HOW TO USE STORYTELLING FOR BUSINESS AND WHY IT MATTERS

The post today comes from my colleague Wendy Scharfman
Coaching For Effective Communication
www.wendyscharfman.com

Today’s issue is about the use of storytelling in business.  It’s one of the oldest and most magical forms of communication.  Primitive peoples chronicled their lives on the walls of caves with stories and gave us our history. Children develop their creative imagination through stories and as adults we share a valuable cultural and societal bond whenever a good story is told. These days, you’ll hear stories in all forms of business communication and for good reason.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Every great speaker is a great storyteller. Why? Because the audience can retain information BETTER when people can emotionally and viscerally connect to what’s being said. If you think back to childhood, stories were – for many of us – an introduction to life ‘s lessons, to human behavior, morals, ethics and right versus wrong. And we remember still the value of those stories and what they taught us, not to mention the vivid imagery they conjure up.

The use of storytelling in business is growing and for good reason. As the necessity of communicating the value and benefit of what you do to the world increases, the skill with which you articulate that requires some imagination and uniqueness in order to capture the audience’s attention… and keep it. By activating the imagination of the audience through stories, you, as the speaker, engage the audience to participate in an experience that is both captivating and informative. It’s a perfect way to connect to the content of your message. The emotional thread of a story is a direct line to the brain for memory retention and the processing of information. In a sense, you are providing an effortless way to learn using a technique that has been instilled in us since childhood.

Here are some great ways to weave a story into your speech or interview:

• Be brief. A story should have a strong beginning, a colorful, clear middle and a great ending. And if the story is within a speech, make it 6-8 sentences. You dissipate the impact of a story if it rambles on too long or is too repetitive. Choose your words wisely and make them count!

• Paint a picture of a great central character and take us to a different time and place. Set it up well and describe it with a few, choice descriptors. Add a bit of dialogue in the character’s vernacular. It will make the character come to life.

• Know WHY you are telling this story. What is the point of your story and how, very specifically, does it tie into your talking points. Make sure you have the connector! And weave it in seamlessly.

• Use some dynamic and inflection in your voice when you tell a story. Incorporate some pacing – don’t rush. Be a little theatrical (little being the operative word) and let us relish the tale.

And remember your story is NOT your bio. Put that in a document. Your story, any story you choose to use in your business communication should be told with humanity and wisdom, a bit of flair and with a take-away for your audience.

If you would like to sign up for Wendy’s blog please visit: http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001Vjt3cCjZco_UHnxe90vk-g%3D%3D

E-mail: wendy@wendyscharfman.com

Post by Sharon Berman via RainToday.com

When people require the professional services of an accountant, attorney or other type of professional services provider, they are really looking for a knowledgeable, approachable individual they can talk to, not just a firm. Even if your website articulately communicates your expertise and experience, you remain just another faceless company to a prospect who has never met you, your colleagues, or one of your satisfied clients.

To counteract that dilemma, proactive service providers are now placing videos on their websites to show the people behind the firm. Some of these videos feature the firm’s professionals reaching out to website visitors and connecting with them on a personal level. Other firms have posted video testimonials, with actual clients telling powerful success stories.

Videos are a strong marketing tactic for any type of professional services firm. With today’s technology, you can easily produce them in-house or you can inexpensively outsource their production to a video specialist. Either way, here’s what you need to know to get started.

Put Someone in Charge

Your firm’s size and structure will determine who should be involved in implementing the video production. Regardless of how many people will provide input, it’s important to appoint one individual who directs the entire effort. A marketing staff member or strong administrator can coordinate schedules for meetings and facilitate discussions to make sure everyone’s insights are taken into account but don’t stop the show. If your coordinator also happens to be good at handling a camera and uploading video to the website, that’s even better.

Testing the Value of Video How an Insurance Firm Doubled Conversion Rates Using Video Blyth Valley needed to do something to set itself apart from its competition. The insurance brokerage was the first in the UK to move sales online, but soon its competitors were right there with it. It turned to online video to capture website visitors’ attention and sell policies. >> Read the Case Study

Select a Page

Before you begin production, decide on which page or pages you would like to place the video. The type of message the video communicates has to align with the text that appears on the same page. Examples:

• A home page video might feature a message from the firm’s CEO or principals. It could describe the firm, explain what makes it different, explain how it works with clients, or describe the founder’s vision.
• Appropriate video content on the services page might be a success story or case study, not the firm’s history.
• A video testimonial might go on the testimonial page (if you have one), or it could be placed on the homepage if it’s so compelling that it outshines a potential message from someone within the firm.

Decide on a Topic

Once you decide on the type of video and its potential placement, zero in further on the content. It may sound obvious that your video should tell your website visitors something they find interesting, but identifying such material is not as easy as it sounds. Your prospects may not really want to hear what you think should interest them. For instance, you might be tempted to address a certain challenge that keeps coming up in meetings with your clients. But if the solution to that challenge is a service people pay you to provide, then prospects won’t want to watch a video telling them how to do it themselves. What they may want to hear instead is how you have used your expertise on this topic to achieve a win for a client or to make a client’s business more successful.

Choose Your Talent

The next order of business is to select a “star” for your movie. Whether you produce a message from someone within your firm or a client testimonial, your talent should be someone who is comfortable in front of a camera. An introvert or someone who is camera shy won’t be able to communicate effectively and won’t “touch” your viewers. On the other hand, you don’t want someone who comes across too “salesy” or so forcefully as to drive viewers away.

If you plan to produce a testimonial, narrow your client list down to a few good candidates. The most important factor in selecting someone is not the extent of their involvement with the firm or the magnitude of the success you achieved for them. Rather, identify those who are likely to be comfortable on camera, will sound articulate, and can connect with people.

Production Dos and Don’ts

Create an outline of what your star is going to say and allow him to practice, but don’t over prepare. The communication should appear natural, casual and relaxed, not scripted and stiff. At the same time, don’t allow rambling. With today’s short attention spans, it’s critical to keep your video to fewer than 30 seconds and to get to the point of your message immediately. Remember, the average website visitor spends only three seconds on a page, so you need to grab and hold their attention. A prospect who is drawn into your video is more likely to continue exploring the rest of your site.

Even the most outgoing person might be a little nervous when first confronted with a camera, so it’s important to take the time to make him comfortable. Expect that it will take several attempts to get the video right. Have the speaker practice looking directly at the camera. A person who is nervous will be tempted to keep looking away, which gives the appearance of “shifty eyes” or fear. Further, to keep your viewers’ attention focused on the message, avoid clutter or movement in the background.

Keep the content of your video professional. Unless its purpose is to take a stand on a particular issue, don’t make any political statements. Don’t talk about personal matters. Visitors to your site are not interested in hearing about your last business trip or how you gave good advice to someone at the gym. Finally, don’t bash the competition and, in general, don’t say anything negative unless you can put a positive spin on it.

Unless you’re a movie star, you probably won’t love the way you look in your video. Just about everyone dislikes seeing themselves on screen, but other viewers will think you look great. If you’re the talent in the video, don’t watch it for your looks—watch it for content. You’re not auditioning for a movie, but communicating with prospects.

Do It Yourself or Hire Out?

If you’re inclined to produce your video in-house, a Flip Video camcorder is an inexpensive and user-friendly tool that makes it easy to create a quality production. Recording is as simple as pushing a button, and you can plug the camera directly into your computer’s USB port to upload the video. No special lighting is required, as Flip camcorders are designed to work best in low light.

Although no training is needed to create a simple Flip video, a tech-savvy individual may be interested in producing a more complex presentation. Flip camcorders come with software that shows you how to cut and edit. Another feature you may consider adding is background music, which can improve the flow of a video. To learn about these and other refinements, a webinar may be all you need. Whatever you do, avoid getting too artsy. Too many cuts or excessive camera movement will make your viewers dizzy and will distract from your message.

If your firm lacks the resources to coordinate video production internally, outsourcing is a worthwhile investment. The Los Angeles area, in particular, has a wealth of inexpensive professionals who specialize in producing workplace online videos.

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Like any other marketing tactic, videos should be integrated into your overall marketing strategy and plan. And because they are part of your website, videos need to be updated frequently to communicate your firm’s energy and land you near the topic of the search engine rankings. While a new video every week is probably too much, you should produce one every month or every other month.

Susan note:  LA folks check out the Web Video & Marketing Workshops YOU ON CAMERA

Wendy Scharfman a social media friend and communication coach interviewed me for her blog News from Coaching For Effective Communication .  I thought you might be interested in reading the interview and the post from her blog.

GROW YOUR BUSINESS OR PROMOTE YOUR BOOK THROUGH SPEAKING

Wendy Scharfman
Coaching For Effective Communication
www.wendyscharfman.com
Take it away Wendy,

This week I want to focus on the ever-increasing necessity for professionals and authors to grow their business through speaking in public.

I had a radio interview with Bill Frank last week for KKZZ talk radio in Ventura, CA http://dld.bz/rq2K and one of the things we discussed was the importance of honing your speaking skills for whatever message or product you are providing. If you are not the BEST representative of what you do, the world will not embrace and engage with what you have to offer. It’s seemingly obvious, but often not the case. Taking the time to work with a coach, trainer or even a partner on refining your message for any speech or material you put out there will come back to you tenfold. And then, get some help getting out on the trail.

Susan Levin, owner and founder of Speaker Services (http://www.speakerservices.com/) put this notion to work. I came across Susan several times as I was building my business and I believe “Attention must be paid” to the seeming coincidence of someone repeatedly appearing in your life. She offers great services, training and a wealth of information for people who want to market themselves as speakers.

INTERVIEW:

Wendy’s Question:

Susan, can you briefly tell me what led you to start your business and how has it changed since its inception?

Susan’s Answer:
In 1992 I was inspired to work with business folks and give them the opportunity to market themselves as speakers. We began with a print directory in Los Angeles, which was mailed to event producers, meeting planners and was distributed on newsstands around town. In 1994 the Internet came to life and I was one of the first 1500 people to have a url and a website. We continued with the print till 1998 and then went full boar on the web as many more people were using it as a resource.

The web took Speaker Services from being a local business to worldwide – we have clients all over the country and in Europe as well. With the influx of social media, it has become very easy to connect with more people and grow my business. Connection is the key. It spans from a 30 second introduction, 10 minute talk to a keynote presentation, to blogging, lead generation, social media, creating videos, job interviews and workshops. The whole enchilada. I love connectivity!

Wendy’s Question:

What do you think are the most important factors in becoming a better speaker?

Susan’s Answers:
• Don’t be a speaker, be an expert who speaks.
• Be passionate about your subject matter. When you are on fire, others catch on fire.
• Know your target audience.
• Get a presentation, media and branding coach.
• Make sure you have The 3 C’s or the Holy Triad in your presentation Connection, Content and Comfort
• Be a great storyteller and get the audience involved.
• Create videos so that event planners can see you in action.

Wendy’s Question:

How does social media come into play in terms of the services you provide and promoting your own business?

Susan’s Answer:
Social Media is awesome. I promote my services and speakers via social media and teach them too how to join groups so that they can begin to create joint ventures, visibility and credibility. I prefer social media to networking meetings in person. Once you find your tribe it is totally acceptable to arrange a meeting to learn more about how you can support one another. Wendy, you and I met via social media and started a conversation and here I am writing a post for your blog!

Wendy’s Question:

Talk a bit about the various classes and teleseminars Speaker Services offers.

Susan’s Answer:
• I teach a workshop in Los Angeles called Market Yourself as a Speaker, which is about the business of speaking. I also work with folks privately. http://www.speakerservices.com/services/marketyourself.html

• Barbara Niven and I teach Web Video & Marketing Workshop, YOU ON CAMERA http://www.speakerservices.com/web-video-workshop.html

• Once a year we offer a Video Demo Showcase & Authors Video http://www.speakerservices.com/videoprod.html

• I have been offering teleclasses way before they were even popular.

• We have a membership club The Speakers’ Community where I interview experts twice a month on speaking, marketing, books, social media and more. http://www.speakerscommunity.com . It is an online library and it is 60 days complimentary.

