Client Magnets Official Blog

Archive for the ‘Niche Marketing’ Category

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

Tweet

It’s a lot easier to turn a ship that’s moving in the wrong direction than it is to turn a ship that’s not moving at all.

If you’ve been getting “analysis paralysis”, scratching your head and trying to figure out what your direction is, just pick a purpose and start heading toward it. If you’re off course, the market will correct you.

If you’re not heading in the right direction, the market will quickly give you feedback that will help you adjust. Just don’t get overly concerned that what you decide today is going to be cast in stone.

Don’t worry about picking the wrong area or niche at first. Don’t worry if you find that you’re being called an expert on something that you don’t want to be known as the expert on.

Areas of expertise can change. But you can only change your direction if you have already set out in one to begin with.

Bob Burg is the author of a book called “Endless Referrals.” He is now positioned as a referral expert and an expert on helping people to generate referrals for business.

When he first started out, his niche was memory experts. He noticed that people who took his memory courses wanted to improve their memory to remember the names of people they’d met at networking meetings and events. They wanted to improve their memory to achieve better business results.

As he spotted that connection, he started to focus more on being the referral expert. No one accused him of being a fraud because he was now a referral expert instead of a memory expert. The market let him know in which direction to steer his business.

When you set course in your chosen direction, look for niches and markets where it’s going to be easier for you to establish personal relationships and position yourself as an expert.

If the niche you do choose turns out to be an enormous amount of effort, you have to weigh whether or not it’s worth your while to continue down that road or take a different road to get business.

When Dan Kennedy, the marketing expert, was invited to submit a proposal to give a speech in Switzerland, he opted out. While plenty of other people would jump at the opportunity, and spend a day putting together a proposal to bid, that is not the way he wants to go after business. Perhaps it didn’t seem worthwhile to spend the time writing the proposal. The point is that you have to make the determination of how you want to do business.

Your niche will evolve with your business. It’s an actual evolution that happens in most any business. Look at my own situation. I started out as specializing, by trial and error, as a cold calling expert. But I didn’t stop at that. Today, I’m teaching people how to find new business and triple their income! The way in which I’m helping people and the types of people I’m helping is completely different from what I started out with.

But it’s turned out for the best for everyone!

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

Tweet

Many people don’t use their business potential to the full. It is relatively easy to focus on your every-day business; the sales and marketing, the product or service; and forget that you can leverage your business to perform far more than simple day-to-day operations.

If you’re ready to turn your business into a serious money-making venture, it’s time to think about hosting a Big Pay Day live event. Hosting a live event and turning it into a Big Pay Day is a perfect way to boost your revenue, increase your income and turn your business acumen into big dollars!

How do you monetize your event, and how do you create the opportunity to service your clients better and increase your earning capacity? Let me share a few of my secrets with you …

1. Launch a new product or service. You can also use your event to launch a new product or service for your existing business. If you’re creating a new product line or have new services to offer your clients, launching them at your event is the perfect time to introduce the products and generate buzz.

2. Launch a high-end coaching program. Your Big Pay Day Event is the perfect time to launch a high-end coaching program. You’re hosting an event because you are an expert in your niche. You could be sharing your expertise about your business field, or sharing the keys to your personal success. Use your event to share your expertise, and then launch a high-end coaching program to help attendees achieve their own success. It’s a great way to monetize your knowledge.

3. Turn your event into a product. Don’t forget that you can turn your event itself into a product. Take video of your event and launch a series of DVDs, or take the written materials from event and turn it into a book. Be creative, and think of ways in which you can share your event in the form of a new product.

4. Build your reputation in the industry. Building your reputation in the industry gives you two benefits: you can boost your existing business, and you gain the leverage you need to launch new products and services. While building your reputation in the industry might not yield direct revenue, it can lead to the acquisition of new clients, as well as creating additional business with existing clients.

