Market My Holistic Biz

The Top 3 Ways to Deliver A Free Taste That Gets You Hired

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This is the last in a serise of three articles about pink spooning - which is marketing lingo for the delicious sample you offer to prospective clients that makes hiring you irresistible! (Click here to read the 1st and here for the 2nd.)

Sometimes it works like a magic wand and you get hired immediately.  Other times it takes longer for the credit card to  appear.  Either way, it's the first way for folks to get a 'taste' of what you are an expert at delivering.  

Since you never get a second chance to make a first impression, I'm sure you can see why developing your free taste - or pink spoon - deserves some careful thought.

There are tons of ways to deliver your free taste but mostly they fall into three main categories (especially when the delivery method is utilizing the internet):

1. Something to read.  This could be valuable written information in the form of a Special Report or checklist.  IMPORTANT: whatever form you choose, the information needs to be perceived as valuable by your potential client.  Keep in mind, that what you know they need may not be the same thing they want.  Be sure to deliver what they want here so they'll eventually be hungry for what they need to!

2. Something to listen to.  This works well if you need your sample to be experiential - like a guided meditation, visualization or breathing exercise.  Or if you hate to write!  Just make sure that when you deliver an audio message, you practice so you can get really good at filtering the "um"s and "ya know"s our of your speech pattern.

3. Something to watch.  Video is hot and getting hotter and is a super powerful marketing tool.  Because it lets people "read" your body language and get a "feel" for your energy while your delivering useful information to them, it can shave scads of time off the usual relationship building process.  People do business with folks they know, like and trust.  Video can slice through the "know, like, trust" barrier like butter through a hot knife!

If you aren't comfortable with it yet, you are going to want to do whatever it takes to become comfortable with it because eventually it will cost you clients if you don't.

A word about the "free" part

I know I've been calling it a free taste but it isn't reeeeeally free.  In keeping with the spirit of maintaining the energetic balance between giving and receiving, if you are giving something of value, the receiving party ought to do the same in return.  And the thing you want to receive in exchange for your valuble information is contact information - an email address at the bare minimum  - so that you can continue the conversation.

Wrapping it all up

In these 3 articles, I've covered a lot about creating an irresistible free taste that will entice clients to hire you fast.  You can see an example of two different ways to implement the pink spoon method when you:

a. glance at the upper right hand corner of this page or

b. visit my website

If you're still feeling a bit overwhelmed about the best way to put the pink spoon into effect for your business, I'm just a phone call or email away.  All you have to do is ask to receive my help.

How to Over Deliver without Overwhelming

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As promised in the previous post, today I'll tell you how to take the pink spoon concept and use it effectively in your business - because there is a difference between using it and using it well.  A good pink spoon (a.k.a. a sample of your brand of brilliance) will do the following:

1. Showcase your knowledge and expertise, thereby positioning you as the "go to" gal for results in your field
2. Provide valuable information that can have an immediate impact on the recipient BUT
3. Limit that valuable information to the "what to do" category, steering clear of the "how to do it" realm

 Now let's disect these. 

1.  Showcasing your knowledge and expertise is not the same as being boastful or egotistical (unless you happen to be an arrogant bugger in general, in which case, I doubt you'd be reading this because I just don't attract such folks!)  This is about educating.  Everyone knows stuff.  But none of us knows everything.  If you know stuff that I don't know but could help me solve a problem, then I want to know that cuz I want my problems solved ASAP! 

Even if I'm not currently suffering from the kind of problem that you solve, I may be someday.  How will I know to call you when that happens unless you've made it clear to me that you are the expert?  Don't make me call someone else!

2. Provide valuable information that delivers immediate impact, just like I'm doing here.  I'm explaining an important marketing concept, why it is important and the parts that make it work.  If you apply what you are learning, it can have an immediate impact on getting new clients and making more money.

3. Confine your free taste to "what to do" and leave out the specifics of "how to do it."   The idea is to whet the appetite for more.  I know you reeeeeeally want to help people.  We all do.  But it took you a long time to become the expert that you are.  It doesn't help to overwhelm people.  Please refrain from unloading everything you know in the first encounter! 

Applying the performing arts philosopy of always leave your audience wanting more works well here.  That's why they created encores - known in entrepreneur speak as repeat business!

It is possible to over deliver with a well-crafted free taste without overwhelming.  Next time I'll talk to you about the different forms you can choose for your free taste and how to know which one is right for your business.

 

Do you inspire the desire to hire?

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Just back from a 3-day business conference with an audience that ran the gamut from multi-million dollar solopreneurs to folks who hadn't yet landed a client.  I learned a lot including this - much work remains on my quest to enlighten folks about how to easily and effectively market online so the world can benefit from your unique brilliance!

