You may be too busy during the holiday season to notice if your business is slowing down a bit, but in case you’re not, there are several things you can do to use this time to your advantage as you head into the new year.
Do you get discouraged or stuck in building your business because you think there’s too many others to compete against in your niche? A lot of solo business owners feel this way, especially when they are first starting out. I don’t want you to give up before you really get started, so I’d like you to consider thinking about your competition in a different way.
1. There’s an abundance of clients and customers for everyone.
2. Your competitors are potential collaborators and strategic alliances for you.
3. The better you come to know your competitors, the more you will become aware of the uniqueness of your own message and your own offerings.
If you embrace this perspective, you’ll find that those feelings of discouragement and "what’s the point – I can’t compete" will melt away.
1. If you come from the mindset of abundance, you won’t feel discouraged by the competition. There are more than enough clients and customers for everyone. And if you are building your business online, there is essentially an unlimited audience for your work.
Think about your niche for a moment. How many of them do you need to serve to reach whatever your definition of success is? Then think about how many people there are around the globe who are your potential clients or customers. Could you really reach them all, even if you wanted to? 🙂 Of course not.
2. There are several ways that you can collaborate and develop strategic alliances with others in your niche. You could hold a teleclass or workshop together. This is particularly helpful if you are new in business and can hook up with someone more seasoned, who already has a ready audience built (an email list). Doing this will also help you gain experience and confidence to hold them on your own.
You could write an article or a column or even a book together. For instance, if you are savvy with technology and your partner is savvy with a certain set of coaching skills, you could work together to create something unique to offer online to both your audiences.
Or you could offer a free product (a mini e-book, for example) to your strategic alliance’s membership, which is an added benefit to them, while it helps to build your email list.
For more tools and resources in building strategic alliances, I highly recommend SmartMatch Alliances at http://www.coachingsuccess.com/books.html.
3. Think about those whom you consider your competitors. Are you offering similar products and/or services that they are, but to a different target market? Or turn that around: If the market is the same, are you offering different information? Of course you are, because your message, your offerings – and the way you write or speak them – is as unique as you are.
There is a certain segment of the population who can only hear your message from you. Remember that when you start feeling frustrated, defeated or just plain stuck.
Once you make this shift, you can start seeing your competitors as potential collaborators. You can work together to develop programs, products, services, etc. that will help grow both your businesses. It will also provide added benefits to both your audiences, so it’s a win-win-win!
WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com, and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
Do you often wonder why it is that some coaches and other solo service providers seem to be well-known and sought after in their niche and while others, many others (you, perhaps?), still struggle to attract all the clients they'd like?
I can give you a simple (really!) solution to that problem. It's called the Marketing & Product Funnel and if you implement it in your business, I promise that you too can enjoy being considered an expert, in addition to selling more of your products and services. And you'll just have more fun!
You know what a funnel looks like, right? It's wide and the top and tapers down to a narrow opening. When your prospects enter your funnel through your ezine or other (usually) freebie offering, they are in the "getting to know you" level of the funnel. Once they get to know you, like you and trust you, they likely will move down to the next level, which will include your for-fee products and services, your least expensive ones first, increasing in value and cost as they continue downwards, until they eventually get to hiring you one-on-one or to your other big ticket item. That's basically how the funnel system of marketing works.
I see a lot of coaches and other solo service professionals offer a freebie at the top of their funnel, and then their one-on-one service packages at the bottom, with nothing in between. I made this mistake myself. It's important to have offerings at each level of your marketing funnel so people can continue to get to know, like and trust you, as well as get to know, like and trust your products and services.
And when you offer your products and services at different price points, you are lowering the financial and emotional risk for your prospects. You are essentially making it impossible for them not to buy from you!
Implementing this system is easy. Get started by attract prospects into your funnel. Create a freebie offering (an ezine, mini ecourse, ebook, report, guide, checklist, etc.) and put a sign-up form 'above the fold' and prominently on your website. You'll want to add a link to your freebie offering in your email signature as well. This is just one highly effective way I attract folks into my funnel.
Once you have prospects in your funnel, find ways to give them more valuable content at increasingly higher prices as they go through the funnel.
