Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

OK I have to say it...

Here's the deal, people - ASK your next coach, guru, teacher, or mentor the following questions based on the subject you're enrolling to learn.

For example...

1. Speaker marketing coach:

• How many times a year do you speak FOR MONEY? 
• At what fee? 
• Who are five of your most recent paid speaking clients?

2. Book marketing coach:

• Is your book self-published or with a major publisher? 
• How many books have you sold? 
• If you claim "bestseller" status - what lists and for how long were you on the list? 
• Where is your book TODAY in amazon sales rank (less than 25,000 is good)

3. Group coaching/online course creation guru:

• How many group coaching programs or courses have you run? 
• Since when have you been filling your own groups? 
• What's your average enrollment? 
• At what price point? 
• Can you show me the sales page for three of your recent programs?

4. Infoproduct coach:

• How many infoproducts do you currently sell? 
• What's your monthly sales volume on your top 2-3 products? 
• Can you show me the sales pages for several of your products?

5. Private Coaching guru:

• How many private coaching clients do YOU currently work with? 
• What are your coaching packages and fees? 
• Do you charge by the hour? (It's a BIG red flag if they say yes!) 
• What percentage of your coaching business is repeat and referral? 
• What's the average amount of time and money that clients spend with you?

6. Marketing/business growth coach:

• How long have you been running your business? 
• Do you have other sources of income besides this business? 
• What are they? 
• What are the typical outcomes clients get from working with you? 
• Have you DONE what I want to do - or do you just teach it? 
• How many clients have you worked with? 
• What separates your successful clients from your not-so-successful ones? 
• Then check out their recommendations on Linkedin and their client testimonials on their website (how specific are they? how many? how credible? Full attribution with person's name, company, position, etc?)

There are a lot of people out there who LOOK like they have it going on - pitching their "Million Dollar" this and "Million Dollar" that...

Sad to say, a LOT of it is smoke and mirrors. Motivation, inspiration, pretty websites, great photos of smiling, jubilant bootcamp or retreat attendees, a big social media footprint, great looking videos...

But scratch the surface and the gold glitter starts to flake off in big chunks as you realize you've just been taken for a ride by a very pretty or handsome con artist and suddenly, you're out a few thousand dollars (or a lot more) with nothing to show for it except that empty feeling in the pit of your stomach that you're not any closer to achieving your goals for your business, your bank account, or your lifestyle.

Don't follow the herd - you're not a lemming or a sheep.

Find the people who are the REAL DEAL, who only preach what they themselves practice, invest wisely, and choose carefully.

That is all. Rant ends here.

And next time - we'll tackle the rant of the CLIENT who does not do. (That rant might be even juicier than this one, don't you agree?)

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

LinkedIn is the new cold call. Perhaps this sounds familiar to you... 

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I continually study the field, read a ton of books, and attend seminars and workshops from my fellow marketing enthusiasts.

And I'd like to respectfully disagree with that analogy.

LinkedIn is way better, smarter, faster, and more effective than a cold call. In fact, I'd slant the analogy a different way altogether:

LinkedIn is the new email with a red velvet rope around it, a priority seal, and a much more attractive return address envelope!

First let's explore those three points and then you'll see an example of LinkedIn in action PLUS here are some sample social media scripts you can use that have gotten awesome results for our clients in our marketing mastermind and private mentoring programs. 

3 Reasons LinkedIn Beats Email

1. Red Velvet Rope - This is a term popularized in the marketing arena by Michael Port. It means there's an exclusive, members-only feel to your marketing. It's not for everyone - and not everyone qualifies. You need to be "in the club." When you reach out to a fellow Group member on LinkedIn, you both are in the club and there's a strong element of peer-to-peer belonging that encourages community, communication, and responsiveness. Can't say that about a cold call or a plain old email!

