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Posts Tagged ‘online strategy’

Basic Steps to Creating an Effective Google AdWords Campaign

August 30th, 2012

Hi All!

The following Guest Blog post is another good one courtesy of Craig Robinson, an online Marketing Expert and the Editor for Qwaya, a Facebook campaign tool that runs through a web interface.

In this article, Craig is going to take you through the basic steps and tips to create a winning AdWords campaign. It’s loaded with great info, so let’s jump in!

Basic Steps to Create an Effective Google AdWords Campaign by Craig Robinson

When you’re ready to take the big step into online marketing, you will undoubtedly be creating an AdWords campaign with Google. Of course, there are many other ad services out there to choose from, and you should always spread your eggs out instead of putting them all in one basket, but Google is the biggest service around and it demands your attention.

However, only the best campaigns on Google are going to succeed, or at least have a greater chance of succeeding. But there is an endless amount of competition using AdWords campaigns, so you have to create great material or else your competition is going to bury you.

So let’s discuss how you can get ahead of your competition, and improve your branding and sales through an AdWords campaign…

Steps & Tips:

Target Your Market

This is the first step in the process and perhaps one of the most important. You want to ensure that you have the proper market targeted if you’re hoping to use AdWords to generate sales.

When you’re creating your AdWords campaign, think about whom to target both from a keyword and geographic perspective.

Your keyword portfolio decides when and where your ads will show. You need to balance great reach with high relevance, so think about the market you’re targeting and play to their needs.

Best Ways to Write Copy

This is something that can seem rather difficult at first. The goal is to command the reader’s attentions with your copy, and there’s a careful mixture of art and science involved here. For instance, you may want to ask questions that appeal to the users. You can also hand out simple instructions, tell a short story, offer up a teaser, etc. You want to create an air of intrigue, but you also want to come across as trustworthy.

Although good copy depends a lot on what you’re advertising and to whom, the key is always relevance. How can you make the ad as relevant as possible looking at the keywords you’re buying clicks for?

Here are examples of quick-hit messaging you’d want to follow when writing your ad copy:

  • Current promotion: “Right now only $50”
  • Specific product: “iPhone 5 in stock”
  • Review: “Best in test”
  • Your unique selling point: “Largest phone retailer in the US”

A Strong Call to Action

With a call to action, you’re looking to entice someone to click through on your ad and act on your offer. You’re not trying to order them to do something, however. So save those multiple exclamation points, the huge promises (i.e. lies), and other gimmicks used.

If your copy is written well enough and if the ad is relevant for the chosen market, a simple “Purchase online today” or something similar is as “strong” as you need for a call to action.

Creating Relevant Search Phrases

For Google’s particular system, this is an incredibly important part about effective marketing. You need to make sure that your keyword portfolio matches search phrases that are actually searched by people. There’s no “best guess” feature with AdWords.

You’re going to be paying the freight here, so make sure that you do your research.

(Note: It helps to have a service delivering these ads that will help out in search term generation.)

Lowering your CPC

Yes, playing the game with Google AdWords is going to cost money. It’s worth it if you have an effective campaign. You’ll receive a nice ROI. But if you’re interested in lowering your cost-per-click number, you need to focus on three main areas: long tail keywords, uncompetitive themes, and relevancy.

Long tail keywords are far more descriptive and thus have less competition. The same goes for the uncompetitive category. You should be able to find some really popular phrases, relevant to your ad’s message, which aren’t “over” competitive.

Lastly, make sure that your ads are using keywords that are as relevant as possible. Nothing lowers costs like actually making money!

Doing things the right way with Google can make your campaign a huge success and can help your business to grow exponentially. The above guide isn’t as thorough as it could be, but it does give you a general run through in terms of creating effective ads. Expand on each tip as you need it. And if you’d like more tips on search engine marketing, visit keybroker.com.

Thanks, Craig, for contributing another helpful article. And I hope all of you learned something here to make YOUR AdWords campaigns more successful…done right, they are a great way for small business owners to not only increase sales but build awareness for their brand, too. So I don’t care if you’re selling books online or want to promote your services, try some AdWords campaigns in your marketing plan.

