While watching a bit of tv this weekend, I noticed that everyone's jumping on the "do once, get maximum results" bandwagon:
1. A commercial for paint which does the work of paint and primer so you have to put on less coats.
2. Yet another commercial. . .this one for makeup which does triple duty as coverup, moisturizer and sun protection.
So let me ask you. . .is your work doing at least double duty?
Continue reading "Paint & Makeup are doing it -- are you?" »
If you've been around the "online world" a while, you know that "content is king" -- after all, it's generally expected that you should:
* publish a weekly/biweekly email newsletter
* "touch" your clients in offline ways
* post 2-3 times a week to your blog
* host your own teleseminars and be guests on others
* contribute daily to Facebook and Twitter
and the above is all *at a minimum* and we haven't even discussed videos.
Assuming you're here to connect and build relationships with others in a true and meaningful way (and if you're not, you may as well stop reading now) and aren't in it for the "quick sale", where do you find all the information to post/send out?
After all, the quickest way to build your expert credibility is to share "expert" information with others.
So how do you "know what you know" in order to share it with others who are looking for that very info?
Here's one of my favorite strategies. . .
Continue reading "[SmarTini Tip] Expert Credibility: How to let your clients give it to you" »
I'm in Orlando having a wonderful time despite close to record-freezing temperatures this week -- no crowds at any of the parks, amazing shops (BCBG and Coldwater Creek are my favorites with Chicos on the "almost there" list) and great company (here with one of my best friends from the old *corporate* days).
My team, who I love and are absolutely amazing themselves, did something they NEVER do. . .they called me on vacation and begged me to do something. You see...
In learning about my new Strategic Marketing -- Sandy Style "SMAC" program, Adam Urbanski, Marketing Mentor Extraordinnaire had this to say:
"I love it! The whole thing is just SMAColicious! Well... Except for the price! You are way underpricing this!"
And he's right. I did underprice the program and did it consciously during these tough economic times.
Since doing that however, my team has been swamped with emails and calls asking if the program REALLY includes everything on my information page given the low investment.
Quite frankly, it's gotten to the point that I'm embarrassed about this price and will be increasing it substantially when I get back to Massachusetts on Monday, November 24th in order to reflect the value and results you'll receive (and have my team like me again).
And to give you an idea of my program's value, here's an excerpt from a recent client email:
"I know I'm not the first to tell you this but you are way undercharging for your services! I soooooo get that and I soooooo appreciate all that you share..."
So if you're looking to start the New Year off right, now's the time to take action -- January will be too late!
Here's a recap of the most popular questions I've gotten about the program...
Q. Can I reserve a spot now and "start the clock" on my program in January?
A. ABSOLUTELY -- in fact, all of the November and December spots are gone and, as of this writing, there are ONLY 2 left for January. As this is customized for each client, I only have room for so many.
Q. Is it possible to pay in installments?
A. Yes! I heard your requests and have added a two-pay investment option. You can learn more about it here.
Q. Is there a forum where we can speak with other people who are in the program?
A. Nope, this program is meant to build your list, get you increased exposure and get you new clients -- rather than post on an internal forum where everyone's talking about the same things, we'll be focusing on your posting on forums and social networking sites where your ideal clients hang out.
Q. Will you teach me the technical aspects of creating a website?
A. I'm not qualified to teach you the technical aspects of creating a website (heck, I couldn't even build one for my hubby's band). I will however recommend you to resources I use as well as give you low cost, easy to implement choices which work extremely well.
Q. This program includes a variety of "contacts" or "touches", not just a calendar. Is that right?
A. Yes...This program is the perfect mix of:
Q. How long will you offer this program for? A. Until it stops being fun for me...I love what I do and if something changes that, I let it go. :-) Have more questions? Send me an email or leave a comment here and I'll get back with you.
In learning about my new Strategic Marketing -- Sandy Style "SMAC" program, Adam Urbanski, Marketing Mentor Extraordinnaire had this to say:
"I love it! The whole thing is just SMAColicious! Well... Except for the price! You are way underpricing this!"
And he's right. I am underpricing it and I'm doing it consciously. You see, I was chatting with a friend the other day and we got onto the topic of the economy and the energy around it when I got a flashback to the movie "Mr. Mom" that I saw as a kid.