2. Priority Seal - Most executives and business owners feel overwhelmed by email. When they're not tackling the email monster (click here if you'd like to master your email!), they are wall-to-wall with meetings, phone calls, and their daily dose of dealing with crises. LinkedIn messages DO trigger an email notification but you have the choice of responding via email or via LinkedIn -- and LinkedIn messages (for most of us) are few and far between so they give the impression of being more important, more filtered, and more personally relevant. Think of it as a FedEx envelope arriving in your daily mail. Sure, you can ignore it - you can toss it - you might not get to it for a few days. But chances are greater that you will because of curiosity - a basic trait of human nature.

3. More Attractive Return Address Envelope - LinkedIn messages tend to be shorter than emails - and a shorter note merits a shorter response. You've just given your prospects, clients, and connections a huge "out" because they do NOT need - and probably would not even consider - sending you a long, involved response. If you send a short, succinct note to reconnect with a past client - they'll respond with a short, succinct note and you'll probably use LinkedIn to make plans to connect in a longer format offline (phone call, lunch, coffee, in-person meeting). Yours will be a fast, easy and appealing note to respond to - so your chances of getting a prompt response just went up considerably!

LinkedIn in Action and Results

This story was submitted by my motivational speaker colleague Jim Clemmer to the excellent SpeakerNetNews:

Using LinkedIn to (Re)Connect and Build Business — Jim Clemmer

I have been using LinkedIn to reconnect with old contacts and to connect with anyone signing up for my newsletter. I do this with the LinkedIn for Outlook utility showing if anyone sending me an email (or completing any website form that is emailed to me) has a LinkedIn account. As my connection numbers build, more website visitors, book readers, and subscribers are now asking to connect with me. We’ve also done a few email blasts to our database asking for connections to those who have LinkedIn accounts. Over the last two years we can directly trace a few hundred thousand dollars in speaking/workshop or long term/ongoing consulting fees that started with these (re)connections.

3 LinkedIn Secrets from Jim's Success:

1. As my friend and Speaker Hall of Fame member Dr. Alan Zimmerman likes to say, "your business comes from your business." (He's a guy who enjoys a 92% repeat and referral rate from his client base so he's walking that talk.) Note that Jim Clemmer is also generating his success not ONLY from new connections - but from RE-connections. Try it for yourself and see what conversations you can generate with the folks who already know you, love you, and have given you money in the past.

2. You gotta ask for the connection. Note that Jim's strategy also involved email blasts to his list proactively asking them to connect on LinkedIn. And not just once - but several times over the past 2 years. Remember to make your social media scripts appealing, relevant, and NOT focused on you - but focused on the value you'd like to deliver to your connections.

3. It takes time and there are both direct and indirect benefits. Notice that Jim said, "over the last two years" - not the last 2 weeks or 2 months. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Notice also that he said he could DIRECTLY trace several hundred thousand dollars of new business. That's great - and in addition, Jim has likely generated that much money or more INDIRECTLY, meaning that people didn't hire him FROM LinkedIn but BECAUSE they saw something he contributed, received a connection update, or otherwise "bumped into" Jim's name, content, ideas, website, blog or network - and were prompted to engage with him.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

In honor of this sugar-filled yet frightful holiday, here are 17 things that should scare the heck out of YOU and any small business owner, entrepreneur, or independent professional...

1. Prospects who lie. And they all lie all the time.
2. Business partnerships. No, no, noooooo!!! Don’t do it. EVER.
3. Arrogance
4. Complacency
5. Inertia (Yours and your prospects and clients too)
6. Not having a sales process - or not sticking to the one you have
7. Nightmare clients from hell
8. Tire-kickers, price shoppers, and broke-ass losers
9. Social media overload
10. Making payroll every two weeks - even if it’s only paying yourself
11. Hiring, firing, and everything in between
12. Prospects who ask for free consulting
13. Not hiring a great IP attorney to protect your brand/ logo/ trademarks
14. Waking up in a cold sweat realizing your REAL job is sales
15. Prospects seeing your products, services, and programs as a commodity
16. Not outsourcing and delegating everything you possibly can
17. Collecting great marketing ideas - but never implementing them (Aaarghhhhh!!)

What would YOU add to this list?

Please leave a comment below and let's discuss...

