http://www.speakerblogger.com/
I’ve been working with Arlen Busenitz on a new project, and we have taken it live this week. SpeakerBlogger.com is our new site to Help individuals take their experience & passion and create a platform to help others and make a profit.
Take a look now, and sign up to get our free e-book, 7 Steps to Turn Your Passion & Experience into Profit.
Check back as we’ll be putting 2-3 posts a week and going into more depth on the 7 steps. National experts will also be sharing their thoughts through guest articles.
You have your customer. Now it’s time to think about how you deliver your message to him/her. We’ll stick with the example from the last post, you as an expert in health and fitness.
We’ve established your customer as men 35-50 who have an desk job, are married with family commitments and need solutions that fit a busy schedule. Now we need a message that resonates with that group.
This message comes in multiple parts:
Your business name
Your tagline
Names of your primary products and services
Names of your signature presentations
Even how people refer to you
Some of these items can be the same. For instance, Craig Valentine has a product called Create Your Killer Keynote. He also has a presentation with the same name. I know because I own one and saw the other in Tulsa this spring.
For the rest of us, the business name doesn’t have to be complex or totally unique. But, you can choose to go that way too if you like.
Simple
Craig’s fitness coaching
Smith brother’s fitness
Marilyn’s body shaping
Unique
30-something fitness inc.
Pennystone fitness
FitBlogger
Next is the Tagline. For my Talk to the Human Blog, I decided on Ways to improve your interactions with real people. That wasn’t my first tagline, and it probably wont be my last. For more tips on taglines, check out this post on CopyBlogger.com.
Naming your primary products or services, of course, requires you to have them. Examples:
FitBlogger blog
Get fit with Chuck cd set
Eat right and be fit cookbook
Build a Better Bicep home study course
Joey’s personal fitness instruction
As I mentioned before, those signature presentation delivered as a lunch and learn, seminar, or even at your Toastmasters club for practice should have a catchy title to help the audience know the value they will get by listening.
Michelle’s 7 steps to a healthier you
Sonia’s 3 keys to eating tasty and healthy food
A heathlier you in just 9 minutes per day
Finally, I mentioned how people refer to you. This refers to a type of iconic status, which means it develops over time. For instance, I know a guy named Rory Vaden who’s signature presentation is about self discipline. It’s called “Take the Stairs.” I see it enough that whenever I look at an Elevator, my mind says “Rory!” and I head for the stairs (within reason). I should probably hide his Facebook posts, but that’s another story.
Iconic status isn’t always flattering. Personally I’m glad my “Talk to the Human guy” idea from early posts never caught on. I’m not even sure what I was thinking on that one.
Determining your message is a multi-step process, and thinking about those different areas where your message goes will be important to your success. Start with that combination of who you are , what you offer and who your customer is. Brainstorm with some friends, your Toastmasters club, or here on the message board.
Does it feel like your customer is everybody, but nobody is buying?
You may be falling for one of the key traps that exist in every industry: not properly identifying your customer.
To be clear, I’m not saying that you limit who you would sell to, I’m talking about identifying who you expect to sell to.
Example: Your expertise is weight loss and fitness. You have the following products: A fitness blog, an e-book on fitness routines, personal coaching sessions on fitness regimens, and seminars/keynotes on improving your life through diet and exercise.
Would a 20-year old woman, 45-year old man and 75-year old retiree need the same advice and fitness program? Certainly not.
If you are already making a healthy living, then you are probably already doing a good job with your target customer. You may want to develop new products and services for them, or begin to serve another customer base. You can follow these steps to tune up your business, or seek new customers.
If you are just starting out, or struggling to build a customer base read these next steps:
Step 1: Pick a niche. Let’s say your best expertise is men 35-50 who have an desk job, are married with family commitments and need solutions that fit a busy schedule. Start there.
Step 2: Target your blog to readers in that niche. You don’t have to become macho, but avoid tips that won’t appeal to that target audience.
Step 3: Modify your e-book (or create one). Take your 10 best tips on fitness and expand them so you have about 20 pages. Publish it and provide it as a free incentive for signing up for your e-mail list.
Step 4: Modify your marketing for your coaching sessions. Target your specific audience with methods they can use and would pay to learn. For instance, don’t offer me a plan where we will work out 2-3 hours per day for 3 months. It won’t fit my schedule and it won’t look feasible to me.
Step 5: Look for opportunities to provide your expertise out there. Attend networking events, speak to non-profit organizations, get out in front of people.
Then, do what you are good at. Provide your expertise, solve problems, and serve your customer.
You know that the utility infielder doesn’t make nearly the same salary as the starting shortstop. If you are that shortstop, and your marketing says “Plays Great Infield, any position” I won’t find you on my google search for shortstops, will I? And if I do, I’ll pick a specialist in shortstoppyness before I pick you.
