If you’re a woman entrepreneur who’s building a leveraged online business so you can keep your family first, this is for you.
As the same, I’m always looking for ways to tweak (read: leverage) what’s already working in my business to improve my results so I can grow my business more quickly without more effort.
Where in your business could you do the same? Take this mini-assessment to find out.
__ 1. Do you utilize multiple channels to reach your audience?
The more ways you can reach and connect with your audience, the easy it will be to grow your business.
Gone are the days when sending an email invitation will fill your program or sell your product. In today’s ‘attention’ economy, we need to connect with our market in multiple ways, with a focus on deepening that relationship each time.
What channels are you using today to reach your audience, and what channels can you add to that list?
__ 2. Are you re-purposing your content?
There is one question I ask myself before I create a new piece of content and that is:
Can I use this piece of content in a minimum of 3 ways?
If the answer is yes, then I move forward with it. If no, then I haven’t wasted my time and energy on creating something I cannot leverage.
What’s one piece of existing content you can re-purpose today?
__ 3. Do you labor over writing copy?
If you labor over writing copy, you can either hire someone to write it for you (which can be expensive but oftentimes well worth the investment) or you can implement a process to make it a lot easier for you.
First, start with a proven template. You’re going to make it your own – with your own voice and style and tone and story – but always start with a proven sales template.
Then take copy from that to create all your other marketing copy, like your email campaigns and social media promotions.
What parts and pieces of your current copy can you excerpt for other marketing activities?
__ 4. Do you collaborate?
If you want to grow your business more quickly, consider collaborating with other like-minded colleagues who complement what it is you do. Also don’t forget those clients and customers who are your raving fans – they can help you get in front of more people like them!
Who could you collaborate with on your next offer?
__ 5. Do you have a core product that anyone could take advantage of?
I mentioned this in Part 1, but it bears repeating. Do you have a DIY product that everyone in your market could take advantage of?
If not, what simple product could you create that your client could walk themselves through so they get to experience your work in way that doesn’t require a significant investment?
These are just 5 areas to be looking at where you could up the ante on what you already have in place in your business – or what you should have in place to create the success you desire. Spend some time figuring out for yourself where you can apply the above to start seeing better results for less effort.
If you want my help in answering these questions with you, be sure to get on the wait list for the brand-new Lively Biz Business Club that’s opening soon!
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Writing valuable content-rich articles for your target market and submitting them to article directories and other publishers is one of the best ways to market your business, become known as an expert in your field, and add subscribers to your list.
For example, if you regularly write an article for your ezine, you can get a lot more mileage out of it if you submit it to article directories and other online publishing services. And making every piece you write work more than once for you is one way to work smarter and not harder. That’s called leverage.
There are several reasons why you want to do this. One is to get your name and your business out there so people will learn who you are and what you do, and it helps to position you as an expert. No more keeping yourself a secret and hiding behind your computer! 🙂
Another reason is that your articles give people a taste of your style, what it is that you offer, and it gives them an opportunity to get to know you a bit without risking anything.
At the end of each article include a resource box so if people want to find out more about you and your business, they have that information at their fingertips. Once someone reads your article, if they like your stuff, they will likely visit your website and sign up for your Free Taste (your free offering that gets people on your list). And writing articles is one of the fastest (and FREE) ways to get lots of exposure, especially if a publisher with a large list picks it up!
Want to get started? Here are the 5 easy steps:
1. Write the article or recycle one you’ve already written, giving it a fresh edit (it never hurts).
Write or revise an article targeted at your niche that is full of valuable content.
A couple of tips:
- Articles can be anywhere from 300-600 words in length for the best chance of being picked up (if you have a longer article, consider chopping it in half and making it two shorter articles).
- Articles with lists, steps, or mini-chunks of information are the most read.
2. Add your copyright.
Don’t forget to protect your work by adding a copyright. At the end of each article, put a copyright notice with the date of when you first published the article. For example, copyright (or ©) 2016 Alicia Forest.
