Are You Missing Out on the Power of a Simple Newsletter or Ezine?

Have you ever seen that bumper sticker, “the person who dies with the most toys wins?”  Well, in marketing, s/he who dies with the biggest database wins! 

Building and maintaining your database is key to the success of your business and one of the best ways to build your business is by sending out a regular electronic newsletter (often called an Ezine – an electronic magazine).

The success of your newsletter strategy depends on the three golden rules of my Practice Building Success System.

The three golden rules are:

1. Give value

2. GIVE value!

3. GIVE VALUE!!!!!!!!

Your database is GOLD and if you treat it that way you will become GOLDEN!  Far too many therapists ignore this. 

The fact is, you are missing a HUGE opportunity if you don’t have a way to keep in contact with the people you meet and the clients who have already used your services.  In fact I’ve had several therapists double the revenue in their practice simply by staying in touch with people who already know and love them. 

It’s much easier to have an old client return than to procure a new one.

A newsletter or ezine is a great way to bring old clients back or just to keep reminding them you are there.  Even if they don’t need what you are offering right at that particular moment, at least you have reminded them you are still alive and kicking and ready to welcome them when they do need you.

If you consistently produce a quality newsletter or ezine, your subscriber database will grow steadily through word of mouth ..... when you provide value to your readers.  That last part of the sentence is bold because it is the key to the magic kingdom. 

I don’t know about you but the ezines that hit my inbox and get read are the ones that educate, inform and inspire and these are the very type of ezine I have forwarded onto others because I knew it would help those people.  While very few therapists can solely rely on the proliferation of their Ezine as their primary marketing vehicle, it is an effective way to allow other people to market for you while you sit back and watch the size of your database grow!

So by now I hope I’ve convinced you of the value of newsletters.  Now lets look at what you need to avoid:

The three quickest ways to die in cyberspace

1. Make it about you or your modality

2. Don’t make it about them

3. Don’t give value

My 90 Day Challenge is a very grand example of the “Give Value Golden Rule” in action.  I have had over 850 people sign up to do the challenge from a database of zero.  When I launched the 90 Day Challenge I had to re-sign my whole database onto my new shoppingcart.  You might expect my ezine list, created at the same time, is about the same size.  Well it’s not it’s double that and I can only put it down to the fact that people are saying such good things about me that people sign up for the newsletter despite not wanting to do the challenge.  When people sign on to the database the comment section usually goes something like “a friend who did your challenge told me about you”. 

By steadily plodding along giving value at every turn I got a name for myself that is now becoming unstoppable.  It doesn’t happen overnight but it happens!  The trick is to consistently turn out high content, high value newsletters that are designed to genuinely help people.  Your secondary need should be to publicise events and products that might also help others whilst still keeping your bank manager happy.

So why do newsletters work so well

There are three key reasons why they work:

1.  Credibility

Chances are, when people first subscribe to your Ezine they won’t know much about you or your profession.  Publishing a regular Ezine allows you to build credibility with your readers.  Natural therapies, like most professional services, require a level of trust.  An Ezine is an excellent way to build the necessary trust and credibility just by being yourself.

2.  Enables Relationship Building

Perhaps you’ve heard the term relationship marketing.  In essence, relationship marketing is the process of allowing people to get to know you and your services over time.  Having an Ezine is an excellent way to build relationships with potential clients.  Let’s face it, people are most comfortable (and willing) to hire a therapist whom they already know.  An Ezine is one of the most effective and efficient ways to build relationships with tens, hundreds and even thousands of people. 

3.  Increase Your Knowledge

When you write articles for your Ezine your own knowledge and confidence will increase.  As you know, the best way to learn something is to teach it!  So when you publish an Ezine and invest the time and energy to research topics and write about them, your own skills, proficiency and knowledge increase. 

Why are they so powerful?

It a numbers game.  In marketing a certain percentage of your database will react to your offers.  That reaction level is VERY low.  If you are getting anything between 1 and 3 percent reaction you would be happy. Anything over 10 percent and you will be ecstatic.  So if you aren’t into giving value you can see why a newsletter won’t work for you.  So let’s just look at the numbers for a minute.

If you send to 100 people and 1% react – that’s 1 person.  Lets say they have three treatments with you at $70 – it means that campaign grossed you $210

If you send to 1,000 people and 1% react – that’s 10 people and if those people have 3 treatments with you at $70 – well that campaign is worth $2,100!  Now are you are starting to see why newsletters work?

About now you are probably going into, “well it's all alright for HER, SHE knows thousands of people”.  Please know the absolute truth is that my first newsletter went to about TEN people – yes, you read right 10 family and friends.  Ask anyone with a big database they built themselves and they will tell you the same story.  Ali Brown, the Ezine Queen reaches millions of people now.  She inspired me to start by telling her list that she too started with 10 people and one of those was her cat!  

