.

However, there are resources available to help you.  Some are expensive, some are free and there are plenty of options in between.  If you want to learn more about any subject, you invest in training.  If you want to get started at zero cost check this out.

If you’re worrying about sitting in front of your screen and suffering from blank page syndrome – that rarely happens with a well-planned non-fiction book.  You have a skeleton to guide you, all you have to do is flesh it out.  (Fiction is a different animal – and that’s an article for another time!)

Not enough time

Time is one of those dichotomies – everyone has the same 24 hours every day, but some people manage to stuff a mass of activity into each day and others arrive at bedtime wondering where the time went!

I think the answer is using a calendar or diary effectively.  Book time – or appointments with yourself – to get specific tasks done.  It allows you to tell people who want your time “I’m sorry, but I already have an appointment then.”  Most people are happy to pick another time when you’re free.

If you’re serious about writing a book, you’ll find the time – even if that means swapping time sat on the sofa watching TV for an hour developing your book.

Nobody will be interested

In our businesses we all have expert knowledge – and, while there may be books already covering your specialist subject, it’s your unique take on the subject that will make your book different to all the others.

The plus about this as that most people who are interested in a subject buy more than one book about it – usually several.

There’s a big difference between ‘not interested’ and ‘not aware’.  Part of your job in developing a book is to identify your target audience and then ensure they know about your book.

Writing isn’t my thing

Writing a non-fiction book is more about sharing your knowledge, experience and expertise.  You don’t have to be a great writer – but you do have to have a good plan and a great editor.

If you prepare properly you won’t struggle to assemble your thoughts on each chapter as you’ll have a plan and know where you’re going.

It doesn’t matter if your spelling, grammar and punctuation are a bit sketchy, that’s your editor’s job to tidy things up.  A good editor will ensure that your manuscript is easily accessible for the reader with nothing that diverts their attention from the content.

I’ve heard it’s difficult to get a publishing contract

Part of the process of creating a book is understanding the different types of publishing.  If you aim to get a contract with a publishing house, you need to know how to do that – and what you get in the way of services and payment.  However, it’s far from the only route to getting published – there are several other options, all with different costs, different services and different rewards.

So – are you ready to take action, or are you already coming up with more reasons why not?

What’s your hook?

When you land on someone’s website what are you looking for?

• Is it an impressive blue-sky statement?
• Is it ‘Welcome to our website’?
• Is it a series of slides with pictures?
• Is it a technical description?
• Is it any sentence starting with ‘We …’?
• Is it something that tells you that this website is going to solve your problem?

Now apply your answers to your own website.

On your home page an image is important as most of us engage quicker when there’s some visual images, rather than just text.  But the key to hooking in your website visitor is a powerful message that tells them they are in the right place.

This can be a challenge if you offer a range of services or products, but it’s not impossible.  So, for instance:

The answers to the questions you want to ask

Not

We have a comprehensive range of services

People are not interested in what you do – they are interested in what they get.

They don’t want to know what your future vision is, they want to know if you’ve got what they’re looking for.

Your website visitor is looking for information and they don’t want to work through a complicated process to get it.  Your job is to make the journey as streamlined as possible.

Remember that the visitor may not be the end user – it may be that an assistant or purchasing department has been tasked with resourcing what’s required.  That means that technical language may fall short of getting your message across.

The problem for most of us is that we are proud of what we do – rightly so – but that doesn’t help your website visitor decide if it’s worth spending time on your website.  The fact that you’ve been in business for 42 years or that you are a family business should be saved for the About page – not the first message people see on your home page.  

Images should underpin the core message – not be ‘eye candy’.  People who see your image should think ‘yes, I can see what that’s about’, not ‘what is that picture for?’

A good recipe for a home page is:

Brand banner – with contact info top right (so people don’t have to search)

Image that tells the visitor something about your business

A powerful headline – embedded over the image, so it’s ‘above the fold’ – that addresses either pain or gain for the visitor.

A short (2-3 short paragraphs) introduction, with more reader-focused information.

Clickable boxes to your key services or product sections with a clear call to action on each one.

Then any/all of these components:

• The opening to your About page with a link to the page
• Links to your latest blogs
• Links to any featured products/offers
• Testimonials (but if these scroll automatically, ensure that they stay in place long enough for people to read each one).

