Simply Business Coaching

Picture Power

An email last week from a client asking where he could find images to use in his newsletter got me thinking about how important it is to provide that extra visual interest element for readers.  Just one photo can lift your article and make it more attractive.  I know if I’m faced with screenfuls of solid text I find it difficult to stay focused and read every word - it has to be a really interesting subject to keep my attention right to the end.

But somehow, with a photo or screenshot image to break up the text, the same length article doesn’t seem as daunting.

My favourite source of images has to be iStockPhoto.  For a very reasonable cost, you can choose from an extensive library, safe in the knowledge that copyright issues are taken care of (although I’d still advise you to read the T&C). 

As you browse through your chosen category, you can easily see how popular each image is and how many downloads of it have already been made.  This is useful if you want to make sure you select something more unusual for your website, blog post or newsletter. 

Another useful feature of IStockPhoto are the ‘lightboxes’ where you can store images you come across to review later before deciding if you want to buy them.  I like to set up separate lightboxes for different client projects.

After you set up an account, you can buy a series of credits and ‘pay as you go’.  Images are charged by number of credits which vary according to the size of image you buy.  I quickly learned that the smallest size image is fine for most uses, especially online!

If you’re looking for completely free images, take a look at Flickr.com.  Chris Brogan’s blog post gives excellent guidance on how to use these images correctly (and how you might want to share photos of your own!)

Another resource I came across recently is a collection of 30 websites where you can download free stock photos which looks very interesting, although I haven’t had a chance to check them out yet.  Let me know what you think if you get there before me!

Do you have any image resources to share? I'd love to know, so please type them in the comments below.  If you found this post helpful, a retweet would be appreciated :)

Oh no, not another Opt-In Box!

Opting in to receive free reports and newsletters is an accepted part of doing business on the internet.  I think it’s a fair exchange -  contact details for good information. 

And double opt-in procedures are reassuringly professional - for the most part.

However, I’d like to share a less satisfactory opt-in box experience - perhaps something similar has happened to you?

I recently took part in an online survey.  The email asking for my input came from someone I’ve met in person, was been very polite and promised to share the results with all contributors.  As I was mildly interested in the subject, I answered the questions.

A month or so later, I got the email announcing the survey results were available with a link to get my copy, which I clicked on as I was genuinely interested to find out more ....

.... except when I arrived at the page, it was to be confronted with an opt-in box.  Huh?

This is the email I wanted to send:

“Dear xxxx

You already know I’m interested in the subject matter because I completed the survey.  You already have my email address because you’re writing to me. 

So why do you want to me to give you my email address again?

I really don’t want to end up on another one of your lists and possibly get twice the number of emails from you.

Please don’t make me double opt in just to get something you said you’d give me in exchange for my time completing your survey.  That isn’t playing the game.

Regards
Disillusioned”

No I didn’t send the email (because I know the person & like to think it was unintentional).  Yes I did opt in to get the report (curiosity got the better of me!) - but I’ll be opting out again the moment an autoresponder email arrives.  And I won’t be completing any more surveys for that person.

(Update:  Just got another email from same person......asking me to take part in another survey...)

Do you feel you’re being asked to opt-in too many times?  Let me know what you think in the comments below :)

How To Be Remembered After Networking Events

Networking is an important part of small business marketing, both online and offline.  With so many businesses vying for attention it can seem almost impossible to ensure you are remembered long after the event.  That’s because everyone is doing pretty much the same thing - so you need to be different.

Don’t go there to sell!
This is HUGE because just about everyone else is there to sell.  When you talk to new contacts, even if you know you have a product or service that would be ideal for them, resist the temptation to go into a sales pitch there and then.  Instead, practice being nonchalant and offer to send them an article which may be of interest, or details of something that might help.

Connect People
Act as an ‘introducer’.  Often small businesses with complimentary offerings can refer work to each other or carry out joint promotions without stepping on each other’s toes, eg. a decorator & a gardener, a VA & a book-keeper, a florist & an event organiser. 

Offer to help - be genuine
Because people are usually so busy trying to get their message across, they often don’t think to ask about the other person’s needs.  Being genuinely interested in how you can help them will certainly set you apart from the crowd.

Follow Up After the event
This is the part most networkers forget to do or get totally wrong.  After an event they either add the business cards they’ve collected to an ever-growing pile, or they use the contact details to send out spam email promotions & mailers.  Following up with a ‘nice to meet you’ email or better still, a handwritten note in the post, is both polite and respectful.

Doing just one of the above will make you different from most of your fellow networkers; doing all of them will make sure you are remembered, long after the event.

Blogging and Article Marketing – What Shall I Write About?

This is a question I’m often asked when I suggest to business owners that they should start publishing an email newsletter, a blog, and write articles as part of their online marketing strategy.  The reason it’s so important is you need to take every opportunity to show off your expertise to existing and potential clients. 

While you can easily do this in person by going to local networking events and taking a stand at exhibitions, there’s a limit to how many people you can physically get to meet.

