Client Magnets Blog

Think Facebook is only useful for finding old classmates and catching up with friends? Think MySpace is just for kids to share music? Think blogs are just online journals to share with the world what you’re eating, drinking or watching at this very moment? Then think again, because a new breed of savvy online marketers are using all of the above, and other social media, to quickly build a large online following, attract clients without spending a dime on advertising, and have a lot of fun doing so. So here are my top suggestions for making the most of social media.

You need a strategy First you’ll want to determine how social media fits into your overall strategy. Do you want to build a list, drive traffic to a website, or both? Bear in mind that your overall results with social media will depend on your ability to convert that list or traffic into paying clients. To get best results, you’ll want to think through your entire process, rather than just rely on social media as the ‘magic pill’.

Content is King There is one thing which is certain to garner you popularity in social media: content. If you can create content that people want to read; the kind that grabs attention, solve pressing problems, has a strong ‘pass-along’factor – that is the content which will get you a loyal audience on social media networks.

This is the kind of high value content which is in demand both in social media networks and on the web as a whole. Content is what people look to the internet for in the first place, after all. To drive traffic to your site using social media, you must have something that people want.

Give Before You Get Social media can be a highly effective relationship building tool, and as with any relationship, it is good to give before you get. Recommend resources, spotlight people you endorse.

Strike a balance between giving and self-promotion When you have new content on your site or that you have submitted to a directory, send out an email or message via the social network to let your readers know about it.
You’ll alienate people if you are always selling, but at the other extreme people won’t know about what you have to offer unless you tell them so find the balance between sharing valuable content and resources with self-promotion.

Allocate your resources wisely While there is no huge financial investment to get started with social media, it can suck up an awful lot of your time if you’re not careful. And your time IS valuable. So get really clear on what you want to achieve and allocate your time accordingly. As your network grows you may even want to hire a social media assistant who can handle some of the routine activities, so you can focus on relationship building.

Have fun! Social media can be a fun way to promote your business, make valuable new contacts, even strike up joint ventures. If you’re ready to jump onboard, come and join me at my fave social media site Twitter.

I’ve been writing my Client Magnets newsletter (also known as an e-zine) since February 2002. The first one went out to a handful of people – now it reaches more than 20,000.

The newsletter has played a critical part in the growth of my business. Maintaining regular contact with your prospects, and consistently providing value each time is a great relationship builder and ‘cementer’.

Anyway, I think every ‘Client Magnet’ needs their own newsletter, yet practically once a week I hear the following question: ‘How do you come up with something to write?’

So in this article, I’m sharing my favourite newsletter secrets:

1. Believe that you have something worth saying and worth reading. There is no one else in the world with your combination of skills, talent and experience. No one. You have something worth saying and worth hearing. The problem is that you probably underestimate the things that are easy for you because you think ‘That’s obvious’ to everyone else. Here’s a newsflash. It isn’t!

2. Find your unique voice When I first started writing newsletters, I was trying to adopt an ‘expert’ tone, and I thought I had to come up with something really groundbreaking every week. It was agony! Each newsletter took me a day to write. When I realised that all I had to do was be myself, the writing process got MUCH easier. Now each article takes minutes, not hours.

3. Don’t try to please everybody. A couple of years ago I came across some negative feedback about my newsletter on an online forum. It’s no understatement to say I was shattered.  For the next few newsletters I wrote, I noticed that I wasn’t writing alone. There was a negative critic in the corner ridiculing everything I wrote, pulling faces, and shaking her head in disagreement. I started analysing everything I wrote from ‘her’ point of view. Finally I realised that the attention I was putting on this critic was stopping me from paying attention to those people who were interested in what I have to say, and decided to write on regardless.

4. Answer questions. I pay attention to the questions or issues that come up in coaching sessions, on training courses and teleseminars, or simply questions emailed to me. When I notice a common theme emerge, I respond to it.