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

 

 

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How to Create Unique and Encouraging Facebook Ads

June 02nd, 2012

Hi All!

The following Guest Blog post is courtesy of Craig Robinson, Editor for Qwaya, a Facebook campaign tool that’s run through a web interface. If you’re a small business owner who currently runs ads on Facebook, or plan to, you do NOT want to miss the incredibly useful tips and strategies he, as a Facebook Advertising Expert, outlines to make your online ads much more effective!

So…let’s jump in to Craig’s article!

With so many different software options out there for you to choose from, you can realistically churn out ads by the hundreds every single day if you wanted to. You’re only limited by your imagination and the speed of your software. However, as most advertisers ultimately learn when dealing with Facebook, quantity never bests quality. One original, inspiring ad from one source can get 10 times the conversions of an entire army of shoddy ads.

People left places like MySpace for Facebook because Facebook was of superior quality. No jumbled mess of advertising for porn and dating sites and other garbage. So, to make the most out of this social media giant, you need to post high-quality ads. Below, we will go over a few great ways in which you can hone your ad-making skills.

A Five-Step Guide for Creative Ad-Making:

1: Emulation is Not Theft

You can think of emulation like trend-watching in this context. The idea isn’t to steal ideas from anyone; and it’s definitely not to outright steal ads. But you need to keep up with trends. As you’re operating a business, it’s difficult to know what groups of people are liking on Facebook these days. You might decide a humorous Rage Comic ad would create a social context buzz, but you may be two years late for that if you’re not keeping up with the trends. So when we speak of emulation here, what we’re really speaking of is keeping an eye on the competition to make sure that you’re not missing the ball.

2: Text and Context are Different Things

You can’t always type your way to social context and high conversions, so remember that leaning on text too heavily isn’t how you create an original ad. You want your text to be very specific to the purpose and to provide a call of action without making bold promises and guarantees that cannot be matched. But you don’t want to only rely on the text for a creative ad. For example, a press release style of ad is good, but it’s even better with an image(s). Trying to type your way to popularity isn’t nearly as efficient as going with a blended approach.

3: Target a Complete Niche

A lot of advertisers make the mistake of not targeting a large enough niche. Did you know that women over 50 years of age click at higher rates than anyone? Yeah; it’s true. You don’t want to only cater to 18-35 or whatever popular demographic you read about. You want to cater to all inside of the niche. Expand on your main keyword (for instance: stereo equipment) and think of every instance in which it can be used, regardless of age and even of location. Expand, expand, expand!

4: Visualizing the Goal

Optical illusions and humorous images and the like are all big draws for people. Remember, the Facebook expert advertises in the realm of social context. The amateur advertises dry business slogans to a narrow niche. Be very visual with your ads and entice attention by causing people to actually focus on what they’re looking at. Your main goal is conversion, but that’s not your only goal. Popular, enticing ads will catch on.

5: Always Test Your Ads

The best part about advertising is that you’re never going to rely on one ad and you’re never going to leave an ad out there that doesn’t perform well. As long as you’re testing, you will know which areas of the ad to tweak and how to proceed with a successful campaign. You always need to test what you’re doing.

It’s not a complicated thing to advertise with Facebook. Just make sure that you’re always adapting and are always looking to be creative.

Thanks, Craig, for those helpful, quick-hit tips for improving your branding and sales using Facebook advertising!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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5 Key Strategies for Effective Facebook Advertising Campaigns

April 24th, 2012

Hi All!

I came across this extremely helpful article written by Melinda Emerson, The Small Biz Lady. Melinda always provides great content and info so you should follower her on Twitter @SmallBizLady and read her blog posts.

Many clients come to me either confused about Facebook Advertising, or have never even considered running Facebook Ads. And I typically find most of them think Facebook Ads are probably really expensive. But, that’s NOT true!

Not only can you choose the exact audience you want your ad to appear on the pages of, BUT you can also control how long it runs and how much you spend. Also, ads are great for promoting your events! You can run a Facebook Ad campaign leading up to your event and then stop the campaign once it’s over. Cool stuff! Again, you’re in total control of your campaigns and budget.

