Archive for March, 2010

Top Three Mistakes You Are Making On Twitter

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
 

I have been hearing from a lot of service professionals who have been telling me that they are not getting the results they are looking for on Twitter. If you have been on Twitter for a while, but are not able to get clients there, chances are you are making one or more of these mistakes that I am discussing in this article. The good news is that you can fix these mistakes and then you will be able to start getting results on Twitter.

Here are the top three mistakes you are making on Twitter and how to fix them:

Mistake #1: Not Connecting With People In Your Target Market

If you are using Twitter because you need more clients, then the people you are connecting with on Twitter must be in your target market. If you are not connecting with your potential clients on Twitter, then you will not be able to get clients there. It is as simple as that.

How to correct this mistake: Review how you are finding new connections on Twitter. Make sure that when you are connecting with people, you are not connecting with everyone, but rather you are connecting with people who are in your target market.

Mistake #2: Lack Of Consistency

If you only participate in social networking once every month, then you are doing yourself a huge disservice. Your connections won’t remember you from month to month, so every time you participate, you will have to reestablish your connection and start building relationships from scratch.

How to correct this mistake: Be consistent and participate on a regular basis. To save time, automate the posting of some of your tweets.

Mistake #3: Not Sharing Your Expertise

Your potential clients want to work with experts. The best way to convince them that you are an expert is to demonstrate your expertise. If you are not sharing your expertise on Twitter, you are not taking advantage of one of the easiest way to attract clients to your business.

How to correct this mistake: Share at least one tip with your followers every day.

Learn how to use Twitter to get clients and build your list during the How To Get Clients and Build Your List On Twitter Teleseminar, https://www.marketingsalad.com/tt.html

Pesto Recipe And How It Relates To Business

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
 

A few months ago someone had asked me for my pesto recipe. This person wanted to make pesto and pasta for dinner. This was her first time making pesto, so I gave her my recipe, as well as some tips for making pesto. A few weeks after that, I asked about how the pesto came out. Turned out that she was so afraid that her pesto wouldn’t come out that she didn’t even bother trying to make it.


Basil and Parsley Pesto

In my many years of cooking, I have had quite a few times where the dish that I was making didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. Pasta with pumpkin came out tasting way too sweet. Salt didn’t melt completely in my chocolate chip cookies, so they ended up having crunchy salt crystals. I have severely overcooked green beans on a number of occasions. My dough didn’t rise a few times. And the list goes on. But I tried, and then I tried again, trying to correct the mistakes I made the first time.

The same holds true for my business. I have tried marketing techniques that didn’t work. I have tried them again, correcting mistakes I had made the first time. Sometimes it worked; sometimes I had to move on to the next marketing technique that worked much better. The point is that you can’t be successful until you try. Yes, you will fail sometimes, but you will succeed other times. If you are afraid of failing and you don’t even try, then I absolutely, 100% guarantee that you will not succeed.

Discover how to get away from being afraid of failing and start taking action in this article: Are you Afraid Of Failing?

Are you Afraid Of Failing?

Monday, March 22nd, 2010
 

Are you so afraid of failing at something that you would rather not take action at all? Many heart-based service professionals are afraid to fail at marketing. They think:

“What if marketing doesn’t work for me?”

“What if I offend people I am marketing to?”

“What if they think that my services are not worth the
money I am charging for them?”

“Who am I to teach people anything?”

After thinking all these thoughts, many service professionals decide to stay where they are and not take action at all. Their reasoning goes something like this: “If I am going to fail anyway, why should I even try?”

Well, there is one sure way to fail, and it is not taking action at all. If you are not taking action and marketing your business, you are failing at attracting your perfect clients to your business. You are failing at helping them achieve their goals. You are failing at creating the business that you love. Here is how to start taking action:

Change Your Thinking. The next time you are planning your marketing, ask yourself: “What if I succeed?” instead of “What if I fail?”. Imagine how great you will feel when you see real results from your marketing. Imagine how great it will be to attract the clients to your business that love to work with you and who you love to work with.

Imagine knowing working with great clients and seeing them get great results from working with you. Marketing is worth doing when the end result is doing the work that you love to do, with the clients you love working with.

Find Marketing That You Love To Do. When you love doing what you do, it doesn’t seem like work anymore. Instead, it seems like you are doing something fun every day.