I remembered "Mom" (Teri Garr) in the movie getting a job at an advertising agency and she came up with a campaign for canned tuna. You see, the economy was tough in the movie, tuna sales were down and the client wasn't happy.
The premise of the campaign was that they would LOWER the price of the tuna during the tough economic times to help out their customers and prices would go back to normal once the economy rebounded.
And that's what I'm doing. I'm offering this program at a "budget friendly" investment to help out my clients during a tough economy so that you can continue moving your business forward.
I've gotten several questions about the program and want to answer them here...
Q. Can I reserve a spot now and "start the clock" on my program in December or January?
A. ABSOLUTELY -- this program is not here to overwhelm you. If you want to reserve your spot, yet wait a bit before starting, that's completely doable -- remember, this is customized for YOU.
Q. Is it possible to pay in installments?
A. Yes! I heard your requests and have added a two-pay investment option. You can learn more about it here.
Q. Is there a forum where we can speak with other people who are in the program?
A. Nope, this program is meant to build your list, get you increased exposure and get you new clients -- rather than post on an internal forum, we'll be focusing on your posting on forums and social networking sites where your ideal clients hang out.
Q. Will you teach me the technical aspects of creating a website?
A. I'm not qualified to teach you the technical aspects of creating a website (heck, I couldn't even build one for my hubby's band last weekend). I will however recommend you to resources I use as well as give you low cost, easy to implement choices which work extremely well.
Q. This program includes a variety of "contacts", not just a calendar. Is that right?
A. Yes...This program is the perfect mix of:
Have more questions? Send me an email or leave a comment here and I'll get back with you.
Click here to learn more or sign up today...
It's Tuesday and your friend calls and says that he heard the best way to get publicity is pay-per-click. You drop everything and sign up for a Google Adwords account.
It's Wednesday and you heard that someone made a million dollars selling info products. Everything else waits while you work on your first million dollar product.
I once had a client who would tell me he figured out how to "fix" his business and what he needed to do to succeed. Unfortunately, he did this DAILY. Each day he had a new marketing strategy that he would drop everything else to implement. It was exhausting as well as counterproductive – for both of us.
Does this sound familiar? You have no real plan for your marketing strategy and so you jump from one idea to another based on what you hear or read is the best or quickest way to get more clients and increase sales.
Or, do you find yourself agreeing with colleagues who are constantly agonizing over this, that or the other in their business – all trying to outdo one another with the amount of work they have?
If so, you’re suffering from marketing overwhelm!
I have good news however – this IS a curable disease. . .no shots necessary!
There are thousands of different things you could do to move your business forward. And, most likely, any one of them will do the job.
The problem. You start one thing, stop, start another, stop, start a third, stop. . . . At the end of the day, you're left with frustration and overwhelm. And nothing done, your list the same size (or smaller) than yesterday.
The solution. If you see a little of yourself in this scenario, it's time to create a strategic marketing action plan. One that resonates with you and that you can stick with.
Step 1: Create a marketing action plan -- make a list of the marketing activities you are interested in doing and then select the three to five which resonate most with you.
Step 2: Take action -- start implementing the activities on your plan and stick with them until they are done.
Step 3: Evaluate -- review what you've been doing and what results you're getting. If the results aren't what you were expecting, you may wish to try another strategy, but only AFTER you've given the first time to work.
It's important to remember that good marketing is about two things:
1/ educating your community (prospects made up of your ideal clients) about what problems you solve (note that I didn’t say “about what you do”) and
2/ building a relationship with those in your community.
Do these two things and do them consistently and you will reap the rewards as your business success lies not in hyperactivity, but in well-thought-out plans and implementation.
My Request to You
I request you take a step back and think about which marketing activities you've had the most success with or, if you're a new business owner, which ones appeal to you the most. Now jot them down and add some dates by which you will complete them (if one time activities) or begin them (if ones to be done consistently).
POOF! You have the beginnings of a strategic marketing action plan. You’re well on your way to recovery!
And if you’re feeling too overwhelmed to begin? You’ll want to learn more about “Strategic Marketing – Sandy Style and having a customized strategic marketing action plan “done 4 you”.
For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini has been showing self-employed business owners how to get more clients consistently by implementing processes and systems to put their marketing on autopilot. Visit Sandra at http://www.SandraMartini.com for details, compelling client testimonials and her free audio series “5 Simple and Easy Steps to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot”.
