Archive for Success tips
Technology – Your Best Friend or Your Worst Enemy?
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Being in the field that I am, most of my work is done online and through different types of modern technologies – Skype, the Internet, email, contact management software, smart phone, and so on. I’ve found that while technology and all the conveniences it brings can be a lifesaver at times, at other times it can be a huge roadblock in getting the real work done.
I see this not only in my own life, but in many of my clients and peers. And as I get busier and have more tasks, it seems that technology can start to become more of an enemy than a friend. So this week, when I was reading “Eat That Frog” again, this particular chapter about technology time sinks seemed very appropriate.
Here’s some tips on how to keep technology on your side, and not have it working against you.
- You have a choice – You can be plugged in or you can unplug at any time. You need to unplug from your phone, your email, the internet, Facebook – detach on a regular basis, so you don’t become overwhelmed and so that you stay calm, clearheaded and able to perform at your best.
- Don’t get addicted – I see this a lot with Facebook – you know who you are, those people who play Farmville 24/7, who message you the second you get online, are Tweeting about their dr. appt in the middle of the exam. Don’t fall into this trap, don’t let technology (whether it’s Facebook, your phone, checking your email constantly) suck you in. The whole goal of technology is to make our lives easier. It’s meant to help us improve our lives by helping us to accomplish things and communicate with people faster and more efficiently. So remember that, and don’t allow it to take up your time by obsessing over the use of it.
- Standardize and delegate – We all feel like no one else can do it as well as we can. That might be true, but at some point those small tasks are going to cost you time and money. One of the huge benefits of technology is that you can easily hand off many admin tasks without having to actually hire an employee. How would your life change if you had an extra 20 hours each week to think, work, plan, talk with clients and prospects, or even go to dinner with your spouse? Use technology to hand off tasks you really don’t need to be spending your time on.
- Treat technology as a servant, not a master – Technology is there to help you, not hinder you. Just because that notification on your Outlook goes off, it doesn’t mean you need to respond right now! One of the best ways to get a handle on technology – just turn it off. Don’t check your email as soon as you get to work or sit down at your desk. Turn off the cell phone. Just unplug, even if it’s for a few minutes!
Stop Yelling in Your Front Yard – Get a Niche!
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Today I’m going to briefly talk about your niche or target market. This is so important, and I wish more people got why it’s so important to have a specific niche you focus your marketing efforts on.
What is marketing, really? Marketing is just communication. And who do you want to communicate with? Obviously, I’m going to say your target market – a group of people who have common interests and common problems and that you can find hanging out (online and offline) in the same places. And hopefully this niche or target market is something or someone you’re passionate about helping, glad to spend time with, passionate about working with.
So why do you need to pick a target market, why can’t you just market to anyone/anywhere? Because if marketing is simply communication, then NOT choosing a target market is like trying to get your voice heard by the rest of the world over all the noise being made by all the other people communicating (marketing). This is especially true when you’re communicating (marketing) online.
I recently read this book, and I loved how she put this. It really made it clear to me, so I’m going to put my own twist on it and use it for you: Trying to reach everyone/anyone online, it’s like going out in your front yard right now and yelling at the top of your lungs that you have a fantastic teleseminar going on next week. Almost no one is going to hear you! Maybe your neighbor to the left or right will hear you, but they probably aren’t interested in your amazing teleseminar. You think you’re going to reach everyone (hey, I’m yelling really loud!), but you’re going to end up reaching no one that’s actually interested in what you’re yelling about.
If you want to communicate something to someone, whether it’s to get them to do or buy something, think something, feel a certain way or believe something, you need to know who you want to communicate that thing to. And the clearer you are about your target market, and the more passionate you are about it, the more likely your income is going to start growing.
So stop yelling in your front yard – go get yourself a niche!
If you want more information about picking and marketing to your target market, check out my free webinar this Friday. There’s no pitch, it’s not a preview call, it’s just good information that will help you market your business online. See you there!
The Secret to Social Media – Time
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Social Media is everywhere. It’s in your email inbox, it’s on the news, you see articles everywhere, and if you do a search for Google you’ll get millions of results. So of course, learning about social media isn’t too difficult. You can find blogs, videos, ebooks, teleseminars, and hundreds of other tools to teach you ways to use social media. So why do so many people still have difficulty actually getting started with using social media to market their business?