Decide How to Monetize YOUR Event
When you’re considering hosting an event, think about how you will monetize it. You can use any one of these strategies, or a combination of strategies, to yield revenue far beyond the registration fees you’re charging people to attend your event. Start with one of these strategies and build on it, depending on what you have to offer and the resources you can leverage while you’re planning the event. Think about your business plan and your business goals. Ensure your strategies are consistent with helping you achieve your goals and your BIG PAY DAY!

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

Tweet

There are many ways to become a client magnet. Here are 20 proven methods that will help you to achieve astonishing business results.

•    Carefully choose the niche that you want to be known as an expert at.

•    Learn everything there is to know about your declared area of expertise. Go through the experiences and learn the lessons, connect with a mentor and then put it into practice to be successful. Only then can you teach and help other people to do the same.

•    Pick something that you’re passionate about; when you’re passionate, that really shows through.

•    You will make a greater impact in a place where you genuinely have some value to offer.

•    Realize that you don’t have to try to get every person you ever encounter to become a client.

•    Build your relationship with the people who have already “raised their hands” and expressed an interest in your product or service.

•    Focus your effort and energy on people who are pre-qualified to buy. It is more pleasurable to work with and for them than to try to convert people who will never be interested or will never be qualified to buy your services.

•    Approach your tasks with the right energy. A positive attitude will resonate with your clients; conversely, so will negativity.

•    Be a congruent model for success by focusing on and being committed to your prospects and clients.

•    Use one-to-many methods for connecting with clients and offering services, as much as possible.

•    Put systems in place to start building your list.  Then continue to grow and improve your lead generation systems.

•    Know the principles behind offering ethical bribes, such as a free report, and have processes in place to handle responses.

•    Incite a call to action by creating a sense of urgency for people to sign up with you or purchase your offer. Deadlines work well for this.

•    Don’t underestimate the value of affiliates and joint venture partnerships.

•    Be consistent. Systematize and automate your process so that you can make money even when you aren’t working.

•    Use articles, teleseminars and social media to increase your exposure and the perception of you as an expert.

•    Use quality software to build and maintain your websites and blogs.

•    Always offer an upgrade with every sale.

•    Build relationships by following up with the people you meet at networking events right after the event.

•    Offer something for free or do a product giveaway at an event, collecting contact information in exchange for entry.

Implementing just some of these strategies today will add many more prospects to your list and take you closer to a more profitable business.  When you’ve applied them all, you will be a true client magnet.

Tweet

Consider your role as a consumer. When you’re shopping, do you look at the products first, or the price tag first?

If you looked at the price tag first,
retailers would pick up on that and simply offer a collection of price stickers inside the front door. You would choose what you could afford, and then the actual product would be a surprise – possibly an unpleasant one.

You don’t shop that way, and neither do the people that you have identified as your perfect clients.

Prospects want to know your prices, but unless your prices are preceded by the benefits that you’re offering, consumers will have nothing to gauge those prices against.

Follow these four steps to eliminate your fears in revealing your price. Gain the confidence you need to make the most out of your requests for cash:

1. Present what you’re offering. Answer the timeless questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Keep it simple. If you make it too complicated, those raised hands might start to return to laps.

2. Summarize the benefits. Because you’re offering specific solutions to specific problems, this step should turn on light bulbs in your prospects’ minds. This is the step in which you convince them that you are their answer.

3. Introduce the price. By now, your listeners or readers are absorbed in what you’re offering. The benefits are foremost in their minds, as is the question of price. Reveal your pricing while the question is still in their minds; and before it reaches their lips. Perfect placement of price revelation makes it comfortable for you and acceptable to your audience.

4. Map out a direct route for the money. Make it crystal clear how easy it will be to sign up, jump on, or join in on your program. Prospects should leave your teleseminar, your sales page, or your conference without any questions about how to participate. Or, better yet, they should leave already having signed on. Make it possible for them to sign up immediately. Make it easy for them to do so.

