Facebook is our happy, never-changing friend, right? We wish. Thanks to Facebook’s tweaking and algorithm changing, many pages are struggling to get attention. It’s hard to keep up with all of the changes, but there is one thing that can get you noticed: Graphics.

Designing a graphic for an article or as a promotion for your page can be the best thing that you can do to gain traffic. The right graphic can draw interest, intrigue, and maybe even a smile. Is it hard to make? It depends. Some of us are techier than others, and yes, that can matter when coming up with a graphic. But, with a little tenacity and time, you can graphics that help build your fan base.

Tip #1: The More Recognizable, The Better

If you have a page about Canadian TV, having graphics featuring Yannick Bisson from “Murdoch Mysteries” would be great. For a US audience, maybe not so much. To draw attention, you need to use images that are recognizable to your audience. Memes like this are great because they allow the viewer to understand the product or purpose without spending too much time doing so. We all love instant gratification – and using a recognizable image can do just that.

To those in the know, Detectives Murdoch and Watts. For those not in the know… two winos in period clothing.

Likewise, an unfamiliar image – or an image that has nothing to do with the product – can potentially cause harm (see tip #5 below). If you don’t, or can’t, use a recognizable image in your graphic, use bright, contrasting colors.

And that leads up to…

Tip #2: The Right (or Wrong) Colors Can Make (or Break) a Graphic

What’s your favorite color? Do you use it often in your graphics? I love blue, but since Facebook’s background is blue, that does me zero good when making Facebook graphics. It will just fade into the background, and all of my time and effort is wasted.

Instead, study color charts. Use highly contrasting colors and designs to get attention. Make your graphics tacky and noticeable.

See how the brighter colors look amazing with the black background? Studies have shown that a darker background – with the right contrasting colors – does wonders for a Facebook graphic. Try it – and be amazed at how well your graphics perform.

Likewise, bright colors work too. Just make sure that the colors contrast nicely (like the above graphic), because colors that are too similar fade together and cause confusion. No one wants to struggle to read a graphic.

Tip #3: Graphics Rule

Do  you need to use a recognizable character for every single graphic? Absolutely not – in fact, it’s good to mix it up. Another graphic type that does well in studies is the graphic that contains a chart. We all love visualization, and reading a chart versus reading the written outcome is preferred by nearly every living humanoid (my sarcasm here – not an actual fact).

You don’t have to use such a color-saturated graph – simple graphs work too. Try it out on your page. See what works. Line graphs, pie graphs, scatter graphs… try a few out, and see what gets the best response.

Tip #4: Use GREAT Graphics!

If you have scrolled social media today, you have came across many graphics. Think of the most memorable: Good coloring, clear, crisp, sharp. You need – heck, you must have clear graphics. Crystal freaking clear graphics. A fuzzy image doesn’t look professional. Generic images that are used over and over don’t look professional. Use PowerPoint to create awesome graphics – it’s easy and there are hundreds of tutorials online.

Don’t fall into the meme trap of reusing someone else’s graphics. Use your own. Be original. Be clear. Be awesome.

Tip #5: Rep Your Product – and Rep it Well

Regardless of how cool and clear and catchy your graphics are, if they do not correlate with your content, you’re screwed. You must have relevant graphics! This is a huge reason why some of your generic graphics and memes aren’t doing well. You need on-topic, fresh, relevant content. It isn’t hard to do, and by using Canva or PowerPoint, you can save a template and reuse it – albeit with new photos and colors.

What are they trying to sell? A TV, of course.

Where’s the lard? Nowhere. This ad is confusing, even though “lard” is in all caps.

If your words and your graphics do not correlate, you have another problem. The young lard-lovers above could really love their lard, but the ad doesn’t show it. They look happy(ish), but what are the selling?

Let’s try it again without the wording:

What are these two trying to sell? Toothpaste? Wine? Sparkling cider? Without the words, we haven’t a clue. With the words, it’s still iffy, because the image doesn’t have anything to do with the subject: LARD.