Wendy’s Question:

If you were starting out as a professional speaker, what would be the most important sequence of actions that you would take to succeed?

Susan’s Answers:
• Get a coach
• Get focused
• Speak for Free
• Attend events, listen to teleclasses, join speaker groups or start your own on Facebook, LinkedIn
• Learn the business of speaking and get all your marketing materials together including video
• Build a following; stay out in front of your peeps via regular e-mails and social media

Wendy’s Question:

What transformation do you see in your class participants after they have completed the training for their speaking videos?

Susan’s Answer:
They jump to the next level of professionalism, begin to get paid for speaking and they are more visible.

Los Angeles friends join Speaker Services on 9/26/10 complimentary YOU the Star, Speak, Write, Market event. http://t.co/GPunWDY

If you would like to sign up for Wendy’s blog please visit: http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001Vjt3cCjZco_UHnxe90vk-g%3D%3D

Invite from Susan Levin

COMPLIMENTARY

YOU…THE STAR!!! SPEAK-WRITE-MARKET MINI SUMMIT & VIDEO DEMO SHOWCASE In Los Angeles

Sunday, Sept.26, 9:30am-5pm   $FREE  Register Now

In this day and age, to truly make a lasting impact, you need to be a media conglomerate: a compelling speaker…a credible author…a believable video performer…a master marketer.

In “YOU…THE STAR!!!” you will learn — from acknowledged experts in their respective fields — the ins and outs, the secrets and strategies for being a multi-faceted media personality.

Regardless of profession, everyone is an expert in their field and this event is a perfect opportunity to turn your expertise into a successful business; to master the game of speaking, to navigate the latest technology, and learn exciting new strategies for producing active and passive income.

THE PROMISE OF “YOU…THE STAR!!!”

- EARN why the magic of speaking is invisible

- POLISH your performance, presentation and communication skills, no matter what field you are in

- TRICKS to sharing your passion & excitement that translate into action and sales

- WITNESS a live video demo shoot

- DISCOVER why a speaker video demo is the ultimate calling card

- GET the #1 secret so you can “play” on camera – it’s the magic secret sauce that brings you $$S!

- LEVERAGE videos into your marketing campaign and convert visitors into customers

- EXPLORE self-publishing vs mainstream publishing

- CREATE time to write your book

- TURN your content into cash

- FIND out how event producers decide who gets booked

- UNCOVER what’s uniquely marketable about you and your mission

- MASTER Social Media, Blogs, Article Writing, Teleseminars, UTube

PRESENTERS:
Jack Barnard is a master presentation & branding coach, a media trainer & writer: a true maverick in the business. He works with speakers, authors & entrepreneurs, both one-on-one and in groups. His original method emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual, focusing on the permission to bring forth one’s distinctive style.

Susan Levin is owner & founder of Speaker Services. Susan is an International Marketing Consultant for speakers & authors. Her company offers marketing & training services & video production service.

Jean-Noel Bassior is a book coach & journalist who specializes in celebrity interviews. She is the author of Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the Name of Early Television published by McFarland.

Barbara Niven is an Actress, Speaker and Performance Coach.  Barbara is in demand as a Performance Coach for actors, hosts, speakers & executives. In her studio she videotapes sessions for instant replay & feedback.

Location:  Marina del Rey, 9:30am-5pm

When you register you will receive the address and location.

REGISTER NOW

Post from Wendy Scharfman
Coaching For Effective Communication
www.wendyscharfman.com

Video is everywhere. YouTube, websites, training and product videos, corporate and marketing videos, media interviews… the list goes on. How do we get ready for our close-up?

Video now gives us the ability to reach vast numbers of people in unprecedented ways. As in any public speaking event, you want to capitalize on the opportunity to communicate your thoughts and ideas with “savoir-faire” – to say it like you mean it all in a sound bite, with confidence, grace, a little panache and some universal humor thrown in for good measure – ALL THIS, without tripping over your tongue, losing your train of thought, or looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

Piece of cake? Not exactly. When done well, we make it look so facile and relaxed. But haven’t we all seen those stiff, wincingly uncomfortable, monotone excuses for a video product? Here are some necessary tips for making your video stand out that will place you rightfully in the spotlight.

• Focus. Literally. As in where you look. Remember THE CAMERA IS ALWAYS THE AUDIENCE. So, if you’re talking directly to the audience, tilt your head up slightly (trick of the trade – this will hide a double chin!) and position the camera a little above your eye level. That’s your focus. In an interview, always focus on the person interviewing you, not the camera – make it a conversation.

• Relax and smile. Nerves are nasty little critters. But an inhale and exhale followed with a soft smile (NOT one that’s ear to ear) can really help you fake it ’til you make it. Be sure you’re breathing regularly in the course of taping. Do not hold your breath. Trust me, it will wreak havoc on your ability to speak and add a whole lot of stiffness to your demeanor. Also, blink on occasion. It’s a natural lubricant for your eyes and will help you stay “bright eyed” – you’ll look less “robotic”. Think of it as a smile in your eyes with a little mischief behind them. It will give you confidence.

• Body language. A little movement is fine; too much movement makes you appear nervous. By all means use your hands! But try and keep them below chest level, no wider than your shoulders and don’t flail. Hands can enhance decisive statements and support nuance in your speaking dynamics, but don’t overuse them. And don’t even think about running your hands through your hair. If you’re standing during your taping, watch the rocking back and forth. Try and stand comfortably with your feet about six inches apart, your weight equally distributed and your shoulders relaxed. And don’t stand on the balls of your feet, you run the risk of losing your balance. When sitting, lean just slightly forward, shoulders down and then sit as tall as you can but without stiffness. Breathe…

• Appearance. No stripes, checks, neon colors or optical illusions in your clothing. No white, red (on camera it bleeds, really) or too much black. Solid colors but not uniformed and get out the iron (wrinkles show!). Dress appropriately for the occasion and make sure it fits! As for make-up, ladies, use it sparingly. Avoid a lot UNDER the eyes (none is best) and choose a shade of powder slightly lighter than your skin tone. Gents, a little powder takes away the shininess, which includes any baldpates! And if you button your suit, it will keep your tie in place (Helpful Heloise…).

• Delivery. This is when you get to play with your voice and your style of speaking. Add some energy, dynamic and nuance. No monotones allowed. Remember, it’s also a conversation with some great storytelling – you and the audience or you and the interviewer. Add some universal humor (not a joke) – if you make us laugh, we’ll listen better. Also try out a few analogies, quotes and action words. And make sure you have a positive perspective. After all, you want to be seen as the expert at what you do by effectuating positive change. Be sure to hydrate but do your lip licking before the camera is turned on. It’s very distracting.

• Hire a media trainer. The rehearsing, practice and ultimate camera performance can be greatly enhanced with a coach. A coach or trainer will have the skill and expertise to lead you in the right direction, provide you with content suggestions and delivery techniques, and help with the tough questions you may not ask yourself. The video is out there for all to see – invest in making it a great one.

If you would like to sign up for Wendy’s blog please visit: http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001Vjt3cCjZco_UHnxe90vk-g%3D%3D
E-mail: wendy@wendyscharfman.com

Susan’s note: In Los Angeles?  Web Video and Marketing Workshops, You On Camera http://www.speakerservices.com/web-video-workshop.html

Posted By Eric Gruber, Your Article Marketing Expert

For now on, every Wednesday I will be posting new article submission sites and leads for those who want to get published on targeted websites, ezines and blogs.

Here are today’s article submission leads:

For those in health and wellness:

1. www.livingthehealthyway.info is looking for exclusive 400 to 1200 word articles. Simply email your articles to kirsten@retroepic.com

2. PanicFreeMe.com is looking for articles on stress management. Email your articles to: jill@panicfreeme.com

For those experts in self-improvement, you want to check out:

1. www.embracingmyjourney.com as they are lookig for articles that motivate and inspire others to live a life of passion and purpose. Emal your articles to: cgfbooks@gmail.com

2. Personal-Success-Factors.com is looking for articles (500 words max) on personal growth, self-help, motivation, keys to success and career planning. Email your articles to: steveborgmanlcpc@gmail.com

For those in small business, check out these free article leads:

1. For in small business marketing, you may want to tweak your articles for the financial advisor community and have your articles published on www.advisorwebsites.com/blog. Simply email: loic@advisorwebsites.com

2. For those experts who target entrepreneurs and start up businesses, you may want to submit your articles to www.startupgrowthexpert.com by emailin emailvinil@gmail.com

3. Choicevendor.com/blog (a vendor review site) is looking for articles related to small business, selecting vendors, marketing, business, finance, management, hiring and operations. This would be a great opportunity to use the differentiation article template that you can get for free at http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com. Simply email your articles to: sarah@choicevendor.com

For a complete customized database of websites, ezines and article directories (at a 50% discount) that includes complete contact information, traffic rankings, and editorial guidelines go to: http://www.articlesubmissionsitedatabase.com/special

By Eric Gruber, Your Article Marketing Expert www.articlemarketingexperts.com

How to Sell Your Ebooks and Reports in Amazon’s Kindle Store by Denise Wakeman

How to Get Published on Amazon Kindle from Denise Wakeman on Vimeo.

Have you added your ebooks to the Kindle Store? Share your links here in the comments so we can check out what you’re doing!

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6254/The-Next-Big-Thing-for-Marketers-Social-Magazines.aspx#ixzz0uLch6JMf

Post by Penny Sansevieri, Author Marketing Experts, Inc

1. Don’t overwhelm your audience with too much stuff. When I first started speaking several years ago, I would show up with 60 pages of notes. One of the people in the audience said to me, “You’re not planning on covering all of that, are you?” Indeed. As time progressed I realized that my audience would get more with less. While I encourage you to fill your presentation with great information, save the overstuffing for your Thanksgiving turkey and keep your presentation flowing with enough information to sustain, but not so much as to overwhelm. How much is too much? Well, you might have to experiment with this a bit before you get it just right. Try practicing your presentation at home in front of some people who can give you objective feedback, this will really help you polish your program before you go out to the “real” audience. Keep in mind that when you rehearse, your presentation is bound to be shorter; things like questions and audience interaction will also lengthen your speaking time.

2. Look ‘em in the eye: You should always try to make eye contact with your audience; in fact, I recommend that you make and keep eye contact for at least five seconds with select individuals. This will help to engage the listener. Don’t look over their heads at the back wall or your product table, keep your eyes focused on the people who came to hear you speak.

3. Move around, don’t hide behind the podium: It’s easy to seek shelter behind a speaker podium, especially when you’re nervous, but the podium is a subconscious “block” between you and your audience. Try to move as far away from it as you can.

4. Gestures and facial expressions are good: Vary your gestures and facial expressions. An animated speaker is far more engaging than one who has perfected the Poker-face look. This is especially true if you want to keep your presentation light or if you’re presenting humorous material. Also, *smile* – it’s amazing how a warm and welcoming smile can really engage your audience.

5. Attire: when in doubt, get dressed up. If you’re not sure of the attire, I always recommend dressing up. If need be you can always remove your jacket and/or tie, but it’s hard to recover when you show up in your casual clothes and find everyone else is in a suit.

6. Leave the monotone voice at home: Vary your voice, don’t keep to one speed. Vary the speed and rhythm, it’s almost like riding a roller coaster. One minute you’re fast, then slow, then climbing. Keep it varied and you’ll keep your audience’s attention. As for using “um” and “eh” well, you know that’s a no-no, no sense in taking up space here to remind you that you should avoid those place fillers at all costs. If you need some practice getting those out of your vernacular, try attending a Toastmasters group in your local area.

7. Using PowerPoint? Go easy on the text: if you use too much text on your PowerPoint you’ll find that people are reading the text on the slides instead of listening to you. A good balance is a few words to highlight your key points, just enough to get their attention – but not so much that they’re forced to read what’s on the screen. Figure about 10 slides for every 20 minutes of presentation time. Your font size should be 30 point or larger.

