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Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

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.

When you’re running a one-day course, it’s important to understand group dynamics. In a one-day course, you must build rapport among attendees quickly so you can proceed with the underlying message of your course. Building rapport quickly is easiest when you have a little help.

Attendees’ Mindsets Upon Entering an Event
When attendees come to a course or event, they typically enter the event feeling a bit vulnerable or defensive. Your attendees may be worried that they’re going to be put on the spot, embarrassed, or humiliated. They worry that they may lack knowledge on a particular subject, and that lack of knowledge is going to be revealed. In business courses, attendees may be sent by managers and have even less confidence in their knowledge or attending an event. In other words, most attendees are a bundle of nerves at the beginning of an event. In a one-day course, you must overcome this initial discomfort quickly so that you can give attendees something valuable they can take away from the event.

Pre-Event Mingling
One way in which you can begin building the rapport and breaking through people’s insecurities is provide them with an opportunity to mingle prior to the starting of the event. Have coffee or snacks set up outside of the room prior to the session, and provide a comfortable area for people to sit and mingle. A breakout room where people can chat and interact with one another is a great criteria to include when you’re selecting a venue. This gives people an opportunity to overcome a little reticence before entering the event, and they’ll be more comfortable upon entering the room.

Bring an Assistant
At the beginning of an event, you’re focused on a thousand details. You’ve got to register all of your attendees. Your attendees may have questions, or needs that must be addressed. You may find that your attendees are too hot or too cold, and the temperature needs to be adjusted. What happens if the coffee isn’t ready, or if you run into a problem with registration or setting up the room? At the beginning of an event, you want to be focusing on the event; not the minutiae.

If possible, bring an assistant to help you manage these details. The assistant can help with registration, make sure everybody has their badges, check with the hotel about coffee, deal with temperature, and generally answer questions. A good assistant can also introduce attendees to one another and get them chatting; raising their comfort level and dispelling their initial fears. This frees you up to chat with attendees prior to the beginning of the event, or simply focus on the event itself.

The Secret to a Successful One-Day Event
The secret to a successful one-day event is to overcome attendees’ initial discomfort fast and build a rapport. This is easiest if you bring a good assistant who can help you field questions and concerns, and facilitate conversation among attendees. The right assistant can make your life a lot easier!

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

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!

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

How does it make you feel when you receive a thank-you note, penned in your friend’s own hand?  Or how revealing is it for you to study someone’s signature, or to appreciate the time that they invested in writing a unique, personalized message with good, old-fashioned ink?

Handwriting has become a bit of a novelty.  We communicate with texts, IMs, emails, and spoken words.  The handwritten, post-marked letter has virtually gone the way of handlebar mustaches and hoop skirts.  So when you see your name and address in script on the front of an envelope, your curiosity is piqued, right?

In marketing, it can be helpful to put yourself in the shoes of your prospects.  If you’d like to receive a handwritten note, most of them probably would, too.

The handwritten note theory has been tested by direct mail experts and copyrighters, and the results have been overwhelming:  it works.

Here are some arguments for hand-lettered script on envelopes and in correspondence:

• Since the early 1990s, even before email was the overwhelming choice for correspondence, handwritten notes were endorsed by professional marketers.  If hand-crafted script was a welcome addition to mailboxes back them, imagine how novel it will seem now that we’re fully immersed in the Information Age.

• “Pen and ink” catches a mail sorter’s eye.  Think of how you sort your own mail.  If you’re like most, you separate it into two piles:  the “I need to read that later” pile and the “ditch it, it’s junk” pile.  Handwriting gives your correspondence a better chance of landing in the more favorable stack.

• A note, card, or letter with a personalized feel will always feel more valuable.  It flatters its recipient, and makes him or her curious to know who would spend so much time on the thought of them.

• If you use handwriting to communicate, at least a portion of the time, your communication will be among the minority, making it unique and worthy of a second glance.  Many marketers have heard of the advantages of handwritten notes, but few will make the effort to do it.  This gives your effort a “noted” advantage.