3. Write the copy for your author’s box.
After your copyright notice comes what’s usually referred to as the “resource box” or “author’s box.” In order for others to publish your work, ask that they include this information at the end of your article, keeping what you provide in it whole and intact. As this is standard practice, you’ll find most publishers will honor this request.
Write 3-5 lines that entice people to find out more about you by providing the web address to the sign-up page for your Free Taste. You don’t need to use this valuable real estate to promote your business, but do use it to encourage people to join your list by signing up for your ezine or other free offering.
BONUS TIP: Don’t send your article readers to your home page. Send them to a page set up specifically to add them to your list. For example, say “for more articles like this, please visit www.yourezinepage.com to sign up!”
4. Submit your article.
Although this is one of the most time-consuming marketing tasks, it can be made much simpler by hiring a VA to do it for you.
There are literally hundreds of websites that offer free content for publishers who are in need of quality articles for their own publications or websites. Here are some of the best ones:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.amazines.com
www.articlealley.com
www.articlebiz.com
www.articlesfactory.com
www.articlecity.com
5. Turn it into a blog post and/or podcast
If you have a business blog, be sure to leverage your article by posting it to your blog. Not only will this give you more exposure, it will also increase your search engine traffic because the search engine spiders LOVE blogs and will read and index your blog URL every time you post new content.
If you’re podcasting, use your article as a script to record and offer as a podcast as a way to increase your market reach to the audio learners in your target market.
Bonus step:
If you want to see stronger results from submitting your articles, contact directly those publishers of ezines and websites in your niche. Google publishers of ezines in your target market and then send a query to the editor/owner about submitting an article. Present yourself as a professional and offer your article for their use, provided the resource box remains in tact. Paste your article under your message (attachments can get blocked, and if the receiver doesn’t know you it’s unlikely they will open and read it anyway).
Writing and submitting articles is one of the tried-and-true, if slow-and-steady, ways to build your list, become known as an expert, and offer value to your target market.
Everyone prefers getting a recommendation for a product or a service. It means they don’t have to do the research themselves, or find out whether or not it’s for them through trial and error, shouldering all the risk.
For example, if you’re looking for a good dentist, you’re more likely to ask someone you know and trust who they go to before you’ll look one up online or in the yellow pages, right?
The same goes for your business. And you’ll get HIGHER QUALITY clients and customers through referrals than any other method.
Here are three super simple ways for you to help your current clients and customers tell others about you using the Tell-A-Friend strategy.
1. Simply add a sentence or two to the bottom of each issue of your ezine or any other freebie offering you have.
Something like:
We grow by recommendation! If you enjoyed this issue, we’d love it if you’d pass the word. Do so by forwarding this to a friend and inviting them to subscribe at the link (above/below). You can embellish or simplify this according to your personality.
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In 2009, I started thinking about the hosting my own live event, but even though I had a great coach to help me plan it, her events were far larger and much more involved than anything I wanted to do…
And so I held back.
Then I started feeling pressured to move forward with this idea, so I contacted a nice hotel near the airport, submitted my request to host a 3-day event there, and then nearly passed out when the 15-page contract arrived – along with a required MINIMUM commitment of $15k from me.
Gulp.
So I decided to toss the whole idea until I could come up with a way to do it that felt good to me – and that didn’t make my heart palpitate in fear!
I asked myself what kind of event I really wanted to do. Not what ‘everyone’ else was doing, but what felt easy, fun, and much more me…
What I came up with was this…
I didn’t want to hold it at the airport. I didn’t want to hold it at a big hotel. I didn’t want to hold it in the big city. I didn’t want to stress about filling seats or worry about paying for rooms that didn’t fill in our room block. I didn’t want to commit to thousands of dollars of food that I knew most of would be wasted. I didn’t want to deal with sound systems and the cost and labor involved. Basically I didn’t want to do anything the way I was ‘supposed’ to.