In the interest of not adding to the bottomless pit of too-much-freakin'-information-to sift-through-to-know-where-to- begin, I'll keep it simple (hmmm, sound familiar?) and turn your attention to a key concept every business owner ought to strive to embrace with the gusto of a returning beloved pal thought to have been lost at sea for a decade.  And here it is:  If you are trying to sell milk, it's in your best interest to stop handing out free cows!

If you're familiar with the pink spoon concept, feel free to skip this paragraph and move on to the next; otherwise, keep
reading. 

The pink spoon concept was pioneered by Baskin-Robbins ice cream shops.  Whereby you, the customer, could ask the ice cream scooper behind the counter for a free sample of any of their 31 flavors and have it cheerfully handed to you on a puny pink plastic spoon.  A brilliant method for increasing sales by removing risk from the purchase process.  No more ice cream-buyers remorse!

The pink spoon strategy can work in any business provided you actually use a puny pink spoon and not a pink u-haul for your give-aways!

Continuing with the milk and cow business model.  Your pink spoon freebie could be:

• a cold, fresh shot glass sized sample of the white beverage
• or a slice of cheese made from your delicious milk
• or how 'bout something as crazy as a puny pink spoon full of ice cream!

Too many well-intentioned, heart-centered business owners with tremendous gifts that help and heal hand over the reins of the cow, complete with do-it-yourself instructions on how to milk it and make cheese and ice cream. 

At first glance that seems mighty generous but is it really? 

If you are the expert at milking your cow and converting all that it has to offer into a multitude of delicious, nutritious treats that can feed the souls of hundreds or thousands, giving away your cow to one person may make a big impact on them but it does so at the expense of the impact you could have on countless others.  Not so generous after all, eh?

Now you're probably wondering exactly how to apply this silly cow analogy to your business.  This post is already long enough so, I'll tell ya what.  How 'bout I do a series for you on using the pink spoon method in a way that will actually inspire the desire to hire you in your favorite peeps? 

Check back next week or better yet click here and secure a complimentary subscription to my newsletter, Going Soul-o, and get the inside scoop delivered directly to your email door!

How is Less Marketing More?

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There is a definite line between effective marketing and being a pest.  I was going to call it a fine line, but it really isn't.  It's actually a pretty blatantly obvious line when you apply common sense.

The same rules you learned on the playground apply to making and keeping friends when you're marketing with things like social media, email marketing and blogging.

• Have fun - don't be afraid to let your personality come through in your tweets, updates and blog posts.  It may take a little practice before you feel comfortable allowing your playful side into the office but, belive me, it can really pay off in terms of relationship building.  Authenticitiy is THE marketing buzz word of the day!

• Invite others to play - Internet marketing is all about interaction.  The more you encourage others to respond to what your doing by inviting their opinions, shared experience or welcoming support when you need it, the stronger the bonds you'll build.

• Share the ball - As important as inviting interaction is offering it.  Comment on blog postings and Facebook updates.  Reply when others comment on yours. No one likes to feel ignored or invisible and even the briefest acknowledgement will go a long way in warding that off.

• Tell the truth - And we're back to autheniticity.  Be real and you'll really make an impact.

• Don't be mean - Unless you're modeling your business on the FOX Network, negativity is a sure fire way to drive folks away from engaging with you in meaningful ways.  That doesn't mean you can't tell it like it is when you're having a rough day.  Just stay focused on trying to pull the best out of the worst of things.

Bottom line?  The secret to successful internet marketing (which I define as attracting the exact type of customer or client you are best suited to serve) is less bombardment and more consistent, authentic communication.  

Got a success story to share about how you've attracted a new client just by being you?  Why not post it here for everyone's benefit?

How To Make the Summer Months Pay Off

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It's that time of year again for power washing the patio, filling up the propane tank, pulling off the pool cover and gearing up for summer.  Anyone living north of the 36th parallel (which is about half the population of the planet) scrambles to make the most out of the outdoor opportunities that accompany July and August.

I'm as much of a fan of lazy days at the beach as the next guy.  In fact, a little R&R can go a long way toward recharging your business-mind battery.  Too many business owners resign themselves to lower income levels just because it's summer and folks are having fun.  What if your income didn't have to take a vacation just because you did?

Think about it. 

• Aren't you in the business of providing solutions to people's problems?
  

•  Do you think problems are kind enough to take the summer off? 

That means the summer months are still full of plenty of people in search of solutions yet fewer business owners are focused on offering them.  Oooo, did you hear that?  I think it is the sound of opportunity knocking!

You can make your summer months payoff and still get in plenty of play time by putting a great deal of your marketing on auto-pilot.  A little advanced planning and the power of internet tools like social networking will do the trick.

You can enjoy tons of freedom and flexibility because of the future scheduling capabilities internet marketing tools offer.  That's right, a big part of your social networking can be structured to work for you while you aren't!

