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Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Two business owners compete against one another in the same field.

Business Owner #1 has worked in his niche for 30 years; he has a massive list of contacts; his reputation is impeccable; his clients are among some of the most satisfied in the industry.  His expertise is unmatched.  Word of mouth has been a friend to his business, but his niche is very specialized, which means that his name doesn’t come up at many dinner parties.

Business Owner #2 is relatively new to the industry, also working in the same specialty niche.  She’s still in the process of building her contact list; her clients are largely satisfied, but the verbal buzz hasn’t elevated yet…she’s simply too new.

Which business owner do you think has realized the largest profit in the last 12 months?

Would you be surprised to learn that it’s Business Owner #2?

How could that be?

One word:  Marketing

Business Owner #2 invests whatever she can afford to lose in marketing campaigns, while Business Owner #1 simply can’t seem to get past the initial dollar amount of the marketing expenses, and so, simply doesn’t “get the word out”.

As a result, the first business remains steady, but stagnant.  The second soars.

Business Owner #2 possesses a Millionaire Mindset.  Here’s what’s going on inside her head:

• Marketing is an investment.  Even if one campaign costs $4,000 (which is a significant amount of money for her fledging business), she anticipates that just one resulting sale will pay for the ad.

• She views the campaign as an investment in her most valuable commodity – herself.  Because she has completed the research and knows that there’s a noted demand for her product, she purchases each new ad with a faith that can only come from believing in herself and her business.  She thinks, I’m the best investment I’m ever going to make.

• She never invests more than she can afford to lose.  Financially, she only invests what her business can survive without.  Emotionally, she only invests what she can lose and still hold on to a sense of hindsight without depression.

• She doesn’t ruminate over the dollar amount of each marketing endeavor.  Rather, she concentrates on its potential return.  She understands that she’ll realize direct returns, as well as future, residual ones.

• She knows that she’ll never reach millionaire status by pinching pennies.

• She understands that by pulling out her cash and throwing it against the wall of cash that has become frozen in this, a stagnant, economy, she’s multiplying her chances of getting a return.  Unless she spends money, the wall of cash will remain rigid, eliminating a large portion of potential profit.

• Though it was difficult for her to accept the idea of investment versus cost in the beginning, she becomes more willing to spend money with each profitable marketing campaign.  Because of this realization, she has committed to educate her clients about the benefits of marketing, which will contribute to the stimulation of the economy.

Investment and return will never be a chicken and egg debate.  Without investment, there can be no return.  The return will never come first…in fact, it simply won’t come at all.

If you want to find your own millionaire mindset, you must separate yourself from the competition’s aversion to marketing and getting your name out there.

You could spend your disposable income on a new car, or a summer home, or a vacation.  Or…you could invest that cash in a marketing campaign…so you can afford all three.

Bernadette Doyle created Client Magnets Ltd to help self-employed people solve one of their biggest business problems: attract a steady stream of clients. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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Creating a high-end coaching program doesn’t require special training. It’s something that anyone can do, with enough expertise and the right approach. How do you know what a high-end coaching program should look like? Consider joining a similar group to get an idea of how it operates from the inside, and take away valuable information about how you can structure and format your offering.

Find a Similar Group and Join It
Once you’ve really decided to expand your offerings and create bigger programs where you’ll get more actively involved with clients, it’s time to think about what to offer and how you can offer it. What is a top-level coaching program supposed to include? One of the best techniques for starting a high-end coaching program is to find a similar group – and join it.

The idea is not to join a group and steal all of its techniques and resources. You might want a group that relates to a totally different industry than you’ll be covering, or even a group that works with how to create and market high-end coaching programs. The point is to find a group and join it so you’ll experience how a group like this operates, and get take-away points for your own planning.

Get an Insider View of What You’re Offering
Joining a high-end coaching program gives you an insider view of what you’re offering. This provides an opportunity for you to watch an expert in action, and look at how someone established is offering their programs to participants. This gives you an insider perspective of the types of things that need to be included in a program like this. It might also give you tips and techniques that improve your business overall, or as related to the program you intend to create.

Joining a high-end coaching program can give you valuable take-away points to implement in your own program. You may find that you really like something the mentor offers, or you may decide that something lacked information or you’d rather see something presented in a different way. Look at both the good things and the things you didn’t like about the program, and find ways to integrate that knowledge into the program you’re developing for your own clients. This can help you evaluate your potential offering with an insider’s perspective, and better gauge what clients might like or want and what might not provide value to your clients.