Tip #6: Use “Actionable” Phrases

One of the best things that anyone can do when making a graphic is adding an “actionable” phrase. Actionable phrases can range from:

• Click here to learn more!
• Message us for more info!
• Let us know in the comments!

The more contact you get from your audience, the better. You not only show up more often in their Facebook feed, but you will show up more often on all of your audiences Facebook feeds. The more contact, comments, likes, share, the more organic traffic your graphic will garner.

Sometimes people need that not-so-subtle nudge to go through with the action. Don’t be afraid to ask them to do something.

So, what now?

Get to work! Or better yet – start playing around with PowerPoint, Canva, or whatever your favorite graphics program is. There is nothing wrong with playing around with graphics until you get it right; few of us master it on the first try. Try out different graphics, and see what works best with your audience. We all know there is no harm in trying, and if you don’t try, you’ll never know the results.

So you need content for your business. It can’t be that hard to right a few paragraphs, right? Technically it isn’t, but if you are trying to market this content on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google – heck, anywhere – you need to make sure you have good content. Great content. The best damn content for your business.

Can you do that? I’m sure that you can with enough practice, time and research, but do you honestly have the time?

Below are the top 5 reasons you need a content writer.

Reason #1 – You Need a Constant Flow of Original Ideas

If you don’t have a constant flow of original ideas to write about to create your content marketing, at some point you will get stuck and may get discouraged from moving forward with your promotional content altogether.

Trends change, even in the steadiest of industries. You need to keep atop of these changes to avoid looking dated. Best-in-class content writers keep up with these trends, ensuring that you are always a step ahead.

Since content marketing is so crucial for the promotion of your business, hiring a professional writer will assure you to have an ever going content flow of original ideas turned into content that is going to promote your business 24/7 and as result, your business will stay profitable.

A “constant flow” doesn’t mean just staying a day or two ahead, either. The best content writers schedule weeks ahead of time. This takes a lot of time, organization, and dedication, so it is best to invest in a professional (it isn’t that pricey, really!) if you cannot dedicate the time needed to do so.

Reason #2 – You Need to Know how to Create Persuasive Content

It’s amazing what we were able to get away with content marketing 10 years ago, but things have changed big time since then.

Today, not only search engines have become smarter ranking quality content better than non-quality content, but the competition is 50 times fiercer too.

What this means for you and your business it’s that you need to find a way to create informative, entertaining and yet persuasive content that is going to get you noticed by your market.

Why does your target market should be interested in reading your content more than that of any of your competitors?

Being able to answer that question can really make a huge difference for the success of your business.

If you are not able to answer this question yourself, though, a professional writer will be able to answer it for you and create persuasive content that will attract your target market.

Reason #3 – You Need to Write Content on Schedule

If you can’t keep up with your content schedule, then hiring a professional freelance writer is definitely a must for you.

Writing content on schedule for your blog, if your blog is where your potential clients find you the most is crucial. It’s also crucial if you are posting this content to  your social media pages.

Your reader is more likely to be returning to your blog if they know you post the same day of every day or week.

In my experience, the same time everyday works best for a website – and when using social media, consult your insights and analytics to see the best times to publish based on the best audience times.

Reason #4 – AN UNBIASED LOOK

You know how great your company is. You know how amazing your products and services are. And you know exactly what you mean when you say something. But does your audience have any clue what you mean?

A content writer doesn’t have the personal attachment to your business that will blind him or her from seeing the real meaning of your content. Sometimes that “great” content you wrote doesn’t mean anything to anyone but you. Other times it sends the completely wrong message. It’s the old case of, “Well, I know what I meant.” But what you mean doesn’t matter at all. It’s what your customer gets out of your content that matters.

A content writer will take the message you want to share and make it come to life.

Reason #5 – The Algorithms Always Change!

Facebook is our steady, never-changing friend, right? Wrong! Facebook’s algorithms are always changing, and unless you stay up on these trends, you will miss out on important changes. Remember the catchy headlines from a year ago, like “You’ll Be Amazed At What This Flight Attendant Did!”?