You can do things like:

• Write tweets now and schedule them for later with Social Oomph and keep people informed about your latest product or program.

• Tie your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media accounts together and get a message out to a bunch of audiences in a single tweet .

Did I hear you say, "That sounds great but just how do you do it?"

I was hoping you'd ask.  It's really pretty simple.  Well, it is the way I do it...and teach it. 

Truth is there are lots of ways to do these kind of things.  Many of them are free...unless of course you factor in the value of your time that will get eaten up trying to figure it out which ways are best for you and how to make them fit your needs.

You can spend a bunch of time fiddling and figuring or you can learn everything you need to get on the social media fast track with ease in the 6-week intensive teleclass I'm offering in a couple of weeks. 

The choice is yours but I sure would love to see you be the one building a bigger bank balance by coming to the rescue of all those consumers in need of your solution while your competition isn't this summer.  Learn how you can lounge by the pool and serve your peeps by clicking right here.

Even the Dalai Lama Tweets!

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When it comes to Twitter, which one of these best describes you:

• Totally sold on it

• There's got to be something to it if so many people are into it but can't quite figure out how to tie it into your business

• Could care less (then you may want to read this USAToday piece)

If you're in the first category, what follows will amount to preaching to the choir. 

If you are in the third category, you've already stopped reading. 

But if you are in that middle category, congratulations because your curiosity will serve you well if you take the time and make the effort to "get" what Twitter can do for you and your business.

In my fondness for keeping things simple, let's take the simplest possible look at the value of Twitter from the two key benefits it offers:

1. Build an audience that will hang on your every word (like a lot of celebrities have done, or the social media news source Mashable)
2. Keep your eye on trends and what people are talking about

Now let's look at why you should care about either of these.

Building an audience:

• It's cheap: free is about as cheap as it comes when you're talking about marketing tools!

• It's easy: sharing a thought in 140 characters doesn't require a degree in creative writing!

• It's powerful: Sheesh! if a spiritual leader like the Dalai Lama sees the value in how it can touch lives, can you open up your heart to the idea that it may be good for your business as well?

Keeping your eye on trends:

• People talk about what matters to them

• People spend money on and in support of stuff they care about. 

• Staying in tune with what people care about most, presents you with the opportunity to package and deliver your unique gift in alignment with what people are most interested in NOW.  Twitter gives you access to a free, up-to-the-minute gigantic marketing focus group!

Whether your goal is to build a REALLY big, 7 figure-impact-thousands-of-people-address-audiences-from-stages-around-the-world kind of business or you just want to be a big fish in your small local pond, Twitter is not to be overlooked as a means to your desired end.

But Seriously Folks!

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You’ve heard me prattle on about being authentic in your marketing before.  I prattle because it matters – a lot.

The single most important factor in creating a relationship that turns into a client or customer relationship is trust.  There is no better, faster or easier way to build trust than through authenticity. 

A discussion about being authentic in your business sounds serious.  Which brings me to the focus of this particular prattle:  you can be serious about what you do without taking yourself too seriously.  (A perfect theme for an April Fool’s post, don’t ya think?) 

I can hear what you’re thinking, “But wait a minute, Lisa.  Business is serious: it’s no joke.  People won’t take me seriously if I’m not serious.” 

Here’s my response to that.  Let your playful part poke its head out now and then and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the positive response it elicits from the playful parts in others. 

What people really want to know about your business ability is:

• That you know what you know
• That you are a confident expert in your field 
• That you can deliver the results you promise

Building trust is serious business but the way you do it doesn’t need to play out like a courtroom drama. 

It starts with knowing yourself and your nature at its core.  If you asked 10 people, who know you fairly well, to choose the top three words that best describe you, what would you hear repeatedly?

I’d hear knowledgeable, loving and funny.  I’ll be honest with you: I cringed a bit when I typed that - for two reasons:

1. It seems un-humble to talk about my good stuff.
2. It awakens the internal critic who wants to chime in and say, “Yeah, but don’t forget about the less than lovely parts of Lisa.”

The fact is that there is good and less than good in all of us.  And I wonder if a person exists who doesn’t struggle at some time with keeping the critic at bay.

I’m encouraging you to embrace the top three and let them shine through in all that you do in your marketing.  Because the easier it becomes for you to do that, the more effortless your marketing will become and the less heckling you’ll hear from that internal critic. 

You will become like a magnet attracting the perfect people to you. 

There is a chance that I’m completely wrong (but I know I’m not :) ).  If you doubt my theory, I suggest you test it out for yourself and please don’t be shy about sharing the results!

Attract Clients like Moths to a Flame

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Jeez, wouldn’t it be great if all you had to do to attract qualified clients was light a candle and watch them zoom in?