Make life easy for your visitor and you’ll keep them long enough to make that key decision to buy, ask for more information or pick up the phone and talk to you.

“Resistance is created through a lack of clarity”

Chip & Dan Heath

That’s entertainment!

Do you think that business presentations should be entertaining?

Or do you prefer to sit through a boring presentation?

Nobody wants to be bored and it benefits both sides if the presentation is entertaining, the presenter gets better responses and the audience remembers more.

These are my tips for more entertaining presentations:

1: Remember that the presenter is YOU, not the slide deck.  Use the slide deck to help you share information that needs visual aids to clarify, but when you’re talking about anything else turn your slides off.  The easiest way to do this is to hit the B key on your laptop (or good remotes have a blank option).  The B key turns the screen black (and the W key turns it white, but then you’re backlit and look like a shadow puppet!).

Also remember that people don’t want to see your back.  In some situations it’s tempting to turn towards the screen and talk about what’s on the slide.  To avoid this try and have a monitor with the presentation somewhere in front of you where you can see it.

2: Tell stories.  People remember stories, much longer than a bunch of facts.

Even in serious business presentations there are opportunities to tell stories – they’re called case studies.  Alternatively, you might share an experience that gave you enlightenment.  There is always a story or two related to your subject.  

It’s OK to tell amusing stories, if they’re relevant, but don’t tell jokes – and definitely not smutty jokes.  The only exception to this is some after dinner speeches – but this is a specialist type of presentation and, if it’s not your strength, politely decline!

3: Avoid death by PowerPoint. Endless slides stuffed with charts and text are not the way to entertain.  Of course, there are times when it’s important to share data, but keep the information on slides top level and provide a link to the detailed version (or offer handouts, but let’s try and save the planet).

4: Practice in real time.  The more comfortable you are with your material, the better you’ll come across and you’ll relax and be more natural.  Good presenters aren’t made by accident, they work at it.

5: Be yourself.  Smile, make eye contact, and engage your audience.  This is easy in a boardroom set up, where you can see everyone, but harder on a stage where the auditorium is dark so you probably can’t see your audience very well.  

Try using a W/M scan of the audience area to make people feel you’re connecting with them.  Start at the front left and take your eyes towards the back, then back to centre front, up to the rear and back to front right in an M shape, then reverse this and use a W, so you are scanning as much of the audience as possible.  

This technique needs practice, and should be done slowly or you’ll confuse your audience and make yourself dizzy!

Unconscious incompetence

The subject of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ has come up in several conversations lately.  In conversations with people who have transitioned from corporate employee to business owner and people who are in a new role in a business and don’t have experience (like anyone promoted to manage other people).  There was also one case study where personal finances were involved and while the individual had money, they had no clue that money sitting in a bank account wasn’t serving them best.  These are all examples of unconscious incompetence.

It's not a bad thing – it’s just something that happens when your current level of knowledge has not yet reached into a certain area.  Everyone doesn’t know everything, but when you’re running a business, it’s important to find out what you need to know.

There is a model, originally created by Noel Burch in the 1970s that examines four stages:

1. Unconscious incompetence – you have no skill in an area, but are happily ignorant of the fact.
2. Conscious incompetence – you know you’re rubbish at a particular skill.
3. Conscious competence – you have acquired skill, but have to concentrate to get it right.
4. Unconscious competence – the skill has become automatic and you ‘just’ do it.

This applies to everything from learning to walk and talk to a wide range of business skills.  If you’d never seen a bicycle before, you wouldn’t know that riding a bicycle was a possibility.  That’s unconscious incompetence.

People who have achieved unconscious competence – at the other end of the spectrum – are often surprised that their skills and knowledge isn’t universal.  Think of something you do easily, have you ever said “But everyone knows that”?  Things we think are commonplace, often aren’t.  Imagine what it’s like on the other end of that, where you are clueless!

So how do you find out what you don’t know?

Ask an expert

When you start a new venture or project there will be issues that you have no knowledge of, but that you need to get to grips with to successfully launch your venture or complete the project.  The problem is that if you don’t know about these issues, where do you get the necessary enlightenment?  

The best way to find out what you need to know is to ask someone who has already been through the process you are about to start.  This is one of the reasons why people read books, go on courses and attend webinars.