The hardest yards are in getting your first 500 people, then the flow becomes a little easier.  If you are a quitter, don’t start, it will break your spirit.  But if you are a plodder like me who kept writing from the heart, kept giving value and bless all of you who told your friends, family and colleagues about me.  But remember I also worked my little tush off in rain, hail, sunburn, sandstorms and tears to build my database and six years later I’m getting the rewards.

So if you are in this for the long haul and if you love what you do, your ezine will bring you a great deal of pleasure and profit over the years but the trick is to start NOW!

Start now and give yourself and become a winner in your prospects eyes!

We Are What We Repeatedly Do!

I was asked for my opinion of what the following message means

OK - here's my best interruption at 7AM in the morning.


We Are What We Repeatedly Do ........ it's along the same lines as:

"‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.'
Jim Rohn"

But because likes attract, eventually the bigger number of people will outweigh the smaller number of people, unless we do something to change the odds and change the mix of people we hang out with.

This article that I found on google goes deeper into the "average of five people" topic - you can read it here

So, if we hang out with people who are constantly striving to be better, who are honest and true - then we will be that too because who we chose to spend our time with, influences who we are.  If we hang out with a bunch of crack addicts who don't respect themselves or others and steal from and abuse others to feed their habit, then, if we don't stop hanging with them, we will eventually become like that too.

If we want to be poor we should hang out with people who are poor and have a negative poverty mentality, then eventually we will become that too because there are immutable laws that say "likes attract and negativity will always pull you downwards".

If we want to be rich, hang out with people who already have money because their actions, thoughts and deeds will be different to the people who are poor.

Same with weight loss - if you want to lose weight - hang with people who are skinny because their actions are different to people who are fat.

So if we are what we repeatedly do in the above examples - if we repeatedly hang with the crack addicts because we grew up with them and went to school with them and feel some sort of guilt if we don't - then by repeatedly ignoring the warning bells and still hanging with them - then despite the good we hold within, eventually bad will "out average" the good and we will find ourselves in trouble with the law.  Then we end up in the criminal justice system surrounded by more crims and we spiral downwards.

If we repeatedly ignore health warnings, those actions will eventually see us ending up sick.

If we want something in life, but don't take the steps toward it, we will not get want we want.

So for instance an Olympic athlete repeatedly gets up each morning and does their training - if they do it enough and have the right mindset, eventually they will make the team.  If they repeatedly lie in bed or keep the thoughts they were bought up with that say "you will never amount to much", then they won't make the team.

Going up to the olympics we often see someone injure themselves just before they get on the plane to go.  If we went down the burrow, despite their best training schedules and despite their talent, they will often be repeating a family mantra that says "something always goes wrong" - or "I'm not really good enough for this team" and bam by "doing" that thought, they attract an injury that will make those thoughts come true or they will over train despite being told to rest and hurt themselves on their very last session.

The people who hit the winning tape are the ones who are the best at repeatedly doing ALL the things that are best for the outcome they desire.

Same with people who are sick - often they don't follow to the letter what their health professionals tell them and wonder why they don't get well - what they are doing becomes what they are.

How often do we see people told to rest and they think better of that advice and do the opposite and wonder why they end up back in hospital.

If we repeatedly do negative behaviours that don't support our dreams - we won't get our dreams

If we repeatedly do the positive things that support our dreams and set our goals and do ALL the behaviours and actions that will get us to those goals, then eventually we will get what we want.

However, this applies to everything including our thoughts, so if we let negativity into our thoughts then we become those negatives - hence why it is so important that our thoughts, actions and deeds are in alignment.

Have a read of Keith Richards bio "Life" and you will understand why they became the Rolling Stones - in the early days all they did was play their guitars and live the life of a rock star - they literally slept with their guitars.

Bands that make it tour constantly - they just "DO" so often that eventually become what they want to be.

While watching the INXS doco recently it was plain their success comes down to the number of gigs they did.  Most bands fail when they stop repeating the one thing that will make them successful - playing!

No one would go through the poverty and loss those guys did in the early days, but they just kept doing it way beyond anything anyone else ever would put themselves through.

I heard Bono tell Elvis Costello once:  "For anything to be really amazing, there has to be a long obedience in the same direction."  You can read about that interview here

What I think he was trying to say was that you have to obediently do the right things over and over again for many years to get something amazing.  He was talking about how The Edge had the luxury of not being in the limelight so much so was able to just play guitar all the time whereas he doesn't feel he is as talented as The Edge because Bono was pulled off track by the political "earth saving" stuff. 

Let me know what you think "We Are What We Repeatedly Do" means below.

Are You Using QR Codes?

QR Codes are all the rage - this article from Mint Social Media here outlines why you might want to include them.  With 50% of people now using smartphones to look up data as they are out and about - it makes sense for a natural therapy business to begin to use the QR code technology.