For more info on all the general stuff about “how” to run ads, visit the Facebook Ads page.

Okay…back to the purpose of this article! I’d like to share 5 tips Melinda offers once you’ve decided to run ads.

“5 Areas to Focus on When Setting Up Facebook Ads” by Melinda Emerson. Please note this is just an excerpt from the entire article she wrote, so click here to read the whole thing!

User Destination: Figure out where you want to send the users that click on your ad. There is a strong benefit to sending people to a Facebook Business Page, as well as sending them to a company website. It all depends on the marketing goal you are hoping to achieve. Costs per click will also vary based on where you direct people to go. A CPC landing page can make or break an ad campaign, but the landing page doesn’t necessarily need to be offsite. Facebook Business Pages allow for creative opportunities for landing pages including a contact form or a Facebook store among other options.

Ad Type: Determining which ad type to choose can directly impact the success of a campaign. Facebook Ads are a common ad type that is structured most similarly to traditional CPC ads. Sponsored stories, event, post, and application ads can also be successful for brands but focus on more specific content. There is a strong social advantage for running ads that highlight a brand’s status update or event because they show “likes” and shares associated with that post. These ad types often see increased click through rates because of the social association.

Targeting: You not only have the opportunity to target your current demographic, but can also connect with an audience that you would like to target as customers. Facebook allows you to target users based on every profile feature that they enter. Likes and interests are a feature that businesses need to take advantage of. If a business sells fitness products they have the opportunity to show their ads to anyone that “likes” fitness, health, working out, yoga, etc. The specific targeting allows for leads from a very qualified user group, which makes the Facebook Ad conversion rates much higher than traditional CPC campaigns.

Reporting: In addition to the basic reporting that Facebook offers, there are other ways to track your user’s activity after they click on your ad. You can setup goals and conversion tracking in Google Analytics that can assist in determining the success of the ad campaign.

Optimization: Continuously managing your ad campaign is vital to its success but knowing how to optimize it is what can really drive results. Knowing which ads are performing and why is what you’ll need to know to carry that success to the other ad campaigns.

I hope her tips take some of the mystery out of Facebook Ad campaigns for you! Regardless of whether you’re a small business owner, coach, consultant, entertainer, book author or speaker, Facebook Ads are a great way to generate traffic to your Fan Page (Business Page), website, events, products and BRAND…and it’s highly targeted and cost-effective for lead generation!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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Why Not Understanding Social Media Etiquette is Impacting Your Efforts

January 11th, 2012

Hi All!

Back in 2012  I wrote a blog post entitled “Do You Suffer from Social ‘Me’dia Syndrome?”. It was picked up by tons of other blogs and also led to my being asked to write variations of it for several online business communities and magazines. I bring this up because yesterday I spoke to a good friend of mine who was asking me about Social Media tips. After my chat with her I realized that it was a good time to revisit this topic in 2012. Why? Because MANY people are still clueless about proper Social Media etiquette!

Here’s the deal…you have to participate to make it work for you. If you make it all “about you”, you’ve lost the entire essence of what Social Media is about! I find that many new clients who come to me are not getting much out of their Social Media and online marketing efforts because they’ve forgotten ONE little detail…they forgot about the word “social” in their Social Media strategy.

Here are a few tips that will quickly illustrate my point:

1. Comment on other peoples’ blog posts. If you have a blog and want people to comment on your posts, you have to comment on OTHER peoples’ blog posts to start generating traffic to yours. It’s simple: If you read a blog post you like or have an opinion on, don’t just “keep it to yourself”. POST A COMMENT!

2. Retweet other peoples’ tweets: If you like a tweet from someone else, take a split second to click on the retweet button to share it with your followers. That’s why the retweet icon exists! To SHARE info with everyone and help cross-promote each other to help increase awareness for other people. It’s amazing how much more tweet-love and traffic you’ll get if you retweet, reply and comment on other peoples’ tweets. AGAIN…it’s part of being “social” in tweet-ville…and it’s part of Social Media etiquette!