If you attend networking meetings or network online, there are often people who have relevant experience.  Mostly they’re willing to share their knowledge.

Learn and practise

Once you are aware of what you need to know, the next step is to learn - and then practise.  A golfer I know once described this as the point where you want to throw the golf clubs in the river!

Just because you know what you need to learn, doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy.  It depends what you need to learn, your natural aptitude and how committed you are.  You’re in the conscious incompetence phase – and it’s probably going to last for a while.

‘Give me a moment’

Conscious competence comes when you feel you can carry out a task or know how something works, but you still have to concentrate.  It’s that point when faced with the task you have to gather your thoughts and focus, then you can get through it with a reasonable level of success.

Don’t stop practising!  As the saying goes ‘practice makes perfect’ – or as a friend of mine says ‘perfect practice makes perfect!  Practising doing something the wrong way doesn’t make it perfect, you’re just getting good at doing it wrong!

Just coastin’

When you’ve learned something so well that it just happens effortlessly, you’re at the unconscious competence level.  This is when someone asks you something and it just comes without thought.  You know it instinctively.

You don’t have to know or be able to do everything.  There is another option – get someone with the required skills or knowledge on your team and let them shine.  However, you do need to know what skills/knowledge you need to succeed, so asking an expert for advice is always a good start.

In print!

When you have a marketing budget the issue of PR is often something you start thinking about.  Dreams of making the headlines in the national dailies drift through your mind – in a positive way, of course.  The national dailies are hard to crack – unless you are launching something that is really leading edge or doing something that is VERY high profile.  

Fortunately, from a PR perspective, that’s not necessarily where your target market is usually looking for business information.  They may skim the business section, but they’re much more likely to read specialist journals or dedicated magazines that cater to their niche or industry.  These are often much easier to access as they usually run on a smaller scale.

7 steps to success

1: Make a list of between 5-12 publications that your target audience reads.  They may be digital or print – or both.

2: Visit their websites and learn as much as you can about them.  See if there is any information about submissions on the site, check for editor’s names and contact details.  If there’s an editor specifically for your niche, it’s better to contact them, rather than the editor-in-chief.  

3: Read at least a couple of issues of their publication – or a handful of articles, if they’re digital.  You need to get a feel for the kind of content they publish and their style, so you can match it.  You’ll also see how the author is identified.  If articles have a line or two at the end that says Joe Blogs is Managing Director of Acme Widgets. www.acmewidgets.eng that will give you a good indication that they publish articles from external authors and also a guide to what is acceptable to add to your article about you.

4: Create 3 article titles, with a short one paragraph summary, - for each publication.  While you can write the same information for different publications, you should never submit the same article to more than one editor, you need to rewrite it so it is a different article.

5: Email the editor you’ve identified for each publication and ask if they accept non-commissioned articles and give them your three headlines with the summaries.  

6: If the editor is interested and asks you to submit one or more of your articles, you’ll need to find out the word count expected and the deadline for submission.  Then write your article.  It’s essential that you write with the reader in mind – deliver useful information that has value for the reader and the editor will be happy to place other articles in future.  Anything that sounds like a sales pitch will almost certainly get ‘spiked’ (journalist-speak for put in the bin).

7: Check for spelling, punctuation and grammar (or get someone else to do that for you) and send your article in by the deadline.  While there is sometimes a bit of wriggle room, you need to negotiate this.  If it’s a hard deadline and you’re late, the editor will have an empty page to fill and you’ll get a reputation for being unreliable.

A few things to think about:

• Don’t get upset if they change your headline – they’re experts and know what will appeal to their audience.
• If you send images along with your article, ensure they are clearly labelled and include captions/descriptions at the end of your text and are good resolution.
• Ensure your article has your contact information in the footer on every page.
• If the magazine typically includes a picture of the writer, include a professional headshot at a minimum on 300 dpi (particularly for print).
• Don’t pester the editor.  Follow the instructions, submit what they ask for on time and let them do what they’re good at.  They may give you an indication of when the publication will come out or when your article will go live digitally, but ask once and then leave them alone.

Good luck!

I don’t know what’s working

John Wanamaker, a 19th century retailer is accredited with the quote:

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; 

the trouble is I don't know which half.” 