A QR code, even though it looks a bit ugly is just like a barcode, similar to the technology you are associated with every time you check out electronically at a retail store or supermarket.  These days most smart phones have the technology to read a QR Code and as they scan the code, your information appears on their smart phone.  It's so simple it just could work!

It takes the digital and print worlds and melds them beautifully into something that could bring people to your door really easily.

Of course this type of technology will work best if you have a strong WHO and WHAT statement for people to attach to.  For instance, if someone is sitting in a cafe with a sore shoulder and your print brochure clearly states that you deal with this.  If the potential client is in pain, they can see you are just around the corner and you make it easy for them to come and see you - whammo - you will definitely be happy with the ease at which clients can book in with you.

In fact one of my Sore to SOAR participants gave out her brochures at the event and she was using a QR code on her brochure.

She has a spa in a tourist destination and the QR code technology makes it ideal for people who see her brochure, can scan the code and then go straight to her website via their smart mobile phone.

All her contact details come up and they can immediately phone her to see if she has any times left in her booking system.

You can see how powerful this would be for a solo operator who combines this technology with an online booking system.  They could potentially go into a treatment with a space not sold and come out to have the diary spot full, payment taken and the client sitting in their waiting room ready to go.

Very powerful stuff when you get your head around these new technologies.

The codes are easy to get - simply type "QR Code Generator" into google.  

There are many free options for creating the codes.  Then you enter the information that you wish prospective clients to see - not forgetting of course how they can get in contact with you while they are on the go, and then simply download your QR Code image to include on your brochures and business cards.

There are some great pros and cons for QR Codes discussed here

Then once you have one its simply a matter of deciding where you are going to put it - maybe on your A Frame - on the magnetic signs on your car - on a t shirt that you make your kids wear everywhere.  Your creativity is the only thing that limits you when deciding on where to put these codes that anyone with a smart phone can scan.

Have fun!

Ilumine Ao | Blog Talk Radio Interview

I'm very much looking forward to being interviewed by Al Diaz along with the other Miracle of Love presenters from the Gold Coast leg of the tour.

Sat, Oct 8, 2011 03:00PM

Click here to find out more:
Freedom Divine Connection BEing All That You Are/Australia 10/07 by Ilumine Ao | Blog Talk Radio

Hope you can join us

http://themiracleoflove.com/

You can find out more about the Miracle of Love World Tour and the Gold Coast event here

You can download a copy of the event flyer here

---

An Innovative Way to Get in Front of Clients

I had to smile today as I enjoyed my green tea and a scan through my emails.  I love when people start taking innovative actions when times get tough.

Humans never move when they are comfortable but watch them go when times get tough.

I loved what we can learn from an innovative way hotels are getting more guests in beds.

As it gets harder to sell hotel beds as less people travel the globe due to factors such as technology advances bringing people together virtually, a greater consciousness of the ecological damage the travel industry brings to the planet and overall the financial crunch means less spending in general.

So hotels are needing to get smarter.


We can learn a lot from this industry because therapists have exactly the same problem hotels have.  At the end of each day, any beds not filled are never available to sell again on that day.  Yes they can sell tomorrow’s beds, but today’s beds are never available again.

Treatment rooms or consults are the same.  If you didn’t fill yesterday’s diary - the opportunity to get revenue from those spots has gone.  So watching the way hotels think and market is a good habit to get into.

Springwise had a link to a service that scans twitter and picks up on destinations people have mentioned in their tweets.  The hotel sends those people some local area knowledge or a discounted room offer to that twitter account. 

Some hotels are reporting a 9% uptake on their direct twitter offers.  This is huge as most direct campaigns would celebrate if they got a 2-3% response.

Why the big difference?

They are adding value, saving their customers time and solving a problem for their clients. 

In some instances they are solving a problem before the client even thought too hard about fixing it.

This is marketing genius which you can replicate on a smaller scale.

It's our equivalent of dropping a flyer on the bedside table of someone who is about to get out of bed and complain of an ache and pain or emotional deficiency.  They are delivering a solution at a time of pain. 

Humans are lazy creatures.  

In most instances if a suitable solution comes their way at a price and service level suitable to them .... they will most likely take it.

The reason this campaign by hotels is working is because this is very targeted marketing.  The hotel knows its customers well and presents only one solution to their problem - a room in a hotel in the city they are visiting in the near future. 

Its your classic WHO & WHAT situation.  They know WHO their customers are and WHAT those customer want.

These hotels are getting under the noses of people solving problems AND saving them time.

How can you do that?

If you are very clear WHO you work with - simply figure out where your people are hanging out - what their problems are on a daily basis and get yourself, your message and your offerings in front of them, at a time when they are thinking about their problem.