There are many things that you can do that help you market your business including blogging, article marketing, search engine optimization, teaching teleseminars and many more. If you like speaking, start offering no charge teleseminars to increase awareness for your business. If you like writing, use article marketing to share information about your business.

Find the strategies that you enjoy and start taking action with them. When you use marketing techniques that you enjoy, you will get better results and you will have fun marketing!

Take Action One Step At A Time. You know the saying, “Question: How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time.” This saying applies to marketing as well. If an action that you need to take is “write 100 articles and submit them to article directories”, I can’t blame you for not taking action on it. This is an enormous task, and every time you even look at it, you are completely overwhelmed.

Instead, break this action into much smaller actions, such as “write one article and submit it to article directories”. Writing one article is much more manageable than writing 100 of them and will help you stop being afraid of failure and take action instead.

Top Three Strategies To Grow Your List

Thursday, March 18th, 2010
 

A lot of people have been asking me how they can start growing their lists TODAY – what are the actions that they can take today to start growing their lists immediately.

Here are my top three strategies to help you invite more people to your list. Start using them today and you will see more people joining your list:

Strategy #1: Article Marketing

I love using article marketing for list building. It is effective, it works great and you can use it to invite exactly people you want to invite to your list! How do you do that? By writing articles on topics that are of interest to people that you want to invite to your list.

What is article marketing? Article marketing is the process of writing articles that people in your target market are interested in reading and then submitting them to article directories to be published. It is extremely important to write articles that are of interest to your target market, because that is another way to qualify your subscribers. When the topic of your article is of interest to people in your target market, people in your target market will read your articles and find out more about your newsletter.

When you submit your article to directories, your article will also include a Resource Box. Your Resource Box is a one-paragraph description of you and your business and a link back to your web site. Use the Resource Box to invite your article readers to get your free gift and join your list!

Strategy #2: Social Networking

Social networking web sites, such as Facebook and Twitter are great for inviting people in your target market to join your list.

In order to invite more people from social networking web sites to join your list, first you need to have an effective profile page. If you do not have any information about your newsletter in your profile, how are people going to even know that you have a newsletter?

Next, you need to get involved, become visible and start building relationships with people you meet on those social networking web sites. If you are invisible on social networking web sites, people will not be able to sign up for your newsletter. When you are visible, you will get many more subscribers.

And then, make sure to share about your free gift using your social networking updates. Your profile is not the only place to let people know about your free gift. People should also hear about your free gift from your status updates on Facebook and your tweets on Twitter.

Strategy #3: Blogging

Blogging is another great technique to use to invite more people to your list. There are a ton of things you can do with your blog to bring more subscribers to your list.

First, your blog itself should contain information about your newsletter and your free gift. If you don’t tell your blog readers about your newsletter, how do you expect them to ever subscribe? Make sure that your blog has at least some information about your newsletter.

Your blog posts themselves are also very important for inviting people to your list. Remember – you will write your blog post once and it will be seen by people and search engines for a very long time. This means that if you write an interesting blog post and it gets indexed by search engines, you will be able to gain blog visitors and newsletter subscribers from the same blog post for a long period of time.

Use search engine optimization each time you write a blog post. Research keywords and find effective ones to use in your post. Then use the keywords in your blog posts, so that your blog posts can be indexed in search engines for the relevant topics and you can get traffic. Each time someone finds your blog post in search engines, they will be able to read your post and find out about your free gift and your newsletter!

This is just one blog post. Optimize each blog post that you write and you will start getting more traffic from search engines to your blog.

For more tips on how to grow your list, get the FREE Report, Four Keys For Building Your List at https://www.effectivelistbuilding.com/4keys/

Top Three List Building Mistakes You Are Making On Social Networking Web Sites

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
 

Lots of people are joining Facebook and Twitter (and some of them are probably in your target!). And since people in your target market are using Facebook and Twitter, you should be using these social networking web sites too. Participating in these web sites is great for inviting people in your target market to join your email list.

If you are a heart-based service professional, and you are looking for the best ways to find more clients, then you must get started in growing your list. And social networking web sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are some of the best places to invite people in your target market to join your list.

If you are using social networking web site, such as Facebook and Twitter, but are not able to use them to grow your list, chances are you making some of these mistakes. Here are three list building mistakes you are making on social networking web sites and how to fix them:

Mistake #1: Having An Ineffective Social Networking Profile

When you are networking with people on social networking web sites, and they want to learn more about you, where do they go? They go to your social networking profile, of course! But, if your social networking profile is not effective and doesn’t let them know more about what you do, they will move on to the next one.