One of the biggest reasons I hear is time. Lack of time, not enough time, don’t want to spend the time, wanting to spend the time doing something else. You can’t make more time, no matter how much you learn about social networking and online marketing. You have time or you don’t. If you need more time, you have to find it or spend less time doing something else.
So if time is what’s standing in the way of marketing your business online, you basically have three ways to resolve this time issue. Which way you choose depends on which means more to you, time or money.
1. Just jump in and figure it out on your own. You’ll make mistakes, it will take time, but it’s the cheapest way to get it done – money wise. This is probably the most expensive if you’re talking about the time you’ll need to spend. One positive point to this method is that you’ll know how to do it, so even if you decide to outsource at a future date, you’ll have a good idea of what should be happening. I used this method to get my basic foundation in understanding how social networking and online marketing really work, and to see the results once you finally learn how to do it right. But believe me, it took more hours out of my day (and night) then I even want to remember!
2. Learn from others who have already spent the time learning. Like I mentioned above, there are hundreds of products you can buy, listen to, read online (and offline) to see how others are using social media and online marketing. This will also take time, time to read – time to listen – time to learn – time to implement, but no where as much time as Option 1. Of course, in exchange for less time and benefiting from the time others have spent, you’re going to spend more money than Option 1. So your cost increases but your time decreases.
If you take this route, just be aware of what you’re purchasing. Talk to other people who’ve bought products, ask for recommendations. There’s a ton of information out there, but it doesn’t mean that all of that information is good or that it’s going to fit your needs. And don’t forget to take advantage of the tons of free information out there, to get you started for free.
3. Outsource your online marketing. This is going to save you the most time, of course. And, consequently, cost you the most of the 3 options. A huge benefit to outsourcing is that it allows you the time to do what you really enjoy, what you’re best at. My clients usually come to me after spending some time trying out Option 1 or 2. But even after getting training, or spending the time to learn on their own, they find that they still don’t have the time or the desire to take on the task themselves. What they like is that I come up with a strategy and then make it happen for them.
My final note for you is that online marketing has to be done consistently, so whatever option you decide to try out, make sure you commit to a consistent schedule. Social media can have a huge impact on your business, allowing you reach out to people you otherwise never would, to teach people you’d normally never meet, to grow your business in ways you never thought you could. So whatever way you decide to integrate online marketing into your business, whether by spending more time or more money, as Nike says – Just Do It!
Have a great day!
The Top 3 Money Killing Mistakes in Business
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I follow tons of blogs, so many that I always have a 1000+ articles to read on my Google reader page. But as I was skimming through some of those articles this weekend, this series really caught my eye. It’s a series that was done by Therese Skelly on her “Happy In Business” blog. She ran this series over 3-4 blog posts, but I’m going to highlight the 3 mistakes here in one quick post for you.
Mistake #1 – This is really about your own self-limiting beliefs. Do you ever hear yourself saying any of the following:
“I’m not that unique…loads of people already do that.”
“What should they hire me?”
“I feel a bit like an imposter because of __________”
“I can’t charge that much, because _______(fill in the words here. It could be I haven’t been in biz long enough, haven’t gotten a degree, etc)
“If I don’t give away the farm, my customers will leave me.”
“I can’t say NO because what if that opportunity doesn’t come around again?”
These thoughts cause you to get in your own way. You’re limiting your potential by allowing these doubts to dictate what you do and don’t do. You need to start thinking about any of these beliefs you have in a positive way. Why should the hire you – because you’re great at what you do. I can charge that much, because what I offer is worth more than that. Ask your current clients, talk to your coach, your mastermind group. Figure out a way to turn these negative thoughts into empowering, positive statements.
Mistake #2 - This is about spending too much time on low-to-no income producing activities, and not focusing on those activities in your business that have a high-income potential. Outsource those activities that take up too much of your time and can be farmed out to someone for less money than you’re losing by spending time on them vs. spending time marketing or working with clients. As Therese says in her post about this – “set a goal to be working only in your brilliance and doing the tasks that you love and that generate you the big dollars.” I couldn’t have said it better.
Mistake #3 – Bad habits. Eliminate those bad habits that are holding you back. Here’s a few examples:
- Saying yes to every opportunity
- Following every guru and buying tons of programs (without getting a good ROI)
- Not following up with contacts
- Being in touch with your list only sporadically
- Thinking that you have to have all your marketing materials just perfect
- Getting swept away in distractions
- Pricing too low
- Spending too much time on FB and Twitter
Make a list of your top 10 bad habits, and then commit to a plan to change/stop them.