People with a certain problem start seeking solutions in similar places

The golden question to answer is .... where do your people hang out????


But an even better question is ..... who else has my people?  This is the question the hotel has answered - they have figured out that their customers tweet their travel plans out to their network. 

Do people tweet or facebook their problems on a daily basis - YOU BET!  If you exactly solve their particular problem, then a simple google search to see if that person has a public profile and you could drop one of your flyers in the post to them.  It can be that simple.  If you are really brave you could make the offer directly in the post they've made - but truly I find that a bit intrusive.  You must discern what's the right level of contact for you. 

People leave clues everywhere - you need to get your intuitive super power glasses on and start seeing those opportunities everywhere.

It is so much easier to sell something to someone who wants what you’ve got.  You’ve just got to get very creative about figuring out where the problem YOU solve occurs in THEIR life.

For instance, if a child is having a hissy fit on the supermarket floor and the parent looks up and sees a flyer on the notice board for a hissy fit behaviorist or a golfer walks into the club room from a round of golf and finds a person who can improve their swing by loosening up their muscles - I reckon they will be pretty interested in at least hearing about your services.

Where are your people and what are their problems?

The Price of Perfection

Perfection is a wonderful thing when harnessed properly.

For most however, it is the personal curse they carry that stops them achieving all they could.

Perfection in and of itself is fine. Whilst standing alone it does not harm. Its when it gets between your ears that the problems start arising.

Perfection is the best friend of the “little voice” - that one that keeps telling you that you aren’t good enough.

So often I witness people who want something to happen really badly, but they spend so much time and energy waiting to get something perfect before they release it. What inevitably happens is that the project either stalls or they sabotage their success by creating a diversion around the release of their project.

Once sabotaged, it will never get to see the light of day, nor will it ever get to the right people to stamp their approval of perfection on the project.

I’ve seen people make themselves physically sick so they don’t have to go on stage. I’ve seen people manifest family disasters so they don’t have to release a project. I’ve seen people just disappear off the radar because their need for perfection overcomes their ability to deliver the so called levels of perfection they have set for themselves.

This behaviour is bogus because in business its not up to you to determine what is or is not perfect.

The people who are going to BUY what you are creating are the ones who determine whether it is perfect or not.

It becomes a very simple equation. 

If your customers buy your product or service or book a treatment with you and they don’t complain or they rebook or they buy something else in the future. Then your offering was perfect because it met their needs.

In business the only way you can figure out if your product or service offering is perfect - is to release it.

So why keep persecuting yourself trying to make everything perfect, when really you aren’t the best person to sit in judgment. Wouldn’t it be better to just get that product out to your customers and if it falls short of perfect, you can always tweak it until it is.

Some of the best things I’ve ever created took two or three goes to get right. It was the testing and tweaking and feedback that came from my customers that invariably created the perfection.

Of course I’m not asking you to put anything sub-standard out into the marketplace. All I’m asking is that you at least let it have a chance to be seen by others.

So what are you waiting for - get that thing out that you’ve been waiting to get perfect - dust if off - get it to a “good enough” standard and release it.

You might be surprised how perfect the imperfection in that action really is!

GET YOUR COPY OF MY NEW FREE REPORT

Getting started is the hardest part of growing a small business - the euphoria of being your own boss, doing it your own way and being able to run your own ship quickly wears off when you realise your great ideas and methods aren't manifesting the same glory in your bank account!

I created the NO GO to GET GO Fast Track Guide as a way for you to understand the types of actions you need to take in the early days.

All too often we have these great ideas and expect the Universe to pour people through our front gate and have them hammering the door down to work with us.  Unfortunately this is rarely the case for someone who has never had a small business before.

The sadder news is most give up even before they get a decent head of steam up and are left feeling like a failure.

The saddest news here is that these people often have the most amazing gifts of healing to offer the world, but their fears of being seen, judged or fear of success (not failure, we can all do that well but the thought of actually succeeding is new to many) and it stops them from achieving their dreams.

I am SO serious about people getting the right information at the start that I've filled this free report with the exact information that has kept me in the game.  When I started I didn't have a system and I wasn't appearing in the places I needed to appear.  I spent my first six months sitting at home developing brochures (which rarely bring large numbers of clients), developing logos (which is part of your brand and rarely brings clients in the early days) and I also spent a lot of time working on my website (needed but won't bring a bunch of clients hammering on your door the day it goes live).

I was gutted every time I spend months working my heart out only to find it didn't bring any results!  I just didn't know the RIGHT things to do in the early days!

Little did I know the three activities I was focusing on were the three worst things I could have done.  You can imagine how stunned I was when someone told me you could still get clients without the three things (logo, brochure and website) that I had spent most of my time, energy AND MONEY developing …. but sadly bought me NO clients.