Here’s a quick rundown of the most basic tools (there are other, more advanced tools which will be covered in a separate article):
1. A Shopping Cart.
An online shopping cart allows you to sell digital products, have them automatically delivered to your clients and automate the follow-up so you’re not sending emails all day and night.
I use and highly recommend KickStart Cart as an all-in-one shopping cart and autoresponder service. The Pro Version is $99.00/month (U.S.). If you’re not yet offering products, you can get the Starter ($34/mo) or Basic ($59/mo) versions.
And in order to easily accept MasterCard, VISA, American Express and Discover Card, you’ll want to link your shopping cart with a merchant account using a payment gateway.
2. An Email Marketing System/Service.
An email marketing system allows you to send ezines, solo e-mails and contact your prospect list whenever you wish.
While you can, and many people do, use your shopping cart for this, I prefer to use a separate system (due to deliverability issues) and use Constant Contact.
I continue to test deliverability between Constant Contact and Kickstart Cart (which is one of the 1ShoppingCart brands – they all have the same issues) and, for now, remain with this choice.
3. A Website, Blogsite or Other Opt-in Page.
In any online business, your primary goal is to have ideal prospects sign up to your list so they can receive your ezine and other information.
The way to make this happen is by placing an opt-in box on a website, blogsite or single opt-in page.
The one you choose is completely up to you as all have been proven successful. The nice thing about a blogsite is that you can get it up and running quickly and inexpensively and your hosting is usually included.
If you’re doing it yourself, I recommend TypePad for blogs/blogsites as it’s easy-to-use and has responsive support staff.
4. An Incentive to Sign-up.
People are busy. We all receive too much in our email inboxes these days and will only part with our information if there is something in it for us: a special report that we’re interested in, an audio series which will give us new information, a checklist that would be handy to have.
You need to have some incentive on your website/blogsite/opt-in page in order for people to part with their names and email addresses.
The report/audio/checklist is WHAT you’re giving them. Your ezine? It’s the bonus gift they receive as a result of requesting the report.
5. A Mentor.
If you’re starting out or currently stuck in your online business efforts, you will want to strongly consider partnering with a mentor who can keep you focused and accountable while guiding you through the distractions (and there are MANY!).
You’ll want to chat with a few different people to see who you best resonate with.
The time and money spent with a good mentor will save you hours and thousands of dollars in learning and mistakes, not to mention how much sooner the revenue will start coming in!
The above is by no means a complete listing of everything you’ll need in your business, but these 5 tools will see you WELL on your way to a 6-figure business.
The next item? You’ll have to wait for the next issue for that! :-)
My Request to You
If you’ve read the above and are shaking your head saying “I’ve done/have all of the above and STILL nothing’s happening”, then it’s time to reevaluate:
Is your Incentive something your ideal client is interested in? If you’re getting lots of traffic to your site, but no one’s signing up, the answer is “nope”, or you’re not presenting it correctly.
Is your ezine providing information and content which is relevant to your ideal clients? If you’re seeing a lot of unsubscribes, it’s time to revisit what you’re doing.
Do you have a mentor (or coach) who gives you broad strokes, but doesn’t provide the actual steps of what you need to do when in order to move forward? If so, you need to ask if this is the right person for you at this time.
You, and only you, control your business and your level of success. What do YOU want and how much do you want it? The right tools will get you there so much faster!
For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini has been showing self-employed business owners how to get more clients consistently by implementing processes and systems to put their marketing on autopilot. Visit Sandra at http://www.SandraMartini.com for details, compelling client testimonials and her free audio series “5 Simple and Easy Steps to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot”.
The key to creating a Client Communication Plan - a simple system for building a relationship with your prospects -- is to:
1. Write it down
2. Build in consistency and
3. Execute
Step 1: Make a list of ALL the things you enjoy doing in communicating with your prospects and clients. Your list could easily include:
Step 2: Whatever it is you enjoy doing, make a list like the above, grab your calendar and determine WHEN you can *consistently* do the items on your list (or wheedle the list down if you need to).
Your goal is to strike a great balance between consistency and variety -- after all, not everyone is watching videos on YouTube or monitoring tweets on Twitter.
