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.
People ask me all the time how I’ve managed to create a 6-figure+ business while only working about 15 hours a week. First, I had to build a solid foundation and set up systems that would support the business as it grew, systems that were either automated or delegated or easily repeatable.
Once I had the foundation and the beginning systems in place, I was constantly looking for ways to leverage my time and talent, and I still do. I could write a book on the many ways we do this in my business (and maybe I will someday) but in this 4-part series, I’m going to share with you some of the most effective ones that you can apply to your business today.
1. Pick a price…
Pricing is one of the places that almost everyone gets stuck. Don’t stay stuck especially if it’s something new that you’re offering and you’re filling in the holes in your business model. Just pick a price and get your offer out there.
Getting stuff out there will move you forward, create more income, and leverage your time.
You can say, “This is early bird pricing. This is beta pricing. This is an introductory rate. Be one of our beta testers.” Know that you’re not wedded to that price forever and ever.
That is the beautiful thing about what we do. We can change our pricing all the time. It’s simple. You can just type a new number.
2. Always be hiring…
As your business grows you always want to hire. Pay attention to who shows up, who comes across your desk, who is in your inbox and who you meet at conferences and events who may be a good addition to your team.
You might think, “I’d love to have her do my social media. I’d love to have her be part of my administrative team. I’d really love to have this person do my website.”
Be aware of the people that you’re feeling that resonance with. Maybe there is a small project you can hook them with to get them onto your team early.
That way when you’re ready to hire someone, you have a ready file of possibilities to go to.
3. Make mine WordPress…
If you haven’t made the switch from a traditional HTML to WordPress, now’s the time.
The benefits of using WordPress are seemingly endless. Search engines love them, you don’t need to know HTML to create a site or make changes to an existing site, and there are tons of free and low-cost templates to choose from that will give you business a professional polish.
Because it’s so easy to use WordPress, this is going to save you (or your designer) tons of time, which is going to save you tons of money.
4. Take a stand and make it matter
To increase your exposure and your reach into your market, decide what it is that you are willing to take a stand for and make that matter to your market. If you’re ready to stop seeming like everyone else in your market who does what you do, then figure out what it is that you believe at core level and are willing to make a stand for and in for your market.
Then use that stand as the basis for your manifesto, weave it into your marketing copy, speak about it with passion, and watch as more of your ideal audience gathers to you.
5. Publish your content on Kindle
If you have an ebook or a print book, consider publish those on Amazon as Kindle versions. It’s a great way to get your content in front of all that traffic that already exists on Amazon that can lead to more leads and more sales for you. Just be sure to put an invitation in your book that leads people back to your website.
I’d love to know which one of these leveraging tips resonates the most with you – share with me below!
People ask me all the time how I’ve managed to create a 6-figure+ business while only working about 15 hours a week. First, I had to build a solid foundation and set up systems that would support the business as it grew, systems that were either automated or delegated or easily repeatable.
Once I had the foundation and the beginning systems in place, I was constantly looking for ways to leverage my time and talent, and I still do. I could write a book on the many ways we do this in my business (and maybe I will someday) but in this 4-part series, I’m going to share with you some of the most effective ones that you can apply to your business today.
1. Is there something that’s happening in your market that’s got a buzz around it that you can take advantage of?
One of the ways to increase your exposure easily and more quickly is to seek out something in the news that applies to your market that you can ride on the coattails of.
Read the headlines of the New York Times or the Huffington Post for ideas. It can be something that you’re excited about in your industry. It can be something that you totally disagree with. It can be either end of the spectrum and it should be because either end is better than the middle.
For example, maybe there’s a book that was written that’s really hot right now. It addresses some of the problems that your market is struggling with that you help solve. You can piggyback on the popularity of the book simply by saying, “You’ve probably heard all of the raves and praise about this book. Here are my thoughts.”
You can either agree or contradict, and you can write or speak about it, whichever is your preferred modality. Doing this will help you stand out, you’ll get search engine rankings, and it could get you other media attention as well.
2. Get emotional when you’re writing your marketing copy.
If you can write passionately about what it is that you’re putting out there in the world then that’s fantastic. You should put energy, enthusiasm and passion into your overall marketing copy.
