The More Clients Blog

Take a Vacation

Right now I'm on vacation in Mazatlan. Usually when I go on a vacation I write my eZine anyway. But do I really need to do that? Do I always have to be so industrious?

I once read somewhere that the most successful people also spend the most time on vacation. So If if I was to believe that, I'd better really take a vacation for once!

Here are a few good quotes about vacations:

"Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not."

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in."

"If you come home as happy as you leave, you've had a good vacation."

and...

"A good vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work."

When I get back I have one week's preparation before the first four-day Action Plan Marketing Certification Workshop, so I'd better get back to resting up!

Tune in next week, and I'll give you some vacation highlights.

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What do you like doing on vacation? Please share on the More Clients Blog (see below).

The Fast Track to More Clients Program - Starts May 16

We just wrapped up the last one this past week and I got this email yesterday:

"Robert, I just completed the Fast Track program -- I'm sure you hear this a million times over, but I just had to write and say thanks. What a fabulous program, what a wonderful process you offer - truly transformational. In addition, I'm part way through the InfoGuru manual, also a terrific resource." - Ruth Dubinsky

Thanks Ruth! I was really happy how this program went. We had very high participation and the participants really took their marketing to a whole new level.

I started the Fast Track program because people kept asking me when I was going to do a workshop in their area. Instead of always saying "Never," I realized the answer could be, "A few times a year, and in your city (at about half the cost)."

Unlike a workshop where you get a ton of good ideas which you promptly forget in a few days, in the seven-session Fast Track program, you are immersed in one key marketing principle a week which you apply directly to your business.

By the end of the program you have more than great ideas and inspiration, but a clear direction for your marketing - not only what to do, but how to do it and make it actually work. You can learn more and make your reservation at this link:

http://www.actionplan.com/fasttrackprogram.html

Grow Your List

The marketing holy grail these days is building your email list.

If you have a big list you have tremendous marketing leverage. But there's no single way to build your list; there are several ways, and if you combine them you can build a list of subscribers, many of whom will become customers and clients.

Here are the strategies that have been successful for me:

Getting More Traffic to Your Site

In the good old days it was a lot easier to get search engine positioning. Use the right keywords in the right place on your site and you'd appear at the top of Google.

But nowadays, the best keywords are more competitive than ever. Everybody wants them and more and more people are optimizing their sites. So I'd recommend a different direction.

Get Your Information Online

For years I've promoted the concept of writing articles. And the more articles you get out there on web sites, the more exposure you have. Your articles on complimentary web sites will drive qualified traffic to your site.

But finding all these sites could be a full time job. Your best bet is to get your articles posted and distributed by syndication sites such as www.thephantomwriters.com and www.isnare.com. You give them your article and they'll get it distributed to online networks who are looking for articles.

Another way to get information out there is through the use of online press releases. This has emerged as one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to your site. I'm about to launch a program myself and will let you know the results. In fact the person who's working with me will be co-leading a teleclass on this topic on April 25th (noon Pacific). So mark your calendars!

Presentations Build Subscribers

I built the first few thousand subscribers to this eZine through giving talks and presentations to professional groups. At the end of each talk I'd offer a free report along with a subscription to my ezine. Don't want to be on the list? No problem, but I can't give you the report! I'd get a lot of signups from this technique alone.

But when I took my business more virtual, I started to give more teleclasses and got invited to give teleclasses to other groups. My only condition is: At the end of the teleclass I get to offer my report and eZine subscription to attendees. And just as with live talks, teleclasses helped to build my list.

Converting Visitors to Subscribers

What good is it to get a lot of people to visit your site if they don't sign up for your eZine? Let me tell you a secret. The ONLY real purpose of my site is to get new subscribers. So my home page, navigation, sign-up page - everything - is geared to visitors getting my Marketing Plan Workbook and signing up for this eZine.

Take a look at your web site. More often than not, it's difficult to find out where to subscribe. And if you do have a subscription form, where's the free report? Very few people will sign up for an eZine by itself anymore. Everyone gets too much email already. But they will request information if it's perceived as valuable.

So make your primary offer your report or white paper or assessment, or whatever you call it. And don't just say: "Get this free report" You need to sell it. That is, you need to offer several benefits of getting this material. Yes, even giving stuff away these days is a challenge!

This Biggest Seller of the eZine?