So the NO GO to GET GO Fast Track Guide has ALL the information you need to understand before you go out into the world of small business.  What it's not is a where to put your brochures type of document - this one gives you - for free - the actual strategies that will work for you.  When you realise where you need to spend the MOST time in the early days, you will be much more productive in your early marketing attempts and when you understand which activities actually get you the clients - then you can just focus on them in the early days.

Don't be tricked by the simplicity of the material - once you are established you will understand the gold in this report - for now - just do what it says and watch your business change!

So - you've got nothing to lose - its free - its string free - no ra ra - simple concepts - in simple plain language - I urge you to read it cover to cover and then sign up for my 90 Day Challenge and then really get serious about growing that business that is currently living in your heart and soul!

What You Need In Place When A Big Online Opportunity Comes Calling

Many experts and online entrepreneurs dream of the day when someone with a big fan base or database mentions them or promotes them.

Few are ready for what might occur next.

This week a client released her first product and the night before it was released her WordPress site got hacked. When she phoned up the people at the help desk of the company who hosts her site she may have well of been speaking Swahili.

They a) couldn’t even see the problem and b) even if they could – they would have had no idea how to solve her now massive and stressful problem.

When big opportunities come our way – we must have good systems in place and be ready for the onslaught of visitors.

I have an even sadder tale to tell – I remember I had something going off one time = people were hitting my site AND purchasing AND my scummy hosting provider automatically shut my site down because my plan ran out of bandwidth. It ran out because abnormal numbers were hitting the site.

At the time I didn’t even know what bandwidth was, but I suddenly became very aware of the consequences of not having enough because people stopped buying!

When you consider that you pay for a service that allows people to hit our sites, you might expect that they might give you some time to sort the problem out before shutting you down.  Most will send an automated reminder to tell you that you are nearing your limit and if you are getting loads of visitors, that little extra you had up your sleeve is gone in 5 minutes due to high visitor numbers and BANG they shut you down!

So to make the most of the dream of hundreds of people visiting you and your website – this is the minimum you need in place to ensure you don’t get shut down or that your system doesn’t fold under pressure.

Back up – Back UP – BACK UP!

A hacked or attacked website usually means one thing – a complete reload from a clean source to ensure everything has been removed. If you don’t have a backup of your current website files (yes including that small change you made yesterday that took hours to complete) then you may need to re-write the whole site! OUCH!

I have all my files on my GoDaddy* server, on the hard drives of my TWO Macs and then use Dropbox to store all my hard drive files using cloud technology. Total overkill *yes* but it means I can access my files anywhere in the world that has the Internet if I need to reload my site.

Extreme perhaps – but you will thank me the morning your site gets hacked and now looks like a porn site and you are due on stage in 30 minutes to sell a big event and your website is the point of entry for the hundreds of people in the room.

Pay for unlimited bandwidth

I still don’t know what bandwidth is, but I don’t have to care because I’ve got the problem covered - again GoDaddy* sorted that for me. All you need to know about bandwidth is that you need a lot of it if you do get a rush on your site so it won’t fold.

My best advise is to pay the price for an unlimited service and never worry about it again!

Get reliable hosting

Use a company to host your website that is available 24/7 AND their staff are experienced.

I have the GoDaddy* unlimited bandwidth and website package. They promise to fix your problem on the first call and have 24/7 support staff who have always fixed my challenges in one phone call.  There are many other great suppliers you can use – and these days the cost is very low – it truly is a case of invest before you need it.

Who ever you use, make fine sure they are set up to handle big volume traffic – and be aware most hosting companies are set up to take the traffic like you might expect the local hardware store to generate. Ensure all your suppliers can take a worldwide online product or event release.

Its also good policy to have some of your eggs in one basket.  Most tech companies will start blaming each other when you have multiple suppliers.  There are pros and cons from having one supplier host everything - but when there are problems it is nice to know a) they see how everything is functioning together and b) they can't blame third parties and c) you won't end up the one with a massive problem and no idea how to solve it.

Capture those hot leads!

Have a way to capture visitors to your site by way of a free product or offering that collects their email address so you can stay in touch once the hoop-la dies down.

These days just offering a newsletter isn’t enough – you need something unique and appealing to your target audience and you need to be able to follow up. People don’t start to purchase until they have had at least 7 “touches” from you. If you haven’t friended them or collected their email address you can’t touch them again – the magic is in the follow up.

Stay tuned

Be around to respond quickly to queries or problems that come up – just before an event or product release is not the time to take that vacation or go sit on a mountainside to chant.

Use companies who already have big name clients and are used to high volumes.

You MUST HAVE a good customer relationship management system (CRM)

OK so you’ve got it all down to date – you have a robust website that will take whatever is thrown at it – you have a free product and the visitors are sucking it up like ice cream on a hot day and BANG! Your CRM tells you that you have reached your capacity and it has stopped letting visitors sign for your free program.