Now maybe you’re thinking, “Geez.  I’m already buried under a mountain of work.  Where in the world am I going to find the time to sit down and write out notes to prospects?”  Here’s the beauty of this approach:  it’s so simple, anyone can do it.

Your niece or nephew can do it.  The neighbor kid can do it.  Your grandma can do it.  A student or intern can do it.  The handwriting doesn’t have to be yours, it simply has to be handcrafted.

Actually, adding one more demand to your growing business isn’t advisable.  Instead, think “automated.”  A good idea or good fortune shouldn’t equate to more work.  But it should call for a system to handle it.  Even if you’re only writing 30 cards per month, and you have no problem fitting that task into your schedule, you must have a plan on the back burner…for when a big idea, or a big success, hits.

There will always be marketing trends to follow.  There will always be the next big thing, onto which you’ll want to pounce before your competition gets the chance.  But, putting all of that aside, some things simply never go out of style, and handwriting is one of them.

In marketing, your handwriting grade isn’t earned with sweeping curves, crossed Ts, and dotted Is, but rather, it’s earned with the regular use of this versatile tool that simply never seems to go out of style.

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

You’ve finally make the decision to start a blog! Kudos to you.

Before you begin, here are a few steps to follow in order to make your blog an interesting site that will attract readers and build your list.

•    Choose the right software. Using the right software will make your blog stand out among the many thousands on the internet. WordPress is a good choice because it offers many features that can be customized to suit your needs.

•    Select keywords. Your keywords are the areas in which you want to be ranked on search engines. For example, you might select coaching, training and self-improvement.

•    Write your blog. Include your keywords in the post, but be sure to write something interesting, even controversial, that will catch readers’ attention and that they’ll want to share.

•    Use creative content. Use link bait and tweet bait to creatively attract readers. Post information that is easily shared, such as top 10 lists. Visitors can link from the list to your site, or tweet it to their network. Your internet ratings will instantly increase.

•    Publicize it. Twitter is one of the fastest, easiest ways to publicize your blog. As soon as you tweet it, anyone following you will see it and, hopefully retweet.

Getting started with a blog really isn’t complicated and can be a lot of fun!   Once your blog is up and running, it’s important to keep yourself motivated to stay with it.

Keep your eyes on the prize. One of the best things you can do is to constantly remind yourself of your goals. Write down three things that you want to achieve, and put it where you will see it every single morning. You don’t have to look at it all day long, but starting your day with those three things in mind will inspire you, especially if you’re having difficulty coming up with your blog for the day.

Do what you love. Make sure that you are blogging about something you’re passionate about. Of course, you want to make money. But it’s important to remember that blogging is personal. If your heart isn’t in what you are writing, your readers will sense that and they’ll be turned off. Why should they want your offering if you don’t even seem excited by it?

If you follow these steps, you can be on your way to creating a successful blog; one that attracts visitors with information they can’t wait to share.

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

Running an event can provide you with a substantial profit. You can earn revenue from the event itself, or from selling items during the event. With the many revenue options available for making money from an event, people still miss out on some great revenue opportunities. Here are some insider tips for increasing your event revenue that most people don’t consider:

Provide Tiered Pricing
If you want to open your event to the widest possible audience, consider creating a tiered pricing structure. You can quote a relatively low ‘entry-level’ price for just admission to the event. You can also add a ‘premium’ or ‘deluxe’ event attendance, with carefully-considered extras. You might add a product free of charge for attendees who sign up for the premium package. You might also add one-on-one time with the event organizer, keynote speaker or other key event guests.

In this way, you can provide basic entry to wider range of people, while still raising the overall cost of your attendance. If you provide basic entry for $100, or a premium attendance for $200, your average revenue will increase, depending on how many people choose the premium option. You can also add a pre-registration option at a lower rate, and then charge the full rate for registration at a pre-designated cutoff point.