When I used to do workshops, I'd ask how people learned about Action Plan Marketing. I knew they were all subscribers, as that is the only group I promoted the workshop to. But how did they become subscribers? I was rather surprised to learn that the majority were from good old fashioned word-of-mouth.

Someone else had told them to visit my web site and suggested they subscribe. And why did that happen? I like to think it's because the eZine is useful, the workbook is valuable, the web site contains a ton of useful information and the products and programs perform as advertised.

In other words, success in this vast online world comes down not to things like hype and flash and questionable joint venture partnerships. It comes down to things like quality and consistency, good products, programs and customer service.

Want more subscribers? Develop a solid business and put your focus on getting valuable information out there. I promise that all that work will ultimately pay off.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Make it a marketing priority to build your email list; get your information out there far and wide on the web; optimize your site to convert visitors into subscribers; and then maintain quality and consistency to build positive world-of-mouth.

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How are you building your subscriber list? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Marketing Recipes

As you know, my business name incorporates the two words "Action Plan." It's not an accident. I want to use today's eZine to explain how incredibly important marketing action plans are to the success of your business.

Everyone is looking for the perfect marketing plan. You know, the one you apply that brings in as much business as you can possibly handle. (Like that one magic email sent to the right list!)

I wish there was one such plan!

But every marketing plan can be supercharged and help you yield a much better results every time you use it, if you understand that marketing action plans are much like recipes.

Action Planning is like creating a perfect meal that consists of several delicious dishes. You need to assemble the ingredients, mix them in the right proportions, and then cook at the correct temperature for a specified time. If you follow the recipe to the letter, your dish will turn out perfectly.

But is that how we implement marketing plans? I wish!

No, we do it in a haphazard way, throwing together random ingredients and, more often than not, under or over cooking it. What comes out of the oven tastes terrible. And then we blame the recipe (which we didn't follow).

The thing about a marketing plan is that it takes a few more ingredients, a little more time, some specialized knowledge, and a dash of patience for the recipe to come out successfully.

For instance, let me give you the basic recipe for getting new clients from speaking engagements (delivered to professional groups). I built my business on this recipe. I know it works. And you can make it work too (if you follow it faithfully).

The "Speaking for Clients" Recipe

- Decide on a topic for your talk and create a title.
- Do a write-up for your talk that explains the benefits.
- Include a bio and information on your business for the "speaker's package."
- Create a contact sheet to track your campaign.
- Do research on organizations that would be good audiences for your talk.
- Determine who the Program Directors are for these organizations.
- Develop and practice your calls to the Program Directors.
- Call the Program Directors and pitch your talk.
- If they are interested in knowing more, send your speaker's package.
- Follow up in few days to answer any questions they may have.
- Implement a keep-in-touch phone and email campaign until you book some talks.
- Put together a detailed write-up to promote the presentation.
- Coordinate with the organization to make sure you're on track.
- Prepare you talk. You'll need an outline and handouts.
- Practice your talk (out loud) until you feel comfortable.
- Practice the call-to-action at the end of the talk.
- Print out your handouts (make sure they're professional).
- Dress and groom yourself appropriately for the talk.
- Give the talk and deliver your call-to-action at the end.
- Gather the cards (with email addresses) of participants.
- Follow-up by email or phone (as you promised) after the talk.
- Set up appointments with qualified prospects.
- Turn the prospects into clients when you meet with them.

OK, that's twenty three steps in this marketing recipe.

But don't get overwhelmed by all the steps. This is something you can do - one step at a time. Like assembling the ingredients for a recipe, the sources and techniques are out there - in books, articles and courses. Even if you're new to this, with focus, you can get a favorable result the very first time.

If you miss any of these steps or do them poorly, you won't get optimal results from your marketing plan. However, once you've booked and delivered a few talks, the process becomes simple. You'll start to get results and you'll be able to tweak and fine-tune your recipe until every talk generates new clients.

You don't need to master fifty marketing recipes for success. Mastering one may be all you need.

I implemented the basic speaking recipe above in 1995. In six months (26 weeks) I had used it successfully to attract 26 new clients. That created the marketing foundation for my business, and things have been in a state of momentum ever since.

My main marketing recipe since then? You're reading it. I was determined to create an effective eZine and send it out weekly. I'm now somewhere into my 500th week. One tactic, one recipe implemented consistently, can produce more results than you can imagine.

So what's your marketing recipe (action plan) going to be?

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Choose one or two key marketing plans, study them and work at implementing them until putting them into action is as easy as cooking a three course meal. You won't ever be hungry again.