Yeah, those are clickbait, and Facebook doesn’t play with that. Clickbait headlines, vague headlines, off-topic headlines, and headlines that have absolutely nothing to do with your brand are not organically promoted by Facebook. Clickbait is the death nail when you are looking to capitalize on written content.

SEO also matters – even for written content. In the quest for SEO, quality content reigns supreme. Search engines prioritize high-quality content over curated, unoriginal copy. Your best shot at SEO comes with a team of first-class writers.

But Wait – CONTENT WRITERS DON’T KNOW MY BUSINESS OR MY INDUSTRY!

The most obvious concern with hiring a content writer is that he or she isn’t an expert in your field. How can someone who doesn’t know all the inner workings of your services accurately convey what you do to your potential customers?

Well, in many cases, a content writer will actually convey those details much better than you could. A content writer’s unbiased opinion and view of your industry can actually help you create more diverse (yet applicable) content that you may have not even realized you needed.

A website content writer is trained to write for the right audience. Any good writer can do the research necessary to create your content. And he or she can do it a lot faster and more effectively than you can.

Content writing is an essential part of the web design process. By hiring a content writer, you can ensure a fluid process and a seamless final product. Don’t let bad copy ruin a great website.  

Facebook’s newest revelations have screwed up most (if not all) of our paid marketing campaigns. You’re spending your hard-earned money to get fewer results than ever. You’ve tried everything…

So, what can you do? Allow me to break it down for you, and then I’ll elaborate below.

First, stop your campaigns that suck. That expensive stuff? Turn. It. off.

Second, start focusing on your organic traffic. Organic traffic is free – so why not take advantage?

Yes, it takes a bit more work than just paying for the likes, shares, and comments, but it is well worth it.

And third – Use the tools online (and on Facebook) to help you gain the most organic traffic possible. Really, it’s possible – and we know from first-hand experience.

Tip #1: Do Only What Works & Do It Well.

Hey, if it works, it works. If featured photos of half-naked women on motorcycles work for your page, keep using them. Just don’t tell anyone we told you to do that…

Just kidding, but seriously – if a certain topic draws more interactions, keep posting it. It’s natural to want to branch out, but when it comes to drawing organic traffic, you need to stick to what works for your page – as boring as it may seem to you at times.

How to Find the Organic Content That’s Working

In order to post more organic posts that work, you’ll need to assess what’s working. To do that properly, you’ll want to understand which content your audience responds best to. That will help you decide what kind of content to create and share, maximizing your chances to get traffic from Facebook. This should be done for ALL posts, organic, paid… always do your research!

To find this information, navigate to the Insights tab from the main Facebook page.

This will tell you how many people saw your posts and how many reacted, clicked, commented or shared.

Pay attention to post clicks, as this will tell you how many people are following links back to your site, and which posts successfully achieve this.

Factors that affect clicks might include:

• Post topic
• Length of your description
• Content type (image, video, blog post, etc.)
• Day of the week
• Time of day

Try putting together a basic spreadsheet (or folder – whichever works best for you) to list your most-clicked posts and the details listed above. You might be surprised at what you find!

Once you identify what your top-performing posts have in common, you’ll know what works best to get your audience clicking.

How to Work Out When to Share for Maximum Traffic

One of the secrets of success with social media content is sharing it at the right time. There’s a lot of research around on the best time to post on Facebook.

According to Hubspot and Coschedule, Thursday to Sunday at 9am, 1pm and 3pm are the best times.

Of course, that doesn’t mean those are the right time for your fans. To get maximum traffic and engagement, you’ll need to post when YOUR actual fans are online.

You can find this information easily on Facebook. Go to Insights » Posts » When Your Fans are Online. You’ll see the days and times your fans are most active. Make a note of these and check it  (it can change), then use this information to schedule your Facebook posts for those exact times.

Tip #2: Use The Experts

Wouldn’t it be great to learn how to get traffic from Facebook by optimizing your page? That’s exactly what Likealyzer offers.

While Facebook provides tips on improving page performance, these can often get lost in the wash of other notifications. Likealyzer analyzes your Facebook page and provides concrete recommendations for improvement that’ll make your Facebook content more visible, and therefore drive more traffic. Here’s how it works.