When this happens anyone who comes to your site will visit and go and you have no way to stay in touch with them in the future – in fact you won’t even know who came by!

Mail Chimp is an excellent free service that allows you to store up to 2,000 people for free. Those numbers make most people think its "enough", but when you consider at any given time there are millions of people on Facebook and there could be millions watching an ad roll past and decide to click on it, then 2,000 people simply isn’t enough.

You are going to fold pretty quickly if your system won’t allow those people to give you their email details so you can stay in touch with them in the future.

I have a system called Infusionsoft and a package that starts to tremble at 500,000 people – no that’s not a typo that’s half a million people securely stored before it even starts to get antsy.

There are many other great CRM systems out there but always be certain you can talk to someone who can answer your questions very quickly. Always check their customer service hours and rates before you sign up.  Some now charge you big bucks if you want to speak with them – they have you over a barrel if something does go wrong and this then becomes an expensive mistake on every level.

Don’t just sit idol

Be promoting the event yourself, just don’t sit back and leave it to the promoter – help the promoter promote you by promoting them! It’s a win for everyone if you do.

Ensure you are wired to stay in touch

Link up your Facebook, twitter, newsletters, blogs etc to your website (tell me you have those!) – we want to create as many opportunities for new people to interact with you as is humanly possible.

Are You Mobile Friendly?

High numbers of people now view your website via mobile phone devices or iPads - make sure they can see you and not just a jumble of rubbish that they will click out of fast.

You have 10 seconds or less to impress

Stats show you have around 10 seconds to interest and hold the attention of a new web site visitor. Ensure your site is ready to serve immediately – that your core message is communicated within the first 10 seconds - hello and welcome – is not a good opening – they need to understand immediately what’s in it for them to stay.

If you fail to captivate and capture that 10 second opportunity you can be assured it will be a lost opportunity unless you can figure out how to get them back.  Think about it, why would someone return to anything that failed to appeal the first time - this really is the time to get it right the first time.

Form meaningful relationships

Then once all these wonderful opportunities are harnessed – you need a way to go back and form meaningful relationships with your new Facebook friends, Twitter followers or newsletter subscribers - or by whatever means you have captured them. Again if you want to keep these new people in your circle of light for the next few years, you are going to have to start reminding them who you are and how you can serve them …. without scaring them away with hard sell tactics.

If you've built it - they can come!  

Great opportunities need to be taken seriously and you need to take yourself seriously.

If you want to be seen as an expert and present yourself to the world as someone worth working further with, you need to be ready, have invested in systems that not only work but will take the load.

Now is not the time to rely on free services that are patched together with band aids.  If you want people to take you seriously, you need to take your  IT seriously and learn what you need to do to be successful out in the big wide world of the internet.

All too much??

Best book a complimentary session with me if this overwhelms you but you know you need to get this right.  Not being ready for opportunites can cost you in SO many ways.  It may be the one time in your whole career where you have the world come to your doorstep. You need to be ready to offer a big slice of home made cake and a big soft comfy sofa to sit your guests on.

Most fail to offer their internet friends and visitors even the most basic of hospitality and wonder why they don't stick around for a chat.

Show em you care, form meaningful relationships and give extreme value and they will stick around for a very long time ….. and isn’t that what we are about – being of service to others for a very long time?

*GoDaddy’s CEO has taken a lot of flack from PETA over the elephant shooting incident. I don’t condone the shooting of anything, but sometimes things get so far out of whack I can at least see why it is necessary to protect villager and their food supplies. You can read his response on his blog and discern if his product is right for you. As for the racy ads – well those women have choice and they are being well paid for the sponsorship and why should the guys always get these highly paid sponsorship deals – again discern if this is right for you.

A New Way To Voice Your Business

Technology can be a great friend to us in business.  This blog post was written or rather spoken into speech recognition technology and then edited.

As this technology becomes easier to use it makes posting a blog a really simple exercise.

All you need to do is simply talk what you want to say and the technology transcribes that into text for you.

I downloaded a free Dragon Dictation app to my iPad - pressed the red button and the inbuilt microphone picked up my voice and the software converted it (mostly OK) to text within seconds.

I just spoke into my iPad and then e-mailed the document to my main computer for editing - how cool is that!

You can edit in the app screen but I think its always a little easier to do it on the big screen.

What I find though with my funny Kiwi accent is that it can sometimes get the words horrifically wrong but I figure I was going to be typing it anyway and that can be fraught with error!  Plus I always find it easier to edit text that has been written for me, rather than writing it from scratch and then editing it.  After I email the text to myself, its simply just a matter of going in and editing something that is already 90% written.