How to fix this: Make sure that your social networking profiles on web sites such as Twitter and Facebook have information about what you do and links to subscribe to your newsletter. If you do not have any information in your profile, how are people visiting your profile going to even know that you have a newsletter?

Mistake #2: Being Completely Invisible On Social Networking Web Sites

Sometimes service professionals create accounts on social networking web sites and stop right there. To get results from social networking, you must take the next step and start participating and becoming visible. If you are not involved and visible on social networking web sites, people will not be able to connect with you. And if they cannot connect with you, they won’t join your list.

How to fix this: Get involved, become visible and start building relationships with people who you meet on those social networking web sites. When people who you are connected with on social networking web sites talk to you, learn from you and see that you are an expert at what you do, their natural next step is to learn a bit more about you through your profile. They will go to your profile and if they see information about your newsletter, they will at least check it out.

Mistake #3: Not Sharing About Your Free Gift And Newsletter

If your profile is the only place where people can learn about your newsletter, then you are losing subscribers every day. In order to get more subscribers, you must share information about your newsletter using your status update, as well as your profile.

How to fix this: Use your profile updates from time to time to let your social networking connections know about your list and your free gift.

For more information on how to use social networking to build your list, get the Grow Your List Quick Start Guide at https://www.effectivelistbuilding.com

Social Networking Not As Good As It Used To Be?

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
 

Ok, I have to say it. I have been hearing from lots of people recently that social networking web sites are not “as good as they used to be”.

By this people who are talking to me mean that social networking landscape has changed. Here is what I have heard recently:

– There is much more noise on social networking web sites than there was two years ago…

– It is not as easy to invite people to your calls, or to your newsletter anymore…

– No one on Twitter and Facebook is interested in coaching…

The good news is, while social networking landscape has changed dramatically in the last two years, one thing remained the same. The spirit of social networking stayed the same. When you use social networking web sites to share, help, educate, give, connect and refer on social networking web sites, you will get the same in return.

Now, I do want to clear one misconception that a lot of people ask me about. Should you market at all on social networking web sites? Should you let your connections know about your upcoming teleseminar, your coaching program or your new book?

Here is what I think. There is absolutely nothing wrong with marketing yourself on social networking web sites. There is nothing wrong with inviting your social networking connections to a preview call you are holding or letting them know about your book launch. As long as you are using your social networking presence to share, help, educate and give, there is nothing wrong with using a few of your status updates to let your connections know about your offerings. After all, if your connections don’t know what you are offering, they will not do business with you.

But what if you are experiencing what I described above, that social networking just isn’t working for you? Here are a few things to take a look at:

– Are you connecting with the right people? Even if you are doing everything right when it comes to social networking, you still need to be connected with the right people, people who are interested in what you have to offer.

If you are not connecting with people who are in your target market, you will still have fun on social networking web sites, but you won’t see the results you are looking for.

– Are you sharing tips and ideas? Sharing tips is the best and simplest way to promote your expertise. You can share short tips as a status update. To share a longer tip, right a blog post and share it.

– Are you letting people know what you have to offer? Sharing your offerings in an authentic and thoughtful way is a huge part of social networking. If you share about them too much, many people will tune you out.

On the other hand, if you don’t share at all, you are guaranteed that no one will take advantage of your offers.

Learn more about using social networking web sites effectively:

The Simplest Strategy To Build Your List With Social Networking

How To Get Leads On Social Networking Web Sites

Stop Selling Your Services! Here Is What To Do Instead

Monday, March 8th, 2010
 

You know, sometimes when something isn’t working, you need to change course. I have always been an accomplished cook, but I had never baked. I didn’t really try, but I have always been convinced that I couldn’t bake.


Pear and Apple Crumble

Well, once I changed course and actually started baking, it all worked out. A few days ago I made pear and apple crumble. It was very tasty. And to think, if I were still thinking that I couldn’t bake, I would not have been able to make that great tasting crumble! This post is about doing the same thing in your business. If selling your services isn’t working for you, here is what you can do instead.