Welcome to the 2014 Do It! Marketing Master Class Series

Here's where you'll get some of the smartest marketing advice from top marketers and entrepreneurs who share their best success secrets via in-depth interrogation-style interviews with yours truly... 

My special guest this week... 

Christina Daves - PR and Media Expert

Christina Daves is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and run four successful companies over the past 20 years. With no resources remaining when she launched her latest venture, CastMedic Designs, Christina taught herself everything she could about generating her own publicity. Since launching in 2012, she has appeared in over 200 media outlets including national and local television and publications generating over six figures in sales. As a result of her PR success, she created PR for Anyone® to help other small business owners learn how to do what she did to have similar success.

Christina is also the author of the bestselling book, PR for Anyone™ - 100+ Affordable Ways to Easily Create Buzz for Your Business.

Download this Master Class (mp3) now. 

Share this with your pals, link to it from your own blog, tell 17 friends, go nuts and have fun! 

Please leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions about business-boosting PR strategies, getting more media coverage, or anything else we talked about (including how to use PR to directly get more leads, sales, and customers!)

Old is the New "NEW" - meaning, when it comes to marketing, everything old is profitable again! 

If you've been doing business (online or not) since the 1990's, today's marketing landscape should be eerily familiar... 

Check out these "retro" tactics - they're BACK and BIGGER and BETTER than ever... 

1. Online advertising - Google AdWords was the Granddaddy of them all... Remember when you could just buy some banner ads and the leads would pour in? (Yah, me neither. It was ALWAYS more complicated than that!!) Modern update: Advertising on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter (and yes, Google of course) is creating a whole new online ad boom - just like the good old days!

Why? Because they're proven, they work (if you know what you're doing), and they can make you a LOT of money. 

2. Pop-up ads and pop-up offers - long the scourge of the Internet, pop-ups (and pop-under, pop-over, PopTart and every other sneaky variation) were rampant in the 1990's and early 2000's. Until the pop-up blocker industry came along, made millions of dollars, wiped the evil pop-up off the face of the earth... until today when pop-ups are back, bigger and better than ever.

Why? Because they're proven, they work (if you know what you're doing), and they can make you a LOT of money. 

3. Teleseminars - 10 years ago, you couldn't spit without hitting some business guru offering free teleseminars to showcase his or her products, services, or programs. Or offering paid teleseminars to generate a lot of revenue quickly. Fast forward to today, yes we have webinars, Google Hangouts, and virtual training - but guess what? Old school teleseminars are back, bigger than ever.

Why? Because they're proven, they work (if you know what you're doing), and they can make you a LOT of money. 

p.s. I don't know much about online advertising or pop-ups, but you can grab a boatload of actionable information on teleseminars (both Teleseminars as Marketing - and Teleseminars as Revenue) in this free "Teleseminar Domination" video series. Enjoy!

Click below to grab your FREE videos...

Guest post by Hendrik-Jan Francke

If you are not actively implementing a content marketing strategy – because you don’t have the time, expertise, or don’t see the value – you are actively denying yourself the visibility and opportunity to get in front of prospects who want what you have to give. You are denying yourself more business!

Even if you do implement a plan, there is always room to improve. Learn why you need a content marketing strategy and a few tips to improve what you’re already doing.

Content marketing increases visibility, trust, and value of your brand

61% of consumers say custom content improves the way the they feel about a company and are also more likely to buy from that company.  Why do you need content marketing? Because consumers want it. Content marketing can help you:

• Get found by more people
  The more you post to your blog and promote content across social media, people will start to take notice. You will drive more traffic to your blog and to your site.
• Build brand trust and credibility
  By positioning yourself as a subject matter expert on the web, people will recognize your content is valuable and listen more intently to what you have to say.
• Boost your SEO rank
  Content marketing is not an SEO strategy, but should be part of your SEO strategy. Relevant, insightful content, basic keyword optimization, and strategic social sharing can boost your traffic and improve your site’s overall SEO standing.
• Prime and prepare prospects 
  When prospects that are primed with your content, prospects that already value your expertise, contact you for your services – why wouldn’t you close that deal?