I could see how technology like this could really help you if you are a two fingered typist.  It would help you do things a lot quicker and also be able to get the message out faster and in your unique voice. 

I think it's brilliant and as time goes on the technology will get better and I'll learn the words it has trouble with and adjust the way I speak.  With each step forward it will mean less time at the screen, less time at the desk and more time having fun at what we love to do, which is helping people.

You can also use the technology to do posts to Facebook.  That's really easy - press the red button - state what's on your mind - edit from the iPad and press the share button.  You would of course need to be connected to the internet to have it post, but the software runs on mobile phones as well.

I daresay there's lots of ways you can use this software and I'd have to say wow - pretty cool - pretty fun!

The only downside is that it just records in short bursts and so you have to record little bite sized chunks and send them through.  I'm sure there's a paid version somewhere that will allow me to make longer recordings, but until it totally frustrates me, I'm happy working one paragraph at a time!

Are you the irritating or cool kid on the facebook block?

This cracked me up today when I received it from Tina Forsyth in Canada. She is promoting social media training and one of her people wrote this to her:

"This [video #1] really resonated with me I am in that social media car right now. I thought my GPS was programmed then disaster struck. Those storms we've all been having knocked the satellite out of orbit and my GPS has crashed. I started off following people I tried engaging with them but its like I'm that irritating kid all the other kids hide from. Tina and Lena, I really need to be one of the cool kids and master my social media online - will you both help me?"

There were long periods of advanced "uncoolness" for me when I was a child and this funny but very true observation really resonated with me.

As a quiet observer of social media I've seen a lot of "suckiness" - "trying to push into the cool gang" - "try hards" and "skites" - the latter we were never allowed to attempt as kids - over tooting your own horn was seriously frowned upon.  As I've grown up, I've come to realise a bit of shameless self promoting is definitely ok when you really have something to celebrate..... but everyday - pleeeazzee!

Social media to me seems to imitate life - the internet in general is amazing in the way it does this.

Yesterday a friend was sharing the massive cull she had in her 5,000+ facebook list stating she couldn't be meaningful with that many people. I'd confess I don't know this person well but she sure went up many notches in my eyes with that one simple post.

As I sit looking in, I see yet again how being in your truth shines through and how having the guts to cull your list when everyone seems to be racing around friending everyone in sight and liking for the sake it, is the flavour of the day.  Their shallowness shows in these activities as much as they would if you ran around a cafe shoving business cards in the face of total strangers.

I've had a few of those float through my life over the years in many different guises.

When I was playing in bands you used to get it a lot - people loved to hang with you just because you were the band.  They never got to know you or figure out who you really were, they just wanted some of whatever they thought you had, to rub off on them.

At one point there were so many people in the band corner where we used to sit between sets, that the band couldn't even get in!  Curious because they were the worst seats in the house and you couldn't actually see the band properly from that corner anyway.  The actual band members eventually had to sit in the kitchen because there was no room for us.  The band corner was still pumping though, but they hadn't noticed to actually BE with the band you would need to move to the kitchen, but they could go to work the next week and tell all their mates they were in the corner "with the band".  Such is rock and roll!

But the people who truly were "with the band", were the ones who helped us pack up two ton of equipment at midnight and load it into the van in the rain, or consoled us when we bombed - those people's names I remember years on.  In fact I can remember every line on their face, every challenge they encountered and every tear they shed, because they just weren't there in the good times, we had a two way relationship and we were there for each other for the long haul.

It may take a little longer but being yourself, building meaningful relationships and speaking your truth, not just what you think everyone wants to hear will bring much longer term results.  I'm starting to observe a lot of people culling their lists - not just facebook but all lists.

Infusionsoft my new CRM system recommends culling your list every six months.  That was a very hurty place for me considering how hard I worked to build it.  But I figure they know more than me, so I've been putting pressure on my list to see who remains standing.

Remember that old saying from the 60's - it always had an accompanying butterfly picture :-)

If you love something
Set it free ........
if it comes back its yours
if not it was never meant to be

In a three month period I have lost a few, certainly not as many as I expected which is lovely but curiously the ones who left had never actually transacted anything major with me.  My new CRM system tells me a lot about people and guess what - most of the people who flew the coup were all the ones who had floated in, picked up the free stuff and left when the pressure went on.  So very rock and roll!

The other few were people who came on early in my ramblings and my message has changed and no longer serves them because they aren't therapists.  The rest have stayed put, I guess because the message is still meaningful or I've done things in the past that allow me some slack.

I've come to the conclusion, whether its business, life or facebook - shallow relationships don't always create long term gain.  It seems to me there will always be a place for smaller groups of loyal people, and from my experience, they are the coolest kids on the block!

Teleclasses Add Value on SO Many Levels

What are Teleclasses?  Quite simply - learning on the phone!