8. Handouts are a must: Make sure you give them something to take home with them. What I also do is create a handout and then offer to email my audience the PowerPoint presentation they just viewed. I get them to sign up for it, which gives me their email addresses to not only send them the presentation, but a thank-you note along with an invitation to join our newsletter!

9. Record yourself: As scary as this sounds, this is one of the best ways to better yourself as a speaker. Record your presentation and wait a day to listen to it, this will give you enough “space” from the program to clear your mind and listen to the audio objectively. Note what you liked and didn’t like and don’t worry if you feel like you flubbed the whole thing. Remember that your audience isn’t grading you, they are there for information, and as long as you lived up to your promise you can keep correcting and enhancing your speaking talent with each program.

10. Now let’s talk about BOR (back of the room product). Your BOR can make a huge difference in the money you make on your speaking. Most new speakers don’t make money on speaking, or very little, but the BOR is where you can strike gold. Here are some tips to maximize it. First off, your flexibility for BOR will depend on whether you’re presenting in a speaker-type setup or at a bookstore, but either way, have product to sell regardless of who supplies it. If you can be flexible with what you offer, try packaging several items together, offer a one-time discount for the packaged product and this is a little trick I borrowed from a friend of mine: put together several packages, high end, low end and something in the middle. Attendees of your event will generally pick the middle of the road pricing, which is probably more than you’d sell a single book for. Also, get folks to sign up for your mailing list. Regardless of what you can and can’t sell, make sure you can add people to your list so you can market to them again, and again, and again!

By Vickie K. Sullivan, Contributing Editor

Want to speak more at industry conferences? Associations are using social media to become the voice of their industry. Read on to learn the top three ways they are participating in Web 2.0 activities and, more important, how you can use their efforts to get the inside track on speaker selection.

YouTube

Last year, Omnipress surveyed 325 association executives and consultants about using social media for conferences and learned this blinding flash of the obvious: the associations’ top objectives are to increase buzz and attendance for their meetings. Enter YouTube.

Many associations already produce videos for education and member outreach. They also look to their speakers to help promote their events. A great way to show that you are ready for your close-up is to create videos and give them to the associations to distribute.

Generate Business via Speaking Engagements Turning Your Audience into Clients: How to Generate Leads from Your Speaking Engagements Want More Business? Speak Up! Speaking in the Big Leagues: How to Get High-Fee Speaking Engagements

But be warned: don’t even think of using a talking head format. That format and one-on-one interviews don’t cut it anymore. Instead provide a “humorous-with-insights” take on industry concerns. It will be a hit and will put you on the inside track with decision makers.

These videos demonstrate that you have a unique perspective, and they help you become known among attendees even before the conference starts. That prominence creates a high buzz factor and makes you a conduit for more attendance.

Sponsored Online Communities

Another “duh” finding from the Omnipress study: 80% use some type of free social network such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. This kind of easy entry is good news. Only staff time is needed to maintain the group interaction. The challenge: getting heard above all the noise.

You do that by being strategic. My best clients use the “learn, lurk, and link” strategy. Here’s how it works:

• Learn: don’t do a thing until you go to the publication section of the association’s website. This will give you the latest challenges of the industry, as well as the latest thinking. Then ask yourself: what can I add to this conversation that hasn’t been said before?
• Lurk: go to the community and just listen in. Don’t respond at first. Look past the comments and check out the authors. Are they board members? Opinion leaders? Create a targeted list of the top guns. These are the folks you want to follow. Respond to others as time permits.
• Link: now is the time to strike. Add your comments and include material you have not presented before. Lead with your best strength, such as original research findings, lessons you learned from prominent clients (especially if they are well-known to the group), killer sound bites—whatever makes you stand out. Also reach out to your targeted list by asking questions and inviting them to join in the conversation. If they like what you have to say, these buyers will check out your website, ask to publish your special reports, etc. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Whatever you do, don’t promote your services, events, speaking engagements, or anything else in association communities. Why not? Two reasons: first, many association leaders are already sensitive to promotion by service providers. The bar is set unfairly high, and the hit to your brand is not worth it. And second, there are already too many spam-like posts, and they are ignored, too. That’s one group you don’t want to be linked with.

Instead, hook the powers-that-be first with content, then privately suggest that this could be a good speaking topic. Or privately offer a sneak peek of your newest video about the latest challenge (see above) and offer to do something similar with the association.

Hosted Online Communities

Why do associations spend substantial staff time and budget to create their own networks? It’s because when you own the structure of social interactions, you own the community. And that’s what 35% of associations have done, according to the Omnipress survey.

Hosted communities can be tied to a trade show, conference, or the association in general. Either way, they are a target-rich environment for experts looking for speaking leads within a particular industry.

The biggest challenge is getting access to these communities, as most are closed. If you have access as an exhibitor, the “learn, lurk, and link” idea works well here. Remember, anything remotely promotional can be fatal. The bar here is higher than on the free forums.

If you don’t have access to an association’s community, do an end-run by joining forces with your favorite clients. Their access and third-party endorsement can go a long way. Your clients can quote you, tell stories about what they learned from your work, or pass along that funny new video.

And don’t forget that targeted list. If you’ve hit it off with anyone in the community, ask if you can participate. Most will make exceptions if they trust you won’t over promote.

Prove Yourself

Association buyers choose speakers who are proven to their members. When you showcase your perspective to the opinion leaders through videos and conversations, you generate interest. And interest generates the next step, usually a visit to your website. If your topics fit the theme, and your demo video shows compelling footage, a speaking invitation isn’t far behind.

Susan’s note:

I included this post from RainToday.com as it applies to speakers, consultants and business folks.  I have been testing out this system as well when meeting with potential clients who are interested in speaking and marketing training.  It is all about connecting and relationships and by having a meeting with your team and the client makes a huge difference in them buying your services.  They feel very nurtured and trusting of your team effort and feel that you have their best interest at hand.  Interested to know about how I bundle Speaker Services services  Give me a call and let’s see what how we can assist you.  310-822-4922 PT.

Take it away Anne

A Perspective from Architecture & Engineering

By Anne Scarlett

Throughout the lead development process, business development professionals work very hard. You make contacts, nurture relationships, submit RFPs, all before you finally get a chance to interview with prospects.

By the time you get to that interview, you realize that all of the firms are fully qualified—especially in terms of project portfolios and proven performance track records. So what’s in question? Quite simply it’s the personalities and the “wow” factor. When considering how to showcase synergies and group dynamics, what’s better than giving your prospects an opportunity to truly “experience” working with you and your team?

Creating an interview “experience” is possible, even within the limited timeframe of a formal client interview. Think about it. As a service provider, your firm often facilitates sessions around project strategy, programming, and design charrettes. Why not dedicate a portion—or even all—of the interview to facilitate a dialogue? In other words, why not make your presentation truly interactive, rather than just saying it will be interactive?

Turn Prospects into Clients Deliver the Perfect Pitch: 9 Rules for Winning Clients 5 Ways to Win Business and Influence Decision Makers How to Make a Prospect Love You

Here’s how it’s done. (I’ve used this format myself, so I know it works.)

1. Prepare and submit an agenda in advance. Share your intentions to incorporate facilitation as part—or even all—of the presentation.
2. If the client requests specific points to be covered by each team, include those points within your agenda. Just make sure you allocate plenty of time for facilitation as well.
3. Prepare your firm’s top three messages that you want to emphasize to the client. Think: “If the client remembers nothing else from this interview, I hope they will remember this…”
4. Work out some potential talking points that you may want to cover during the facilitation, depending upon the direction it takes. Practice drafting out (in a simple format) your team’s process and/or diagrams to illustrate a point. You can always bring mini-sketches of these diagrams to refer to if you need to draw them in real time.
5. During your rehearsal, have someone serve in the prospects’ role while your team guides them through the interview. Preselect the facilitators and the scribes. Make it smooth and organized, yet be flexible and open to spontaneous shifts during the actual interview.
6. Make sure you have flip charts with a sticky back and multicolored markers. Bring at least one easel.

Sample Agenda

• Brief introduction of firm, team, and client. (Casual and quick).
• Brief summarization of your understanding of their project goals. (List these in real time. Ask if there are any additions or changes.)
• Identification of top three to five client challenges/issues for project. (This part is facilitated by you. It will require your ability to help guide the client through their priorities and get them talking immediately. In addition to stating the top three to five challenges, you may have to group items into buckets and/or create a parking lot. Document these on flip charts).
• Reflection by your team of how you would propose to tackle the identified challenges. Use relevant, real stories to support your proposed approach. Whenever it makes sense, tie their challenges back into the key messages that you mentioned during the introduction. Perhaps it will also include a representation of your process by drawing it out in a simple form.
• Presentation of initial design schemes, if required.
• Wrap up: Inquire if there are additional questions. And finally, repeat the top three messages that your firm wants to leave them with (the ones you started with at the beginning).

Reasons to Use This Format

• Your team shows off its ability to glean information from a client group and organize that information into something solid and real.
• Teammates demonstrate how they work with one another. Team dynamics can be quite telling.
• Your team exemplifies tremendous listening skills, making the prospect feel both heard and respected.
• Your prospect speaks out, so the overall experience will be fun and interesting. Don’t worry that those speaking aren’t decision makers. Those who have a less important voice will most certainly defer to those who have final say on projects.
• The overall experience is kinesthetic and engaging. It will be memorable and unique, and it will greatly differentiate your firm.

Reasons to Not Use This Format

• Your team is risk-averse and doesn’t like the idea of simply using talking points rather than a prepared presentation.
• Your team is unable to think on its feet, especially if the client throws a surprise curve ball.
• Your prospect is not willing to be led through an active dialogue—they simply want to “be pitched.” This needs to be determined as early in the process as possible, which is why you need to share your agenda/intentions in advance.
• Your prospect includes decision makers who will not be involved in the actual project. These people don’t care about the experience of working with your team.

If you have team members ready to show off their talents as professional design consultants—quite literally—then this is a great interview format to consider.

Anne Scarlett, President of Scarlett Consulting, provides marketing advisory services to the architecture/engineering/construction industry. She is a frequent public speaker and contributing author to multiple industry publications, including PSMJ’s AE Rainmaker. What’s the Scarlett Consulting difference? Clients receive hands-on attention. Find out more by calling 773-251-8132 or visiting www.annescarlett.com.

Post from blog@hubspot.com

Yesterday in Boston, author and speaker Seth Godin took the stage at John Hancock Hall. The event was part of a tour to promote his new book, Linchpin, and several members of the HubSpot team attended the morning half of the event.  The morning focused on Godin speaking and making his case for change.

What was the key takeaway from these few hours? All of Godin’s ideas and books can be condensed into one simple word: Permission. After listening to Godin discuss a variety of subjects, ranging from the current economic revolution to the failures of higher education, one thing is clear. The man is completely obsessed with permission.

The Two Sides of Permission

Godin uses permission in two vastly different ways to address his points.  It is clear through books like Permission Marketing and Tribes as well as his talk today that he believes effectively marketing to people in today’s culture requires their expressed permission.  An individual or company needs the permission of a group or tribe of people to be able to join and then eventually conduct commerce with the group.

Godin’s other focus of permission is positioned sharply on the other side. While individuals and companies need permission to market products and services outside the company, to make great products, or “art,” as he calls it, employees need to do great work without waiting for permission.  He maintains that most people are great at doing what they are told, but not good at solving problems that everyone else is afraid to solve. He believes that successful companies in the future will be filled with employees who don’t wait for permission and instead tackle the tough problems head-on.

Impossible and Perfect

Impossible and perfect are the two biggest principles stopping people from progressing, says Godin. Industries at certain times are perfect. For example, record companies in the 1970s. During this time, demand for their product was huge. They had free advertising through radio and a strong hold on distribution. Today, the record industry is in shambles because its time of perfection has passed.

Problems seem perfect because they can’t be solved. Revolutions create opportunities for things that seem impossible. For example, when Henry Ford first sought to mass produce the automobile, it was viewed as an impossible task. The balance between impossible and perfect is what stops individuals and organizations from seeing opportunities in front of them. Godin believes we are in the middle of the biggest economic revolution in history.