Tips to Make Content Marketing more effective

So know you know the why, but the how takes more time and expertise. Time is fleeting, so take advantage of these tips.

• Limit involvement to what is manageable
  You don’t need to blog daily or spend your day posting to social media to be effective. Limit your involvement to what is manageable. Create a content calendar to map out and schedule your blog posts, set aside a few hours each month to write, then use a tool like HootSuite to batch schedule social media posts promoting that article.
• Know when, where, and how often you should post
  Maximize engagement by sharing and posting content where your audience will find it. If your audience isn’t on Pinterest, you don’t have to be either. But you can increase impressions and clicks by using analytics to track when your audience is most active on each social media platform.
• Recycle your content to make it go further
  Generating 50 new blog ideas can be exhausting. Instead, take one strong piece of content you have and break that down into 10 web-friendly chunks you can use as blog articles. A little spit, polish, and strategic optimization can give your old content new perspective.

Bonus Tip: Know when to delegate!

This is probably the most important tip you need. If you can’t get the work done, delegate the tasks to an expert who can. You have the subject-matter expertise that your prospects want, but a partner that has the web writing, social media marketing, and key word optimization techniques can more effectively reach those prospects.

Start putting your plan into action

Take a quick survey of the content you already have - a book, presentations, white papers - and jot down a few ideas of how you can convert that into a blog and share it. The sooner you start your content marketing strategy, the sooner you will get results.

Ready to delegate the content marketing grunt work to a strategic partner that can amplify your results? You might be ready for your own Content Marketing Concierge.

=====

Hendrik-Jan Francke is the owner, creative director, usability expert, and lead generation specialist of Bright Orange Thread. He and the Bright Orange Thread team deliver digital marketing solutions that engage visitors, encourage action, and result in more – and better qualified – leads.

Dan Janal featured in the 2014 Do It! Marketing Master Class Series

Here's where you'll get some of the smartest marketing advice from top marketers and entrepreneurs who share their best success secrets via in-depth interrogation-style interviews with yours truly... 

Next up is... 

Dan Janal - Publicity Expert

Dan Janal knows how to get business owners and entrepreneurs the media coverage they deserve to promote their services, products, and expertise. As the owner of PRLeads.com and PressReleaseSender.com, Dan is a publicity veteran, award-winning journalist, and the author of one of the very first internet marketing books (from 1994!) Dan is probably the only person who created 8 different businesses that each generate $100,000 a year by using 8 different business models!

Download this Master Class (mp3) now. 

Share this with your pals, link to it from your own blog, tell 17 friends, go nuts and have fun! 

Please leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions about maximizing publicity and the media to generate more awareness, more leads, and more business...

Welcome to the 2014 Do It! Marketing Master Class Series

Here's where you'll get some of the smartest marketing advice from top marketers and entrepreneurs who share their best success secrets via in-depth interrogation-style interviews with yours truly... 

First on the tee is... 

Charlie Poznek - Podcasting Expert

Charlie Poznek is a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of The Boomer Business Owner podcast. If you want to build influential relationships, grow your audience, increase your website traffic, and raise your business profile in front of the prospects who matter most, podcasting can be one of the smartest ways to do it. Charlie shows you how.

Download this Master Class (mp3) now. 

Share this with your pals, link to it from your own blog, tell 17 friends, go nuts and have fun! 

Please leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions about podcasting as a marketing strategy...

Here's a training module (it's #1 out of 3 available FREE here) on why and how YOU can create, promote and profit from private coaching programs built around the expertise you ALREADY have - whether you consider yourself a "coach" or NOT!

To get the rest of this FREE "Private Coaching Success" video series, click here.

Shazam!!

Please post your comments and questions below. Hit the "Like" button above so that you get notified via Facebook when I post more videos.

I hate to embarrass people in public. Even if they deeply and richly deserve it. And I’m not about to start now, even though this story about an otherwise respected professional who wanted to start a private coaching program (for all the wrong reasons and with zero preparation) may send chills down your spine. All names have been removed to protect the goofy.