These days the technology is simple to use and generally free of charge, so starting out is very easy.  It's like anything - the more you do them, the better you get at them.  So I just encourage people to start somewhere and then figure out the finer details once they are confident in delivering their messages over the phone.

Teleclasses have been around for ages but they are still not widely used by therapists and I really want to change that, simply because teleclasses are such an easy way to get your message to many more people.

The benefits of teleclasses are wide and varied but here are Top Ten I love the best:

1.  Amazingly cheap (no room hire or travel costs)

2.  Convenience (you don’t need to leave home)

3.  100% efficient use of your time (no need to factor in traffic or public transport)

4.  Location friendly (you can do them from home or the office or the beach!)

5.  You can work with a greater audience because it is not location specific - you just need a phone or broadband.

6.  Classes are recorded so your participants can listen again until they fully grasp the concepts

7.  You can sell the recordings on your website or create CD’s and create passive revenue streams

8.  You only need a landline telephone

9.  No fuss  - you can do the class in your pyjamas if you like

10. Its fun and easy!

Anyone can do it - well almost anyone!

If you want to know more about teleclasses you can go here 

I run regular classes so you may wish to jump on board and learn how and then start to find the benefits of running your own teleclasses for your community.  Click here for details of the next class

Some Different Ways to Discount

There are many different ways to discount your services without cheapening your brand.

If you want to fill some empty spaces in your diary fast, a lot of therapists are posting what I would call "cheap and dirty" offer on discount websites.

In fact it seems to be all the rage right now.  This site is a broker for the discounters www.allthedeals.com.au and will give you a list of all the different sites that allow you to advertise.

Indeed it is just another great way to pull new people into your practice.  It's most certainly a spray and pray tactic in that you spray out the message to a vast number of people, praying that it hits your ideal client.  Spray and pray tactics give you little control.

Its also a PUSH tactic meaning you have to push into a crowd to get a result.  My system much prefers PULL tactics where you build relationships that pull people toward you.

A pull tactic is much easier because eventually it surrounds you with people who know and love you and they want to love you more.

Push tactics often solve short term problems and fill gaps in your diary, but they may not sustain the business well, because you haven't qualified the people yourself.

A pull tactic means just by being you, you have drawn people to you via your opinions and by your ability to show your expertise in a particular area.  This takes longer and so a pull strategy is a long term way to get clients, but it a sure fire way to ensure you end up with a practice full of clients who love everything about you.

The difference is subtle but a pull tactic requires a bit of time to build the relationship, but once people who have experienced you a few times are ready to work with you, they require very little conversion because they have already decided that they know and love you.

These people may have been sitting as prospects on your newsletter list or have been following your blog, or they met you at a speaking engagement and became a facebook friend.  In these instances you have given them a taste of what you are all about before they phone you and they feel as if they know you.  If you build any sort of relationship with a prospect, the chances of them booking something with you, goes up the more they relate with you.

So internet advertising (that isn't targeted) is a lot like a virtual letter box drop - you are marketing to total strangers who have no idea who you are.  The pluses are that it doesn't cost a lot to get to a heap of people, but your advert may not bring huge results because the people looking at your offers, won't know you and may not be the type of people who want and need your services.  But if you only want to sell a couple of spots each week in this discounted category, then its another way for you to get the message out.

However, you need to consider if you are cheapening your brand.  

You also need to remember your current clients, paying top dollar may find these sites and wonder why you are overcharging them.  So as always discern if a service like this is right for you.

Using the discounters will potentially bring a lot of tire kickers, people who consume the cheap massage and then never return - that is a big risk in these types of offer.  But if you have your rebooking patter down, and encourage them to book again before they leave after the first treatment - then you have a potential loyal customer in your midst.  It's the strength of your re-booking patter that will determine the long term value in advertising on discount websites.

I believe you have to be careful about discounts - you can end up sounding like K-Mart if you are constantly discounting, and people just end up wanting to pay less and less for your services.

I'd consider other ways you can discount, without just slashing prices.

Maybe consider a discount club, where your current people may pay say $20 a year or month to join - up to you to decide the fee.  But the joining fee would get them access to your "last minute club" for a year.  The difference being that the available spaces in the club spots may be a bit random and they don't get to have regular times with you.  That way you are only offering discounts to certain "last minute" types who like to book last minute.  This type of strategy allows you to fill what is known as "distressed space" - someone has cancelled an appointment or you just have a gap in the diary.  The other plus is that you get back some of the discount back via the membership fee.

You could also consider a "come on short notice" deal for specific types of people - small business owners like me who have control of their own schedule or hospitality workers who have the whole day to themselves or are finishing work at weird times.  These types of people could come in your downtimes.  All you have to do is email or text them with your downtime specials and they can jump in and grab them. 

Its about getting creative with your discounts and making sure you don't end up with a bargain basement style practice.