As registrations are rolling in for the How To Get Clients And Build Your List With Social Networking Teleseminar Series, I am having conversations with business owners about social networking.

One question that I have received a few times is:

How Can Coaches Use Social Networking To Promote A Coaching Business?

This is a great question, because I think social networking is one of the best media for coaches to promote their businesses. Sadly, I see many coaches under-use, mis-use or not use social networking at all.

Here are three steps to help you get coaching clients using social networking:

#1: Describe Your Coaching Business On Your Profile.

Don’t just say that you are a life coach, a business coach or a career coach. There are thousands (or even millions!) of other life coaches, career coaches and business coaches using social networking web sites. How is your potential client supposed to know which one to hire if everyone is a life coach?

Instead, use your profile to discuss the benefits that your clients will receive when they work with you or buy your products.

For example, many times I don’t even mention “coaching” or “consulting” when talking about what I do. Instead, I concentrate on clients’ benefits. I tell my potential clients that they will be able to Get More Clients Online when they work with me.

#2: Share Your Free Gift On Your Profile.

I am sure that you would like everyone you meet on social networking web sites to immediately become a life coaching client. Unfortunately, that will happen very rarely.

When your potential clients just encountered your profile on a social networking web site, they don’t have a relationship with you yet. Because of that they do not know that you are an expert at what you do, and they are not willing to invest into coaching with you (yet!).

They are, however, ready to get your free gift and subscribe to your newsletter. Make sure that information about your free gift is VERY visible on your profile. That way you will get more subscribers.

Don’t have a free gift for subscribers yet? Create a free gift now, because a free gift can triple the number of newsletter subscribers without increasing your web site traffic. Once you have your free gift in place, start offering it to people you meet on social networking web sites.

#3: Create Information Products (And Share Information About Them!).

Once your target customers opted in and downloaded your free gift, start sharing information with them and building relationships. As you are building relationships, make sure that you mention what you have to offer.

Many coaches only offer coaching services, and they mention this in every newsletter. However, very few people will be interested in your coaching services. From what I have seen with many of my clients, fewer than 1% of subscribers are interested in one-on-one coaching services. For some people it is the issue of pricing (one-on-one packages cost a lot of money), others are more interested in other ways to learn (e-books, audios, group coaching, etc).

Therefore, if you are only offering coaching services you are leaving a lot of money on the table. Many of your subscribers and people you meet through social networking will not work with you one-on-one, but are interested in buying your products.

Start creating information products to increase your revenues and get more clients through social networking.

Biana Babinsky

Linda Dessau has just written a book, The Customizable Style Guide for Coaches Who Write: Look Smarter, Write Faster and Get Better Results from Your Writing. Since I always talk about how coaches need to be able to write well to be able to market themselves, get clients and create products, I decided to interview Linda about the book and about why writing is so important for coaches. Here is my interview with Linda:

1. Linda, why did you decide to write this book?

There were a few reasons, Biana. I’ve heard from a lot of coaches over the years that they’re hesitant to write, or hesitant to publish their writing, because they’re worried it’s not good enough. I want to help them get over that, because I LOVE helping coaches polish up their writing. But if they can’t get over this hump we can’t get to this stage.

Another big reason was so that I would have a desktop resource for all of the things I was constantly looking up as I was editing. As I heard once in a seminar, a great editor doesn’t know everything, but she knows where to look to find the answers.

2. Could you please explain what a style guide is?

Sure! A style guide is basically a collection of writing rules and guidelines that you can refer back to when you’re writing anything for your business (including articles, emails, special reports, books and more).

3. Why do coaches need a style guide?

It will save you time and energy while you’re writing, because you’ll have a clear cut answer to the writing questions that come up. And if you’re like me, and the same question pops up over and over again, it’s guaranteed that you’ll handle it the same way you did the last time it came up. If you always refer back to the same style guide, your writing will have a consistent, professional appearance and that helps to reinforce your credibility and your brand. And Biana, you and I both know how important those things are for a successful coaching business.