For example, the second level of your funnel might offer an ebook for $27 or an ecource for $39. The third level might have a home study course for $147 or a series of teleseminars for $77 each. The fourth level might offer a boot camp for $347, and the fifth level might offer your one-on-one services for $500.
Get the picture? Fabulous – now go to it!
© 2005-2009 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com
WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com, and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the original ice cream shop that offers you a taste of any flavor ice cream you want before you make your decision on which scoop you are going to enjoy.
Giving you a taste (or as many tastes of different flavors as you’d like) is a brilliant 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, too. Offering your prospects a taste of what it is that you provide is a proven and easy way to get people to become part of your community, and part of your marketing/product funnel (the funnel is the "journey" (that builds a relationship over time) that your clients follow from the first visit to your website, where they enter by giving you their contact information, down through each level as they make their way through each purchasing step in the funnel). By offering them a sample, you’re giving them an opportunity to get to know you without risking anything more than perhaps a bit of time.
In your marketing/product funnel, the taste you are giving your potential clients is at the top of the funnel, the widest part. The taste is your freebie/complimentary/gift offering and is your first (and usually only!) opportunity to engage your prospect. Your taste needs to be something of value that you offer for free to people who visit your website in exchange for their contact information, usually their name and email address.
This is often one of the most overlooked steps in building an online business. A prospect needs to see your message many times (it ranges anywhere from 5-10) before they will feel confident enough to risk handing over their money to you. In order to build a relationship with people you need to be able to contact them again, which means your goal is to capture their email address before they click away from your website.
If they leave, it’s unlikely that they will come back, so don’t lose the opportunity to welcome them into your community, your funnel. They landed at your website because they were looking for something (usually a solution to a problem they are having, right? :)). Give them a taste of the solution you offer. And remember to make it easy for them: make your sign-up form or email so obvious that they’d have to trip over it not to notice it (yes, that includes pop-ups and the like, because even if they annoy you as much as they do me, they work!).
So, what can you offer of value in exchange for their email address? A newsletter, an ecourse, an audio clip, or a special report, are all good options. Personally, I like the offer of an ecourse AND an ezine. You give them a taste of what your services are like with the ecourse, and then you keep in touch with them on a regular basis with the ezine. The ezine allows you to build a bond with your readers in a uniquely personal way, letting them get to know, like and trust you over time, with you having to build that bond one-on-one.
So, one caution is to not offer any one-on-one interaction with you at this level. You want to leverage your time, and offering free consultations or one-time meetings with you is not a good use of your time. Let them get to know you over the course of your freebie offering. When and if they become serious about you and your products or services, they will move further down the funnel (from free to fee) without you having to "sell" them on what you provide during a complimentary session (how nice is that?).
So what is your taste going to be? Here are some other ideas:
> write a Top Ten article about the benefits of your products and services, convert it to a PDF file, and offer it as a special report.
> record a short audio about the three key things your niche needs to know about X.
> create a mini ecourse that encompasses the five steps to getting started for your market.
> or create a quick-start guide that helps your market focus on how to get started.
Once you’ve given them a taste, they will likely come back for more, eventually turning from a prospect to a client. Creating a taste of what you provide is easy and it’s fun. Try it and watch what happens!
© 2005 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com
WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com, and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
Are there ezines that you receive that you just can’t wait to read? I know I have 3 or 4 that I read as soon as they hit my inbox, and others that I print and put in my "reading box" next to my desk. What do you think makes me want to read those few right away?
It’s the personal connection I feel to the author, even if I don’t know that person (some I’ve met, some I haven’t yet). Besides the valuable content I get each time I read their newsletter, I am most interested in finding out what’s happening with them, personally and professionally.
As they share more about themselves and their lives, I get to know, like and trust them (and their products or services) over time (and you know that people usually only buy from people they know, like and trust, right?). And eventually I tend to make the investment in them and their offerings.
For example, I was (and still am) a subscriber to Chris Barrow’s "More Profit in Less Time" ezine for about a year when I learned through it that he was holding a live event in NYC. I signed up (at $200), attended the event, and left as a client (for $450/month). Do you think I would have invested that kind of money if I hadn’t gotten to know, like and trust CB and his materials? Of course not.