And that’s even more important when you’re telling your story. Telling your story is a critical piece to creating copy that sells. If you can write from a place of depth and passion about your story, then just sit down and write. Don’t try to get it perfect, don’t try to follow some copywriting formula, just write from your emotions, knowing you can always hone it. You can always make it more clear and concise. And you will.
If you get emotional about your marketing copy then three things will happen. It will draw your reader in and engage them. It will make it much easier for you to write if you’re emotional about it. And you’ll get more sales because emotion is what sells.
3. Put all your passwords in one place.
This was a time waster for me. All of my passwords were everywhere, on whatever little scrap of paper was near me at the time I made it. At one point I chose the same password for everything, which is not recommended.
Then I found this great little product that I’ve fallen in love with. It’s a cute little pocket-sized notebook that I keep in the middle drawer of my desk. It’s called the password keeper.
http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/open-sesame-password-reminder-… $13-
This is something so simple and yet I know that most people don’t keep all their passwords in one place, like on a single piece of paper, or in something like the password keeper.
Just don’t keep them on your computer. Your computer can crash or get hacked and your passwords can get hijacked. This simple idea will save you tons of time when you’re looking for your passwords.
4. Create a web page with all your log-in links and info.
Another time waster is trying to locate the log-in pages for the places online you utilize in your business. You can bookmark those pages, or set up tabs so they automatically open when you first connect with your browser, but that’s not an efficient way to run your computer, especially if you’re on battery power as when you’re traveling.
When I first did this it was a hidden webpage. It wasn’t password protected, but it was just a gobbledygook webpage attached to my main site. I had all of URLS of the sites I used regularly in my business on that page, so I could just click on AudioAcrobat, Aweber, 1ShoppingCart, NING sites I was a host or member of, etc. whenever I needed access to those sites. (The username and passwords were in my password keeper.) This page was one of the few pages I had set to open up as soon as I logged into my computer.
Then we moved everything to #5…
5. Create a wiki for your log-ins, your SOPs and more
As the business grew, the information we needed to run it grew and we needed a way and a place to organize it. I wanted it to be secure, easy to use, inexpensive and a place where my team could access the information as well.
And although I’ve tried a few paid services, we started with a wiki and returned to the wiki because it met all of those criteria – and it’s free (we use Google’s wiki).
A wiki is simply a place online where we keep all the info we need to run my business. All of the log-in URLs are there, all of our standard operating procedures are there, all the processes for how the business runs is housed in this one location online.
You simply create a table of contents and under each ‘chapter’ is where you put the info for it. It couldn’t be easier to organize all of your info and processes for your business.
Using the wiki saves a ton of time and money in my business. My team has access to the wiki to get the information they need instead of asking me for it. When we have a new team member come on board, we just point them to the wiki to find what they need to do the task they’ve been assigned. When I’m looking for something, I can just log into the wiki for it, instead of playing email tag with my team to get the info.
(Watch for Part 2 in this series next week…)
I’d love to know which one of these leveraging tips resonates the most with you – share with me below…
Are you like many online business owners who are confused or stuck when it comes to creating a unique, memorable, and authentic brand? If so, you’re not alone. I’ve been there myself, so I understand the frustration of feeling stuck on this whole branding thing.
Where are YOU in your brand?
But once I discovered that if I looked at it from a completely different perspective, that my brand wasn’t just about my business, but about ME, everything shifted.
Creating your brand from the inside out allows you to fully step into your business identity in a truly authentic way. It’s also the easiest way to stand out in the sea of others who do what you do.
So, if you’re stuck, let me give you three things you must be clear on in order to create a truly compelling and unique business brand.
Strategy 1: What results do your clients experience from your service?
One of the exercises I do with my private clients is have them generate a long list of the results their clients get from working with them.
You can easily do this right now. Just complete this sentence 30 times:
“The results my clients get from working with me are ___________________________.”
If you get stuck, here’s my secret: Send this question to your clients so they can tell you the kind of results you’re helping them create!
For example, when I asked my own clients this question, here’s some of what they shared:
“The results I get from working with Alicia are…
– clear, easy to follow instructions on strategic Internet marketing techniques
– insightful advice from a trusted mentor who understands my business
– generous knowledge and expertise, honest feedback and support, focus and direction
– more clarity on which steps to take to experience more alignment with my business/life purpose
– I now see the bigger picture and base my decisions on the ‘whole’ of my business, rather than just the next thing.