4. What’s the one mistake you wish coaches would stop making in their writing?

Trying to say too much. The coaches I’ve worked with are so prolific and creative, and sometimes they don’t know where one article ends and the next one begins. When it comes to articles, book chapters or each section of a special report, try to make just one main point, and then support it with sub-points.

5. What did you learn about writing a book that you can pass along to your clients? What is your one recommendation to a coach that wants to write a book?

Here are a few key lessons I learned:

– Books can change a lot from beginning to end, so draft your outline and then make room for the book to become what it’s going to be.

– Talk about your writing process as often as you can, with people who will offer enthusiastic support.

– People are incredibly generous! My volunteer reviewers gave me such a valuable perspective as the eyes of my potential readers.

– Invest in the support people you need to get the best finished product– I worked with a coach, (Kathy Mallary), an editor (M. Lisa Forner) and a designer (Victoria Vinton).

6. Tell us more about the book: is it a book or e-book? Are there any bonuses included with the book?

This is a print book only; I really wanted coaches to use it as a desktop resource. There are online bonuses as well, available on an exclusive readers-only website. There’s a list of troublesome words and phrases to watch out for, writing tools such as a sales page generator, a template to create a customized style sheet, links to all of the resources in the book and updates and additions as they become available.

7. Who is this book aimed at?

The Style Guide was written exclusively for coaches, and the entire second half of the book is dedicated to mapping out the specific writing projects that coaches use the most. That being said, I noticed that the virtual assistants who reviewed it for me found it just as helpful. I’m sure most service professionals and other small business owners could relate these guidelines to their own writing needs.

Looking for more information about Linda’s book? You can learn more about it and get your own copy at The Customizable Style Guide for Coaches Who Write: Look Smarter, Write Faster and Get Better Results from Your Writing.

Yesterday, August 6th the blog tour kicked off in great fashion with Chris Dunmire at Creative Slush. Great start Chris!

Tomorrow, August 8th, the blog tour continues with Teresa Morrow with her own interview with Linda.

After reading my my blog posts on list building, many coaches have asked me what comes next. Once you get some people on your list, how do you leverage your list to get clients, make money and improve your business?

Just like with using any other marketing technique, in order to get the best results from your newsletter, you need to create a plan to get clients, make money and get results with your newsletter list.

Here are some things to think about and include into your plan:

– You Need To Bring In More Subscribers Every Single Day. Your target customers subscribe to your list and they also unsubscribe. Your goal for your newsletter list is to have as many people as possible see your message and learn about your business. Therefore the more people you can attract to your list, the better.

– Publish Your Newsletter On A Regular Basis. Your subscribers will not do business with you and will not buy from you unless they hear from you. The only way they will know about your expertise and about what you have to offer is by reading your newsletter issues.

Research shows that people need to hear from you on average 7 times (sometimes many more!) to buy something from you.

If you want results from your newsletter, such as more clients and more money, you need to publish! Publish your newsletter on a regular basis with useful information that your subscribers want to know about AND promo’s of your own products and services. A win-win for everyone.

– Create Products In Different Price Ranges. While lots of people are interested in coaching, the vast majority of them will never become your one-on-one coaching clients.

Some can’t afford one-on-one services, others may be able to afford them, but are not at the stage where they can justify the money they are going to spend.

But many more people would be willing to pay for group coaching, ebook, audio and other products because they cost much less than one-on-one service packages.

Create your own products and offer them to your list – that way you are using your list to build passive income streams for your business.

In my Grow Your List Home Study Course I discuss how to use your list to get clients, make money and create passive income streams. Check it out at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

How do you use your list to get clients?

Biana Babinsky

Here is a conversation I’ve had with more business owners than I can count:

Business Owner: I created a great new product that I love, it is going to do great! I just need some help with getting the word out about it. Once people hear about it, this product will sell itself!