Same with the fitness instructor. If I find your blog, and the last three posts are about post-pregnancy, teen fitness and water aerobics for seniors, I will be bouncing to another blog permanently. So will everyone else. That means you’ve done more work, and attracted fewer customers. Ouch.
If you take some time to focus your efforts and narrow your niche, you can improve both your own time management and your credibility with customers. Take that next step and decide where your expertise is best served. By doing this, you’ll switch from appeal to all, serve none to appeal to my niche, serve my niche.
Is everyone out there on LinkedIn? Facebook? Twitter?
What about Digg? MySpace? Friendster? Squidoo?
Should I go on? After all, there are more. Lots more. Did I mention Lots? Lots.
There are some tremendous advantages to being connected through on-line social media. Being able to keep in touch with people who you may not see on a regular basis makes it easy to stay connected and know what’s going on.
However…
Nothing beats face-to-face networking. Nothing. Ever. At all. Seriously.
You get so much more done face-to-face. Conversations are more efficient, non-verbals make things more clear (and human) and it’s just plain true that people still put more value into real life human contact than they put into words on a Tweet.
Chances are that your town has some great real-life networking opportunities. Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and a plethora of specialty clubs (PMI, Toastmasters, etc.) make it easy to stay in touch and really get to know some great people.
Don’t spend so many hours on-line that you don’t have time for real humans. Take the time to see what’s out there and make the commitment to get involved. The value will far outweigh the cost in time and a few bucks.
P.S. That’s the best way to make new friends to add to your LinkedIn account…
Do you know what is missing for your success?
Driving home from our District Toastmaster training (TLI) in Overland Park, I was talking to a friend of mine about a variety of topics. One that came up was about what we have learned in our studies of professional speakers, and if there was just one missing ingredient to make us more successful.
One of us commented that maybe, just maybe, the missing ingredient was us. Don’t get me wrong, we all have things to learn and we can all improve our knowledge. I’m talking about the “secret ingredient” that many of us think is out there; if we just buy this one self-study course or get a little more coaching, then things would be different.
Nope.
The missing ingredient is us.
I don’t mean to imply that those things can’t help, or that they won’t lead to improvement. What I’m suggesting is that those external items won’t spark a change, only you can do that.
Take the next step yourself: write that blog post, give that speech at Toastmasters, or create that product to sell. As Seth Godin says, ship something. Once you’ve done that, then look at how you can tweak the next version.
You are what’s missing. And it’s no secret…
What is the difference between someone who cares about their customers and someone who doesn’t? Is it “being the boss”, or “having a heart”?
One difference is in your personal standard for how long it takes to get back with someone who has called for you. Is there a right answer to how long a customer should wait? Maybe not. But I bet there isn’t a customer on Earth who thinks it’s okay to be ignored for more than a day.
A few days ago, I wrote a post called The Cost of Losing Business. In that post, I mentioned it had been about a month since I was told the folks I wanted to buy an $87 product from would get back to me. Since then, three things have happened:
1. I’ve followed up with the POC and her assistant a week ago; still no reply. Shame.
2. They have launched a new service for a fee of $27 per month that I was very interested in. Hmmm.
3. I’ve spent no money with them. Ouch.
If this were my insurance agent or my cable TV company, I’d have new ones by now. Wouldn’t you?
Check yourself. Are you losing sales because of your poor customer service?
What happens when you make things too automatic for your customers, and an annoying error occurs? Answer: You could lose the sale.
In the last few months I’ve been reading some great blogs, and decided to try one of the products I saw. There was a product that was touted as something that would help me see success as a freelance writer. In what is an understandable sales technique, it was offered at a special rate until the end of 2009.
In mid-December, I decided to allocate the required investment (~$87) and clicked on the link to purchase.
The only option for purchasing this product was to use PayPal, a normally reliable service where I have had an active account for about eight years.
For some reason, PayPal decided to decline me this transaction. Per PayPal’s policy they “don’t care”. Actually, that’s a mis-quote. Their site says something to the effect that if they denied an individual transaction, it was in your best interest to insure people aren’t mis-using your account and they don’t have a method for overruling this on any specific transaction. It’s something they’re proud of. I sent a note anyway asking for assistance. No reply.
Okay. PayPal is PayPal. I’m stuck there, but I still wanted the product. I clicked on the “contact” button in the corner, and sent a note asking, essentially, “may I please buy your product?” I said something about requesting a different form of payment.
My logic was that PayPal might be willing to help eventually, but the seller would want to figure something out right now.
Of course, if that had happened, this would be a review of the product, not a review of not being able to buy the product, right?