Think of a High-End Coaching Program as an Investment
If you join a high-end coaching program to get a better idea of what to offer in your own program, think of it as an investment. Having this inside knowledge can help you better craft your own program to appeal to your clients, which can create better testimonials and generate interest and buzz among your potential prospects. By having your own experience with a top-level program, you know what clients expect and you can create a program that provides real value for your clients. This benefits everyone involved, and you might just find other aspects of your business improving as a result of the program!

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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Loving your job?  Loving your business?  OR does it feel like you’re still having to suffer through the more undesirable aspects of your work?  I once believed as long as you generally enjoyed your profession, and was rewarded for it, you would still need to take care of those elements and some tasks that you dislike doing.  Well, things have changed and this no longer has to be true.

In order to create the type of magnetism that attracts prospective clients to you, you must find that one thing that you’re inherently intended to do and eliminate the rest.  With so many resources available to every one of us, there really is no excuse to continue to do OR continue procrastinate on those things we hate to do. But, you might ask, “How can I find that one thing I’m meant to do?”  You can start with your current business.  Here’s how:

•    Make a list of all of the tasks that you’re responsible for in your business.  Often, it can be hard to call up every duty, so it can be helpful to keep a daily log.

•    Assign a love factor to each task.  Is it your favorite?  Do you want to do it first every day because it makes you feel fulfilled?  Or is it the one you detest?  The one you try to avoid?

•    Isolate the tasks that you detest and ask yourself if those tasks can be eliminated.  Can you redesign your business’ purpose to cut them from your routine?

•    If the detested duties are necessary duties, start, right away, to find another way to get them done.  Hire someone.  Automate them.  Anything that will eliminate the negative energy from your daily repertoire.

If this process has been completed efficiently, you will be left with one main task…the one that you’re absolutely wild about.

The laws of positive energy dictate that you’ll be paid more for those tasks which you enjoy the most. Once you can figure out what you’re good at, and do that thing exclusively, you’ll realize more success than you had when you were bogged down doing all of the other false necessities.

Another point to remember is though many of us would like to believe that our business lives and our personal lives can be maintained separately, with a definitive line dividing the two, it’s nearly impossible to isolate them.  If there are things in your personal life that drag you down (laundry, cooking, cleaning), then do what you can to justify hiring someone to do them for you.  The positive energy that you’ll create in your personal life will spill over into your professional life, multiplying the magnetism that you create.

Just loving your general profession or business is never enough to warrant truthfulness from the statement, “I love my work.”   In order for your magnetism to be IRRESISTIBLE to potential clients, you must love every aspect of your business, even if that means whittling it down to one, exclusive task.

Do what you love, and only what you love…and others will love the idea of becoming part of your magnetic field of success.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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Have you ever hosted a free teleseminar (one in which you charge no participation fees), with the intent to sell a product, and you’ve gotten feedback like, “Great content,” or “I learned a lot,” or “You’re really knowledgeable in your field”?

Despite your blush at the flattery, were your sales numbers from the teleseminar lackluster?  Was your conversion rate uninspiring?

It’s not difficult to figure out what may have happened in this situation.  You’ve offered too much valuable information, and didn’t start your teleseminar with the end in mind:  the sale.

When conducting a free teleseminar your main concern should be with the quality of the content…the value of the information that you’re passing on.  But how do you balance sharing great content without giving too much away and losing the sale?

• No one who has registered for your free teleseminar has paid a dime (other than maybe the dial-in fee).  If you give them too much, they will walk away with your valuables, free of charge.  If you give them less information, but offer them an opportunity to learn more and to walk away with something that they’ve deemed valuable, even if there is a cost involved, you will have succeeded in your tele-endeavor.

• Your offer needs to be developed from your opening. Even though the attempt at sales will come at the end of the free teleseminar, you must keep your goal in mind when you utter your first sentence.

• Your sales pitch must seamlessly tie into the rest of the teleseminar.  Delivering a wealth of information and then tacking on a sales pitch at the end rarely works.  Your sales pitch should be less like a birthday surprise and more like the end result of a lengthy birthday celebration preparation.

• Don’t squeeze every bit of valuable information you can think of into your teleseminar.  Instead, work to weave education with sales presentation.  When this is done correctly, you’ll be priming your prospects to buy, but they will view it as free information.  In short, create a monologue that will make purchase seem like the next logical step to your listeners.