Many businesses say similar things about their marketing – along the lines of ‘I know some of my marketing is working, but I don’t know what is and what isn’t.’

Some marketing is better than no marketing, but just marketing indiscriminately, is like throwing stuff at a wall and hoping some of it sticks.

If you want to spend your marketing budget intelligently, it pays to choose your strategies carefully.  To do that you need to know your audience inside out.

Who are you trying to influence?

It’s not just a case of knowing the industry or business type you want to work with.  You also need to know:

What their problems are

If your offer is to be appealing to them, it needs to solve a problem – and one that they are aware of and bothers them.  If you know what keeps them awake at night, you’ve got the information you need to pitch a solution.

What skills are missing in their team

This is particularly important with small businesses.  As they start to grow the owner will employ people to pick up the work that is essential – like answering the phone, keeping the paperwork up-to-date, issuing and maybe chasing invoices, etc.  Could what you’re offering fill a gap – and can you make a compelling case for it?

What they like to do – and what they don’t

Personal style has a big impact on what people do first on their to do list.  If they’re a bit of an introvert, chatting on the phone or going to networking meetings may be way down the list.  Similarly, if they enjoy tracking all the numbers, some of the written communication work may not get done – and, of course, vice versa.  Understanding the kind of people you can help best, where they have a dislike of particular types of work – and you can fill that gap and ensure that no balls are dropped – is an important part of building your ideal client profile.

Where they hang out – online and offline

Just posting information on the feed of the platform you’ve identified as the right place to find your ideal client isn’t enough.  Find out where they’re active – are they in particular groups?  Who do they follow?  Do they belong to forums or clubs?  Where do they network offline and online?

It’s no good going to your local business networking group if your ideal client only attends specialist groups.  It won’t work to be highly visible on LinkedIn if they’re mostly active in groups.

Focus!

When you really know your audience, it’s easy to create a message that gets their attention and put it right where they’re looking.

So, instead of spending £100 on marketing and getting 5 enquiries, your £100 will double the number of enquiries you get.  

Put the effort into understanding your audience and everything just gets easier!

When is news not news?

Strictly speaking a business newsletter doesn’t fall into the category of ‘news’.  Most business newsletters are more promotion than news.  The nearest they get to news is the launch of a new product or service.

Information about what’s going on in your company really doesn’t qualify as news – unless you happen to be developing a life-saving device or working on a massive environmental change.  The brutal truth is that most people aren’t interested.  A new team member, a new premises, expansion, the latest contract you’ve won – they’re exciting for you, but not for the recipients of your newsletter.

Does this mean you shouldn’t bother sending out a newsletter?

No! A newsletter is a powerful marketing tool – but it must have value for the reader.

How to deliver value

You’re an expert in your field and you know stuff!  The best way to deliver value to your newsletter readers is to share that value.  But what does that mean?

• Tips: Share your top 5 or 10 tips on something.  People love shortcuts or clever ideas – and don’t assume that ‘everybody knows that’, what you think is obvious most people don’t know about.
• Advice: We all have something that we wish we’d known earlier, share the wisdom you’ve learned around your area of expertise to help others.  Maybe under the heading ‘I wish I’d known this earlier’, or something similar.
• How to articles: If you write an informative blog, use that as your lead article (or at least the first few 3-4 paragraphs with a link to the article on your website).
• A process: If you examine your area of expertise, you probably have quite a few processes you use to make something easier or more efficient.  Whether it’s something you’ve learned or something you’ve created, share it with others.

What’s your offer?

If you lead your newsletter with value, you can afford to add an offer in there.  However, whatever you offer should always be presented in a way that benefits the reader.

So, NOT ‘Look at our fabulous shiny new thingamyjig’

But ‘Are you struggling with [whatever your thingamyjig fixes]?

If you can offer newsletter readers a special deal or price, better still – as long as you’re clear it is ONLY for them – and you don’t offer it anywhere else.  Make them feel special.

Give them an easily clickable call to action that takes them directly to the page where they can get the offer.

Sign off with more value

Finish with additional value – more of the same kind of things as above.  

If you keep delivering value, people will appreciate your newsletters and you’ll get consistent readers.