5. Share your experience. From time to time I write about what’s happening in my own business – the good, the bad and the ugly. When I’m writing about the ‘bad and the ugly’ it takes courage to be that vulnerable in front of an audience. Yet I get an amazing response when I do. The amount of support that pours in is very touching. People seem to like hearing about the human side.  At the other extreme, I used to worry about writing about things that are going well. I was concerned that it would come across as bragging, or is alienating to people who are going through a more challenging time. But it’s inspiring to hear about other people’s successes, especially to those people who have been part of this journey and actually watched my business grow.

6. Don’t write it. Remember the purpose of the newsletter is a low cost way of staying in touch and sharing ideas with your prospects. No one says it has to be written. You could record an audio, or have a friend interview you on a subject, and then either get that transcribed, or simply upload the audio file to your website and email people a link to it.

7. Recognise that ‘writers block’ has nothing to do with lack of time or ideas
And everything to do with a fear of really showing up in the world and sharing your gifts. To quote Marianne Williamson, ‘We ask ourselves, who am I to be gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be?’. When you commit to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ you will cut through writer’s block like a warm knife through butter. With every step you take, you dissolve a little bit more resistance. Just start from where you are.

At the end of last year, I surveyed my subscribers to find out what their biggest business challenges are. Over and over, the issue of finding new leads and prospects came up.

A very common mistake is over-dependence upon 1-2 sources of new client enquiries. No matter what business you are in, it is highly unlikely that any single source will deliver ALL the enquiries you need. Eg it’s much easier to find 100 methods that will bring in 1 client each than it is to find one jackpot source that delivers 100 new clients.

Take a close look at any established, successful business and I promise you they have MULTIPLE sources of incoming leads.

So one of the best things you can do to get more leads and prospects is to start compiling a list of where YOUR target clients are ‘hanging out’.

Ask yourself:

> Where do they congregate (online and offline)?

> What do they read?

> What workshops or seminars would they go to?

> What conferences/trade shows would they attend?

> Where do they network?

> Who else do they do business with?

> Which clubs, organisations or associations do they belong to?

> What newsletters would they read?

> Where could you find a roomful of these people?

> Who already list of these people?

Sometimes when I give this assignment, I hear things like – ‘Well I found this magazine, but it’s really expensive to advertise’, or ‘I approached them about speaking but they weren’t interested.’

That’s not the point. Those are separate obstacles that can be overcome LATER. For now, you just need to identify those places where your target audience is hanging out, then you can strategise about the best way to reach them.

Do it NOW! I remember struggling with this a few years ago until a wise man said to me, ‘Someone, somewhere ALREADY has a relationship with the people that you want to reach.’ They’re out there. It’s up to YOU to find them.

You’ll be surprised how a mastermind group can help you with this. In my own Marketing Mastermind group, several lead sources get swapped, shared and passed around.

Just start that list!

Picture this. Even as you are reading this, within 10 miles of you there are people struggling with problems that YOU can help them solve. You’re the answer to their prayers.

The trouble is, they have NO IDEA that you exist. They don’t know about you. They have no idea that you, or the solutions you provide even exist.

I’d like to help you match up with those people in the world who DESPERATELY NEED what YOU have to offer. I promise they’re out there – and I can help you find them.

That’s why I’m inviting you to JOIN me on this special TWO-PART teleseminar series that’s starting June 30 called ‘7 Secrets to Attracting All The Clients You Want’. (Yes – I’ve got so much to share with you I’m having to cover it in two calls!)

In a hurry? Click here to register.

Here are just a few of the things I’ll be covering:

> The REAL reason you don’t have all the clients you want – and SIMPLE changes you can make RIGHT NOW to attract an ABUNDANCE of clients
> Cut through the CLUTTER of conflicting and confusing advice and get you FOCUSED on what works RIGHT now to get the clients you want
> How to find the groups of people you are MEANT to serve – and why (and where) they’re looking for you RIGHT NOW!
> What you DON’T NEED to get new clients (stop wasting your precious time and energy on things that don’t work)
> Why VISIBILITY is not enough to bring you the clients that you want – and the MISSING LINK that is the key to getting all the clients you want
> 3 real-life lessons learned from business owners, and how they are soaring while others struggle (You’ll want to hear what I and my 7-figure colleagues are doing so you can model what works.)