He explains that now you don’t need a big office building and a large company to create and distribute a product and build a successful business. Instead, he argues that today we need connections and problem solving skills to build great companies. There is no map in this economic revolution. Value today is created by solving a problem no one has solved before.  It is easy to copy others, but the challenge is building your own map.

8 Marketing Lessons From Seth Godin

1. Spamming People Doesn’t Work Like it Used To – People who spam others have determined that it doesn’t pay for itself like it used to. If you look at companies that are growing (e.g. Zappos), they don’t do a lot of advertising.  They do just a little bit of advertising to keep their investors happy, but have realized that personalized messages will always do better than spam.

2. People Like Doing What Other People Are Doing – We like to be like each other. People strive to fit in and find their own groups, so marketers who facilitate this will win.

3. Ideas That Spread Win, and Free Ideas Spread Best – Godin explained that he made more money by giving away his book, Idea Virus, than he made on his previous New York Times best-seller. Free ideas create demand, and demand can always be monetized.

4. Remarks Make Something Remarkable – When people comment on something, then it is remarkable. The old model, which focuses on companies making average products for average people, is not remarkable. Companies that aren’t remarkable can’t grow quickly.  By making products worth talking about, then companies can become remarkable.

5. What We Make and How We Make It Has Changed – In today’s economy, people are buying experiences and conversations. Godin provided the example of LittleMissMatched, a company that sells unmatched socks that provide a point of interest and conversation for young girls.

6. You Have the Opportunity to Lead a Tribe – Tribes exist today, and they’re looking for leaders. You don’t have to have charisma to be a leader. Leading gives leaders charisma. The internet is the ultimate extension of communication to help organize tribes. Don’t waste time trying to convert non-fans; instead, work to strengthen existing tribes.

7. Lots of Alternatives Exist – Choices are now rampant, so people or companies that are perceived as the best or the leaders are more successful. People have been trained to be good at a lot of things, but not to be the best at one niche skill. Difficult opportunities are the ones worth doing.

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Be Indispensible – Lots of opportunities exist to be a linchpin, but most people and companies are scared of being great and indispensible because it’s hard and scary. By overcoming this fear, marketers can become critical to business success.

Read more

How to Create an Ecourse That Will Triple Your Prospect Conversions by  Donna Gunter, OnlineBiz.com

For years, I’ve been giving away a PDF ebook as my client attraction device to entice prospects to sign up for my list.  This strategy has served me well as a way to grow my list. However, what I’ve discovered during that time is that many people download my ebook and then never open it. So, as you might imagine, my rate of converting a customer prospect to a buyer isn’t as high as I’d like.

Just like the people who join my list, I, too, often don’t open a PDF ebook when I download it. What I have noticed, however, is that when I subscribe to an ecourse that someone is giving away as a client attraction device, I’m much more likely to pay attention to it, since I’m getting emails every day with new information in them.  And, all indications are that the conversion rate of prospect to customer is higher, as well, for this same reason.  Your mini-course helps you automatically build a relationship with subscribers and drive sales of your products and services.

Here’s how you can create your own client attraction ecourse to help you triple your conversion rate:

1.  Buy autoresponder system.  In order to create your email mini-course, you need to purchase an email marketing system that has autoresponder capability, which is the ability to pre-set emails to go out at a periodic interval when someone opts into a list.  My recommendation is GetMoreClientsAutoresponder.com.

2.  Determine your theme and catchy name. Your ecourse needs to have a theme or subject.  What is it that you want to teach your prospects?  Once you determine the theme, your ecourse needs to have a catchy title.  Typically, you’ll want to focus on solving a problem or the result someone receives by enrolling in your mini-course.

3.  Create content.  Your ecourse should consist of 8-12 emails.  The bulk of these emails need to contain valuable, actionable content that will help your prospect solve her problems.  In a couple of the emails, you can break up the content delivery by introducing your prospect to other resources you offer that will help them, as well.  In my new mini-course, I simply repurposed a number of articles I had already written, paring them down to 400-600 words each, in most cases.

4.  Add your soft sell.  Rather than hammering a prospect over the head with sales hype, I did three things in each of the followup emails.  First, I included a resource box at the end of the email with a link to the call to action I want my prospect to take or a postscript (P.S.) that included a link to the call to action.  Secondly, in the body of the email, I made a natural transition based on the content of the email to ask people to buy the product I wanted them to buy. Thirdly, at the end of each lesson, I added, “In our next lesson, we’ll talk about…” to keep the reader engaged and anxiously awaiting the next email.

5.  Format and upload your ecourse.  In order to best track your open rates of each segment of the ecourse, you’ll want to format each email as HTML.  This means that you’ll want to have a header designed and template created so that you can simple copy and paste the content into a properly formatted HTML template.  To increase the likelihood that your ecourse will reach its destination, also format a plain text version of each segment of the course, as well. Next, create a catchy subject line to entice your reader to open that email. Lastly, copy your ecourse into your autoresponder system and create the followup sequence.  Ideally, you want your prospect to receive one email from you for a 8-12 days.

6.  Design your opt-in box.  Your email marketing program should provide instructions on how to create an opt-in box for prospects to join your list.  Typically, all that you want to request of your prospects is a first name, last name, and email address.  Once you have created the opt-in box, copy the code you’ll need to add the opt-in box to your web site.

7.  Create a graphic.  To make your email mini-course more appealing, have a graphic designed that visually represents the ecourse.  I simply had a spiral book cover designed that contained my name and the name of my ecourse.

8.  Create your landing page.  To entice prospects to sign up for your ecourse, you’ll want to create a landing page that “sells” the mini-course.  In today’s world, you have to “sell” free just like you do something for a fee, so create a short list of the benefits that someone will receive by signing up for your course, and add the code for your opt-in box.  Since anyone opting in for my ecourse is also added to my ezine list, I make sure that all prospects know this at the time they sign up.

9.  Copy the course content to your web site.  To prevent your prospects from emailing you that they are missing some number of lessons in the ecourse, copy the content to your web site.  Then, at the bottom of each email lesson, you can add a note that if they have missed any of the lessons, they can read them on your site.  You can create one page for each lesson, or a couple of pages containing a few lessons.

10.  Track and measure. The only way to realize the success of your mini-course is to track and measure.  Create a simple spreadsheet with the open rates of each email and the unsubscribe rates. If you notice over time that many prospects are unsubscribing from your list when they receive a certain lesson, you need to review the content of that lesson and change it until your unsubscribe rate diminishes.  And, of course, you need to track how many sales result from your ecourse.

Create an email mini-course to help you establish a relationship with your prospects and lead them to taking the action you desire.  You’ll discover that a mini-course is the most effective way to convert a prospect into a paying customer.

Post by Lisa Sasevich

Susan Note: View Video below on my thoughts on Introductions

There are two types of introductions—the one where you introduce yourself toward the beginning of your talk and the one that your host reads to introduce you to the audience before you get up on stage. Now, that second introduction may seem like a minor concern, but it’s not; it plays a huge role in establishing your credibility.

Building credibility—the impression that you are an expert with proven results who can be trusted to deliver—is the vital first goal of your presentation. If you want your audience to listen to you and eventually buy from you, they have to see you as credible.

So here is my secret formula and two important tips for creating a powerful introduction for your host. An introduction that sets you up to gain credibility and helps people feel open to you and quickly start to build the trust that is needed to invest with you.

Proven Formula for Getting a Powerful Intro Before You Speak
When you’re writing your host’s introduction, keep it short: only 30 seconds to one minute long. Hit the high points and include these elements:

A. Have the host tell the audience why they invited you. For example, your introduction might begin: “We know that you or people you know have been affected by the drastic changes in the housing market. We invited our next speaker here today because her program has been proven to work during challenging times.” This is also where they would include any personal testimonial they have to add if they, in fact, have worked with you.

B. Include accolades and a personal touch. Then they should list several of your most impressive achievements: the TV appearances, the books, awards, the years you’ve been at your craft or how many people you’ve helped. Also include something personal that sounds impressive. For instance, you have two children at home and you put your husband through graduate school while launching your business from the basement.

C. Tell the audience what they’re going to get. This is where you include your statements of the transformations that your clients get as a result of working with you. For instance, “Today, Susan’s going to teach you how you can lose 10 pounds in 30 days and cut your insulin dependence in half.” Or, “Judy’s going to show you how you can build a six-figure business working part-time from home.”

Having your host end your introduction with the transformation that the audience will get generates excitement. And then you get up there confident and welcomed because they are excited to hear what you have to say, and you’re excited to share it with them!

Bonus Tip 1: Always Bring a Copy of your Host Introduction with You
You can write a fantastic introduction, but if the busy host misplaces it the day of the event and gets up there and wings it, all your effort was in vain. Always bring an extra copy with you. Make sure it’s in large print, easy to read, and before you go on, ask the emcee if he or she has your introduction. If not, you can just hand it over. (This will seriously separate you from the speaker pack and have hosts take notice.)

Bonus Tip 2: Adjust Your Opening Remarks as Necessary
If the emcee botches your intro (it happens!), think fast, because you need to convey the credibility that was supposed to have been established during your introduction. You could do this by mentioning that your business broke the six or seven-figure mark or that you never thought when you started that you’d have more than 200 people in your mentorship program.

If, on the other hand, your emcee does a stellar job of establishing your credibility, then you have the wonderful opportunity to get up there and emphasize your vulnerability, which, along with continuing to build on your credibility, is the goal of your opening remarks.

This is powerful because when someone whom we expect to be larger than life is instead humble and real, we’re surprised and delighted and we like and trust that person even more. Also, it allows people to relate to you better and realize that if you can do it, they can too. Remember, we buy from people we feel like we know and that we like and trust to deliver. So, even this early on in your presentation, you’re setting the stage for record sales.

What introduction tips and strategies have you found to be effective? Let us know on our blog.

Sales-from-the-podium expert Lisa Sasevich has x-ray vision for seeing the sales opportunities that exist in every company, and the creativity to convert them into gold! If you’re looking for simple, quick and easy ways to boost sales without spending a dime, get your FREE Sales Nuggets now at www.theinvisibleclose.com.

Susan Levin on Introductions

Susan’s note: Terrific post as usual

People Over 50 Using Facebook More These Days

It’s starting to seem really cliche to keep talking about how important social media is to businesses at this point, but whenever I think that, I am also reminded how so many small businesses don’t even have a website, and just a year ago, the concept of social media was still a very touchy one for many businesses.

These days, it seems a lot more businesses have embraced it, but there are no doubt plenty that have yet to test the waters, and many more that have tested the waters to some degree, but are still unsure how to proceed. That’s ok. Sometimes it takes time to figure out how to make it work for your business. Not all businesses are the same or have the same goals. That said, if you can find a place for Facebook among your goals, you’ll probably be interested to know that it’s not just the young’ns that are on Facebook.

Facebook’s size is not news. You were probably already aware that it’s huge. Recent estimates put it somewhere at 500 million people – way more than the entire population of the United States. Research from nonprofit AARP indicates that a lot of people older than 50 are using Facebook, and that might be a demographic helpful for you to know about.

Over a quarter (27%) of Americans age 50+ use social media websites, with Facebook being the most popular, followed by MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Here are some additional stats from the AARP’s findings:

- Forty-nine percent of those 50 to 64, and 40 percent of all adults 50+, consider themselves extremely or very comfortable using the Internet.

- Facebook is the most popular social networking site for Americans 50+, with 23 percent of survey participants reporting they prefer it—followed by MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, all at about 4 percent.

- Forty-seven percent of adults 50+ originally heard about social networking from a family member other than their spouse, and of those, 70 percent heard about it from a child or grandchild.

- Among adults 50+ who use social media websites, three-quarters (73 percent) are connected to relatives other than children and grandchildren, three-fifths are connected to their children (62 percent), and one-third (36 percent) are connected to grandchildren.

- Eighty-three percent of those 50+ have heard of the Apple iPad, and among those familiar with the device, 11 percent plan to purchase or want one and 2 percent reported they already have. The numbers are even higher for baby boomers aged 50 to 64, with 86 percent reporting they have heard of the iPad and 14 percent planning or wanting to purchase one.