3. Comment or Like other peoples’ posts on Facebook or in LinkedIn Groups: If you want more people to comment and/or click on the “like” button on your Fan Page or Profile posts, then do it more for other people! It takes less than one second to click “like” under someone’s post and sometimes just a couple of seconds to write a comment. Again, if you see a post that you like or find interesting, rather than just THINK to yourself, “That’s funny!” or “That’s cool!” or “That’s interesting!” or “That’s really helpful info!”, move your cursor up to the word “like” under it and simply click. Or type a short comment to acknowledge what that person posted!

This may all sounds like common sense BUT it’s NOT common practice…which is why millions of social media hobbyists and small business owners are involved in Social Media but frustrated with it. They constantly just focus on posting stuff about THEM, their businesses, their products or events, their books, their families, their vacations, their kids, the songs they like, food they like to eat, etc., but they rarely take the time to acknowledge what other people post and share online.

So…here’s my challenge to YOU: If any of this describes how YOU participate in the world of Social Media, make “improve my Social Media etiquette in 2012” one of YOUR resolutions in the new year! You’ll be pleased with the results and will truly be participating the way the world of Social Media was intended!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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Why Google Places Can Help You Attract More Clients: Online or Offline

September 27th, 2011

Hi All!

The following article is a Guest Blog from Cindy Morus and Christine Wood, Co-founders of BizFinder Local (.com). They help businesses, offline and online, get more customers with the latest technology and online marketing tools, including Google Places.

And in this easy-to-follow article they are going to explain what Google Places is and why you need to take it seriously!

Why Google Places Can Help You Attract More Clients: Online or Offline:

Search for your business on a mobile device and click on everthing that comes up (if nothing shows up, you’ve identified your first problem). Does it look like you’re active and “open for business?”

One of the first things you should see is a listing of 7 Google Places entries. Are you there?

What is Google Places? It’s a huge directory of businesses created by Google. These free place pages are available for both online and offline businesses, and show up when you search for a business.

Even though you mostly serve clients outside your geographic area, are you willing to work with local customers? Then you need a Google Places page!

Virtual Businesses and solo entrepreneurs qualify for a Google Places listing and “puts you on the (Google) map!” If your business doesn’t have a place page your are missing out on a huge opportunity and it’s easy to get one for your business! Imagine having Google promoting  your services to everyone who lives in your area (even if you don’t have any articles and blog posts out there)!

Local and Mobile searches are at the top of Google’s priority list. Did you know that 82% of local searches result in offline action (a visit, a phone call, a
purchase!)? And 70% of computer searchers act within 1 week of the search? Those stats are proof that you should make your business easier to find with a Google Places page.

More people search for businesses online than anywhere else, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to be credible to local customers!

And if you’d like us to do a FREE Google Places evaluation for your business to see how you show up in the search results, contact us today! Many clients who come to us do NOT show up in a Google Places search and that means they are missing out on attracting new business.

Thanks, Cindy & Christine! Great info and great offer!

Lisa

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9 Tips Authors Can Use for Marketing Their First Book

August 26th, 2011

Hi All!

I came across these great tips in a post on The Creative Penn blog and wanted to share them with you. Whether you’re a new book author, or a seasoned author, and regardless of whether you self-published or have a traditional publishing deal, these tips can help you.

They are from an article written by Graham Storrs, author of “Timesplash”.

Many of these tips are ones I’ve personally used to market my books, and I also advise my author clients on them, as well.

Ready for Graham’s tips??? Here ya go:

1. Get an audience before the release. When you announce your newly-published book to the world, it would be nice if someone was there to hear you. So how many people read your blog? How many friends do you have on Twitter or Facebook? Are you using LinkedIn groups, Goodreads, LibraryThing? Unless you are being followed (friended, or whatever) by hundreds, if not thousands of people, you probably need to put some time into building up your profile on these sites. When you make that announcement, you will feel as if you are standing on the stage in an empty theatre, unless you’ve managed to drag a few people in off the streets first.

2. Create a brand. In writing, the author is the brand. And that means you. You need to present yourself in your communications with potential readers in a way you are comfortable with and which is related to the boks you expect to be promoting. An important part of this is to know which genre you are working in. It’s invidious, I know, but received wisdom is that if you work in more than one genre, you probably need two different names and two different brands. When you are putting yourself out there and finding ways to talk about your book, don’t forget what your brand is – who you want people to see you as. Stay focused.