Offer Trial Memberships
If you have a product that functions as a subscription, such as an information distribution service, you could offer attendees at your event a ‘free trial.’ A 30, 60 or 90-day trial is typically long enough to provide attendees with a good understanding of the service and its benefits. You’ll find that many people like the service and stay in the program; giving you an ongoing revenue stream once the free trial has ended.

Open Up In-House Opportunities
One great function of an event is to promote your in-house opportunities and services. Events are a great way to convey information about your services to attendees, and convince them that you’re the person with the expertise and systems in place to serve their needs. If you’re promoting in-house opportunities, though, your event can’t be planned exclusively around that. Unless you’re hosting a free event to reveal a new product, people expect to receive a certain level of value from your event; not an extended marketing pitch.

Convey valuable information at your event. Answer important industry questions; questions that you have the expertise to answer because it’s in your field. Provide information about a product. Give your event a purpose beyond simply promoting your services or products. A good event coordinator can find opportunities to work in-house services into the event’s structure at key points, and begin to build a relationship with attendees to meet their ongoing needs.

Be creative in the ways you leverage revenue at your event. Offer a tired pricing structure, which typically yields higher event revenue than a single price. Provide trial memberships to subscription or ongoing services, to demonstrate the value to your attendees and create an ongoing revenue stream. Finally, find ways to promote your in-house services to your audience throughout the 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

When you meet someone for the first time, you have a chance to make a real connection, or you can just pass on your name and be forgotten. Successful relationship-building requires more than just handing out business cards. To build long-lasting, solid and mutually-beneficial relationships, a little homework and a little thoughtfulness goes a long way. Here are my tips for making an impression that brings lasting results …

Research the People You’re Meeting

If you’re meeting someone in particular, research the person or people you’re meeting. Lots of resources exist that can give you both professional and personal reference material. The Web is a source of myriad information, with things like company websites, personal bios, work histories, resumes, portfolios; depending on who you’re meeting, you may be able to find a wide range of information about your contact.

If the Web doesn’t yield any useful information, you could check with the company where your contact works, to see if they have any marketing information containing professional info about your contact. You could also check periodicals, such as magazine stories, newspaper articles or professional interviews. Depending on how public the person is that you’re meeting, you may be able to find everything from the name of a spouse to the first place he or she worked out of college.

Use the information you find when you meet your contact. Talk about common interests, such as being dog owners, adoptive parents, yachters; whatever common bond you can form with your contact can help you form a good relationship. Ask about things near and dear to the person’s heart – not just business talk – and you’re well on your way to forming a real connection.

Ask Questions and Show Genuine Interest

Get to know people to form real connections. Ask questions about everything; not just their professional life, but their personal interests and family life, too. The more you can show that you understand, know and really “get” the person, the better your relationship will be, and the more business opportunities you’re likely to gain. Be a real person to your connections, too – if your new business partner volunteers information about his wife, talk about your wife. The more personal you can make your relationships with people, the better your long-term success with those relationships will be.

Have Fun Making Connections With All People

Everyone can have fun building good relationships – all you have to do is be genuinely interested in people. Enjoy getting to know your business colleagues, or even that woman you met on the street the other day. Forming connections with people can help in all aspects of your life, and even random connections can help your business in unexpected ways. You never know when someone will refer a key contact; an affiliate who may have great products for your prospects, or a business or distributor that could make your product a high-demand success!

Don’t just see people as stepping stones to a better business. Form real, legitimate connections by getting to know people, and I promise good business will naturally follow.

The thank you page is one of the most overlooked places of real estate on the web.

That quote, from one of my mentors, Yanik Silver, speaks volumes. There is so much opportunity to promote more business and further your relationship with a new client on your thank-you page.

That client has just indicated that they trust you by opting in to your offer. Signing up to your list is a sign that they want to hear more from you.   Don’t let them leave wanting; offer them even more before they click off your thank-you page.

When developing your thank you page, think about what you can do to increase your client’s involvement. Marketing research has shown that the more people are involved, the more likely they are to buy – again.