By the way, if you want to cut to the chase and find out how to do this right from the get-go, check out my new FREE video training series "Private Coaching Success" - grab some popcorn and go here. 

Back to our story... It all began with this exchange (via Facebook message) between me and a successful international keynote speaker with whom I am friendly (and who earns in excess of $20,000 per speech):

• HIM: hey you do ongoing coaching type programs, right? 
  like you get clients that pay you X per month or year for telephone time or something else?
  im asking because i was approached recently by a CEO who wants me to do executive coaching/mentoring for him.  do you have some sort of outline i could follow please? i havent structured a deal like this before

• David Newman
  I do marketing coaching, not “executive coaching” but many of my clients DO - usual structure is 2-3 phone meetings per month with email access to you in between and for CEOs I wouldn't charge less than $5k per month. 7500-10k per month if the meetings are in person. Normally you'd lock them in for a 6- or 12-month commitment.
  That's all you need to know to close the deal. Boom - you owe me a Pepsi.

• HIM: lol thanks. but what do they get for their money ? in terms of time commitments etc and i dont have any formal program structured. or is it pretty informal? they call and you just shoot the shit?

• David Newman
  If the content of the expertise you're trying to sell isn't in line with what the CEO needs or expects, you're toast - you can't just charge for something and "wing it" - don't mean to be harsh, bro - but are you playing to your strengths here??

• HIM: he approached me, not the other way around
  he was in my audience recently and came over to me and said he wants to hire me to be his executive coach
  so i certainly havent promised him anything i cant deliver
  but i dont have a bunch of papers and programs and checklists or any formal program, because this is not something i normally do.

I’ll stop there simply to spare you the pain and embarrassment of more.

What’s wrong with this picture? I could go on and on but I promised myself this would be a short post.

PLUS I want to hear from YOU in the Comments section below about your reactions and advice in avoiding this type of train wreck.

Here’s my 6 cents on what is dangerous and crazy about this exchange:

1. Someone who can deliver a killer keynote speech (regardless of fee level) does NOT automatically qualify as an executive coach. Totally different skill set. It’s like hiring a virtuoso pianist to build a custom stereo - yes, they both make music. But the similarity ends there.
    
2. “Do you have some sort of outline I could follow?” Imagine this question coming from a jet fighter pilot, a brain surgeon, or a trial attorney. There is no outline -- it’s a skill set that is a combination of serious expertise plus deep experience. You don’t “follow an outline.”
    
3. “I don’t have any formal program structured.” Here’s your first clue, Sherlock Holmes - if you don’t have a formal program for what you’re trying to sell, then you have no business selling it. Holy cow, do I really have to spell this out? Shouldn’t this just FEEL wrong? Apparently not...
    
4. “They call and you just shoot the shit?” Umm, no. I just gave my friend some pricing guidance that a high-level executive coaching program is at least $5,000 per month. And he asks me if that money goes toward “shooting the shit”? Seriously? Meanwhile - there are serious, committed, high-value executive coaches that just read this and their foreheads are about to explode. And I don’t blame them.
    
5. “But Dad - HE started it!” OK, that’s not exactly what he said. It was “he approached me, not the other way around” as if THIS makes it OK to charge money for a service that my friend is neither qualified nor prepared to offer. But wait. we’re not quite done - it gets worse...
    
6. “I don’t have a bunch of papers and programs and checklists or any formal program, because this is not something I normally do.” Again, let’s transplant this statement to a different profession - forensic accounting, cancer research, or defusing bombs. You’d probably want each of these professionals to show up with more than “a bunch of papers and checklists” to fulfill their responsibilities, correct? And you might even be more nervous to learn that “this is not something they normally do.” The lesson? THEN DON’T DO IT!!!

Tell you what - if you'd rather do this faster, smarter and better - then check out my FREE video training series "Private Coaching Success" - you can grab it right here.  

You'll be very glad you did. I guarantee it.