As you can see, I’ve put together two amazing calls for you. So if you haven’t reserved your spot yet, make sure you reserve your place by clicking the link below

=> Click here to register

I look forward to meeting you on the calls and helping YOU to attract all the clients you want!

Imagine this situation if you will. A prospective client calls you and says, ‘We’ve realised we have a problem with x. We know this is your area, and we really need some help now. How soon could you start?’

Sounds too good to be true? Well it doesn’t have to be. There are many people in the world who get most of their business in this way.

They have all the business they can handle, and as recognised experts in their field also command the highest fees.

I call them Client Magnets.

In this article, I hope to convince you that you too could be a Client Magnet. You too, could have a steady stream of people lining up to do business with you and willing to pay premium fees for your services. No cold calls required!

So why aren’t you already getting lots of clients like this? Well there’s a good chance that the bulk of your marketing and sales energy is invested trying to identify prospective clients and then convincing them that they need what you have to offer, instead of attracting and responding to individuals and organizations who are already looking for someone like you.

The fact is that even as you read this, somewhere in the world, there is a group of people wrestling with problems that you can help them solve. They are crying out for what you have to offer.

The only problem is, they haven’t heard of you. They have no idea that you, or the solutions you provide, even exist.

I can show you how to easily identify that crowd, and then call out ‘I’m here!’ in such away that they stampede towards you. You see, when you match up your skills and talents with the people in the world who really need you, there isn’t a lot of selling or convincing to be done.

One of the most common errors I come across is people competing in overcrowded marketplaces. The personal development boom has left us with thousands of training companies, thousands of life coaches.

When you describe yourself in these terms it is difficult for prospective clients to identify what makes you unique, so the onus is on you to be more visible and be able to prove that you are better, smarter and faster than ‘all the others’. In case you haven’t already noticed, it’s hard work.
It’s a buyer’s market.

Yet it’s a very short step from here into a seller’s market, where the competition is vastly reduced. It starts when YOU recognise your unique skills and talents and express this to your prospective clients.

And you ARE unique. There is NO-ONE else in the world with your combination of skills, talents and experience. No one. Very few people take the time to truly recognise and then communicate just how unique they are. Yet it’s my belief that there is work in this world that can only be done by you, and as you step into this work, you find yourself with a natural monopoly.

Remember you aren’t trying to sell to everybody!

Becoming a Client Magnet is about recognising the value of what you have to offer and then aligning yourself with those people in the world who can most benefit. Who are the people in the world who need your help? What problems are they experiencing? What are their hopes and desires?

You may not know exactly where they are, but can you visualize them? As a group? Or as a certain individual? Of all the important steps you can take to become a Client Magnet, one of the first has to be to define the people in the world who need your help and with whom you want to work. This isn’t an optional step.

It is a must do. Over and over again I see talented people diluting their marketing by trying to be all things to all people.

As Joe Vitale puts it in his book Spiritual Marketing, ‘When you reach a clear inner state of being about your service to the world, the world will come to you’.

Today take the time to really focus on those people who you can really help and spend some time figuring out how you can serve them. Stop trying to be all things to all people!

I am regularly asked to critique brochures, websites or other forms of marketing. In most cases by people who have invested a great deal of time and money, yet are disappointed with the results they are achieving. If I could sum up the number one mistake I see people making in their marketing materials, it is a failure to make distinctions between the market, the message, and the medium. The MARKET is WHO you are aiming to reach through your marketing materials. Remember, you aren’t trying to sell to everybody. It’s better that you speak to a few people directly about concerns that are most relevant and pressing for them, than to speak to a lot of people in a vague and unspecific manner.

The MESSAGE is WHAT you are saying to this specific group of people you have identified as your market. You need to be specific about what you can do for them. How can you help them? What specific problems can you solve? You also need to think about what action you want them to take having read your marketing materials. WHAT will the next step be? Do you want them to phone you, book an appointment, request further information, visit your website, or place an order straight away? The more specific you can be about the WHAT questions, the more successful your marketing materials will be.