To take advantage of the reach of the internet and demonstrate how great you are to people you haven’t met yet, writing articles, posting audio and video recordings are the next best thing to being with them in person. 

What we all tend to forget is just how much we know about what we do – that others don’t know, but would be interested in learning, especially if you tell them what’s in it for them!

Research shows that the top 4 major motivators which influence buying decisions are:

• How to make money
• How to save money
• How to save time
• How to avoid effort

So you need to write articles which include a relevant motivator and are based around your products or services.  Give your reader some of your top tips; highlight mistakes they need to avoid; discuss the latest developments in your field; describe a few how-tos and even a list of reasons why they should (fill in the blank).  Writing articles will showcase what you do and the type of problems you solve as well as build relationships, even with people you haven’t met yet.

I hope you now have some ideas to get started, please let me know how you get on!

Take It or Leave It

Are you a good host?  Do you welcome invited guests to your home, take their coat, ask them to be seated, and offer them a drink?  Or do you open the door, walk away and let them fend for themselves? 

The reason I ask is because I find so many website owners invite visitors and then abandon them.  In other words visitors don’t know what to do next.  And a lot of blogs don’t seem to actively encourage readers to subscribe to the RSS feed, it’s as if they can’t be bothered.

Make your visitors welcome
Explaining a little of what you do and for who will reassure visitors that they’re in the right place.  A brief guide to what’s on the different pages will encourage them to explore.  Telling them what to do next makes things easy.   I’ve seen some thoughtful sites with a ‘Start Here’ tab – a good idea as people may not arrive on your home page on their first visit.

Thank your visitors
Offering a free gift in exchange for contact details is a well-established marketing tactic.  Providing real value in that gift will ensure your visitors take away good memories of their time on your site – and encourage them to read future messages from you.

With so many millions of websites and blogs to choose from, it can be like being at a very crowded party.  It’s easy to get confused and feel overwhelmed without a guide or signs as to what’s available and where to find it.  Most people are too short of time to try to work it all out for themselves, so they click away, leave the site, and probably never return.

(I’m sure you’re an excellent host by the way :))

How do you make your website visitors welcome?  Please share in the comments – and if you enjoyed reading this post, a retweet would be appreciated.

What’s Going to Be the Next ‘Big Thing’?

In the years since I started taking a serious interest in using the internet as a marketing tool, I’ve seen a number of amazing developments which are promptly replaced by even more amazing developments, before I’ve had a chance to fully understand each one.  The following list isn’t in strict order of evolution, more the order in which I tackled them

Email – What did we do before @ came along?  I remember having my first email address back in the ‘90s but it took a couple of years before I knew enough other people who also had email to start using it to communicate.  I also remember still buying lots of postage stamps and running to catch the last collection!

Email Newsletters – It took me until 2003 to have enough people to write to, and then another couple of years to find a reasonably priced email service provider and learn how to send out messages using the colourful HTML templates. 

Websites – While my first (expensive) website proudly went live in 2001, my only contribution was to write the words (which now seem so corny & outdated).  To make any changes incurred further costs and so I left well alone as far as possible.  But by 2005 I was determined to have a site I could update, add to and change as often as the mood took me, so I invested in a templated system, and that served me very well for the next 3 years.

Blogs – I didn’t start blogging until 2007, using Blogger to experiment, then moving on to Typepad as I grew in confidence.  Last year I combined blog and website and love that I can keep tweaking the appearance as my business continues to evolve.

Attention-Marketing Doesn’t mean Shouting

How do you feel when someone keeps raising their voice when speaking with you?  Personally I can’t wait to get away!  And yet some people misguidedly think if they shout at you, you’ll want to do business with them.

Shouting doesn’t work

They carry on shouting by sending you their latest sales pitches in the post, by email and even by phone, at annoyingly regular intervals (I really don’t like those recorded calls).  A few years ago I signed up for Chris Cardell’s marketing tips (he’s a UK marketer).  The tips (delivered by email) were well written and quite helpful at the time.  Eventually they seemed to run out of steam (or perhaps the autoresponder series ended) and I heard nothing from him for quite a while. 

Then last year he decided to hold a 3-day conference in London, and that’s when my inbox and post box were flooded with non-stop promotional material.  Unsubscribing online thankfully stopped the emails, but the envelopes and postcards keep on coming – and there seems to be nothing I can do to stop them, except hope the high costs of printing and postage eventually do the trick.

What a difference to those people who have learned how to attract, and keep, your attention by communicating their message at a more gentle volume.

Sharing something of value does work

By this I mean using newsletters, blog posts and podcasts to send great tips and information.  These are the messages you look forward to receiving and, because the author continually shares something of value, you accept the accompanying promotional messages.

As a complete contrast to the above example, I signed up to Connie Ragen Green’s list a couple of months ago.  She not only sends out free special reports full of helpful tips and resources, she also holds an ‘Ask Connie Anything’ teleclass almost weekly.  These are free to attend (and download) and Connie always generously shares what she knows in answer to the many questions on each show. 