When your appeal is placed correctly, while all of the most fantastic points of your product or service are fresh in the minds of your audience, you will not only feel more confident in asking for money, but your prospects will have more confidence in their spending.

After you identify your sea of raised hands (those people whose problems you can solve, and whose interests you have piqued), you’ll need to devise an effective method for telling them how much cash they will need to jump onboard.

The steps I’ve outlined here make up an excellent plan for starting to ask for money. As you proceed, you will learn to tweak your own presentation to meet the needs of the people in your particular niche. You will learn to identify the exact moment in time when they are most receptive to pricing, and when your presentation best complements that revelation.

When considering how to properly sandwich your asking for money in your presentation, consider your own shopping habits. You see the product. You consider how it could benefit your life. You look at the price tag. You proceed to the check-out. You leave the store with the satisfaction of knowing that you fashioned your own shopping experience.

Give your prospects that luxury. Take the time to learn about what price placement gets the most lucrative results for your business. You’ll soon discover that timing is everything – especially when it equates to money on your pocket.

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

Tweet

The principle behind being a client magnet is that people want what you’ve got to offer, they realize that you’re an expert, and they want to get onto your mailing list.

But, how do you make that happen?

Simply put, you need to be seen as an expert in your field.

People will then go out and look for you. They will actively search you out and ask to be added to your list.

But first, you need to know how to establish yourself as an expert.

•    Choose your area of expertise carefully.
Maybe your passion is working with divorced women, but you decide to become a marketing coach for businesses, because that’s where the money is. Your passion isn’t with businesses, but they aren’t as financially challenged as divorced women.

You have to decide what you really want to be known as an expert at. Is it business marketing, or helping divorced women? You should follow your passion. Choose your area because of your passion; don’t choose your passion because there’s a niche for it. Your passion will reflect in your attitude. That is what will resonate with clients and make you attractive to them.

•    Choose a topic where you can add value.
There’s no point picking a group of people, or deciding on a niche, if you have no proven track record in that area.  You need credibility; proof that you’ve done what you are professing to be an expert at. How can you teach it if you haven’t experienced it?

You will have the most impact if you genuinely have some value to offer. People will see this when they read your tips or your articles. When they see that you can add some value to a topic, they will want more of what you have to offer. That’s how you attract a following.

•    Write articles.
Articles work very well, both as a way to showcase your knowledge in your area of expertise, and as a means of promoting your business. I have articles posted all over the web. When you create articles, offer them to other businesses that tie into the same clientele as yours. This will increase your exposure. The more people are familiar with your name, the more you will be viewed as the expert.

•    Teleseminars
Just by promoting a teleseminar, you indicate that you are an expert with valuable information that people need. There is also something about having a timeframe and deadline that increases the perceived value of teleseminars in people’s minds. The need to sign up for something you’re doing creates a sense of urgency in people, and they don’t want to miss it. Teleseminars are great for both establishing your expertise and building your list.

•    Social Media
MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are great ways to build a following. As your following increases, so does your image as the expert. And simultaneously, you will also put things in place that will drive more people to your website, and build your list.

By following these tips, you will establish yourself as an expert and make your business so attractive that clients will seek you out. The impact on your list and on your business will be continual growth and 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

Tweet

Everything that you do for your business, everywhere you go, you should always be thinking about getting people onto your mailing list. Building that list is so important to the success of your business.

But, you can’t stop with simply adding people onto your mailing list; you’ve got to take it a step further and get them to actually buy from you. A thousand people on your mailing list is certainly promising business potential, but you need to focus hard on how to convert some of them into paying business.

While you don’t try to sell to anyone and everyone, you do want to try your best to sell to those people on your mailing list. Naturally, they’re your best chance for a sale because they’ve expressed an interest in what you’re offering.

You’ve heard the expression, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink? In a sense, you have to look at the prospects on your list in the same way. You’ve led them toward your business, and while you can’t make them buy, you can make them very thirsty for what you’re offering.