“The latest data tells us that more and more, social networking is becoming a part of everyday life for Americans 50+, and boomers in particular,” said AARP Chief Communications Officer Kevin Donnellan.

The moral of the story is that people 50-64 are using Facebook more, and you KNOW people younger than that are using it. So, if you do not have a presence on Facebook, you’re continually missing out on new opportunities to get in front of potential customers.

Meanwhile, Facebook is getting integrated with more and more of the web itself. Yahoo just launched deep integration for its users, for example.

Post by Vickie Sullivan contributing editor of Rain Today

In these days of free webinars, free speaking, even free projects to “build the relationship,” buyers have plenty of opportunities to discover your value. They take that content and either 1) file you under “not a good fit” and move on, 2) keep in touch to pick up more free stuff, or 3) pick up the phone and call you with their latest challenge.

How do they decide who is a “go-to” person and who has nice ideas but aren’t worth paying for? One word: relevance. Let’s explore these three comparisons buyers use to separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves. Buyers use these filters to decide who is relevant now and who can wait for next year’s budget.

Your Priority

Most of you are pretty good about being clear on what you do. Once buyers know your offer, two questions determine if they need to act now. The first question they ask themselves: will your expertise help them with something they know they need right now? Will you help them get something they already covet? You must be a conduit for something they already want badly.

How to Beat the Competition Changing Your Position to Beat the Competition Tap into Buyers’ Emotions and You’ll Win More Clients Selling Ideas: How Ideas Can Transform Non-Buyers into Clients

Here’s an example: one of my Turbo Charge clients is a best-selling author who wanted to expand his brand into a new area. He wrote another book that publishers wanted so badly that they started a bidding war. Why did the winning publisher fight for that book? Because they wanted to expand into business books and they saw my client’s project as the conduit to make that happen. Yes, they liked the author’s brand, but they also saw what the book could do for the CEO’s top priority. So before writing that article, ask yourself this: what do the decision makers already covet and how can your expertise help them get that?

The second question buyers ask themselves: is solving the problem worth this price point? Here’s where your fee strategy really plays a role. Your investment forces buyers to explore what the solution is worth to them. And they compare your fee with what else they can do with the money. Even in this recovery, there’s a lot of competition for the same pot of dollars.

I’ll use myself as an example. I just heard from a prospective client that she’s weighing two options: working with me or hiring staff. Isn’t that interesting? My competition isn’t other brand consultants—it’s administrative help. In the got-to-have space, your competition is not only other experts; it’s also other priorities. Everyone has more things to do than money to spend. This is why the got-to-have experts position their focus as a conduit for something bigger than themselves.

Your Scarcity

The second thing buyers do to determine whether they must have your services is compare your expertise with theirs. There are two assessments buyers make that can put you into nice-to-have status. First comparison: our insights vs. what they already know. I call this the invisible Vulcan mind meld. Decision makers invest in what they don’t already have. So the question buyers ask themselves is do you know something they don’t?

Must-have experts show the market that they have something not readily available. Many talented, nice-to-have folks focus on the clever title or analogy. Buyers see right through that. They are looking at the insight, the point you are making. The analogy, the story, and the cleverness make your point come alive. If your writing is better than your insights, you are a nice read but not worth reaching out to. If you give a speech and hear, “Hey, nice reminder of what I already knew,” you failed the invisible Vulcan mind meld and are in the nice-to-have category.

After passing that test, buyers make a second comparison: your high-end services vs. information they don’t have but can easily get from you. The second bias—all things being “good enough,” the low-cost or free route will prevail. Notice what I didn’t say: equal. Even if you are better than the free resources you provide, even when prospects have a budget, buyers want to make sure they are getting the best option for their money. So another question they ask is can they get your insights from other free sources such as your book or white papers on your website? Is that “good enough” help for them?

This economy has created a lot of free and low-cost education. And it’s good stuff. A must-have expert provides high-quality content but always leaves the impression that “there’s more where that came from.” My favorite example of this strategy is Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics. His way of thinking appeals to so many situations that folks can’t get enough of him. And yet everyone knows that if they want their situation examined, they have to pay him his fees.

Your Approach

The third thing buyers look for is agreement. Before hiring you, even before talking to you, buyers want to get a sense of your approach and the way you think. The question they ask themselves: do they agree with your world view? They want to know this because they plan to implement your recommendations.

Think about it: we facilitate change, and change is confronting at the very least. Clients are willing to go on that journey with us as long as we don’t throw them under the bus. And that’s what buyers are really afraid of. They want to make sure your solutions won’t create too much brain damage. Your approach is their early-warning system.

And just saying your solutions are easy won’t cut it. Buyers are now in what I call “discovery” mode. They credit you with any discoveries they make about themselves while reading your material or hearing you speak. They believe their opinions about you more than they believe what you say.

No More Spaghetti on the Wall

The days of just getting your insights or story out there and hoping for the best are over. In this noisy marketplace, either you are relevant or you are ignored. When we tap into the three things that buyers look for—priority, comparisons, and agreement in approach—not only will we get attention, but we will get the incoming emails and calls, too. And isn’t that the whole point of getting our message out there?

Donna Gunter www.onlinebizu.com

Another great post by Donna Gunter

http://www.Onlinebizu.com

Recently I was asked in an interview to imagine  that I was starting all over again, and as a  newbie, how I would fill my business in 60  days. Things have changed tremendously since I  began my online business in 1999, mostly for  the better.  Most of the steps, however remain  the same.  Best of all, the strategies I  recommend to fill your business are the same  ones that can be applied to any business, and  then applied again and again to other online  ventures.  Here are 8 secrets to filling the  prospect funnel in your business in 60 days:

1.  Success mind set.  Don’t gloss over this  strategy — it may be the most important of  all. If you truly want to succeed in your  business and are passionate about what you do,  nothing will hold you back.  This often means  that you have to step out in faith that you’ll  succeed, and most importantly, believe in  yourself as a success.  Sure, you may stumble,  or even fall, but you must be willing to pick  yourself back up and persevere — even without  a safety net hanging under you.

2.  Target market.  The biggest mistake that  business owners make is wanting to sell to  everyone. If you’ve tried this, you have no  doubt discovered that casting your net around  everyone is a very difficult task.  Narrowing  that group to a more manageable number will  actually serve you much better, believe it or  not. If you can identify a smaller group of  hungry prospects who are willing to pay for the  solutions to the problems that keep them awake  at night (or those who are willing to pay for  more information about a hobby or interest that  occupies much of their free time) AND who are  reachable in groups (associations, membership  sites, magazines, newsletters, discussion  forums or lists, social networking groups,  etc.), then you have made a key discovery that  will catapult your business forward.

3.  Client Attraction Device.  You’ve heard it  said time and time again that “the money is in  the list.”  This still holds true today, as  well. Without a list of interested prospects  to whom you can market, you don’t have a  business.  The quickest way to begin to develop  a list is to give something away. Yes, you  heard me correctly.  If you have content you  have already created, dig through that to see  if you have something appropriate for your  chosen target market.

If not, identify a problem of your target  market, and create some content that answers  one of those problems.  Perhaps it’s a  checklist, a Top 10 list, an ebook or special  report, an audio interview, a pod cast, a video  — do whatever is easiest for you.  Just ensure  that it is in a plug and play format , i.e.  don’t make your prospect download some weird  software that’s not commonplace to read and  view this material.

Make sure that your Client Attraction Device  has some valuable content in it.  Nothing is  more frustrating to me than to read a free  giveway that only serves to remind me that I  have a problem and offers no solution unless I  pay for it.  Don’t be afraid to demonstrate  your expertise by giving “how to” information  away.  Trust me, if you are truly good at what  you do, there’s no way that you can share  everything you know on a topic in one short  information product. Your Client Attraction  Device starts your prospects on the like, know,  and trust road that is imperative for them to  travel before they will decide to buy something  from you.

4.  Email marketing system.  You must have some  way to collect your prospect’s information and  a system by which you can stay in contact with  them. The best way to do this is by purchasing  email marketing services.  I use  GetMoreClientsAutoresponder.com (link to  http://www.getmoreclientsautoresponder.com).   Do not use a free service for this, nor try to  send emails out of your Outlook program.  If  you want to be a serous online business owner,  invest in the most important asset in your  business — your email marketing system.

5.  Blogsite.  A blogsite, which is a  web site/blog hybrid, is the quickest way to  build an online presence. The two most popular  blogging platforms, the fee-based Typepad  (link  to http://www.Typepad.com) and open source  software WordPress (link to  http://www.wordpress.org), can be used to  create a blogsite very quickly.  If you want  either of them customized with a particular  look or feel, that may take a bit longer and  require a greater investment.  However, either  will work well to get you started, and both  will permit you to enter your email marketing  system’s sign up code onto a page so that you  can immediately begin to collect contact  information from prospects who have requested  your Client Attraction Device.

6. Stay in touch. Whether you do this by  submitting regular blog posts or publishing an  email newsletter (or both), you need to reach  out and touch your prospects at least weekly (or  several times a week if you are blogging). Give them some insights about what’s happening  with you personally as well as sharing some  aspect of your expertise with them by creating  a content-rich article or answering their  questions.  And, don’t forget to sell — offer  some product or service in each email  newsletter, or submit regular blog posts that  remind your readers about what you are selling.

7.  Social networking.  Never before have we  had the opportunity to connect with others  online easily and inexpensively as we do now  with social networking. Create profiles on the  social networks) used by your target market,  do research to add friends/followers in your  target market, and use the status updates to be  useful to your followers, i.e. by sharing  resources, asking questions, and updating them  about how you help clients/customers.

8.  Drive traffic to your site.  There are a  number of ways to accomplish this, but my  favorite starts with writing an article. Once  it’s written, I publish it in my ezine, my  blog, and to my web site and syndicate it on  article directories all over the Web through  GetMoreClientsArticles.com (link to  http://www.getmoreclientsarticles.com).  Then I  have the option of making a pod cast with the  content; creating a screencast video or  “talking head” video from it; writing and  submitting a press release; creating a  teleclass; create a Q&A radio show interview  opportunity; breaking up the points as separate  Twitter posts, or Tweets, and tweeting them to  my followers; or sharing it on my Squidoo lens  or other information-sharing portals.  The  point here is to work once and profit, profit,  profit.  Repurpose one article as many ways as  you can to drive traffic back to your blogsite  and thus get more and more prospects to sign up  on your list and ultimately convert them to  customers.

The advent of the Internet makes it easier than  every to create and promote a business online  with very little startup capital.  And, if done  correctly, the strategies will results in you  filling your business in 60 days with eager and  willing prospects ready to buy what you are  offering.

Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Post by Lynne Klippel
Lynne@LoveYourLifePublishing.com

Do you feel overwhelmed with book ideas? Instead of having one book inside does it feel like you have a raft of books ready to be launched?

It can be challenging to select the topic for your first book. Use these questions to guide your decision making process.

The most successful books have a clear focus and present useful steps to solve a specific problem for a specific reader. In fact, the more clearly you define your target reader and your topic,t he easier it will be to market your book.

Which topic is more targeted?

Stress reduction vs. Mediation techniques for Olympic athletes

Money Management vs. Financial education for new college graduates

Spirituality vs. Corporate executives and the power of prayer

The more tightly you can define your target reader and the specific problem your book will solve, the more successful your book will be.

How will your book contribute to your business?

If you are a corporate consultant, writing a book about French cooking might be a fun and creative project. However, it would not bring you more consulting clients. When you select your topic, make sure you have a clear path from your book to your products or services. Your book will position you as an expert. Use that positioning to your advantage and link your topic to your business.

How passionate are you about the topic?

When you write a book, you’ll be spending the next 3-5 years marketing it. If you pick a topic that bores you or does not resonate with your highest purpose, it will be hard to find the energy to market it effectively.

What gives you the credibility to write this book?