Me: That’s great, so you surveyed your target market and found out they everyone in your target market needs this product?

Business Owner: Hmmm, I didn’t survey anyone.

Me: Ok, so who is the target market for this product?

Business Owner: Everyone! This is a great product, and everyone needs it!

Me: So if you haven’t done any market research, have you created a marketing plan to promote this product?

Business Owner: Hmmm, no. But I think once I get the word out about this product everyone who hears about it will want to buy it.

…..

I have had these conversations with business owners too many times. The issue is that the business owners are so excited about the products they are creating, that the product creation takes up all of their time.

Marketing is forgotten about, or the business owners think that the product is so great that it will sell itself. The truth is, nothing sells itself. Behind every successful product there is a good marketing plan, good marketing people and lots of marketing and promotion.

So if you want to bring a product to the market and make it into a best-seller, here is what you should do:

– Find a target market for your product. And “everyone” is not a target market. A target market is a group of people who want, need and can afford your product.

– Do market research. It is not enough that you think that your product is going to sell great. Your target market has to want your product if you want to make money with it. Do research and survey your target market to find out if your product is going to sell.

– Spend the time and money on creating your product ONLY if there is market for it. Don’t spend time and money on creating something if you don’t know if it is going to sell. Only bring the product to market if there is enough demand for it.

– Create a marketing plan for the product BEFORE you actually create the actual product. If you want to make money with your product, marketing should be one of the first things you start doing. So create a marketing plan and start promoting your product BEFORE you even have the product for sale.

Since I have been teaching teleclasses for a long time, I get questions on a regular basis on how to get started teaching teleclasses. I love teaching teleclasses – it is very rewarding to teach them and they provide a lot of information and value for my students!

If you are starting out with teaching teleseminars/teleclasses/teleseries or webinars, here are three points that should help you create an effective (and popular!) class:

– Find a topic for your class. The best topics are topics that your target market is interested in learning more about.

– Pick one of the topics your target market wants to learn more about and create an interesting, effective class around this topic. Decide on how long your class will be, what the format of the class is going to be, how much material to include, etc.

– Market the class so that you can get participants for it! I usually recommend creating a marketing plan for promoting your teleseclasses/teleseminars. That way you will have a marketing template every time you want to teach your teleclasses in the future.

Your marketing plan should include different venues for reaching people in the target market and promoting your class to them.

My clients usually have the most trouble with the third action item, promoting the teleseminars/teleclasses and getting more participants for them. Here is how to promote your teleclass to get more participants:

– Publish a newsletter for your target market and use your newsletter to announce your teleclass to your subscribers.

– Some of your target customers visit your web site. Use your web site to announce your teleclass to your web site visitors.

– Are you using social networking web sites? Some of them allow you to post your teleseminars and events for other members to see. Announce your teleclass to these groups and watch your teleseminar attendance increase!

– Use article marketing, search engine optimization and other online marketing techniques to get more newsletter subscribers. Once you have more subscribers, you will have more people to promote your teleclasses to.

It is extremely important to have a clear marketing plan when marketing your teleseminars or any other classes. When you have a marketing plan you will be more successful and you will be able to get many more people to attend your classes.

Learn more about promoting your coaching business in this FREE Tutorial: How To Market Your Coaching Business

Is your business in balance? Or are you working on 25 projects and 15 marketing initiatives at once, all while thinking: “I should really be using this brand new social networking site that I just heard about!” ?

If that sounds like you, it is time to re-think how you do business and see if you can prioritize your actions, while still accomplishing everything.

Here are some of the things I do in order to achieve more balance in my business:

– Automate everything that I can. Lots of things can be automated online – scheduling of blog posts, automatic product fulfillment, ezine software, etc.

Take action: Take advantage of technology to automatically get people subscribing to your list, downloading your products, registering for your classes, etc.

– Outsource tasks that I don’t enjoy doing and can’t automate.