In order to do this, one of the things that you need to think about – even before you start building your list – is what your sales process is going to be.

Once people have joined your mailing list, what will you put in front of them that invites them to get their credit card out?

That first offer should make it easy for them to say yes by having a low financial cost and a low emotional cost.

If you set the bar too high, if the only way people can spend with you is by shelling out a lot of money or committing to a long-term program, you are making it harder for them to say yes. It’s just too big a jump.

Think of your business as a ship and your prospects are on the dock. You wouldn’t expect them to jump onboard straight from the dock – you’d at least put out a gangplank to help them come aboard.

Before asking them to take a huge leap, make a big change, a big investment and a big commitment, give them the opportunity to know and trust you first. Extend the type of offer that will make your prospects feel less vulnerable. An initial low payment offering is fine – just make sure to present something they can buy.

Keep this in mind, as well: The best time to have someone buy is immediately after they’ve signed up for your free offering, whatever that may be. When they sign up for it, they automatically join your list.
The instant that happens, put an offer in front of them. That will separate the people who are serious – the ones who are willing to invest – from the browsers.

The prospects who are willing to invest are proving themselves to you, and should get better and more offers from you.  Don’t spend too much time on the browsers until they indicate that they’re serious.

So think about a low-cost, low commitment initial offering, and then present it to people right after they join your list. That’s the time when most of them are ready to buy.

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

Tweet

If you want to place a call to someone in particular, would you pick up the phone book and call every number until you reach the person you’re looking for?

Of course you wouldn’t. That would be a foolish waste of time.

But that, in essence, is exactly what you are doing if you try to recruit anyone and everyone as your clients.

There’s a huge learning curve you’ve got to adapt to when you go into business for yourself and try to do your own marketing and selling.     It’s a real shock to the system to discover that you don’t need – or want – to sell what you’re offering to the whole world.

The most important thing to remember about selling your product or services is that you don’t have to try to get every person you encounter to become your client.

You need to focus on finding the right type of client for your business. You need to find a way for the people who would be most interested in what you have to offer to come to you. To get more clients, focus your time and attention on those people who have, in effect, already raised their hands.

Focusing on clients who express their interest in your type of business will drastically cut down your selling time. You will be focused on people who are already interested and prequalified to buy, rather than wasting your efforts and energy on people who are never going to be interested or qualified in the first place.

Make sure this concept of reaching a group of people who’ve raise their hands really strikes a chord with you. Don’t let the numbers of potential clients influence you. Would you rather market your offering to 1,000 random potential clients or to 100 viable clients you know are interested in your type of service?

It’s very important that you make the distinction between the number of names that you have and the quality of the relationships that you have with those people. You can easily open up the phone book or the yellow pages, or buy a mailing list with thousands of names on it, but that doesn’t mean that those people are predisposed to buy. They haven’t done anything to indicate that they are interested.

As you build your list, look to create a responsive prospect list so you get those people who have done something that tells you they’re interested.

You will get much better results and spend less time marketing.

Tweet

Event registration can be a nerve-wracking process. Registration is typically a cyclical period of peaks and valleys that can be both inspiring and depressing. With the right mindset and some insider techniques, you can safely navigate the event registration cycle and reach your target number of attendees.

Approach Registration with a Positive Mindset
Event registration is a cause for apprehension in both experienced event planners and newcomers to the event world. No matter how many times you host an event, there’s always a question of how well-received the event will be, and whether you’ll get enough attendees. Over time, you learn the normal cycle of event registration, and the peaks and valleys in registration matter less. But the key to dealing with the event registration process in a rational way is to approach your event with a positive mindset, and the confidence that you can successfully market your event.