Let’s look at that model for a minute.  Why does it work so well?  Moths seem to have one objective: find a light and hang around it.

I don’t know why this is such a big deal to them and I don’t really have to in order to get them to show up.  Their mothly reasons don’t need to make sense to me.  If I want to be a successful moth attractor, I just need to be crystal clear about what they want and then provide it!

How simple! 

Now let’s explore how you can put this same principle to work in your business.  When you whittle it all down, there are only two things you need to know to build a successful business:

1. What is your flame
2. Who wants it

There, now go rake in millions!  I jest, of course.  There is much more that has to happen to be successful.  But scurrying about in a frenzy of business-like activity without having your customer relationship defined as well as the moth-to-flame coupling will leave you tuckered out (and possibly broke) in no time. 

Here are three simple questions to help you define your flame and identify your moths. 

1. What is the one thing that you do better than anything else and would do even if you never got paid to do it?
2. Who wants (not needs) this thing that you do better than anything else?
3. Are they willing and able to pay for it? (because even though you love doing what you do best so much that you’d do it even if you never got paid for it, you must get paid for it or you don’t have a business – you have a hobby or a volunteer project.)

Three simple questions that are not always easy to answer but hold the key to everything that follows in your business.  If you find yourself struggling to answer them on your own, getting help is easy … you just have to ask.  Flame on!

Saturday Mornings with Dad

When I was a kid, Saturday mornings was my time with Dad. 

Once in a while we'd go bowling, but nine times out of ten we'd wind up at a lumber yard or gravel pit.  My Dad was a mason by trade but worked as a construction foreman most of his life and our Saturday morning jaunts would invariably lead us to a job site.

To this day I love a construction project; the smell of sawdust in the air, the rhythmic music of hammers pounding nails. the twang of a tape measures winding their way back to zero.

The lingering love that I have for this stuff goes deeper than the bond it represents between me and my Dad, who is no longer here.  It links directly to my passion for business.

Which brings me to my point. 

I drove past a brand new house the other day with a "for sale" sign out front.  I thought about the transformation that the raw materials underwent to become that house.

• A pile of 2x4s become the frame
• A stack of plywood became the roof, floors and walls
• A mile of PVC pipe became the plumbing

Where, just a few weeks earlier, there had been nothing but a vision in the mind of a builder, there now stood a finished house.  But a house is just a house until people move in to make it a home.

And a home is not a home because furnishings get added. 

A house becomes a home when the energy of the people who live there mingles and cause the place to take on a spirit of its own.  Those who enter, or even just pass by, can't help but feel it and be drawn to it.  You've experienced it yourself, haven't you?

The same is true about your business.  All the raw materials you've assembled create the structure of your business - your marketing tools, your work space, your website.  These things are like your business house.

If you want to create a business home that draws people in, you'll need to do some unexpected things; things that you won't find in a management text book or an MBA course curriculum.

The secret to turning your business house into a home that displays your spirit and attracts the precise type of success you want is an inside job! 

Once you have the external stuff in place, it is time to take care of the internal stuff.  I'm talking about mindset management.

Einstein- a pretty smart guy - said, "You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created."  So, if you've put all the right external stuff in place in your business and all that's left is for the cash to start rolling in, but it's trickling instead of flowing, could be you have a money mindset issue.

If you think that might be the case, then you'll want to check out this 2-part teleclass that starts Saturday. 

I know that lot's of people need what this class delivers.  But it isn't for those who need it.  It's only for those who want it.

How to Build a Better Black Friday

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What do Black Friday and Mother’s Day have in common?  On the surface, not much.  But look a little deeper and you’ll see the connection lies in marketing ingenuity.  These invented events turn an otherwise ordinary day into an opportunity for consumers to purchase with purpose. 

When you think about it, the only things people actually need to purchase are food, clothing and shelter.  Pretty much everything else falls into the “want” category.  This dovetails nicely with the eternal human drive to attain a higher quality of life, providing plenty of ways for you to deliver the goods through your business.

And the really great news is that if you don’t like any of the current man-made marketing opportunities on the calendar, you’re free to invent your own.  One of the most recent examples of this is the invention of Cyber Monday (the online equivalent of Black Friday). 

So, what could you create?  The sky’s the limit. Here’s one of those places where being really clear about your niche and ideal client comes in super handy.  If you want to create your own Black Friday, start by answering questions like these:

• What is the biggest common problem your tribe seeks to solve? 
• What question do you most often get asked by prospects and clients? 
• What objection do they most often toss out as to why they aren’t taking action with you now?

Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees a problem in every opportunity and an optimist sees an opportunity in every problem.”

Your client’s problems are ripe with opportunities for your business.  The more creative you are at finding a way to serve them while solving their problems, the more commas you’ll have in your bank balance.