The METHOD is HOW you will communicate your message to your market. Will you approach them directly, via email, letter or phone call? Will you reach them through advertising in a magazine, radio or television? Or will your website be your main channel of communication? Whether you plan to ‘speak’ to your audience via brochure or website, what words, images and colours support the message you want to get across and will motivate them to act?

So you need to ask

‘Who is this for?’ (this is a MARKET question)

‘What can I do for them?’ (this is a MESSAGE question)

‘What actions do I want them to take as a result of reading this?’ (this is another MESSAGE question)

‘What is the best means of reaching that audience?’ (METHOD)

‘What do I need to say to persuade them to take action? (MESSAGE/METHODS)

‘How will I motivate them to take action? (MESSAGE/METHODS)

First you need to clarify YOUR market, then think about the MESSAGE you want to get across to this market. Finally choose which METHODS are the most effective for getting the results that you want.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed more and more conflicting advice about what it REALLY takes to attract new clients and grow a successful business.  And it’s all getting so confusing!

I see many talented people – with valuable gifts and skills to offer potential clients – working harder than ever, yet still struggling to get all the clients they need.

Has this been happening to you?

Perhaps you are experiencing these yourself…

- you’re ‘doing all the right things’, but still not getting the consistent, paying business you want
- finding it harder to get commitment from clients
- losing former clients, yet struggling to replace them
- more and more people telling you ‘I can’t afford it’
- you get great feedback, but STILL don’t have enough clients

Sound familiar?

You’re not alone.  And I know you are wondering… What still works? What doesn’t work? What should I do now? What should I stop doing? What do I need to KNOW right now to change all this?

Well I’m here to help you… for FREE.

On a special 2-part teleseminar series I’m hosting on Tuesday June 30 & Thursday July 2, 2009.
(If you’re in a hurry, click here to register)

Why FREE? Well, for three reasons…

1)  I’ve been paying close attention to what’s REALLY working in my own business, in my clients’ businesses and swapping experiences with my business colleagues (many of them 7-figure business owners). It’s become very clear to me that there are SPECIFIC REASONS while some people soar while others struggle – and I want to talk to you about them on this call.

2)  I’m a woman on a mission. Quite simply, the information I have to share with you on these calls is both life and business transforming. I could easily charge hundreds of dollars for this information (and maybe I will in the future), but for now as I want to get this ground-breaking info into the hearts and minds of as many people as possible, I’ve decided to make these calls FREE.

3)  To celebrate the launch of my brand new How to Get New Clients system! This is my latest, best and most updated program on what works to GET NEW CLIENTS NOW. I’m so thrilled to finally be able to offer this latest version that has the fresh new details you need to know in order to get new clients and grow your business. (Plus and incredible opportunity to have me work with YOU personally to help you attract new clients and grow your business)

Well, I’m sure that as you read this you’re getting excited to learn more about this special event. Here’s exactly what I’m going to cover…

During these two 75-minute calls, you’ll discover:

- The REAL reason you don’t have all the clients you want – and SIMPLE changes you can make RIGHT NOW to attract an ABUNDANCE of clients

- Cut through the CLUTTER of conflicting and confusing advice and get you FOCUSED on what works RIGHT now to get the clients you want

- How to find the groups of people you are MEANT to serve – and why (and where) they’re looking for you RIGHT NOW!What you DON’T NEED to get new clients (stop wasting your precious time and energy on things that don’t work)

- Why VISIBILITY is not enough to bring you the clients that you want – and the MISSING LINK that is the key to getting all the clients you want

- 3 real-life lessons learned from business owners, and how they are soaring while others struggle (You’ll want to hear what I and my 7-figure colleagues are doing so you can model what works)

As you can see, I’ve put together two amazing calls for you. So make sure you register right away – you don’t want to MISS OUT!