• Use your sense of responsibility to your participants to offer them something of value.  Whether your teleseminar is 30 or 60 minutes in length, there’s a good chance that you’ll never be able to cram everything they need to know about your topic into that timeframe.  In fact, if you do try to cram it in, you’ll likely be delivering an incomprehensible mess.  When you offer a chance for them to learn about the rest of the story at the end, you’re delivering value and offering a service.  Often, you can only make the biggest difference in the lives of your customers by offering more than you can give away for free.

The no-fee teleseminar can be a great selling tool.  When people invest 30 or 60 minutes of their time, they’ll naturally want to know about their next step.  When you give them that step, in the form of your product or service, after priming them to want more, they’ll be apt to buy.

So don’t view the free teleseminar as “the cost of doing business.”  Rather, view it as a valuable tool for garnishing your conversion rates, realizing your unique success, and balancing the teleseminar ledger.

Want to learn more about how to make money with your own events? Visit our Event Money Machine Blog. You’ll learn about an amazing Telesummit being held later this month. Tickets to this event are FREE – so join our priority notification list to be the first to know when they become available.

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“The 6 Keys To Making BIG, BOLD Leaps

In Your Business And Your Life”

FREE TELESEMINAR

Thursday 16 September

Are you feeling it’s time for you to make a serious decision regarding your success? Have you reached a point you know you’ve just got to commit to do what it takes? Time to break through the plateau and take it to the next level?

If that sounds like you, you may be ready to be considered for my new LEAP programme. And I’d like to tell you all about it on a special webinar happening next week.
Please join me on this complimentary call on Thursday 16 September at 8pm UK time, 3pm Eastern, 12 noon Pacific. You can register here now.

On this special call, you’ll discover…

• How to stop climbing rung by rung and start making LEAPS instead

• The critical mindset shift that helped me to LEAP into a million dollar plus business – and how you must think to make YOUR Big Leap

• How to Have BIG Income Leaps in Your Business – without Working Longer or Harder (And I’m qualified to talk about this having DOUBLED or TRIPLED my income year after year for the past 4 years – I can show you HOW!)

• The ‘invisible’ barriers that are blocking YOUR next Big Leap and how to dissolve them

• How to move through fear and find the confidence and faith to make your own BIG BOLD LEAPS

• The difference between ‘Leaps of Fear’ and ‘Leaps of Faith’ and how to ensure that YOUR next LEAP will pay off

Get all the details and register HERE (and remember to turn up your speakers to enjoy the special video I created for you)

Best Wishes,

Bernadette Doyle
www.clientmagnets.com

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In most circumstances, your squeeze page (or opt-in page) should be a standalone page. When a visitor clicks on your site, they should have no option other than to sign up for your offer. That is the single, primary purpose of a squeeze page.

This rule applies well to individual clients. But, if you want to capture the attention and the sale of corporate clients, the rules of online pages vary slightly.

While the objective of your page remains the same – getting the opt-in – the approach to that goal is a bit different because your target market is different.

Businesses want more details about the company they are considering giving their business to.  They want to know about you, your methods and your track record when reviewing your proposal and referring colleagues to your page.

Corporations require all the information you can provide to assure them they have done their homework and that you are the best choice to fulfill their need. If you give them nothing but a squeeze page to base their decision on, they will look for someone who tells them more.

To attract corporate clients, your page should include a link to an informational brochure that provides supporting information, lends credibility and gives your business a bit of branding.

These informational pages that you use for selling to businesses may be sites that you don’t publicize to the general public. But, complex sales that involve multiple decision makers require these supporting pages.

The information on these pages should include your testimonials, case studies, and lots and lots of reassurance. Many corporate decisions are based on making improvement to their company while maintaining the status quo. Since that is one of the most important things to your potential clients, your connecting pages should address how your services can work in conjunction with them while enhancing the company’s overall performance.

The wording on these brochure pages is very important. In my Attract Corporate Clients program, I include a special bonus called Inside the Mind of the Corporate Buyer. It’s a resource designed to assist you with finding the best words and language for your web pages.  Presenting your information with well-researched, impacting vocabulary will get you the results you want when selling to corporate.

If corporate clients are your market, make sure you’re giving them more – more information about you, more details about what you can do for them and more assurance that you are the right choice.

Give them all they need to click submit and select your services.

Want to learn more about attracting Corporate Clients? Read about Bernadette’s new Attract Corporate Clients program: http://www.clientmagnets.com/corporate/

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How To Set Up Your Business So the Media Contacts YOU

Recent studies show that 79% of all major media find their resources and story ideas from blogs and the Internet. So, yes, the major media really will call you… but only if your web presence has instant credibility and the ability to stand out from the crowded pack.