Focus on what they want

Engagement gets tougher as there’s just so much content on every social platform that it would be a full-time job to try and keep up with it all.  People flick and scroll too quickly to stop and like, share or comment.

That doesn’t mean that they’re not reading your posts – but they have to have some value for them to bother to check what the latest message is about.

The ideal situation for social media is to build a tribe of people who are potential customers and then give them something they really love.  That is not usually:

• A testimonial from another customer – although that may be reassuring
• A promotion of whatever you do or sell – they don’t care, unless it’s exactly what they’re looking for right now
• A biography of a member of your team, unless they already know them or, at least, have dealt with them at some point
• You or someone in your organisation talking to the camera about your business
• An infographic that tells them how many widgets you’ve sold this month.

So, that’s a bunch of options kicked out of the ball park.  What’s left?

• Tips
• Useful advice
• Knowledge based articles or links to blog items with valuable content
• Your opinion on something relevant
• Sharing your knowledge on your area of expertise direct to camera
• A how to video or infographic
• Curated content from other people that’s allied to your specialism and is interesting or entertaining
• Cute cats! (just kidding unless you’re selling pet food or toys)

There are other things that engage people, but you need to know your potential customers really well to work out what they’re looking for.

One of my clients says he gets lots of engagement and likes when he includes his dogs in the photo he posts on his social media, but usually from people he already knows and not people who fit his customer profile.

What would impress a potential customer?

What would help them? 

What would get them to come back for more?

Why you?

The most valuable information your clients can give you is how whatever you do for them makes a difference.  This is one of the reasons I give people a 3-question formula for getting testimonials.  It’s:

1. What did we do for you?
2. What was it like working with us?
3. What were the measurable outcomes as a result of what we did?

The first is important if you sell a wide range of services or products to provide the background.  The second is what most people want to tell you; the first thing that people complain about is the attitude of a member of staff!  

However, the gold is in the answer to question three.  

One of my clients asked their customer why they used their products and not a competitor’s.  They found it hard to pin it down, but eventually came up with ‘They’re not you!’

People buy people.  It doesn’t matter how big the organisation – it’s the relationships that make the difference.  

It’s the representative who realises that the customer has an emergency and is willing to do whatever it takes, regardless of whether it’s 9am on Monday or 5pm on Friday.

It’s the order clerk who remembers that the customer has had a recent big event and asks how it went.

It’s the business owner who is happy to drive 30 miles to fix a problem that has the customer tearing their hair out.

People make the difference – and we’re all people.  Even if you’re dealing with a huge corporation you’re talking to one person (sometimes two or three), but you can’t have a conversation with an organisation – only with a human being!

Good relationships go with the people involved, so, if your contact changes jobs, they’ll probably be in touch in their new role.  The downside is that if your contact leaves, you have to start over with someone new.  My hot tip is to ensure your current contact introduces you to one or two of their team, so you have more than one connection.

Your reputation is what creates repeat business, referrals, recommendations and positive feedback.  Don’t miss out on the gold.

How long should a blog post be?

This is a question lots of my clients and people I meet at business events ask.  Sorry to disappoint you, but there’s no definitive answer!

Seth Godin writes every day, but sometimes it is as little as 70 words and sometimes it’s 700 (and occasionally even more).

The secret is to write what you want to say – and then stop writing.  If that’s after 200 words, don’t worry about length – it’s the value that matters.  It might take you 400 words to get your message across, it may take a lot more or far fewer, but it doesn’t matter if the message is clear and useful.

Common beliefs about blogs

Nobody reads much these days

People tend to scan, especially when reading on a smartphone, but if you have a good headline and interesting content (to them) they’ll read some, if not all of it.

Long content works

If you’re an expert and are sharing valuable information, people will read it.

You need at least 300 words for SEO

This is not really true.  Any fresh content on your website helps with keeping your visibility high with the search spiders.  They’re very sophisticated these days and, as long as your content is relevant to the main subject of your website, it will help your rankings and expert reputation.

It doesn’t matter what you write as long as your keywords are in there

That’s no longer the case.  The search spiders are well up with AI and read content pretty much the same way we do (except much, much faster!) Keyword stuffing is more likely to figure as a negative than a positive.  If you write a load of rubbish with lots of keywords, nobody will read it.