Click here to register

You can have the best written marketing materials in the world, but if you aren’t getting them in front of the right people, it won’t make a jot of difference. If your current way of promoting yourself is placing ads or distributing leaflets or brochures, you have no way of measuring or assessing whether the right people are reading them or not. Of the people who saw your ad or picked up your brochure, how many people eagerly read your brochure and ‘almost booked’ but then got distracted? You can’t tell. You have no way of measuring any of this, so you really don’t know how effective your brochure is. And what you can’t measure, you can’t control.

Let’s say you were about to open a new fresh juice stand in your local market. What is the one thing you would want most? Fresh, organic fruit? The latest juicing technology? Friendly staff? A great location? An endorsement from a local celebrity? An attention grabbing name? A positive review in your local newspaper?

The one thing you would want most is a thirsty crowd. Because above all that’s what’s going to guarantee the success of your business. All of the other things I mentioned have varying degrees of importance, but none of them are as important as a steady stream of people in the market for what you have to offer. In my opinion the majority of small business owners have not found a way to identify or develop ‘a thirsty crowd.’ We need to find or develop a thirsty crowd for your business.

Every product, every service, every business either appeals or has the potential to appeal much more strongly to a certain definable group of people than it appeals to everyone else. Yet most of us approach marketing as though we are trying to sell to everyone instead of focusing on the definable group. That’s like getting a letter to my cousin in Glasgow by dropping 10,000 copies of my letter out of an airplane flying over Scotland!

The problem is this works just enough to convince us that it worth doing, but even a broken clock tells the time correctly twice a day. The wastage is considerable, but even more damaging than the unnecessary financial cost is the emotional cost. It makes your marketing random and full of uncertainty. That is damaging to you as a business owner. It saps your confidence. It makes it difficult to plan. You literally don’t know where you’re going to be from one week to the next.

You must make to commitment to market smarter by picking better targets. This is not an optional step. What we need to do is devise a way for those people who have an interest in what you offer to make themselves known to YOU.

I want to introduce you to the concept of lead generation advertising. A lead generation ad has one goal and one goal only. To get the highly qualified prospect to step forward and make herself known to you. What do I mean by highly qualified? It means she’s already interested and has needs that you are able to satisfy, you aren’t going to have to spend a whole lot of time educating her about what you do. She has a problem, condition or situation and is ACTIVELY seeking a solution.

If you try to do more in your lead generation ad, you’ll fail. This is not the time nor place to build your image, create name recognition talk about your particular therapy, explain how it works. Your lead generation ad is to do one job and one job only, to get your prospect to respond!!!!

Think of your marketing messages as acorns falling from a tree. The ones that hit concrete won’t develop. Your acorns need to fall on fertile ground. Lead Generation Advertising can help you identify that fertile ground, so you don’t waste time or money trying to convert people who aren’t in the market for what you offer.

Postcard marketing is the ideal way for many small businesses to reach out to their prospective customers because it’s typically less expensive than other forms of direct mail. Yes, it costs more than email, but as email marketing becomes more and more challenging, postcard marketing is a viable alternative worth serious consideration.

In addition to the postage being less than traditional direct mail, there’s less paper involved and no envelope. Postcard marketing can also be more effective than sending a letter or brochure in an envelope because you’re avoiding one of the biggest hurdles to direct mail marketing success, namely: getting the prospect to open the envelope! With postcard marketing, there IS no envelope to open.

However, the challenge with postcard marketing, as is the case with any kind of advertising or marketing, is to present a message that gets noticed and that gets acted on. Your prospective customers are bombarded with hundreds, if not thousands of advertising and marketing messages every single day, so they tend to filter out 95% of them– otherwise, we’d all suffer from information overload.

That’s why it’s important to come up with an attention grabbing message in your postcard marketing campaign, which is accompanied by incentives and a clear “call to action”. Of course, you have to make sure that you’re sending your offers to a targeted, almost pre-qualified audience that would most likely be interested in your product or service.