Take action: Take a look at everything you are doing and see which ones can be outsourced.

– Long term scheduling. I always know what’s coming up for my business for the next 6+ months. That way I can plan the tasks I need to do, marketing I need to do, etc.

When you know what’s coming up long term, you can schedule backwards. For example, if one of your goals is to have an ebook written by the end of October, 2008, you know that there are tasks that need to get done every month/week/day in order for this to happen.

Take action: Create your marketing plan!

– Multiple streams of income. Creating products, such as seminars, ebooks and my mentoring program has really improved my work/life balance.

I can have as many or as few one-on-one clients as I want. (I usually have 3-7 clients at any given time), and I don’t put my marketing efforts into getting one-on-one clients.

Instead, my marketing is concentrated on getting leads for my business.

Take action: Create multiple streams of income for your business!

Biana Babinsky

About Biana Babinsky: Biana teaches coaches, consultants, virtual assistants and other business owners how to get more clients, create multiple streams of income and run a successful online business. Join her mentoring program at https://www.MarketingSalad.com to discover how to create a successful online business.

Back when I just started teaching, I realized that different students learned differently. Some came to every lecture and wrote down every word said by the teacher and used their notes to study later.

Others never took any notes — instead they just listened intently in class. Yet others never bothered showing up at the lectures and read the textbooks instead. Some articles I have read recently report that now students rely on audio/video recordings of the lectures…

Continue Reading Your Clients Want Different Formats

I have been getting many e-mails from readers lately, asking me how to create and teach profitable teleseminars. The Teleseminars Tutorial shows you the step-by-step process for creating profitable telseminars, but here are three points that should help you create an effective (and very profitable!) teleseminars:

– Find a topic your target market is interested in

– Create an interesting, effective teleclass around this topic

– Promote the teleclass so that you can get participants for it!

My clients have the most trouble with #3, so here is how to promote your teleclass to get more participants:

– Publish a newsletter for your target market and announce your teleclass to them.

– Announce your teleclass on your web site.

– Announce your teleclass to the groups, where your target market participates.

– Use article marketing, search engine optimization and other online marketing techniques to get more newsletter subscribers. Once you have more subscribers, you will have more people to promote your teleclasses to.

Discover how to market your teleclasses in Teleseminars Tutorial.

Many professionals I know have found a new approach to solving an old problem that their target market experiencing. Once they turn this approach into a program or book or a class, the question becomes how to sell this brand new approach to their potential customers.

Do you market and sell it by concentrating on the approach? Or do you do something else?

I recommend that instead of focusing on the new approach, you should focus on what your customers get when they learn and apply this new approach.

Always remember that your customers want to know what’s in it for them, what the value is of what they will receive and what the benefits are going to be. They are much less interested in a brand new revolutionary approach; they are much more interested in the results they will receive get when they use it.

My recommendation to you is to market using benefits, and explain about the new approach and how it works after you have explained the benefits.

This is how I teach my clients to create winning sales letters – first you explain the benefits of whatever you are selling. Only after you explained the benefts you should explain what you are offering (new approach, e-book, seminar, etc). Benefits always come first.

Biana Babinsky

The price of How To Make Thousands Of Dollars With E-books Teleseminars Series is going up
tonight at 11pm Eastern (NY) Time. Register before the price goes up at

https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zebookt

Spring is here! Spring is the time to start something new and now is a great time to create a new e-book for your business. Join me for How To Make Thousands Of Dollars With E-books Teleseminars Series to discover how to create an effective e-book and make thousands of dollars with it.

Here are just a few of the things that you will learn:

– Why an e-book is the easiest information product to develop

– How to find the most profitable e-book topics

– How to decide on the best e-book format and use it as a selling point

– Advice about making money with your e-book

– How to avoid all the mistakes that many first time e-book authors make

The price of the Teleseminar Series is going up today, March 7th at 11pm Eastern (NY) Time. Learn more about the Teleseminar Series and register at

https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zebookt