Take a good look at your training, education, and life experience. Do you have personal success solving this problem? For example, if you are writing about financial abundance but you are currently bankrupt, you have a credibility problem, both within your heart and with your readers. If you have never run a successful business, it will be hard to write a book telling others how to run their business successfully.

Many entrepreneurs who are new to their field are so excited about their training that they want to write a book on the topic. It’s better to select an area where you have some real-life experience so that you feel confident about your knowledge of the topic.

When you write a book about a problem that you’ve successfully mastered, you will write with first-hand knowledge of both the impact of the problem, the solution, and the possible pitfalls that people may encounter. Look to your life experience, both personally and professionally, and you’ll find plenty of great book topics.

What topic would be the most fun for you?

Writing a book is a commitment of time and energy. If you select a topic that you enjoy, perhaps even love, the process of writing your book will be fun instead of feel like drudgery. If you just adore talking about branding, have some wonderful success stories, and can’t wait to learn more about new ways to create brands, you’ll probably enjoy writing a book on branding.

Examine your own reading list, both books and ezines. Which books or newsletters do you read as soon as possible because you as so fascinated by the topic? If you have a book shelf full of books on personal development, attend conferences regularly, and work as a life coach, writing a book on accounting would not be much fun for you.

When you’ve answered these questions, you will naturally discover your ideal book topic. In fact, it will seem so logical that you won’t believe you ever considered another topic in the first place!

Lynne Klippel, a life-long book lover, is passionate about helping people with a positive message share it in a book. She focuses exclusively on non-fiction, Business Building Books, designed to help coaches, speakers, small business owners, and spiritual practitioners write books that get them more clients, media attention, and additional income.

Lynne is the author of six books, many information products, and a popular speaker. Her background as a teacher, librarian, and certified coach gives her the ability to break complex tasks into simple steps and motivate you so that you can reach your goals…

Her mission: to be your friend in the book business, sharing information, resources, and just as much help as you need to get your book out of your head and into the hands of eager readers. Lynne lives in Missouri with her husband and sons, and a house full of books.

Post from E.G. Sebastian

If you want to be taken seriously, you need to strive to project a professional image with all your marketing materials…

In the 21st Century, you won’t be taken seriously if you do not have a website; but if your website is of poor quality (and God knows I could list you a few bad examples) then you are worse of than not having a site at all…  Well, maybe I’m wrong with this one; I believe no matter how bad your site is, if you have a great offering, you’ll get at least a few local engagements…

I see several mistakes that ineffective speakers do on their websites:

1. They pay an inexpensive designer to build the site and it looks “home made”… and the sad part is, the website owner cannot add content to the site at will – s/he has to pay the web designer to modify the site each time.
! – now…., if you are not on low budget, this is the way to go – except do not chose the inexpensive web designer, as you usually get what you pay for (unless this web designer is oversees and a complete professional – you can find one at http://www.eLance.com .

I built most of my sites with web-based site builders, or with Dreamweaver… and recently with Microsoft Expression Web.  My sites built with the online site builders were the easiest to builld, have a professional look, and one of them comes up on the top of the search engines for several key keywords http://www.egSebastian.com , build with http://www.QuickBizSites.com — see another site that I built with http://www.HomeStead.com site builder at http://www.YouthPresentations.com

2. They make the site more about themselves, describing qualifications, certifications, etc.; instead of focusing on the client’s benefits. If you can help your audience members improve their time management, start out with a strong headline on “Get Proven and Effective Strategies for Time Management!” Then support that headline with some great bullet points… Each bullet point should address an area that you know the pottential client would really want.

3. Putting large blocks of text with multiple paragraphs on the home page (or any page). Use instead bold, large headlines,  subheadlines, and bullet points to describe your offerings.

4. Not having an opt-in box with an irresistable offer to collect visitors’ contact info.  Many people get to your site by total accident… or maybe you sent them there throgh hard work: twittering, FaceBook, or other online or offline strategies. HOWEVER, if they go to your site once, even if they mean to visit again, they’ll most likely never come back.  That’s why it is CRUCIAL to collect their contact info, then you are able to send them valuable tips on  your niche topic, as well as shamelessly – or subtly – promote your speaking, coaching, or other services/products.
Use www.aWebber.com or www.ConstantContact.com to create low-cost professional looking eZines or newsletters.  Both of these services will provide you with the code to create the opt-in box on your site.  I use OneShoppingCart, which is a bit more pricey, but it provides a complete set of solutions for me, such as shopping cart, split testing for my promotions, autoresponder, upsell pages, and a ton more great features…

5. Not having your contact information easily accessible. Make sure you have a tab on your navigation that’s clearly marked “Contact Us,” as well as you should have your contact info on the bottom of each page – I think that’s the law, but I could be wrong . Either way, it’s for your benefit; you do want to be reached by potential clients.  Just be careful not to put your email address anywhere on your sites, but rather use this format: eg[at]egSebastian[dot]com (so the nasty email collection spamming robots can’t collect it from your site.  Or use  a “Contact Us” form that prospects fill out online and your web system will email it to your personal email inbox.  Just again, make sure you require your visitor to fill in a security code at the bottom of the form to verify that they are a human being, not a robot; or else you’ll get dozens of viagra and penis enlargement promotions day in and day out submitted by spamming robots…

6. Not having a video of your speaking on your site – one that’s easily accessible.  It should be either on the home page, right at the top where everyone can see it right away… or have a clear link close to the top of your main page, stating Click Here to View a Demo Video of Me (replace “me” with your name”).  If you do not have yet a video, make sure to have at least a good picture of you and if possible several pictures with you in action (speaking to different audiences)

7. Too large pictures or slow loading videos. Any of these will result in people leaving your site.  There are tons of speakers out there – don’t do anything to make your visitor click away from your site.

E G Sebastian
E.G. is available to speak internationally. He speaks six languages and presents in four: English, Spanish, Hungarian, and Romanian. http://paidspeaker101.com/

Great tips from Scott Stratten

I’ve done the “speak for free to five people in a room that holds 100″ thing (proof), I’ve been paid keynote fee’s and everything in between, I figured it was time to share what I’ve learned.

1. Don’t be a “speaker”. Be an expert who speaks. Speakers are a “nice to have” but experts are a necessity

2. The power is not the point – slides are there as navigation points, not to be the content

3. If everything you say is on your slides, you’ve rendered yourself useless. Speak, don’t read.

4. There is a high demand for people that can both provide content and deliver it effectively from stage. Some can do one of the two, most don’t do either and a select few do both. Aim to be great.

5. End your presentation early.

6. What new ideas/skills will your audience have when they leave your session? If the only answer is “they’ll know more about me!” You need to start over.

7. Be prepared to present without slides if something goes wrong. And then do it on purpose.

8. Its not about you.

9. No matter how many times you remind people, someone’s cell-phone will go off during your talk. Get over it.

10. Make sure your own cell phone is off before speaking

11. Speakers are their best during Q&A because they’re not handcuffed to a slide. Think about that.

12. Stop walking in front of the projector. Seriously, how do some people not know this?

13. Use a hand-held clicker for slides instead of using the laptop. And when they don’t see the hand clicker, you look like Obi Won Kenobi when the slide progresses on its own. I use Kensington 33374 Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer

14. Don’t apologize to the audience about something they wouldn’t know was wrong. Saying “I was supposed to have a video here” doesn’t help. Keep going.

15. Have passion for what you’re saying. If you don’t, your audience won’t either.

16. If you use feedback sheets, there will always be somebody who didn’t like you. If its in the majority, you need to consider what’s said. If its in the minority, ignore it.

17. Be early and stay late. Getting to know the audience beforehand and talking after to answer questions is a forgotten thing that gives the highest value.

18. Speaking for free is a great lead generator and a quick way to go broke. Get value one way or another because you give it. Get conference passes for others, barter for product or services or at least a wheel of cheese.

19. Videotape every session you do. Share it on your blog and watch it yourself. Learn from it.

20. Change your presentation every time. Update stats, bring new examples. Own the content, not repeat it.

21. Ask for testimonials, don’t just assume the organizer will send one.
22. If you start every point with “In my book…” you’re doing a commercial, not a seminar. The best way to sell is to teach. I’m not saying ignore that you have a book, just simmer down a bit, we heard you the first five times.

23. It’s not about you.

24. If the conference has a #HashTag on Twitter, start finding people who are going to be there by searching with it. Talk to them, build relationships and then track them down at the event to say hi. It’ll be like you already know them, because you do.

25. Send out helpful tips that have to do with your content by using the same hashtag as above.

26. Watch Twitter for mentions of your talk and let people know you appreciate them spreading your word.

27. You’re not their parent, don’t tell them to put phones away, just ask as a courtesy to put the ringer on silent. I don’t understand speakers that tell audiences they can’t text/tweet during a talk. Make your content so good people feel they HAVE TO tell others right away, but great enough that they don’t want to miss a word.

28. If you’ve done a certain presentation numerous times and you feel it’s routine, either change it up or trash it. It may be the 20th time you’ve told a story, but it’s the first time that audience has heard it.

29. It’s not about you.

30. If you use feedback sheets, create two check-boxes at the bottom. One that says “I would like to be subscribed to your newsletter that provides [insert awesome benefit]” and the other says “I know of a group/association that would benefit from your talk, drop me a line”. Extend the contact past the session.

Visit Scott’s blog: http://www.un-marketing.com/blog/services/speaking/

Great post by Wendi McNeill.  I could not agree with her comments more.

I can’t stress the importance for each and every speaker to create a strong online presence. Today about 90% or more of your buyers are going online to find their experts and you want to found quickly and easily. Below are a few tips to help you build a strong online presence.

The most obvious of course is a website. Have a site that speaks directly to your audience and one that clearly states your message so there is no confusion in the visitors mind as to what you do, what you have to offer and how you can benefit them our their audience. Make your site is easy to navigate and has all pertinent information. No flash, it not necessary and it’s a distraction plus it makes your site load slow and they will close it and move on to another website. Be sure and have your media kit online because this is where buyers want to find it. Don’t send hard copies through the mail unless requested.

Create videos and more videos! Today a lot of your marketing tools online are free or low cost so you all should be taking advantage of them because they will boost your online presence. Use YouTube to get your videos online and then copy and paste the HTML code and add the video to your website and blog. Your video can become a viral marketing campaign and be shared worldwide. It will also give the buyer a little taste of what you have to offer them.

Blog. Set up your blog and post on a regular basis you will be amazed at the results. Consistently be adding new content to your blog…search engines love new content. Many put off blogging because they feel its time consuming or they’re not sure what to blog about and this is a mistake. Remember your blog post doesn’t have to be the length of an article, it can be a short paragraph, some helpful tips or you can even share a post from another blogger, but be sure you add their blog link. Blogging will allow you to voice your opinion and stand out from the crowd and show the readers that you’re the expert in your subject matter. It builds credibility and increases exposure. You can set up a free blog platform using several blogging services.

Write articles on a regular basis, this is another top marketing technique. You are an expert and you know your subject matter very well, you speak in front of hundreds, so writing a short article on a regular basis should be a breeze for you. Once written make sure you submit it online to several article marketing submission sites and I highly suggest using EzineArticles to start. Offer your article to other bloggers who you feel may be interested, pitch your article to local, regional and national publications and add the article to your website. Remember to share your article as well with your social media followers. Article writing will expose you as an expert and give you more credibility. Your article could very well end up on a website you never dreamed possible so don’t hesitate on this one…just get it done.

Social Media. Yes we mention SM again and again and the importance of being involved with social media. This one I can go into length on but to briefly touch on it I would say that the two top and obvious ones to get involved with are Twitter and Facebook. Share high content and be helpful, this is not the place for hard selling but creating relationships and sharing your expertise. If you go the extra mile and truly share from your heart you will be amazed at the results social media marketing will bring you.

Sharpen your search engine process. Make sure you are clear on the keywords you use and be specific so buyers can find you. Most buyers will do a search when looking for an expert so make sure you don’t just have keywords such as professional speaker, workshop leader, coach or trainer. Use keywords that fit your subject matter.