Here are some tips to help you get the best results with postcard marketing:

1. Decide what you want to accomplish with your postcard

For example, do you want to generate sales from existing customers, or new ones? Announce a “preferred customers only” sale? Send a friendly reminder to past customers? Announce the launch of a new product or service? Thank people for doing business with you?

Your postcard should have one goal and one goal only. Try to do too many things at once and you will confuse your reader and dilute response. So rule number one: only one call to action per postcard.

2. Focus on benefits, not features.

For example, if you’re promoting a seminar, emphasise the end result your seminar will deliver, as well as the features such as dates and location.

3. Make ‘em an offer they can’t refuse.

These days, we’re inundated with offers, so it’s worth taking time to make your offer IRRESISTIBLE. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think about what they really, really want. Then find a way to deliver that.

4. Tell people what to do next.

Should they pick up the phone and place their orders now? Or visit your website to get the Internet-only special? Bring the card to your store no later than the 15th of this month? Getting the postcard into their hands is only the first step in your postcard marketing. You must get your recipients to take the next step, and you need to tell them what that step is.

5. Give them several ways to respond.

Put your address, phone number, e-mail, and Web address on your postcard. Having multiple ways to respond will increase conversion- but remember, there should only be ONE call to action. So if your postcard invites them to book a coaching call, then they can do so by phone, by website or by fax. Note that is different from saying ‘phone to book the call, or visit our website to join our mailing list’. See the difference?

Make a point of adding postcards to your marketing mix and follow these simple rules and you are sure to see a great return on your investment.

Are you full of ideas, but failing to act on them? Do you see lots of possibilities, but you’re putting off developing them?
You are not alone!

I hear many people telling me that you are not short of information, but acting on that information is the challenge.

Let’s face it, our lives are full enough. I’m guessing you’re already at capacity doing all that you do. That’s why new ideas and information can actually start to feel like a burden rather than a help. We need assistance managing that information, sorting through it so we can discern the pieces that are most relevant, and then, finally, implementing. Here are three techniques that have really helped me cut through the procrastination and implement.

SomeTHING Instead Of SomeDAY

Up until a few years ago, whenever I got new ideas that would help me grow my business, I would invariably put it on my ‘someday’ list. ‘Oh yeah, that’s I good idea. I’m going to do that- someday’. And then I’d wait until I got a clear couple of days or weeks, or whatever pressing project I was working on had passed by. I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this – ‘someday’ never came around. So I ended up with a list of great ideas, but no concrete results. Sound familiar? So one change I’ve made is now, whenever I get a new idea, is to do ‘someTHING’ immediately to get the ball rolling. The key is to identify one action I can take right away that will get me started – sometimes it’s a simple as sending an email or making one phone call. That gets the momentum going – and

What Do You Need To Let Go Of To Implement This New Thing?

If your life is already full with what you are currently doing, then if you’re going to take on one new project, it makes sense that you need to let something go. Scrutinise how you’re currently spending your time – are there things that you could delegate (like book-keeping, diary management, making your travel arrangements) – or perhaps there are things which you are doing but are NOT contributing to your results – like attending the local networking which may have been a great source of support and contacts when you first started your business, but that you have now outgrown. No one can make these decisions for you. But if you’re totally honest with yourself, you know it’s time to let go of certain activities, so that you have the space in your calendar and the energy to implement your new idea.

Ask Yourself – What Are You Waiting For?

Are you waiting for conditions to be perfect before you can get started? The fact is conditions will NEVER be perfect. You need to start from where you are. Whatever destination you are dreaming of, there is a perfect journey for YOU that takes you from precisely where you are, with all that you have RIGHT NOW, to wherever you want to go. Yet many people don’t see that because they are wishing for a different set of circumstances. ‘I wish I had started sooner, could start later, had left school at 16, had gone to University etc, etc’ Wishing for a different starting point is not only not helping you, it is actually deterring you from seeing the open door which is immediately in front of you.

Don’t keep busy working on projects that don’t fully reward or satisfy you, while putting off starting the very thing that would delight and thrill you? It’s Your Life. Your Business. Your Choice.

So implement!