That’s one reason companies hand out scratch-off cards with prizes or discounts hidden beneath the ink. It’s called an involvement device. When someone physically has to do something, it increases their involvement, which increases response and increases conversion.

The content on your thank you page needs to be relevant to your target market. Think about what you want them to do next, where you want them redirected to, and if there’s an opportunity to make them another offer.

There are several key ways you can accomplish this.

•    Make another offer. While letting the client know you’re glad they signed up, also let them know about another offering. Make a special offer. Offer a special prize or a special bonus that new clients will receive, but only if they sign up there and then.   Remember to use language that encourages action.  For example, “This is the only time you will see this offer. It’s for new subscribers only and you won’t have access to it again.”

•    Ask for more information. Once a new prospect joins your list, ask them to describe their biggest problem. You can then direct them to other offers you may have to help with the problem, or develop that new offering if you don’t have one.

•     Create a “tell a friend” campaign. Invite people to tell three friends about your offering in exchange for a special bonus. “Congratulations. Your place on the call is reserved. But just before we continue I would like to offer you this free gift……..”

Everyone who opts in helps you spread the word to other people. This will make a massive difference to your opt-ins and really help to increase your list. You can automate this process using Viral Friend Generator software.

When saying “thank you”, the key is to include only one of these options on your page. Either attempt an additional sale by making another offer, ask new clients for more information, or create a tell-a-friend page.

Any one of these options added to your thank-you page will start increasing your sales immediately.

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

Many entrepreneurs, small business owners and other professionals find themselves focused on earning an income, finding new clients and the day-to-day struggle to survive.  Having enough income and cashflow to grow your business rapidly is not an uncommon problem.  I often hear people talking about their expected income for the next day, weeks or months ahead.  They focus on knowing where the next paycheck is coming from because they don’t have enough confidence in their existing client base or cashflow.   They fear their income will dry up.

Have you ever felt like that?  If that sounds like you, then it’s time to STOP focusing on your income.  It’s time to start focusing on a long-term plan for success and diversification.  But how?  How do you free yourself from the day-to-day financial worry and really start to thrive?

The answer simply lies in starting your own high-end coaching program.   A high-end coaching programme (when designed and delivered the right way) will provide enough guaranteed revenue to enable you to stop worrying about money and be free to focus on your long-term success!

This is how the strategy works …

Sell Once a Year to Generate Guaranteed Revenue

• With your high-end coaching programme, if you market and sell the right way, you will only need to focus on the selling once and then you’re done for the year.

• Create a program with a limited number of spots, and you’ll only have to sell long enough to fill those spots and then you can focus on serving your clients and creating alternate revenue streams.

• Create a program with a fixed time limit, such as my annual programme, and you only have to sell those spots once per year. Then you’ve got the commitment for the income, and you’re free to focus on other areas of your business. No more worrying month-to-month whether you’ll have enough cash for next month; with a high-end coaching program, you can earn enough money to free yourself up for other pursuits.

Free Yourself Up to Look at the Big Picture

One of the biggest benefits for you and your business of creating a high-end coaching program is freeing yourself up to look at the big picture. If you’re like most people, you spend countless hours per week working on finding enough business, and the rest of your time goes to satisfying your existing clients. You never have time to think about the long-term plans for your business, or how to diversify your revenue streams.

Once you have the committed income of a high-end coaching program, you can stop spending so much of your time selling yourself and your services because you have a guaranteed revenue stream. Instead, you can focus on creating the other steps to achieve success in your business, and put together a long-term plan for your business!

In order to truly become successful in your own business, you’ve got to stop focusing on immediate income so you can begin to build a road map for long-term success.   Worrying about your day-to-day income is short-term thinking and can seriously hamper your long-term business success. When you start a high-end coaching program, you get financial commitments for a large portion of your revenue and begin looking at other ways to improve your business success.

So if you want to see an end to your day-to-day financial struggles and the beginning of long-term success, it’s time to start your high-end coaching programme!

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