On this call Bernadette is joined by Suzanne Falter-Barns. You’ll learn how to attract calls from some of the biggest media available today, as well as major publisher book deals.

Join us for this call!!

MARKETING* MASTERMIND Call

Tuesday, 31st August, 2010, 8:00pm UK Time (3pm EASTERN, 12 noon PACIFIC)

TOPIC:  *How To Set Up Your Business So the Media Contacts YOU*

This call is FREE for my hundreds of Marketing Mastermind and Stepping UP! members. They also get the CD and transcript of this call at no extra charge, plus a tonne of other member benefits – such as access to our online members forum.

Not a member?  Then join the Marketing Mastermind Group today so you can take advantage of this call and all the other member goodies each and every month.

I look forward to “meeting” you on our call.

Best Wishes

Bernadette Doyle
www.clientmagnets.com

PS – Even if you can’t make the call, all Mastermind members receive a FREE CD of the call as well as a digital version of the audio and transcript! Take advantage now.

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I’m absolutely certain, that as a business owner you are emotionally invested in your business.  Perhaps starting and operating your business was a realization of a lifelong dream.   This amazing dream will certainly inspire and motivate you.  But, did you realize, if you are not prepared, then that same dream can also set you up for emotional injury that can cripple you and drain the life from your vocation.

There’s a good chance that you’ve already felt the downtrodden lows and the exuberant highs that come with being a business owner – but have you polished your ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and push forward after you stumble?  It’s the key to your business success.

I want to share the story of Ken, as a way to illustrate my point:

Ken is highly enthusiastic about his new business.  He’s dreamt of this since he was a boy, and he’s anxious to make his first significant paycheck, doing what he loves.

He rushes into a dynamic marketing campaign, following the leads of some other local businesses that he views as successful.  He sinks a boatload of money into it and waits.

But the marketing campaign is largely ineffective.  It turns out that his target audience isn’t looking where he’s advertising.  He immediately falls into a plummeting, emotional spiral as he dwells on the thousands of dollars that he’s lost.  His emotional low lasts for months.

The failed campaign didn’t hurt Ken financially (he still had plenty of capital with which to operate), but the taste of failure tainted his daily businesses dealings as he fell lower and lower into the emotional dump.

The campaign didn’t have to have the affect Ken assigned to it.  Business people everywhere have tried and failed, but the differences among them lie in their attitudes toward those setbacks. Did they allow the setbacks to attack their emotional wells, draining them of motivation?  Or did they consider the setbacks to be forms of inverted commerce…paid-for experiences in what-not-to-do?

Any failed attempt can be viewed in either of these two ways.  The right way, and the emotionally, financially, and successfully lucrative way to view setbacks is with a positive attitude.  Know that each one teaches you about something that isn’t right for you, or right for the situation in which you used it.  In retrospect, you’ll find that this kind of knowledge is, in fact, priceless (making the money you may have lost seem insignificant).

So, in summary, keep these points in mind when casting off on a new business adventure:

• Study your target audience, their needs, and your offering to make sure your product or service is in line with a definitive need.

• If possible, test your theory or idea first.  You’ll feel better about your effort, even if it fails, if you’ve prepared well.

• Don’t invest more money than your business can afford to lose.

• When you make your move, keep your expectations high, but don’t allow them to be so grandiose that a simple setback can bring your dream crashing down.

• Understand that great business people everywhere have tried and failed in the process of elimination.  You, too, can be great if you understand that not every attempt will be a stellar success.

• If you do experience a setback, get your heart out of it and insert some brainpower:  “How can I use this experience to increase my chances for success next time?”

Ken’s money wasn’t lost.  It was simply invested in a learning experience that would come back to him from a different direction.  But, unfortunately, because he couldn’t view his setback in this light, that money (and the experience) was lost forever.

Remember to set goals for yourself, but never give those goals the responsibility of holding up your entire business (or your emotional state).  Know that you will experience setbacks, but with emotional resilience, you’ll be able to view them for what they really are:  set-ups for success!

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Have you ever opted-in to receive a newsletter, or to establish an account on a website, and you receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your subscription or your request for a new account?  This is known as a double opt-in, and it’s law, according to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

This law is meant to protect consumers from deceptive marketing, unwanted pornography, and to give subscribers a clear path to opt-out of any subscription.  But what does it mean for you, the business owner at the other end of the law?  It means that if a potential client or subscriber shows intent to sign on for your offer, you must receive confirmation from them before you may proceed.