– stretching me in ways and areas that I could/would not do on my own.
– more clients, more money and more fun in working with my business.
– getting me out of my comfort zone so that I discover what is possible when I play a bigger game.
– more clarity and awareness around time sucking activities that I am engaging in so that I can STOP doing them.
Strategy 2: What are you an expert at?
Once you have a solid and in-depth grasp of the value you bring to you clients and the results you help create with them, you should easily be able to define what it is you’re an expert at.
Complete this sentence: “I’m an expert at________________________.”
Strategy 3: What does your brand promise?
Let’s take it one step further…
Your brand promise is a statement that is pretty specific. It’s true regardless of the program, product or service you may offer. No matter what the program, product or service, it always fulfills your brand promise.
And just to be clear, I’m not talking about your marketing tagline. What I’m talking about goes much deeper than that, to the very core of what it is that you are so passionate about providing to others.
My brand promise is, “I passionately inspire women entrepreneurs to breakthroughs in their business so they create the life they ache for.”
So, my Mastery of Business Academy mentoring programs, 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System and companion coaching groups, and the rest of my offerings all fulfill this brand promise.
Here’s one from one of my Online Business Breakthrough clients, Dale Carter at TransitionAgingParents.com:
“I provide trusted information and personal insight to inspire adult children to passionately pursue, for their aging parents, the quality of life their parents hunger for.”
So everything that Dale offers to her specific market fulfills this overarching promise. Dale knows what she is an expert at and that shows up in her brand promise very clearly.
So, what does your brand promise? What is it that your clients can count on you for?
The formula for an effective, compelling, memorable, authentic, fun and fabulous brand is really very simple:
“I get X results for my clients, which makes me an expert at Y, which means they can count on me to provide Z.”
Voila!
One of the ways I see entrepreneurs staying small (and frustrated) is by not being serious enough about how they manage their receivables in their business. Receivables is simply money that is owed to you. For example, there isn’t a business owner I know who hasn’t had at least one client’s payments become an issue, so if this hasn’t happened to you yet, know it most likely will. However, if you have certain things in place, it will be a lot easier for you to handle these situations, gracefully and respectfully.
So, let’s take a deeper look at that most common scenario: a client is late with their payment. When you address this with them, they tell you their situation and while you can and should listen with compassion, it’s imperative that you not take on the problems that they’re having and make them your own. That doesn’t serve either of you.
While we all can have money issues from time to time, if the client takes no responsibility for it – and yes, even when it seems it’s completely out of their control – then they’re coming from a victim mentality. But you can’t let them make you a victim of their situation as well.
First and foremost, ALWAYS listen to your intuition when signing on a client. You’ll only make the mistake once of not doing so before you regret it and realize taking them on didn’t serve either of you.
But there are also times when this situation comes up with a great client too. While the money situation is still theirs, for you, it’s a boundary issue. And it’s an opportunity to tighten your parameters and policies too.
We need to remember that we are running a business and as a serious business owner, we are entitled to monies owed to us. It’s why having clearly written and signed agreements and a written policies page are so important.
So while it’s the client’s responsibility to pay what’s owed, it’s your responsibility to collect what’s owed. This can and should be handled gracefully and respectfully. And it’s as easy as staying detached from their story and creating a plan to handle the situation.
If you commiserate, let the payment slide, and/or don’t make a plan on how it will be handled, not only will you start to feel resentful, but you’re also enabling the client to continue this disempowering behavior.
This is a perfect opportunity for you to step more fully into being a powerful model and mentor for them. When you’re talking with your client, tell them that you understand that this is a difficult situation for them, and then ask them what they are going to do to resolve it as soon as possible.
I know it feels easier to avoid conflict and commiserate with the client, but I have found that if you do that, the situation just keeps happening until you no longer put up with it. When you’re firm on your boundaries, you respect yourself and your business enough so you attract more and more ideal clients who are a joy to work with. I know this to be true.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this – it’s a hot-button issue for lots of business owners and clients alike, so please leave your comments below.
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