So I started over – and by asking myself what I REALLY wanted (and following that guidance) – I found myself with a 1-page contract with no financial commitment upfront, with no commitment to paying for empty guest rooms, in a boutique hotel in a hip town near the sea.
Was I still nervous about filling seats? Sure. Did I have lots of questions about all the things I didn’t know? Yup. Was I afraid of what I didn’t know I didn’t know? Absolutely.
But by doing it my way, and starting from where I was realistically, I’ve successfully hosted 6 small workshops and have generated anywhere from $60k to over $100k NET every time.
I’m sharing this with you so you know I’ve been there…and I have a lot of wisdom to share with you as you plan and navigate hosting your own small live event.
If you’d like to learn more and get on the early access list to my brand-new training, just CLICK HERE.
If any of this resonates with you, I’d love to hear it. Just comment below and let me know. 🙂
When you visit an ice cream shop, you can usually get a free taste of any flavor ice cream you want before you make your decision on which scoop you’re going to enjoy.
Giving you a taste (or as many tastes of different flavors as you’d like) is an effective way to ensure that you not only order a cone at that moment, but it’s also a way to bring you back to try more flavors on another day. You can use this brilliant marketing strategy in building your business as well.
This is a critical step for building your business online. Marketing 101 says that a prospect needs to see your message anywhere from 5-12 times before they will feel confident enough to risk handing over their money to you. You want to give your prospects a taste of what it is that you offer in exchange for their email address, so you can start to build a relationship with them. Without that relationship, you don’t have a business.
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One of the ways my business had been successful over the years has been by repeating what’s worked. And then there comes a time when my market and I are ready for something fresh, something new to re-ignite the fires or to advance together into a new level of growth. This also helps keep your list interested, and it helps you stay cutting edge in your market.
Here are 5 easy ways for getting and staying hot in your market:
1. Be recognized…
Start showing up – in-person and/or virtually – at events that are offered for your target market. Throw your own events. Be seen on discussion lists and popular blogs where your target market hangs out. Join the conversation, offer your valuable insights and comments, ask good questions and give good answers. Joint venture with your colleagues and double your efforts with half the work. Join associations made up of your peers and volunteer to be on a committee or head up a project. There are loads of ways to build your recognition in your market. Pick a couple and start doing them NOW.
2. Be open to offering others’ products…
If you’ve hit a creative low point, there’s always the option of offering someone else’s product to your list. It’s still new and fresh material to them and a new offer for you to make. Make a list of five of your colleagues who each have a product offering that complements what it is that you do and start building a relationship with them now (if you don’t have one already), so when you want to offer their product, they’ve gotten to know you and your business a bit so they may be more willing to say yes to that kind of strategic alliance.
3. Be more ‘serviceable’…
Take a fresh look at your service offerings. Write down what they look like currently on one sheet of paper, including all the features and benefits. One a separate sheet of paper, write down how you’d like your services to look, including all the features and benefits. You might be surprised to find a real difference. Based on what you discover, consider repackaging your current offerings in a way that better suits you and your clients.
4. Be trendy…
Enter the conversation already going on in your client’s mind to spark new ideas. What are they reading, seeing on TV, involved in right now in their world? What current event or newsy item or popular TV show can you tie into your sales copy for your offerings that will keep it fresh and make stand out in an already crowded marketplace?
5. Be occasion-oriented
Tie a promotion into a holiday or special occasion. There’s hardly a week that goes by these days that doesn’t have some sort of celebration attached to it. Or you could make up your own. For example, January (New Year’s) and September (Back-to-School) are great months for launching new products, programs, or services that allow the client to do, be and have better.
If you want to keep your clients and customers, keep them interested. Consider offering something new, either in the way of a new product, program or services tailored to their wants or by tweaking your current offerings to keep them fresh and make them stand out in an already crowded marketplace.
I’d love to know which one of these 5 resonates with you the most. Please leave your comments below.
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