3. Know what you are going to say. Marketing is about message. Your brand is part of it but the rest is all content. What is your book about? Who will it appeal to? What groups should be interested in it, discussing it, recommending it, and what will catch their attention? Work it all out, find the wording you need to convey the message succinctly and clearly, then, in everything you say, stay on that message. It’s probably not all that hard. You probably write the kind of books you also love to read. Mostly, your target audience is people rather like yourself. Take a while to understand what it is that attracts you to new, unknown writers in your genre and you are half-way there.

4. Understand where your interests lie. You will be selling your book through a variety of channels (book shops, online, as ebooks and as print – possibly POD) and in a number of ‘geographies’ – defined in your publishing contract – to a number of audiences (‘market segments’ in the jargon.) Some channels and geographies will earn you more money than others. If your royalties on net, vs on retail price, it is of critical importance to you personally how big a cut various middlemen are taking. (Remember it can be quite hard to know which channel is best since while apparently high-paying channels like direct sales from your publisher’s own website may earn you a bigger royalty than online stores like Amazon, the latter is likely to out-sell the publisher’s own shop by many times and deliver a much bigger return for your effort. The same goes for audiences. Some are more likely to be interested than others, some more likely to buy, some more likely to spread the word. You are likely to be overwhelmed with work and you need to know where to put your marketing efforts.

5. Keep it rolling. With online sales and ebook editions, publicising a book is not the one-shot event it used to be. Market dynamics have changed since the days when bricks and mortar book shops were all that there was and you had three to six weeks during which your book would be on the shelf before it was returned to make way for the new batch of hopefuls. Now your book will stay in online catalogues for as long as your publishing agreement lasts – and longer if you act to keep it there. You probably have a few months now, after the launch, while your book is fairly new, when you can actively promote it and try to keep people’s attention on it. Even beyond that point, you can run occasional refresher campaigns to lift its profile again. This is all good news for the writer. The bad news is that the marketing need never end!

6. Engage. Talk to your readers and your potential readers. Talk about your book if they’re interested. Talk about the genre. Talk about writing and publishing. Talk about yourself. People are interested. It’s hard to grasp at first. You do interviews, you write blog pieces, you twitter about your life, your opinions, and your book, and you you think, “What the hell is so fascinating about me? Aren’t people going to think I’m a complete ego-maniac?” Well, maybe some will, but an awful lot won’t. They have read your book and liked it and they’re curious about who wrote it, or why you wrote it, or how you wrote it. Even if they haven’t read the book, there are plenty of people with common interests – in the genre, or in writing – who see you as someone who has contributed, or has special knowledge of the journey. You could ignore them all, sit quietly at your desk and write your next book, but it is a deeper, richer experience for everybody – you included – if you engage with them.

7. Keep your pipeline filled. This is more jargon from the sales world. Like it or not, you are selling a product. It’s a business. Your readers are consumers of that product. If they like it, they will want more. The only way they will get more is if you write it. So don’t stop work on that next book, no matter how much extra work the last one has created. A book takes a long time to write, revise, edit and polish. Then you have to sell it to a publisher (oh yes, there are no free rides, each new book can be just as hard to sell as the last one.) Then edit it and then market it. It’s a long pipeline. You keep putting words in at one end and there will be more books to sell at the other. If you stop, there will be a gap.

8. Prepare to work your socks off. You may think you were busy when you wrote the book – what with the day job and family commitments – but once you shave signed that contract, you will shift into overdrive. Now, as well as the day job, the family, and writing the next book, you also have to work with your publisher on edits, and you have to work on your marketing campaign. Your social networking will escalate, your blogging and website content writing will increase, you’ll be trawling the blogsphere working with your communities of interest, and you’ll be pestering reviewers the world over to just please take a look at your book. That’s why I say it’s writing an iceberg – seven tenths of the work comes after the book is finished.