Dealing with “the Dip”
There comes a point during every event registration cycle where there’s a dip in registration, and numbers aren’t where you want them to be yet. It’s normal at this point for doubts to creep in. Event organizers may wonder if they’ll get the numbers they want for registration, or whether the event itself is worthwhile. The key to successfully navigating “the Dip” is to maintain a positive mindset, and recommit to marketing the event.

When the dip happens, get creative with your marketing. Send out another touch. Try using a different marketing avenue to reach potential clients you haven’t touched recently. Recommit to marketing your event, and the dreaded “Dip” will sort itself out. And remember – this is a normal part of the event registration cycle.

Consider a Preview Tele-seminar or Event Materials
If registration isn’t quite where you want it to be, consider a creative way of reconnecting with your audience and convincing them to register. One thing you can try is a preview tele-seminar. During a tele-seminar, you can talk about things you’ll cover during the seminar, or invite people who have attended a previous seminar to come on and speak about their experience. A preview tele-seminar can generate the buzz you need to overcome a lull in registration.

Alternately, or as a companion to a tele-seminar, you can review the materials you’re including with your event. If you’re planning a low-budget event but you’re giving away a lot of manuals and handouts, it can actually suppress ticket sales. Conversely, if you’re planning a high-budget or multi-day event, you’ll want to provide a thick, chunky manual so people feel like they’re getting a value in what’s being delivered. Consider adding or subtracting event materials to boost registration.

The keys to successfully navigating through the event registration cycle are to maintain a positive attitude and get creative with marketing. Don’t let a dip in registration discourage you; instead, re-commit to marketing your event in creative new ways. By adding new touches, you can boost registration and reach potential attendees you might not have encountered previously. Most importantly, keep telling yourself that you can throw a successful event, and you will throw a successful event!

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

Tweet

Lists are a big part of marketing a product or event. Your list consists of everyone with whom you have marketing contact, either in the form of mailing addresses, phone numbers or email addresses. If you have a limited list, you have only a small pool of ready marketing contacts. However, you can still plan a successful event without a big list by partnering with people who have good lists.

Find a Joint Venture Partner with a List
If you don’t have a big list, you don’t have to avoid planning an event or selling a product; you just have to get creative about how to do it. For example, if you’re planning an event but you don’t have a list, partner with someone who does have a list and who can help promote your event. You might ask someone with a good marketing list to speak at your event, in which case your guest speaker will promote the event to their list.

Select Someone Whose Audience is Complementary
One of the best ways to promote an event with someone else’s list is to select a partner whose audience is complementary with yours; not necessarily in competition. A competitor probably won’t want to share his audience with you, because then there’d be nothing to prevent you from swooping in and taking the audience away. However, a complimentary business owner might be happy to cross-promote your event to his audience, because it is another way for him to provide value to his audience, and he may find it to be a money-making opportunity.

For example, if you’re planning an event on teaching businesses how to effectively utilize the Web for marketing, you probably won’t want to partner with a competitor who offers the same information to clients. Instead, you might want to partner with a more traditional marketing firm, who can then offer your Web-specific information and services to their clients. Or if you make and sell artist’s painting supplies, you might want to partner with someone who sells canvases; not someone else who makes or sells supplies. Think about who might have complimentary lists, and contact them about partnering in your event.

Be Clear about Terms
If you do bring on a partner to help with list marketing, be clear about the terms of your agreement up front. You’ll need to negotiate commissions and percentages on your joint venture. Have a proposal ready when you begin your discussions with potential partners, and know how much you’re willing to negotiate. If you’re not clear enough up front, you may find that you miss out on an opportunity to build your own list, maximize your income from your event or find yourself in the middle of a disagreement with your new partner. Know how much you and your event are worth, and make sure your new partner can respect that!

Even if you don’t have a big list yourself, partnering with the right person can give you plenty of instant contacts, and help you build a list of your own. Don’t let a lack of a list hamper your marketing efforts. Find a good partner with a good list, or even multiple partners, and move forward to make your event a 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

Tweet