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What's the one marketing action plan that has consistently given you good results? How long did it take for you to perfect it? Give us some details. Please share on the blog.

Too Proud to Market?

I was talking to my friend Patrick last week about his wife's band. Renee is a full time musician and one of the guitarists and lead singers in Hard Rain, a folk/rock band in Los Angeles. And of course, the topic turned to marketing.

Bands need to market themselves as well.

Most bands are not rich and famous. Renee's band works hard to get their gigs. They play at several restaurants and clubs, but Patrick pointed out that events and private parties are much better gigs that pay two to three times as much.

Patrick has been working to help Renee get more of these kinds of gigs. And in the course of our conversation, I shared some ideas of how I'd do it.

"Look, whenever Renee and the band have a gig, they need to make an announcement from the bandstand that they are available for events and private parties."

"Well they do that occasionally, but not consistently," said Patrick, "They don't do much more than a brief announcement, almost apologetically... 'Don't forget, we do private parties and events.' The moment passes so quickly, most in the audience miss it."

"Then they need to do something that will get more attention," I continued. "For instance, somewhere in the middle of each gig they could perform their 'parties and events song.' It would go something like this..."

I won't embarrass myself by sharing my pathetic song-writing attempt, but imagine a short, fun and up-tempo song announcing that the band did events and private parties, from corporate gatherings to birthdays, retirement parties and weddings.

Not a hard thing to do (they are songwriters, after all).

And then they could hand out a nicely printed postcard with a picture of the band and a list of the kind of events and parties they did on the back, along with contact information and web site address. ( http://www.andyandrenee.com )

Such a simple promotion would accomplish several things:

a) the audience would know the band did events and parties,
b) the audience would have an easy way to remember and contact them,
c) it would be a fun and memorable promotion, and
d) some people might actually pass the postcards around.

Slam dunk, right? Virtually no cost and no time. A perfect marketing strategy. Except for one little thing...

"Here's the problem, Robert. I love the idea. I think it would really work. But I don't think they'd do it."

"Why not?"

"They don't feel comfortable promoting themselves. They feel self-conscious, even embarrassed about it.

"They know they're a great band and when people hire them, they love their music. So I think they wish that people would hire them without having to promote themselves. Perhaps they don't want to come across as if they needed more work."

Sound familiar?

I pointed out to Patrick that a very large percentage of independent business owners (from bands to consultants, from artists to financial planners) struggle with this. People feel too proud to market themselves. It shows up in their thinking:

- If I'm great, people will finally discover me
- I'm lowering myself by self-promotion
- Promotion is boasting and I'm not a boaster
- People will think I'm like a used car salesperson
- I don't want to embarrass myself
- I don't want to put myself out there and be rejected
- People already know what I do, so why push it?

But aren't these all pretty poor excuses?

Yes, they are totally lame. You want to be a success, attract more clients (or gigs) and make a difference, and yet you let these considerations stop you. You talk yourself into not putting yourself out there because it might damage your fragile self-image. Yikes, what if you failed?

Listen, if you promote yourself, it might actually work out!

Imagine you were listening to Renee's band, and in the middle of the gig they did a fun and interactive song to promote themselves. Wouldn't you smile? Wouldn't you accept a card? Wouldn't you take it home and stick it on your fridge?

Would you feel pressured, manipulated and coerced into calling them to hire them for a special event or party? Of course not. You'd understand that they, like every other enterprise, need to promote themselves. You'd actually appreciate that they did it in a fun way that got you involved and gave you an opportunity to contribute.

And I'm also willing to bet you'd think about them every time someone said they were looking for a band for a special event or party. You might even pull the postcard off your fridge and hand it to a friend or your boss.

Look, promotion is not hard.

There are a ton of things you can do that will bring you more business. Any marketing consultant could come up with half a dozen good ones in less than an hour.

But your pride will stop you.

I've seen it in my clients hundreds of times. "You're suggesting I do what!!??" And then, with some gentle persuading, I point out that they probably won't die if they give it a shot. And they do.

More clients flow in very soon after. And happiness replaces pride.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Let go of the foolish pride that's holding you back from promoting yourself. Be willing to make a fool of yourself, in fact. You might even discover that marketing not only brings in new business, it can be a lot of fun. (Oh, yeah, and when you're successful, hire a band and celebrate.)

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Share a time you swallowed your pride and promoted yourself with great results. Just put it on the blog.