Get ChatGPT to write your blogs

This is an easy way to generate content – but with the best will in the world, it won’t sound like you.  At best it reads like a bland, middle-of-the-road AI content generator!!  My advice is to either create your own GPT and teach it how to replicate your style or use ChatGPT for ideas, then put your unique spin on the content.

Top tips

1. Know what your key message is for each post and ensure everything is taking you towards that outcome.
2. Plan your blog – title, subheadings, points.  It will make writing much easier and keep you focused.
3. Leave it for a day or two and then re-read it and check for sense, spelling/typos, punctuation, etc.  Or get someone who is fussy about English to do that for you.
4. Be ruthless and edit out anything that doesn’t contribute to the core message.  Waffle turns readers off!
5. Find a good image that will attract reader attention.

Happy blogging!

The best business card you’ll ever have!

Business cards are still alive and well, a few have become digital, but in the business networking circles I move in, most people have a piece of card with their essential content details on to hand over.  But what do you do with all those pieces of cardboard when you get back to your desk?

You might add them to a spreadsheet, or just leave them lying around your desk for a while.  You might have a drawer full of them, or even a business card holder or a filing tray with them in.  But what makes you remember the individual who gave you the card?  It’s not the card (unless it was unusually quirky).

My mentor says that a book showcasing your expertise is the best way to attract new clients – and I agree that a book is a powerful way to help people to remember you.

Firstly, it sits on their bookshelf reminding them of you.  And it probably has a picture of you on the front or back to help jog their visual memory of you too.

Secondly, it positions you as an authority (it’s no coincidence that the word authority has ‘author’ in it).  Experts write books, you’ve established yourself in that category.

Thirdly, it’s a great marketing tool – at networking events, on social media, on your website and in your newsletter.  In fact, marketing your book and your company is a symbiotic relationship, they feed each other.

If you don’t have time to write your book …

There are other options:

• Take a couple of dozen of your blog entries, organise them under subject areas and edit them into shape.

o   Shortcut: Give them to an editor to do the hard work!

• Write your core areas of expertise down and talk to a voice recorder about each of them.  Transcribe them and you’ve got your chapters.

o   Shortcut: Send the voice recordings to a transcription service and the transcriptions to an editor.

• Get a professional writer to interview you on your specialist subject and then develop the resulting information into a book.  This will probably require more than one interview session, but will still take less time than actually writing the book yourself.
• If you’ve done presentations in the past and you have slideshows or notes, use these to develop the content.  Better still if you have video of your presentations, you’ve already got material to feed the book.

o   Shortcut: Give all this material to an editor and an outline of what you want the book to be about and let them do their thing.

Writing a book doesn’t necessarily require you to spend hours a day for months slaving over a hot keyboard.  If you love writing then by all means go for it, but if it’s not how you want to spend your time, get expert help.

Have you we’d all over your website?

The first time I heard this phrase was on a tele-seminar more than 20 years ago, so it’s not new – but it’s still the most common mistake people make.

Take a look at the websites of the people you network with – you’ll quickly spot which ones are professionally written, because they’ll be written with the reader in mind. 

Here are a couple of examples (with the names changed to protect the innocent!) and a better alternative:

Example 1

About us

‘Established in 2011, Supersonic Home Transformations, is a family run business with 30 years combined industry experience operation from a stunning showroom in Hamtown.

Our commitment to customers is delivering professional, affordable, creative solutions on every single project we create. This ethos has enabled us to expand our services throughout this county, that county and this region.’

This is the first content on the home page – so it’s not only about them, but it’s not the kind of message that a new reader is looking for.  They’re not interested in how the business is run or that they have a stunning showroom.  This is a more engaging message.

Transform your home

When your home needs a facelift or your family is expanding and you need to upgrade your facilities, why don’t you come and talk to us?

Pick our brains for ideas and suggestions drawn from our many years of experience.  And you can rely on getting professional, affordable and creative solutions designed specifically for your home.

Book your phone chat right away or pop into our showroom at [location].

Example 2

Est 1895 Superb Solicitors is a modern law firm with traditional values!

Superb Solicitors based in Moretown and established since 1895 is a dynamic law firm with a professional and practical approach to dealing with business and personal legal affairs.