Of course she also sends out emails with links to buy products or sign up to her courses, she is in business after all, but the next email is just as likely to contain a link to another valuable free report.  You can bet I always open emails from Connie!

People who shout to get your attention are being lazy – they really don’t ‘get’ social media marketing at all.  Yes it does take more effort to keep writing or recording information to share, but the rewards of a loyal client list, high open rate of emails and increased orders more than make up for it.

Have you been ‘shouted’ at lately? Please let me know in the comments below.  And if you found this post helpful, feel free to share it via the network of your choice?

Who Are You Being?

As a sole-trader or the owner of small business, you’re probably used to wearing several different hats during the course of a typical working day.  And then you go home, take off all the work hats and put on the hat of the person you are at home - father, mother, spouse, son, daughter.

In Stephen Covey’s book First Things First he writes about the ‘balance of roles’ and how each of the roles we play interact with and support the others.

When he wrote the book back in 1994, social networks hadn’t even been thought of, but today belonging to them gives us yet another role (or set of roles) to play - to the online world. 

Playing all these different roles is rather like being an actor who is constantly changing costumes AND characters between acts.  Totally exhausting!

Are you being yourself, or are you being who you think other people want you to be?  Here’s a very good reason to be yourself:

“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life, everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment.  .....  Thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.”  (Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning)

People will see through an act sooner or later and be turned off, wondering if you’re being dishonest about anything else! 

Being authentic and genuine is attractive. 

Have you noticed that the blogs and newsletters you enjoy reading most are often those where the author shares something about themselves?  Whether it’s short snippets about their everyday life, what they did at the weekend, or perhaps a kitchen disaster, by sharing they reveal a part of who they really are.  You feel you know them a little, which leads to trusting what they say. 

You are unique and simply being yourself is not only liberating, it’s one of your best marketing tools!

How do you juggle all the roles you need to play?  If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share :)

Where are Your Customers Reading?

Last week, as I wrote & posted a book review, I realised my reading habits have changed considerably since I bought it.  Only a couple of years ago I seemed to be placing an order for new books every week or so, while now my Amazon ‘wishlist’ is in need of a good clear out.  Most of the books on my shelves have been there for a while too (just noticed they’re in need of a bit of dusting!)

There are so many great bloggers to follow and PDF downloads to study, I don’t seem to have enough time to read ‘proper’ books any more.  By that I mean business and reference books, because I’m a regular visitor at the local library and still devour my favourite fiction authors at a rate of 2-3 a week!

Whereas I used to relish the week or more of study time demanded by a weighty tome, now I want information delivered in small, easy to digest short reports and lessons.  Multi-media presentations - webinars and teleseminars - make a welcome change from all those typed words and it sometimes feels like the internet is a gigantic classroom!

Another reason for the change in my reading habits could be the topics I’m studying - mostly the different ways to use the internet and social media for small business marketing.  The latest tools and tips can easily be found online but as they’re changing so fast, any printed book will almost be out of date before the ink is dry.

I currently spend around an hour each day reading blog posts, and sometimes a whole morning at weekends catching up with videos and podcasts online.  That’s all the learning I want to do and all I have time for, although a Kindle might come in handy ...... 

So, if my reading habits have changed..... what about yours .... and what about your customers’ reading habits?  Where are they reading about the kind of services you offer? 

Are you there?

How active is your marketing?

You'd think going out networking was active marketing, wouldn't you?  Not always.

At a networking breakfast the other day, I listened politely to everyone's 60-seconds and to the many heart-warming spoken testimonials that were given.

It occurred to me that, lovely though these sentiments are, they don't really do much good for the recipient's business unless made into a written, audio or video testimonial to use on a website.  Yet how many people go to networking meetings, feel the warm glow of testimonials exchange and do nothing more than say thank you?

Get active!  Write someone (who deserves it) a testimonial today.  If they're on LinkedIn, it's so easy to do.  Oh, and if someone goes to the trouble of writing you a testimonial, don't forget to thank them.  While they may not expect you to return the favour, it is polite to acknowledge the time & trouble they've taken.

Later at the same meeting, a fellow business owner (an accountant) mentioned that his website didn't seem to be bringing in many enquiries.  When I asked what action he was encouraging his site visitors to take, he said his phone number was on each page and a sign-up box to capture email addresses was on the home page.  (When I had a look after the meeting, this sign-up box was at the bottom of the page, offering an update (that didn't actually exist!) and with no 'enticement' to fill in the boxes.)

It's hard enough competing with all the other accountants in the area, but if you don't get active with your website (and other online marketing), finding enough clients is always going to be an uphill struggle.

Get active!  Ask your website (and blog) visitors to do something - on every page.  Give them a good reason to part with their email address, and then keep in touch with them.

(There are plenty more examples to share, so I'll revisit active marketing again soon!)

How do you get active with your marketing?  Let me know in the comments below.  And if you found this post helpful, please share it around!