Step 3: Execute (a.k.a. "Implement") and continue executing. This is not a one-shot deal, you need to consistently implement your plan in order to see results.
And remember, whatever communication methods you choose, provide your prospects and clients with more information than promotion. This is the key to building a strong relationship.
My Request to You
Following the steps above, create your very own Client Communication Plan and make a decision to commit to it - consistency is KEY! After all, if you're not going to be consistent in your own marketing, how can your clients trust you to be consistent in partnering with them?
For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini has been showing self-employed business owners how to get more clients consistently by implementing processes and systems to put their marketing on autopilot. Visit Sandra at http://www.SandraMartini.com for details, compelling client testimonials and her free audio series “5 Simple and Easy Steps to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot”.
Late last week I was interviewed by Dave Kaminsky of Online Video University on the subject of repurposing. It was a great interview...under 20 minutes, Dave's very skilled at what he does.
So where's the learning?
My facial expresssions. . .I was trying so hard not to look at the computer screen (but at the camera instead) that l looked everywhere and spent a lot of time nodding.
It's definitely time to work on my video-from-home-office skills -- many more videos to come!
While several marketing experts I know would probably not post this video as it's not *perfect*, it's more important to me that you 1. get the information I share and 2. learn from my experiences. I hope you feel the same -- if not, simply minimize my wandering eyes and focus on the audio. :-)
Check it out below...
Sandra Martini Interview from DMK on Vimeo.
Are you ready to move your business forward while saving time AND effort?
"Repurposing" is the act of reusing or recycling everything you do and How To Repurpose Your Work, will teach you to. . .
Here's just a smidgeon of what these techniques have done for me:
=> quickly increased the size of my mailing list -- with prospects who WANT to hear from me
=> put me at the top of the Google search listings
=> resulted in people I've never heard of calling me and wanting to work together
You can learn more here. . .
Repurposing - the art of doing something once and using it in other ways - is one of the most effective and efficient systems you can create within your business.
Before your eyes glaze over with the thought that this is yet another article telling you to market your newsletter articles online, read on.
In addition to marketing to article directories, you can repurpose your articles by using one of my favorite marketing strategies:
Article Marketing Strategy: Teleseminars
Take any article and turn it into a 60-minute teleseminar -- simply add a "welcome" and "introduction to the topic", go through your main points, add a "closing" and leaving some time for Q&A.
In doing this, you'll want to cover no more than 3 main points (5 if they are short) in order to keep your call to 60 minutes. This is a fabulous way to build your list as long as you remember a few key points:
Promote the teleseminar to more than just your own list - after all, they already know you
Allow at least two weeks of promotion to get the most interest
As to whether or not you can charge for these calls (yep, I heard you wondering), the answer is "It depends".
While you can, of course, charge for anything you'd like, there's no sense unless there's a market for it. To determine if you should charge for these calls, ask yourself the following questions:
After asking, and answering, the above, you'll have a pretty good feel for whether or not you should charge for the call.
And then we come to, "What should I do after I hold the teleseminar?"
While I could go through the steps and tell you now, you have enough to do (see "Your Coaching Challenge" below) and I'm not going to overwhelm you.
Suffice to say that you know I'm not going to let it sit unused in your harddrive and we'll be following up on this in a few weeks (after you've done all the prep work below).
Your Coaching Challenge
Pick an article you've written within the last 6 months and schedule a teleseminar around it for sometime in the last half of October (this gives you plenty of time to promote).
You're only goal for this teleseminar is to get more people on your list. See how good that feels, no pressure to perform, make sales, etc. Your job is to simply promote the call to people within your niche.
If you're unsure how to host your own teleseminar, you can pick up the class I taught (complete with sites for promoting and systems to use) at "How to Host Your Own Teleseminar: The Tools To Make It Happen Without Fear". Next week, we'll cover another Article Marketing Repurposing Secret Strategy - with the steps on how to make it happen!
For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini has been showing self-employed business owners how to get more clients consistently by implementing processes and systems to put their marketing on autopilot. Visit Sandra at http://www.SandraMartini.com for details, compelling client testimonials and her free audio series “5 Simple and Easy Steps to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot”.
Intuitive marketing strategist and "how to" mentor with 3 dogs and 3 cats
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