9. Don’t forget to have some fun, or you’ll go nuts. Sometimes, you should even take a holiday!

I hope you found those helpful! Marketing a new book can be very challenging, but by implementing tips like those, combined with effectively marketing your book on Amazon, adding PR and writing press releases, and implementing other marketing strategies to your mix, you can ramp your book sales and build a fan base!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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5 Things Your Freelance Sales Writer Must Deliver

July 18th, 2011

Hi All!

The following blog is a guest post courtesy of Debbie Feldstein, a freelance non-fiction writer based in New York City.  For more than 20 years, she has provided imaginative, unique, and persuasive copy in the form of press releases, brochures, sales letters, and autoresponders.  She has authored dozens of books, reports, and articles on effective sales and marketing.  Among her ‘best sellers’ are How to Use Social Media Marketing to Attract More Prospects, Make More Sales and How to Create Information Products.  For more information, please visit www.creativeblocks.com or send a message to oddball@creativeblocks.com.

Plus, I can personally vouch for Deb’s talent because she has been the Editor for my 3 books! She really is fabulous and great to work with.

Okay! Let’s jump into Deb’s article:

5 Things Your Freelance Sales Writer Must Deliver

The Internet makes it easy to find and hire freelance copywriters.  But the question many entrepreneurs and small business owners face when they want to outsource their copywriting needs is this:

How do I know which copywriter to choose? (My short answer is ‘Choose ME,’ of course.)

If you don’t know anything about the product you’re buying, then it’s tough to get a good deal.  For example, if you don’t know diddly about cars, you may end up buying a Yugo instead of a Mercedes.

One way to ‘look under the hood’ of a potential hire that you want to handle your business writing is to ask them in their proposal if they know (and can deliver) the 5 essentials of a good sales message.

Anatomy of a Conversion-Oriented Sales Message

Whether it’s an advertisement in the Sunday paper, a postcard, an online sales letter, a television commercial, or even a flyer stuck under the wipers of an automobile, an effective pitch always includes these elements.

To assess skills, ask your copywriter to provide portfolio samples of:

***Headline – A headline should be unique, powerful, and convey the biggest benefit of using a product or service.

***Body Copy – The body copy should be an emotionally compelling recitation of what the consumer will receive and needs to do.

***Social Proof – Testimonials and endorsements, prove that an offer is what you claim.  The problem is that many testimonials and long and rambling.  (Ask your copywriter for a sample of a before-and-after testimonial that he/she has edited.)

***Guarantee – Guarantees should remove risk so that the consumer has no fear of disappointment.

***Bonus – Offering something of additional value (“But wait, there’s more!”) should transform a sales offer from ‘good’ to ‘irresistible.’

***Urgent Call to Action – Procrastination kills profits and, unfortunately, prospective buyers may be likely to put aside offers to act upon at a later date.  Ask your copywriter for an example of a statement that tells a consumer how to place an order, with an incentive for them to act quickly.

Important note: When asking for a sample of these various elements, it is appropriate to request something from the writer’s portfolio.  It is NOT appropriate to ask your as-yet-unhired writer to do work ‘on spec’ and deliver samples based on your specific project.

Unscrupulous entrepreneurs (and you don’t want to be one of THOSE) sometimes ask numerous copywriters to provide on-spec samples.  Then they simply cobble those samples together to create their own sales message, without paying any of the writers whose creativity they are pilfering.

Your prospects are waiting for you.  And so are the talented copywriters that can help you turn those prospects into buyers.  Go for it!

Thanks, Deb, for the great advice!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

 

 

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How to Write Articles for Branding and Web Traffic: Part Two

March 22nd, 2011

Hi All!

This is Part Two of a 2-part series, so hopefully you read Part One and are ready to continue with learning more about article writing for brand building!

Okay! So, you’ve outlined a list of article topics your target audience will benefit from, and you’ve written your first article. Now what? There are a wide variety of online article submission and distribution services available that operate in different ways and that serve different purposes.