On the downside, this law whittles away at your opt-in list because many people will not respond to your email requesting them to click to confirm.  Often, they’re wary of emails asking them to click on an unknown (or forgotten) link, due to well-meaning, but fear-inducing, warnings about viruses, malware, spyware, and other internet predator ploys.

On the upside, those people who take the time to respond to your opt-in request are genuinely interested in your product or your service.  They will contribute to the overall high quality of your list with promising purchase potential.

So, how can you increase the number of people who respond to your request for confirmation?

• Offer an incentive that they can’t refuse when you send your double opt-in email. Offer a free bonus, a savings coupon, or a membership discount if they confirm their opt-in.

• If you have their phone number, contact the prospect to remind him or her to click and confirm.

• If you collected physical addresses at the time your prospects expressed interest (maybe you gathered business cards at a seminar or conference), use the physical addresses to send personal cards or notes reminding them to confirm their opt-in.  You can help to keep your correspondence out of the garbage by:

- Handwriting the address on the envelope:  it looks more personal, and much less like marketing material.  It works…just ask master direct mailing professionals.

- Using a real postage stamp:  not a metered stamp.

- Writing a personal note on the back that makes opening the envelope irresistible:  something like, “Here’s the information you requested,” should do the trick.

- Using a white or colored envelope instead of a manila one:  it has a greater chance of making it to a recipient’s read pile.

- Crafting your postal correspondence with the care that comes with believing that this will be your only chance to elicit a response:  Gary Halbert, a master copyrighter, would recommend that you treat each piece of written copy as if your life, and the life of your family, depended on a response to it.  You probably have only one chance to make a good impression.

Contacting prospects via standard post is more effective than it once was, simply because the definition of junk mail has moved from the mailbox to the inbox.  Spam has become a bigger pain than a mailbox full of confetti material, so a handwritten letter or card can seem like a breath of fresh mail – one worth opening.

Work to build your list of opted-in contacts, and you’ll multiply your revenue building opportunities.  But remember; be prepared to step outside of the email box to get those opt-ins.

In conclusion, do your absolute best to capture those subscription confirmations with incentives and a variety of contact methods that would please our friends at the FTC.  And once you build your list, know that you’ll have quality contacts who have raised their hands high, dubbing themselves as promising prospects with very deliberate purchasing intentions.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

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There are no stupid questions. The only stupid question is the one that isn’t asked. Whether you’re just starting out or trying to grow your business to even greater heights, I’m sure you have many questions about your next steps.  Usually, the questions that come into your mind are more concrete in nature: Who is my audience? Where should I open my business? How should I advertise?

Good questions, but there are others that you may not think to ask – of yourself and about yourself. These questions revolve around the person you need to be in order to achieve the success you want.  These questions are so important in your journey of success.  This week I invite you to get personal.  Look within yourself by considering these 7 questions.

Think about them before answering them, and be sure to answer them honestly.  These are the same personal questions I continue to ask myself.  These are the questions that help me to propel my business higher and higher every year.  I promise you, spending a little focused time here, will reap you great rewards …

Q1. Are you setting your goals according to what you truly want or what you think you should get? If your perspective is based on what you think you can do or have to do, you’re limiting your business potential. Set your goals based on what you truly want to achieve.

Q2. Do you have a burning desire? When you set out to do something you’ve never done, you are bound to encounter obstacles and hurdles. A burning desire will motivate you to overcome them rather than quitting because the going gets tough.

Q3. Where do you want to be? Design your business on your terms. The lifestyle you want to live, how much vacation you want to take, how many hours you want to work are totally up to you. Map these things out in advance so you can determine how to get there.

Q4. Are you setting the right goals? Setting goals that excite and challenge you will keep you from becoming lazy or complacent. Be careful not to set goals that are so overwhelming that they paralyze you with fear.  Keep a balance.

Q5. What do you need to let go of? When you move from one level to another, in life and in business, you have to leave some things behind. It could be a habit, a former acquaintance or a work pattern, but the more old things you carry with you, the harder it is to climb. Let go of the things that hold you back.

Q6. Who do you need to be in order to do this? How you act and react is just as, perhaps even more important, than what you do. Take notice of your habits and your surroundings. Ask yourself if the person you need to be to achieve your goals would live and act this way.

Q7. What is the one critical skill you need? Learning to sell is the most critical skill in any business. The most important investment you can make in yourself is learning to sell one-to-one. Make the conscious commitment to making yourself the best salesperson your business could have.

Asking yourself these personal questions and revealing your personal, honest answers will give you insight on what you need to learn and do to achieve your goals.

Never stop asking yourself questions. Every answer will take you further and further on the road to your success.

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