So, how can you put more of YOU in your ezine to make that connection with your readers? Try some of the following:
> What’s going on with you? Can you think of two or three things that are happening in your life right now that you could share with your readers? You only need to get as personal as you feel comfortable with, so don’t feel that you need to share everything, by any means. Just a couple of things that you can share comfortably that your readers might find interesting as well as help them feel more connected to you.
For example, are you going on vacation soon or did you just get back from a trip? This is usually an easy topic to start with, and don’t be surprised if your readers write to you to suggest hotels, tell you their experiences when they visited the same locale, etc.
Or do you have a pet that you can relate stories about? You’ll be amazed at how many of your readers will feel like they really know you if you share your latest "adventures with Rover" stories.
> Ask for help. If you are trying to make a decision about something, ask your readers for suggestions and feedback. To continue the vacation example above, say you are considering taking a cruise. Ask your readers for suggestions as to their favorite cruise line, or which ones to avoid. They’ll be happy to help!
Or for an another example, I know when we go to sell our house in the next few years that the first people I’m going to let know about it are my ezine readers. Maybe none of them would be interested, but they might know someone who is!
> Add photos. I try to add a photo every week, if I can (it’s not hard when I take a lot of pictures of Chloe!). A photo of yourself is also a really good idea. It goes a long way in helping your readers see you as a real person.
Try to incorporate these ideas into one section of your ezine, either at the beginning or the end. You can call it anything you like: A note from you, personal reflections, from the desk of_______, etc. Personally, I like to see it at the beginning since it’s usually the part I read first… 🙂
Remember not to take up too much space, though. You still want the majority of your ezine to contain quality content for you reader, since that’s why they signed up in the first place!
© 2005 Alicia Forest and ClientAbundance.com
WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com, and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
Do you continue to create products/programs/services that you think your prospects need – offerings that seem the most logical to you that will help your prospects do, be or have better – but you can’t seem to sell many – or any? 🙂
There are two things you need to remember when creating any offering for your niche:
1. People buy what they want, not necessarily what they need.
2. People buy based on emotion, not necessarily on logic.
And if you’re a fan of The Apprentice, you’ll see time and time again that the team that wins is the one who nails both emotion and desire in their marketing message! 🙂
There are several ways to get this information and use it to help you create an offering that will solve your prospect’s problems and make a profit for you at the same time.
The best way is to do your research. Make sure you conduct market research of your niche on at least a quarterly basis. You want this to be an ongoing part of your marketing campaign so you can keep up with the changing desires of your target market and continue to offer them what they want (not what you think they need).
Here are some ways to do this:
1. Simple: Ask them!
Ask your prospects a simple, open-ended question, like "What’s your biggest challenge with building your business online?" or "What’s the one thing you’d like to learn more about that relates to balancing your work and family life?" Tailor the question to your niche and use the information you receive to help spark ideas for new products and services.
You can put this question to your target market a number of ways: as an autoresponder when they sign up for your freebie offering, periodically in your ezine, ask them on your teleclass and have them email you their response, or ask them on discussion boards and blogs in your niche.
2. Almost as Simple: Do a simple survey…
that asks 1-10 questions using a survey tool like Zoomerang or Survey Monkey. This allows you to ask more specific questions to elicit more specific responses. Doing a survey like this really helps you to NOT waste your time creating offerings your target market simply doesn’t want. (For example, in my latest survey, I’m discovering that no one really wants more information about "defining your niche." Now I know not to focus more energy in that area. Cool, huh?)
3. Advanced: Set up an Ask Database campaign (www.AskDatabase.com).
This tool helps you ask your niche what they want in a sophisticated and professional-looking way. It does a few other things besides just asking the questions, so if you have the budget, it might be worth looking into. (And if you use this system, would you email me and let me know how it’s going? I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s part of my plan going forward.)
One last tip: To entice people to share their thoughts with you, offer them a free gift for answering your question or taking your survey. It’s also a nice way to say thank you for their time.
The information you glean from implementing this strategy (especially over time as your list grows) is priceless! Try it for yourself and see if you don’t agree… 🙂
© 2005 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com
WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com, and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
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