So that’s her list of the Top 3 Money Killing Mistakes in Business. If you want to read the whole series in full – you can find the first post in the series HERE.
Creating a Marketing Plan
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s a new year, and rather than making some resolutions that I know I’ll never keep, I started my new year with a very focused marketing plan. I know that if you don’t have a plan, a road map, on how to get somewhere, you’re probably not going to reach your goal. So here’s some steps you can take to create your own marketing plan.
Step 1 – Review the plan you had for the prior year.
If you didn’t have a plan last year, then analyze any marketing you’ve done in the past and how well it worked for you.
Ask yourself these questions:
- How did my clients find me in 2009?
- What websites/social networking/other places did they come from?
- What did I do in order to be seen by those clients?
- What marketing worked and didn’t work – and why?
- How can I apply those techniques that worked last year to get more clients in 2010?
- What can I change about what didn’t work to make it better?
Step 2 – After analyzing last year’s plan, write down this year’s marketing plan.
By writing down your plan, you make it more real and it turns into your goals and your actions instead of just abstract, unclear thoughts.
At minimum, answer these 5 questions in your marketing plan:
- Who’s your target market?
- What are your products and/or services?
- Why does your target market need your product/services?
- What kind of problems do you help your target market solve?
- What makes you special or why should our market do business with you and not your competitors?
- What marketing techniques are you going to put into place to reach out to your target market?
Also, think about your business vision, goals and objectives. Make your goals quantifiable and realistic. But don’t make them too easy, because you want to have to stretch to achieve them.
Create your plan by month. Then create weekly and daily to-do lists based on your overall marketing plan and goals.
Now go get started on your plan. And if you want some help getting some ideas on where you can market your business online, you can always sign up for one of my free strategy sessions.
Have a great day!
5 Ways to Generate New Blog Post Ideas
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I’m sitting here this morning, struggling with finding a good topic to write about. I know I’m not the only one, so it comes to me – why not talk about some things you can use to generate ideas for your blog posts.
Ok, so when you’re sitting in front of your computer with absolutely no idea what to write about, what can you do?
1) Set up google alerts for some of your top keywords. Every day you will receive emails with links to other blog posts, news, articles that you can use as inspiration for your own posts. Just remember to actually look at these alerts, otherwise they tend to pile up in your email inbox, and can cause you to feel a little overwhelmed.
2) Subscribe to blogs that provide information that you think readers of your blog would be interested in. Devote a blog post to commenting on one of their posts and link back to the original post. Be sure to give the original blogger the acknowledgement that this is their post – we’re not talking about taking credit for someone else’s creativity. You can add any points you think were missed, explain why you agree or disagree with their post, or just say “Hey, this is a great idea, check it out. I think it gives some great information.”
3) Use your social media networks to generate ideas. Take note of what your connections are talking about that relates to your area of expertise. Ask what people want to learn more about, what questions they have on a particular topic. Conduct a survey. Just paying attention to what people are discussing can be a great way to get your creative thoughts flowing.
4) Use your keywords. Take your keyword list, and see what topics you can work with incorporating those keywords. If you don’t have any keywords, then do some keyword research – just doing the research will start to give you some great ideas on topics to tackle.
5) Repurpose your other materials. If you wrote an article, break it out into 2 or 3 blog posts. If you conducted a teleseminar, turn it into a series of posts. If you made a video, add it as a blog post. If you have an ebook, take some of it and turn it into a post. You get the idea. Make the most of your time, and get as much use out of each creation as you can.
This isn’t really a way to generate a new idea, but it will make your blog posting much easier. Think of it as a bonus:
Plan ahead. Instead of staring at a blank “Add New Post” screen, plan out your posts ahead of time. Obviously, I haven’t made it to this point yet for 2010, but it’s in my schedule of things to do. By picking out topics before hand and having a loose schedule of when you’re going to write about what, you avoid that “Oh my gosh, what am I going to write about today,” feeling that can tend to just freeze up any creativity from happening. Create a list of all the topics that you want to discuss for the entire week or for the whole month, making sure they’re all related to your blog’s theme and they are all interesting to your readers.
How do you come up with new blog post ideas? Please share any unique or interesting ways you get those creative thoughts flowing. I’d love to hear them!
Have a great day!