Here is a brief overview of the types that you’ll encounter. They will: Require you to pay a minimal fee, or not charge anything, to distribute your article online and will create a web page for your article that can be found in search results; or, they will have subscribers who pay a monthly fee to access fresh content (i.e. articles submitted by experts like you) and those people will use your article in their blogs, ezines, websites, publications or newsletters; or, the service will pay you a minimal fee if they approve your article and choose to offer it on their website for others to publish;  or, they will charge you a minimal fee to distribute your articles to targeted outlets (not just distribute it online) interested in your topic matter.

You can find examples of services that match the variety I just provided by performing online searches using phrases like: Free services to submit articles; online article submission; getting paid to write or submit articles; and services to distribute articles online.

You will quickly see there are hundreds of options to get your article distributed and found by your target audience! It can be a bit overwhelming, so start by picking a few and try them out.

Another option, if you have the budget, is to hire a VA (Virtual Assistant) or a freelance article submission expert, and they can do all of this for you. You can find people who can help you by posting a request on a service like eLance.com and you’ll receive responses from many individuals who offer this type of support. Plus, you can also find article ghostwriters on eLance.com who are reasonably priced!

But, if you plan to get your articles out to the masses by yourself, here is a link to a compiled list of article submission services…it’s very comprehensive and many of them are FREE!!!

But before I conclude this 2-part series, I’d like to share one more strategy you can implement for getting your articles distributed: Contact publications and blogs directly that reach your target audience. No matter what your area of expertise is, there are going to be tons of magazines, ezines, newsletters (print and online), websites, social media community websites, and blogs seeking content from outside authors.

You can do online searches to find the ones who reach your target audience and then create a targeted hit-list to inquire if they accept guest articles. You will find that some of them will even have article submission guidelines available on their websites!

If they find your topic ideas interesting, feel their audience will benefit from your information, and find your articles to be well-written, there’s a very good chance they will publish your content.

And, even better, you will begin to establish a relationship with these targeted contacts and that can lead to their accepting your articles on a regular basis. This is a fabulous scenario because their audience will become more familiar with you and that is a key factor for building your topic expert brand!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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Business Building Tools for Coaches and Consultants

February 11th, 2011

Hi All!

Many of my clients are coaches or consultants, and they hire me because they are struggling with growing their practices and generating more income. And, some of them are also authors who have written a book to help increase their notoriety as an expert so they need my help with their branding and book marketing, too.

If you can relate to any of that, and you are a coach or consultant, I recommend checking out these (2) FREE tools, created by my colleague, Kathleen Gage. Kathleen is an online marketing expert and has helped many coaches and consultants increase their income by becoming more savvy about using the internet as a key marketing and sales tool for growing their practices.

Here are the 2 FREE Products she is offering:

1. SPECIAL REPORT: What You Need to Know to Start & Build Your Coaching or Consulting Business

Again, it’s free and NO OPT-IN is required! Simply click here to receive this info-packed pdf!

2. 3-PART VIDEO SERIES: Build a Successful Coaching and Consulting Business

This is ALSO FREE, and simply click here to access the videos!

And, if you’re really serious about ramping your practice, be sure to check out the New Horizon’s Telesummit! 12 Experts (one is me!) will be conducting sessions loaded with advice and strategies all about how to grow your coaching and consulting business. Here is a snapshot of what you’ll learn by attending this event:

– Attract higher-paying clients
– Develop multiple streams of revenue
– Have the choice to work face to face or virtually
– Gain massive visibility and credibility
– Become and expert at social media
– Be viewed as an industry expert
– Develop a sustainable business
– Convert prospects to paying clients
– Create money-making products to sell to clients

There are several different registration options, ranging in price, so you’re bound to find one that works with your budget! And the event is VIA PHONE, so you can attend from anywhere on your phone.

The New Horizons Telesummit is February 23rd and 24th, so CLICK HERE for details!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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4 Steps to Leveraging Other People’s Audiences for Big Exposure

January 14th, 2011

Hi All!

I saw the following blog post on ByBloggers.net (an amazing resource for learning effective strategies to create and market digital products), and received permission from them, and the article’s author, to share it here. It’s loaded with great information to help you expand your brand to the followers of other bloggers and online broadcasters (ie: People with podcast shows) who have large audiences.