Many heart-based service professionals concentrate on selling their services. I see this every day. When I read someone’s bio on Twitter or Facebook, they tell me right off the bat that they provide services and give me a link to check them out and contact them about their services.

When I read heart-based service professionals’ bios that they attach to their articles, the same thing happens. They tell the article readers about their services and invite them to learn more about their services.

When I visit heart-based service professionals’ blogs, again, I get information about the services that they offer.

Unfortunately, many heart-based service professionals don’t get people to take them up on their offer to become a client, and that is no surprise. When you start promoting your services to people who had just met you on a social networking web site or had just read your article, you are skipping an extremely important step. Before you offer your services, you need to build trust between you and your prospects.

When you offer your services to those who already know, like and trust you, great things happen. People who already know you are much more likely to check out your services and become clients.

What should you do instead of offering your services to people on social networking web sites and people reading your articles and your blog? Instead of offering them your services, create an authentic process to invite them to your list instead. This process has no pressure and offers a ton of benefits to your potential clients. It will come as no surprise to you that many more people will take you up on this offer.

Once they are on your list, you will have many opportunities to tell them about your products and services. However, right now, when they are meeting you on social networking web sites, reading your blog and reading your articles, start by using your authentic invitation process to invite them to your list.

Here an example of how to apply this to your business:

Instead of saying: “I am a parenting coach”, say: “I help parents of teenagers communicate better with their teenagers. Get my no charge gift to learn how. [Add a link to where they can get the gift.]”

Do you see how your authentic invitation process is much more effective? Instead of telling your potential clients about your services, you are inviting them to get something that is of great benefit to them. This will they will take you up on your offer, and join your list.

Learn exactly how to create an extremely effective no charge gift and use it to invite people to your list in the Grow Your List Quick Start Guide. The Guide shows you an effective process to grow your list, which is as simple as 1-2-3.

https://www.EffectiveListBuilding.com

How To Get More Clients During Spring

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
 

Happy March! I am very excited that March is here! To me, this means that spring is here and very soon flowers will start blooming and nature will come back to life.

Last month, for my birthday, we went to a great Greek restaurant. I love Mediterranean food, and there was lots of great food at the restaurant. Fried zucchini with a fabulous garlic spread, grilled octopus, Greek sausage. All of these dishes had fabulous bursts of flavors. This is why I really enjoy Mediterranean cuisine – lots of herbs and spices translate into real bold flavors in food.

Speaking of bright and bold, what kind of bold statements will you make with your business this spring? In today’s article I am sharing with you three ideas to help you make a bold statement with your business, provide more value to your clients and bring in more revenues.

Spring is in the air, even despite all the snow. Many stores have been promoting spring merchandise ever since February. The stores are hoping that the brightly colored Spring merchandise will get people excited about spring and about shopping at the stores. You can use the same technique to create excitement about your products and services.

Springtime is usually associated with rebirth and a new beginning. It’s also a particularly auspicious time to start a new marketing campaign. As warmer weather arrives and spring starts, more people will be interested in starting something new in their lives and their businesses. Offer them a compelling reason to work with you to help them start something new, and you will get new clients!

Here are three ways to start your spring marketing and get more clients:

Offer A Spring Special To Your Potential Clients

Everyone likes a special, and your offer may be just that one extra push that your potential clients need to start working with you!

Offer a discount on one of your popular products, or create a bundle of products and offer the bundle at a special price. This way your clients will get more of your products that they need.

Do Your Spring Cleaning

Not the spring cleaning you usually do in your closet, but do a spring cleaning of your current offers, products and services.

Review your lineup of products and see whether any one of your products needs to be retired. There are many reasons to retire a product – maybe your business is moving in another direction, and the product doesn’t fit anymore. Or maybe you are creating another product on a similar topic. If you find a product that should be retired, offer a spring cleaning special on it for a few weeks, and then retire it.

Doing this will help you increase your revenue and will help you finally set a deadline and retire an older product to make way for new products.

Start Using A New Marketing Technique This Spring

Spring is the time for starting something new, so get started by using a new marketing technique to bring more clients to your business.

Start a blog, start writing articles to do article marketing or finally join social networking web sites. A brand new marketing technique means a brand new stream of potential clients coming to your business.

Start something new this spring – become a new member at the online mentoring group for heart-based service professionals, and get help with getting clients for your business. Spring has started, so join now and start getting all the members’ benefits at https://www.MarketingSalad.com