Our Moretown based solicitors have the depth and breadth of legal knowledge in our specialist areas to meet all your legal requirements.

We are confident in our approach and the commercial edge that our advice will give. We provide a unique and compelling legal service to our clients.

We are very pleased to announce that we recently merged with Legal Law Solicitors in Neartown, specialists in employment law and litigation and are now able to offer our clients an even more comprehensive service.  Whether you are looking for solicitors in Moretown, Solicitors in Neartown or further afield we are ideally placed to provide you with a professional service.

While this firm do have all their divisions at the top of their home page, this is the first content.  It’s all about them and is clearly written for SEO.  In addition, there is a typo and inconsistencies in capitalisation (yes, I’m pedantic!)

The four paragraphs start with the company name, ‘our’ and ‘we’.  Some of it almost sounds boastful, rather than confidently professional.  There’s a lot of information that may not be useful to someone who has just arrived on the website. 

Practical, professional and personal …

Visiting a solicitor is not a step you take without thought.  Whether you’re looking for legal support for personal issues or you want professional advice for your business, we have dedicated professionals in each of our specialist areas.

You’ll find a sympathetic and knowledgeable legal professional ready to give you the advice and support you need. 

There are thousands of websites that suffer from the same problem – and it’s all a matter of positioning.  Check your own site and see if you could reposition your message to be more appealing to your reader.

Making an impression

You’ve probably heard the quotation ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’.  It’s a clever quote, but it’s also very true.  If that first impression is less than great, you’ll have to work quite hard to overcome that.

When you’re planning to stand in front of a group and make a presentation, it’s not just about how they see you, but how they see whatever the presentation is about.

So, you want to impress people with your presentation – what’s the secret?

Well, there isn’t just one – there are a few! 

Planning is critical

Start with the end in mind – what do you want your audience to think or do when your presentation is finished?  Even more important, what do the people in your audience want to get from your presentation?

Once you have those two key pieces of information you can ensure that everything in your presentation takes your audience to the destination they want, while achieving your own goal too.

When you know where you’re going then you can plan the steps that will take you there.

Be ruthless

If you are enthusiastic about your subject (and you shouldn’t be making a presentation on it if you aren’t), it’s easy to get carried away and swamp your audience with too much information.

I find it useful to mindmap my plan so I can see the key points that take me to the conclusion and then choose carefully how much information on each one of those I need to include.  When you’re working with a skeleton plan like this you are likely to be much more objective than if you work in a linear way.

For every fact, diagram, quotation, statistic, case study and anecdote ask yourself ‘will this help my audience to make the decision I want them to?’  If the answer is ‘yes’, include it.  If it’s ‘no’ then leave it out – no matter how good the story is!  If it’s ‘maybe’, it’s probably a ‘no’, but you like that piece of information and want to include it!

Visual aids

For most people ‘visual aids’ equals a slide presentation.  However, don’t forget that visual aids can be objects that help to make your point – be creative, it will help to make your presentation memorable.

When it comes to slides – remember that they are VISUAL aids, not verbal aids.  Many people use their slides as their notes – and this just results in cluttered slides that are very forgettable.  The rule of thumb for slides is to only use them to demonstrate something that is highly visual, or for numbers.  But don’t put ALL the numbers on them, just the key figures – so the contrast between last year and this year, not every month in between.  If you have a lot of data that your audience need, create handouts – but only give them out at the end, you don’t want people reading their handouts (or your slides) instead of listening to you.

Avoid whizzy graphics, they tend to be more irritating than impressive!

If you’re using video, ensure that it’s short and powerful, nobody wants to watch a boring video that goes on for a few minutes.  That’s the quickest way to disengage your audience.

Know your stuff

You shouldn’t be doing the presentation if you don’t.  However, it’s a good idea to learn your opening, to grab your audience’s attention and to avoid the memory wipe that can happen if you’re very nervous.

While you can use notes to keep you on track, don’t read them.  A few index cards with your bullet points on them are a good way to stay on track.  Fasten them together to ensure they don’t get out of order – one of those treasury tags (a short cord with a metal T-bar on each end) works well. 

Also learn your close – it’s important.  Don’t simply stop and say ‘That’s it, thank you for listening’.  What is the big takeaway you want people to have?  A powerful finish will help people to remember you and your presentation.