No need for me to go on about this topic…author, Mike Tiojanco, does a fine job on his own! But before you dive into his info-packed article, here’s some info about Mike: He is an entrepreneur, blogger, and partner at BlogcastFM Premium. In January, he is launching his new project, 8 Hour Rebellion, aimed at helping people break out of the 9-5 and live a life free from the chains of an office desk (so he can spend more time with his wife, two kids, and Xbox360). And you can follow him on twitter: @mtio.

So, without further delay…here is what Mike has to say about:

Leveraging Other People’s Audiences

Most entrepreneurs are familiar with the concept of using leverage to make money.

Use other people’s time (OPT) or, more commonly, other people’s money (OPM) to push your business.

However, when I launched a membership site, it wasn’t OPT or OPM that made it a success.

It was OPA. Other People’s Audiences.

Anatomy of a Partnership

Last November, I helped launch BlogcastFM Premium – a membership site that helps people take their blogs to the next level.

None of that would have happened without a partnership between myself and the BlogcastFM founders, Srini Rao and Sid Savara.

Let’s go step-by-step through the partnership/joint venture (JV) process as I experienced it:

1. Build Your Network

Way back in February I heard about a new podcast series that was launching – BlogcastFM. I had been reading Sid’s personal development blog and following him on twitter. I was just starting my own blog at the time, so the podcast content was perfect for me.

I ended up following Srini on twitter and reading his blog.

A couple posts into my blog I shot him an email asking him to take a look. He was kind enough to take few minutes to check it out and give me some feedback.

I kept in contact with him via twitter, and eventually pitched him on my very first guest post.

At the time I had no clue that these initial contacts would turn into a partnership, but at the time I was just looking to connect with people who were doing what I wanted to be doing.

The takeaway: Work on building your network early and often. Many successful bloggers advise that you spend 50% of your time writing content and 50% of your time networking.

2. Listen to People’s Needs

Like I mentioned before, I am a devoted listener of BlogcastFM.

I listen to just about every episode the day it comes out, sometimes more than once (I’ve got a 45 min. commute).

After listening to that many episodes, a common theme appeared.

In just about every episode, Srini commented, “If I could put into action the ideas I get from every interview, my blog would be way more successful than it is.”

So even Srini, the host of the podcast… the interviewer himself… needed help pulling the best tips out of every interview and figuring out how to implement them.

Surely their audience was having the same issues.

I could help with that.

The Takeaway: Find something that someone’s audience needs that the blogger doesn’t have time to create (or has no interest in creating).

Dave Navarro did this with Naomi Dunford’s audience.

Her audience at ittybiz.com consists of small online business owners. She offers marketing and business development advice – a lot of which is focused on creating ebooks and other digital products. However, her material didn’t really focus on how to launch the ebook once it was created – Dave’s specialty.

Before partnering on “How to Launch the **** of Your eBook,” Dave Navarro was mostly unknown. It was the partnership with Naomi that put him on the map.

3. Pitch the Idea

Back in September, I approached them with an idea for the product – a membership site offering action worksheets for each of their 100+ interviews on BlogcastFM.

They said yes.

I think what really put them over the edge is that I provided a sample of the product – an action worksheet for the interview with Sean Ogle.

This let them see exactly what I had in mind, as opposed to an abstract description in an email.

The Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to pitch the idea. After my pitch, the feedback the guys gave to me was that this was something they really wanted to create for their audience, but they didn’t have the time to do it themselves. Worst case scenario, they pass, but now you’re really on their radar.

The last step:

4. Make Them Love You.

This is something I’m still working on, and will continue to work on as long as BlogcastFM is around.

Do the best work you can.

Make them feel lucky to have you on their team.

Remember, your work is a reflection on their reputation.

The Takeaway: After someone says yes, provide the best work you can so that they feel that the partnership was the best business decision they ever made.

Like I said, I’m still working on this one. I had some family issues that prevented me from doing this over the past month or so, but you better believe I’m going to work my tail off showing them that this was the right decision for them.

That said, I’ve got some interviews to listen to and some worksheets to create…

BIG thanks to Mike, and to Jonathan, founder of ByBloggers.net, for allowing me to share this! GREAT ADVICE and useful info!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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