Sign up box. Don’t forget to add this to your website. You can do all the marketing in the world but if you do not have a way to capture your visitors email and name it can be for waste. Your site has many purposes but the top two are going to be to showcase and grow your mailing list. Don’t use your ezine to entice visitors to sign up this doesn’t work anymore. Offer them something of value; create urgency as to why they need to sign up for it NOW. Be very target specific and let it speak directly to your audience.

Have a monthly ezine that you share with your readers. It’s important to stay in touch with your readers and always giving and sharing helpful content. Don’t oversell in your ezine or you will find people opting out. You want to provide information that will help them grow or solve their problems. Be a resource for them, let them come to like, know and trust you this will open the doors to communication, relationships and many opportunities.

Become a Media Magnet. With this I mean get yourself out there and everywhere so the media eventually comes to you for interviews and guest spots. The more media attention you can get via radio, TV, publications, etc. the more you will build your exposure and credibility. This will open many, many doors for you including speaking events and product sales. If your new to this start little by contacting your local media outlets and when you have done a few move on to regional and then national. Don’t forget about all the online media outlets as well. You want to become the ‘Go To’ expert in your field. Also, make sure you add all your interviews, guest spots, etc. on your website because this will build your platform and shows visitors that you are the expert they seek.

Send out Press Releases. You can do this to announce your upcoming events, new products, teleclasses, workshops, etc. If you have news to share be sure and get it out there via a press release and there are many free press release submission sites, simply do a Google search.

The above are just a few ideas and there are so many but it’s important to get yourself out there and be everywhere you possibly can online. You want the buyer to find you easily so when they type in your keywords, for example: Career Transition Expert you come up in the top on the Google search results, you want to have many pages of information just on you so they can see that yes you are indeed the expert they seek.

Wendi McNeill, Founder of Charli Jane Speaker Services and has been “Opening Doors of Opportunity” for public speakers since 2002. She is an expert in positioning and marketing public speakers, a workshop leader, speaking agent and also provides experts to media professionals and buyers.

You can find Wendi and plenty of resources and tips on www.CharliJane.com and also on http://www.Facebook.com/Wendi.McNeill

By Mari Smith @marismith
Published April 27, 2010 in Social Media Examiner

If you build a Facebook Page, will fans come? This is the great hope for many businesses. However, fans do not magically appear from the Facebook mist.

People must be lured to your fan page. And there are some good and bad ways to go about doing this. In this article, I’ll share a big myth and 21 ways to drive more fans to your Facebook fan page. (Though Facebook recently changed the “Become A Fan” button to the new, omnipresent “Like” button – and a fan page is called a “Business Page” or “Facebook Page” – we can still call them fan pages and people who join are fans!)

The Big Myth
There’s a great myth that once you create a Facebook fan page for your business, the first thing you should do to get fans is invite ALL your friends from your personal profile using the “Suggest to Friends” feature.

Unfortunately, this strategy may not be that effective and can, in fact, often backfire. I have seen many industry gurus complain that when they decline a fan page request, it’s frustrating to continue to be asked again and again.

There are several reasons not to use the Suggest to Friends feature:

Facebook users can only like up to 500 pages and may wish to be selective. (Though I have seen it’s possible to go over this limit)

Fan page suggestions may often build up, unnoticed. (At last count, I have 593 overlooked fan page suggestions and am already a fan of 500!)

To aggressively pursue all your friends to join your fan page – for no apparent incentive – is counterintuitive to the nature of social media.

So, the good news is there are many ways to promote your fan page and proactively increase your fan base without bugging all your current Facebook friends, and also by thinking wider than just Facebook.

Here are 21 ways to get more fans for your Facebook fan page:

#1: Embed Widgets on Your Website
Select from a number of the new Facebook Social Plugins and place them on your website and blog. The Fan Box widget is now the Like Box and it works well to display your current fan page stream and a selection of fans – see screenshot below with Whole Foods Market Facebook Like Box. I would recommend adding a title above the box encouraging visitors to your site/blog to click the “Like” button (which makes them a Facebook fan).

Whole Foods Market Facebook Like Box.

You might also consider the Live Stream widget for more advanced uses, particularly on an FBML custom tab of your fan page itself. The Live Stream widget allows Facebook users to add their comments to a live event, for example, and that activity pushes out into their stream.

#2: Invite Your Email and Ezine Subscribers
Assuming you have an opt-in email list, definitely send out an invitation to your subscribers via email (several times, over time) letting them know about your fan page and encouraging them to join. Ideally, provide them with a description of the page and an incentive to join.

Be sure to have the Facebook logo/badge appear in your HTML newsletters. Instead of the usual “Join our Fan Page,” say something creative like “Write on our Facebook wall,” or “Join our Facebook community,” or “Come add your photo to our Facebook group” (where “group” is actually your fan page). Users have to be a fan in order to interact with your fan page in this way.

#3: Add to Your Email Signature Block
Instead of promoting your Facebook personal profile (if you do), include a link to your fan page in every email you send out. If you use web-based email, check out the Wisestamp signature addon.

#4: Make a Compelling Welcome Video
Create an attractive landing tab (canvas page) with a video that explains exactly a) what your fan page is about, b) who it’s for and c) why they should become members.  The result: you’ll increase your conversion rate from visitors to fans. One of my favorite fan page welcome videos is by Steve Spangler, the Science Guy! After watching his video, you can’t help but want to join!

(By the way, with the new Facebook changes, if your custom welcome tab and video talk about clicking the “Become A Fan” button, you may want to change the wording to “click the Like button” now).

#5: Use Facebook Apps
I recently tested a new live video-streaming app called Vpype. The app adds a tab to your fan page called “Shows” and when you broadcast as your fan page, everyone can view by default. (You can also broadcast as your personal profile and selectively invite friends/friend lists). I wrote up a review of this app here. By announcing via Twitter, your personal Facebook profile, your blog and your email list, you can broadcast regular live Internet TV shows from your fan page and create much buzz.

Another example of app integration is Target’s “Bullseye Gives” campaign. Target had their fans vote on which of ten charities they most wanted to see the company donate to. By voting, a post goes out onto your Facebook wall and into the News Feeds of all your friends, thus providing Target with valuable exposure. (For custom apps, see companies like Buddy Media, FanAppz, Wildfire Apps, Involver, Virtue.)

#6: Integrate the Facebook Comment Feature
My favorite example of this is the t-shirt company Threadless. On their landing tab (canvas page), you can view and purchase t-shirts as well as Like and comment on any item and choose to have that comment posted to your Facebook profile, as shown in this screenshot:

(Screenshot of Threadless Facebook Fan Page landing tab)

Threadless actually has their landing tab set up so visitors don’t have to become a fan to purchase/comment/interact. Yet they have organically built well over 100,000 fans.

As users comment on items, that activity is pushed out into their stream (profile wall and their friends’ News Feeds), which creates valuable viral visibility for your fan page.

For further information on adding the comment box to your FBML page/app, see these pages.

#7: Get Fans to Tag Photos
If you host live events, be sure to take plenty of photos (or even hire a professional photographer), load the photos to your fan page and encourage fans to tag themselves. This, again, pushes out into their wall and friends’ News Feeds, providing valuable (free!) exposure. And, a picture says a thousand words – we notice the thumbnails in our feed more than text. (Props to Nick O’Neil for this tip.)

#8: Load Videos and Embed on Your Site
Facebook’s Video feature is extremely powerful. You can load video content to your Facebook fan page, then take the source code and embed on your blog/website. There is a “Become a Fan” button right in the video itself. For an excellent tutorial, see Nick O’Neil’s post: How To Get Thousands of Facebook Fans With a Single Video.

#9: Place Facebook Ads
Even with a nominal weekly/monthly budget, you should be able to boost your fan count using Facebook’s own social ad feature. It’s the most targeted traffic your money can buy. To buy an ad, scroll to the foot of any page inside Facebook and click the link at the very bottom that says “Advertising.” From there, you can walk through the wizard and get an excellent sense of how many Facebook users are in your exact target market.

Then, when you advertise your fan page, Facebook users can become a fan (click the Like button) right from the ad as shown in the screenshot below. Additionally, Facebook displays several of your friends who have already liked you, thus creating social proof.

My book with Chris Treadaway, Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day (Sybex) contains comprehensive instructions on maximizing your marketing through Facebook social ads.

#10: Run a Contest
This is somewhat of a gray area because Facebook changed their Promotional Guidelines last year. Essentially, you need prior written permission from Facebook and need to be spending a significant amount on ads per month. However, you CAN require Facebook users to become a fan of your fan page in order to enter a contest, sweepstakes, drawing or competition. See these two posts for further explanation. PLUS, good news: you CAN run contests and sweepstakes with the use of the apps created by Wildfire App.

Read more

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Mari Smith
Fast Company calls Mari Smith “the Pied Piper of the Online World.” She’s a relationship marketing specialist and social media speaker, trainer and consultant with particular focus on Facebook and Twitter

by Donna Gunter

Teleclasses, also referred to as teleseminars, teleconferences, and webinars (with the added component of seeing a presentation) provide a platform for online service business owners to connect virtually with prospects around the world via a teleconference bridge line and share information with them. Many service professionals use paid or free teleseminars to grow their lists, establish their expertise, and deliver training and coaching programs.  It’s an ideal platform for information delivery, as both the presenter nor attendee can listen from the comfort of their home, office or car, without any of the headaches of having to be present for a live, in-person event.

Once you have created a compelling description and list of learning points for your teleseminar, how do you promote your teleclass and find participants?  Here are 15 ways for you to promote your upcoming teleclass:

1.  On your web site. Regardless of your reason for offering a teleclass, you need to create a search-engine optimized page on your own web site that contains an opt-in box where interested participants can opt into your list and get the call-in info for your teleclass.  This is the landing page to which all of your promotional efforts should link.  You may want to use a hover ad promoting your teleclass that pops up when visitors land on your site, or use a graphic popup, like AdImpact.com

2.  Your ezine and blog. Be sure to post an invitation to your teleclass within your email newsletter as well as on your blog.  When I’m offering a teleclass, I make the post about the teleclass my featured post on my blog so that it shows up above all other posts while I’m taking registrations for the teleclass.

3.  Events on social networking sites. Both Linkedin and Facebook permit you to create an event (your teleseminar) and invite your contacts and friends to the event.  On Facebook, you’ll want to remind those friends who have RSVp’d “yes, I’ll attend” to go to your teleseminar opt-in page to register. You may also belong to some niche-specific, target-market-specific, or business-to-business social networking sites which will allow you to create an event and invite your followers to your event.

4.  Press releases. You can submit this online via a fee-based service like PRWeb.com.  Don’t bother with the free online press release services, as your release doesn’t go anyplace other than on the site to which it has been submitted, with the exception of PRLog.com, which has been shown to give releases high search engine ranking.  Send your release out to your local media list, as well.

5.  Affiliate Marketing. Create a special email, blog posting, or Twitter campaign that your affiliates can send out to their lists to promote your event. Remind them to use their affiliate link for your program so that they get proper credit for any registrations. Even if you’re holding a free teleclass, your affiliate program should let you to create a special affiliate link to your teleclass registration page for your affiliates and track those registrations and credit the affiliate for any purchases made from your upsell promotion on the teleclass.

6.  Article Marketing. If you’re planning a free preview teleclass where you will offer an upsell to a paid program, begin writing articles and submitting articles on your teleseminar at least 30 days prior to your event.  I use GetMoreClientsArticles.com to help me distribute my articles.  In your resource box, you can offer your free teleclass as your client attraction device, and send readers to your opt-in page as your call to action.

7.  Email signature. If you correspond frequently via email or participate in online discussion forums or lists, create an email signature either in your email program or as part of your discussion forum profile that specifically promotes this teleclass and sends recipients to your opt-in page.

8.  Viral report. Write a special PDF report or white paper about the topic of your teleseminar and give it away free of charge to your list and social networking friends with an opt-in box.  Offer your list members and followers the opportunity to give it away, as well.  If you use a viral report brander like ViralPDF, your list members can personalize it with their name, web site, and affiliate link.  Be sure that the report links back to your teleseminar opt-in page.