I did receive a follow-up e-mail the next day, and was told “they would look into it”. That was, temporarily, comforting. However, the lack of follow through into mid-January is disheartening, to say the least. And of course, now a look on that site shows the product ”is temporarily off the market.” So if I wanted to go out of my way and create a new PayPal account with a different credit card, I’m still out of luck.
From the business point of view, what do you think goes through your customer’s mind when something like this happens? Here are some of the thoughts, temporary and permanent, that I have had in the last month:
Do I still want this product?(no one referred me, so in my mind I was taking a risk anyway)
Do they even care if I want this product?
Will they even miss the lost sale?
What if I had been successful and bought the product, would this be how they would support any future issues?
Are there comparable products out there? (and yes, I am now looking)
How do I handle my disappointment? (clearly I’m blogging it)
Is all of this even worth my time?(hmmm…only for the single blog value)
As I prepare to deploy my own products on-line, here are some lessons this experience has taught me (and yes, I’ve heard many of these before):
1. Decide on a response standard and stick with it. (i.e. one business day)
- No one wanting to send you money should be made to wait more than 72 hours to be allowed to do it.
- Same standard for any reasonable customer requests, even if it’s an “I’ll find out” answer to get time to research a better answer.
2. If you say “I’ll get back to you” to your customer, do it. Especially if you take time to post multiple blog entries in the same time period.
3. Plan for back-up payment options, in case your primary doesn’t work. If your audience is a blog/web audience, they’re probably used to on-line transactions. That doesn’t mean they should have accounts at every payment site out there. That said, PayPal is well known and (usually) reliable.
4. If you leave a product page up with a “temporarily off the market” note, maybe mention why or when it will be back.
5. If you decide to blow a customer off, you might want to make sure she/he doesn’t have a blog!!!
Final note: This post is based on what is probably a blip in their process. With this site’s reputation, I doubt this happens to many people. My idea here was not to rip them, but to show what can happen when the blips go uncorrected. Maybe their $87 loss will be my gain down the road…
Are you tired of “free content” that leaves you needing to buy something to really get the value?
There seems to be a number of different marketing ideas out there, and there are two that I notice in effect that include free content.
First, there is free content that is designed to just whet your appetite for the premium content that is, of course, not so free. This model seems to be built on the premise that if you get too much good stuff for free, you won’t buy the premium content, products or services.
I’m learning that this is quickly becoming a failed business model. Why? Simple: Humans like you don’t have time for free crap. You want value for you time…not just for your money!
Duh? Yes, I know. But so many providers out there are thinking that their stuff is the best stuff that you can find. They think once you find it, you’ll stop looking. After all, their crap is as good as the rest. But no, you’re gong back to Google to look again and find something better. Then, once you find the really good content (and you are finding it), you’re doing three things:
1. You are sticking with it.
2. You are telling your friends in real life.
3. You are posting about it on FaceBook, Digg and Squidoo.
You might even be buying from those better sites. And here is the why (and the second kind of free content marketing):
Some providers are making content available for free that stands all by itself. It’s good enough that you don’t have to buy from the provider. This may seem like a risky business model, but it’s not. Let’s look at some examples:
LinkedIn -Yes, LinkedIn has premium features available for a cost. Many users don’t even realize it. How cool is that? Here’s how it works – the basic features are plenty for a large percentage of users, and cost almost nothing to maintain. In fact, it’s the free users that help sell the premium features to the small percentage of users that need (or just want) them. After all, who would pay for those if there were only 500 users on the whole system? No one. But with nearly everybody there (or so it seems), there’s a market for those wanting to use those features professionally. And because the main site is free and worth the time, more people sign up each day. Imagine if it required you to pay $10 a month once you had 10 or more contacts? Guess what? 50,000 abandoned accounts and no one wanting premium access.
WordPress - All hail WordPress! That’s right, it’s free and the more people that use it, the more that want it. But if you need more (space, users, hosting ad free, etc.) there is a premium service. Again, the free version stands on it’s own and you could go years using that every day and not miss a thing. Making that available makes the premium version more valuable, and therefore attracts some paying customers. Sweet!
Copyblogger - and other content-driven blog sites (like…ahem, mine). Some of these may (most do) have premium content that you can buy. The fact, though, is that you could spend days going through the free stuff and learn a ton of useful things. The extra content is totally optional.
What makes this work? The fact is that humans (like you) value useful stuff. Period. People that provide useful stuff (could also be you) will find that they are in demand.
Here’s the real catch. If you don’t have enough content that you can give useful information away for free, then you probably don’t have enough useful content to make a living anyway. Read more…learn more…experience more…write about THAT and see where it takes you.
If you’re looking for the free content, look no further. Not only do I buy into the goal of providing it, but I also like to point out where else I’m finding it. So what do you think? Which marketing model is for you?