9.  Discussion lists and forums. Some lists and forums permit members to overtly promote their products and services on the forums, while others have separate forums and lists specifically for those purposes.  Be sure you know the rules of the list before sending a promotional post.  And, if no overt promotion is permitted, post other comments to the list/forum and use your email signature to help you promote your teleclass as described in #7 above.

10.  Strategic alliance partners. Ask colleagues with whom you have a relationship and who publish ezines and blogs to pass along your teleclass information to their readers.  Or, you can use DirectoryofEzines.com to help you identify ezines that reach your target market and request that they let their readers know about your upcoming teleclass. If you offer a free event and promise to deliver valuable content, you may have an easier time getting ezine and blog editors to help you promote.  Or, offer them the opportunity to become an affiliate and outline your commission structure to help motivate them to help you promote your program.

11. Speaking. If you regularly speak to groups and organizations, mention your teleclass to them at your next speaking gig.  Or, ask colleagues if they will sponsor you as a special guest to their list to offer your teleseminar.  Research radio talk shows on BlogTalkRadio.com or podcasts on iTunes.com and contact the host to interview you about the topic of your teleclass.

12.  Purchased advertising. You can do this by buying classified ads in ezines that cater to your target market, as discovered in #10 above.  Or, you can create a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on Google ,Yahoo, or MSN.   Most of these programs let you set a daily/weekly/monthly budget that you can begin and end as you choose. If you time your teleclass during the time when people are actively searching for information on your topic (like “home owner tax tips” in April before the IRS tax deadline), the greater the likelihood that your PPC ad will yield results for you.

13.  Audio and video marketing. Create videos about the topic of your teleclass using your webcam, video camera or screencast software and post to the major video sites via TubeMogul or TrafficGeyser.  You can also create a Powerpoint presentation about your teleclass and upload it to Slideshare.com.  Lastly, you can create a viral video or movie about your teleclass topic and ask your colleagues and strategic alliance partners to pass that to their lists, as well.

14.  Teleclass promotion sites. There are a number of places where you can post your teleclass either free or for a fee.  Paid listing sites include:
24/7 Coaching(must be a paid member)
PlanetTeleclass.com
FullCalendar.com(post in the San Francisco area because they seem to have the media most open to posting teleclass info)
Solo-E.com(you have to pay to be an expert here to post your teleclass)

Free listing sites include:
Seminar Announcer
Craigs List Can only post in one city without being penalized and removed from the listings.
Conference Call University You do have to place a link to their site on your event page.
Find Free Seminars
All Conferences

Also search Yahoo Groups and Google Groups for any teleclass announcement lists.

15.  Track your results. You need to know what promotional efforts are bringing you the best results.  Create a specific URL (like through BudURL.com, for example) where you can track the click-throughs on any promotion.  Or, use a tracking service like Hypertracker.com to track your results.

Add teleclasses to your marketing mix.  Watch your business gain credibility and see how quickly your list grows!

Donna Gunter, author of Get More Clients Online: How to Get 95% of Your Clients from Internet Marketing, and founder of OnlineBizU.com, is an Online Business Coach and Internet Marketing Strategist who helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.

You can learn more about Donna’s products and services at OnlineBizU.com

Susan’s note: Need a reliable bridge line for your teleseminars?  Console Call is the service I use.  It is a paid service and worth every penny  http://tinyurl.com/ydnqfyf . Cut yourself free from the stress of poor quality and service 

provided by those other conference calling companies

Great post by Lisa Sasevich

Lisa at the Speakers Summit09

Think back to the last presentation you attended. If you remember anything specific that the speaker said, chances are it was a story that was told.

Stories, told well, are powerful tools in your presentation because they make an impression, they convey benefits better than a list ever could, and they open people up to seeing the gap between where they are in a specific area in their life versus where they really want to be. They connect people to their heart and intuition. And, as I’ve written before, you want your audience to trust their intuition and buy from their heart, their best, highest source of information.

To achieve that connection, you have to craft your stories well, and a big part of that is preparing them in advance to make sure that you love telling them and that they touch your audience in the way that you intend. If you’re not passionately engaged in telling your story, your audience won’t be engaged either.

Here are a few guidelines that will help you craft a powerful story that will not only touch your audience but inspire them to invest in your offer.

1. Have a Point but Only ONE Point to Your Story.
When you’re chatting with friends, meandering through a story may be fine, but when you’re up on stage, be very clear about what you’re trying to communicate. Your clarity will help you stay on track and also keep your audience’s attention. Also, decide on only one point to convey. If you try to cram in more than one point, you run the risk of overcomplicating your story and diluting its power.

2. Use Material from Real Life versus Hypothetical Examples.
We are interested in each other’s lives. Haven’t you ever found yourself reading about or listening to a story about the awesome results of someone you’d never heard of before and, by the end of the story, you’re inspired by that person? The same is true for your presentation. Use real material and your audience will connect and see those results as possible for themselves too. Their hearts will open to new possibility…and that’s what you want!

3. Think BEFORE and AFTER. Broad to Specific.
When you’re telling a story, you want it to pop; you want your audience to remember the powerful transformation that occurred in your client’s life as a result of your program. The best way to do that is to start broad, generalize about what life was like for your client before she started using your program, and then end with a specific outcome.

For example, let’s say you teach people how to better organize their lives and offices. Here’s the broad, generalized before: “In the past, my client used to really struggle with organization. Her home office was so filled with clutter that she wasted hours looking for stuff.” And here’s the specific after: “After using my program, her office is now so well organized that she’s cut her work time in half AND doubled her income.”

4. Does the Story Communicate?
Choose friends you feel comfortable with and practice your story. Watch to see how attentive they are and ask for feedback. Did you make your point? Did it significantly increase their interest in your program or service?

In the end, that internal emotional connection that your audience makes, seeing the gap between where they are and where they want to be, is what it’s all about, and nothing elicits that better than a story. So craft your stories until they do the job of painting a new possibility so clearly that you get excited by them. Your results will be well worth the effort!

What has been your experience with telling stories from the stage? Let us know on our blog.

To learn more about how to craft your own powerful story and specifically how to use those stories to create hunger and desire in your audience,  join Lisa LIVE in San Diego June 10-12, 2010 for her brand-new Speak-to-Sell Bootcamp. In this action-packed, 3-day training, she will take you by the hand and show you exactly how to craft a Signature Talk you love, Irresistible Offers that sell, and you’ll walk away with the confidence that comes with being ready!  To learn more and grab your seat, click here

Sales-from-the-podium expert Lisa Sasevich has x-ray vision for seeing the sales opportunities that exist in every company, and the creativity to convert them into gold! If you’re looking for simple, quick and easy ways to boost sales without spending a dime, get your FREE Sales Nuggets now at www.theinvisibleclose.com.

post Amy- Mae Elliott, American Express, Open Forum

Video can be a very powerful tool for businesses of any size, but YouTube’s free-to-use business model, ease of use, and mass market audience means it’s a great channel for small businesses. However, like any tool, in order to get the most of it, it needs to be used well.

We’ve pulled together ten top tips to help you get the most out of YouTube. Rather than video production hints or content tips (there are tons of other resources that can help you on that front) here are the dos and don’ts of using YouTube from a behind-the-scenes perspective.

1. Do Create and Customize Your Channel

First things first, customizing your channel is well worth the time it will take to set it up. You should add your company’s branding, customize the colors to compliment your company’s look, and add relevant information and links. A channel setup also offers YouTube users the option to subscribe to your content via the click of one button and the option to search just your uploaded content. The channel structure also allows you to highlight just uploads, playlists, favorites or all.

2. Do Add Subtitles

(this is an image, not a video)

Since March 2010 auto-captioning has been available to all YouTube users, so there’s no technical excuse not to. Doing so adds captions for the hundreds of millions of hearing impaired folk across the world, ensuring your content is accessible to anyone who’d like to watch it. It’s an easy enough process (find a Mashable how to walkthough here)that uses voice recognition, the results of which can be (and frankly need to be) edited for accuracy.

3. Don’t Overuse Annotations

A recent “improvement” from YouTube is the ability to add comments that display over the top of the footage. Don’t be tempted to go down this route, the annotations look unprofessional, are a distraction to viewers and depending how overused they are, can be a downright annoyance. Sure, you want to grab people’s attention and make an immediate impression, but your video content and other info you’ve added to the site should be enough to not have to rely on extraneous text.

4. Do Act To Remove Offensive Comments

While you can’t stop trolls from adding nasty comments to your videos or channel, you have the power to delete offensive or spammy remarks from the worst offenders. Taking advantage of this option requires good judgment, it’s obviously not a great idea to instantly remove any negative or critical comment, especially relevant ones, but you can certainly remove any spam or comments that use offensive language. If challenged over the removal make a simple statement to the effect that such comments will not be tolerated. If you’re getting seriously spammed or abused by a particular person, you can also block that user, but this should be a last resort. There are also options open to you to moderate comments before they go live, so you can nip any nasties in the bud before they are posted.

5. Do Engage With the YouTube Community

Don’t be a YouTube island. After all, it’s a social platform, so be sure to check out other content on the site, favorite appropriate videos and make suitable YouTube “friends”. If you really can’t, or don’t want to associate your company with other companies or individuals, then think wider. Why not look at content or channels that cover your local area, or that are for a good cause that you/your company supports. As well as engaging with other users, be sure to keep up to date with YouTube’s own news. The site goes through some fairly major changes from time to time and adds new features on a regular basis, so it’s well worth following theofficial YouTube blog, at the very least, to be kept up to date with site and community news.

6. Do Organize Your Content

Be sure to organize your content to be viewer-friendly rather than just offer a linear stream of video uploads. Create playlists to group relevant videos together, or lump older content into time-related (March 2010, Spring 2010, etc) folders if that’s more relevant to your organization. Remember that YouTube offers users the option to embed entire playlists (in addition to individual videos) into external sites, so give the creation of them, their titles and description, some decent thought.

7. Don’t Overlook Tags

As with many other sites, YouTube’s content is organized on a tag word basis. It’s more than worth taking the time to add the correct tags to your videos. The beauty of a tag word system is that it works on the basis of logic, but also on the more-the-merrier principle as you can’t know what search terms people will use. Really try and brainstorm around the tags you’re adding. For example, if your company offers dog products add “puppy,” “pooch,” “mutt,” “hound,” etc, too. As far as categories go, YouTube offers around 15 to choose from. Obviously try to use the most relevant, but don’t be afraid to experiment if your content could fall into one or the other, but be sure to monitor how the different videos perform so you can make an educated decision about categories in the future.

8. Do Promote Your YouTube Videos Elsewhere

Don’t assume viewers will come to you, or automatically think to look you up on YouTube. Every time you post a video that’s relevant for general sharing, blog about it, tweet it or add it to your Facebook Page. The last two actions are easy through YouTube’s account settings that automatically publishes news of a new video if you’ve linked up the social services. While YouTube is due to retire its “Link to Blog” option from the account settings soon, it’s easy enough to embed the relevant video in a blog post using HTML and will help push users towards your video content. In addition, don’t shy away from allowing embedding of your videos on other sites — the more views the better.

9. Do Use YouTube’s Free Analytics Tools

YouTube offers every user free analytics data via the “Insight” button on every uploaded video. This free-to-view info should not be overlooked as it can offer you some valuable info on not only views stats, but demographics, community, and the most useful — “discovery” data — info on how users came across the video, including the popular links they followed to get there. The tools are there – be sure to use them.

10. Don’t Neglect Your Channel

There are so many neglected YouTube channels, even from social, or Web 2.0 firms that you’d think would realize the value in an up-to-date video resource for their company. While we’re by no means advocating needlessly creating video content, if you’re looking to go down the YouTube route then don’t let your resolve or enthusiasm for the service dwindle a couple of months in. Even if you have no new content to post, still keep logging in to stay on top of comments, friend requests, add favorites, etc, so as not to relegate your channel to the ranks of the unloved.

Visit Speaker Services Channel on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/speakerservices