There are two ways to use Likealyzer. First, you can search for a page using the onscreen search box.

You’ll be able to figure out:

• How your Facebook page compares with others in the niche
• What the mix of content is (presented in a much more user-friendly way than Facebook itself)
• What’s working well and what needs improvement

The beauty of Likealyzer is the simple recommendations for making your Facebook page even better. Not only will you learn how to drive traffic to your Facebook page, but how you can get more engagement on Facebook and traffic to your site from that page.

Tip #3: Buzzsumo

Yes, that name is a tip itself. If you are running written or graphic content and are not using Buzzsumo, start doing so now! It’ll keep you updated with the LATEST things that are trending. Which should be a constant goal for any marketer, on any platform.

Content that gets widely shared on Facebook will attract more web traffic. The question to ask is: how can you find out what Facebook users like AND use that information to tweak your own content strategy?

Buzzsumo is the perfect tool to help answer this. It collects and tracks social sharing information and is a great way to figure out what Facebook audiences are into right now, this very moment.

How to Find the Most Shared Content with Buzzsumo

And to get the most from Buzzsumo all you need is a free account. Once you’re logged in, click on Content Research » Most Shared, then enter your topic. We’re using “makeup”.

Use the filters on the left to select types of content and time frames. If you’re not happy with the results, you can click a link to search content only with your search phrase in the title.

By default, the results list is sorted by Total Engagements, but you can click the Facebook Engagements link to see which content is most popular on Facebook.

How to Use Buzzsumo’s Facebook Analyzer

You can also use Buzzsumo’s Facebook Analyzer for more detail on Facebook content performance. To use it, click on Content Research » Facebook Analyzer, then type in your topic. We chose “email marketing”.

I also recommend checking the Search Headline Only menu item to avoid getting results for content that wasn’t about your topic.

The results appear on the same page and you can sort them by likes, comments and shares, depending on which metric is most important to you.

Tip #4: Try Interactive Content

Research from the Content Marketing Institute shows that quizzes, games, and contests are two of the most effective tools used to raise awareness about a company.

How to Drive Traffic with a Facebook Contest

If you want to run a Facebook contest, you’ll need to make sure it complies with the guidelines for promotions. In particular, you’ll need to:

• Make it clear that Facebook isn’t in anyway responsible for the contest.
• Avoid asking people to share on their timelines or tag friends to gain entries.

The good news is that you don’t need special applications (apps) or complicated software to run a Facebook contest. One of the simplest ways to run a Facebook contest is to ask people to like your page or comment on a post to gain entry into the contest. It’s that simple: Ask for a comment, and you shall (normally) receive! This will help to build your audience, which is part of increasing traffic. And it helps to offer a prize that will really interest your Facebook fans.

Alternatively, you can run a contest on your blog, and encourage people to share it on Facebook and like your page for entries. Many people use software like Rafflecopter to do this, as it includes a free plan.

Using contests boosts engagement, which will send more people to your page. PostPlanner runs one Facebook contest a month, and has seen an increase in page exposure, engagement, and leads as a result.

How to Drive Traffic with a Facebook Quiz

You can also use Facebook quizzes and polls as traffic drivers. Facebook has a quizzes and polls app for pages that lets you quickly create this interactive content.

However, a better option when thinking about how to get traffic from Facebook is to use an external app. As Heyo explains, if you embed a quiz on your own site and encourage people to share it on Facebook, everyone who wants to complete the quiz has to come back to your site. Heyo calls this a closed loop system.

One travel company, Afar, uses quizzes as part of its marketing.

Not only did the results link back to site content, but 25% of those who completed the quiz left their emails with the company. Score!

Tip #5: Make Sure Your Likers & Commenters Are Fans

Let’s face it: if they already like what they see, liking your page isn’t a big step. Sometimes all you have to do is ask – and asking is absolutely free.

Here’s where you find that information.

Go to the bottom of any post and see where the reactions to the post are listed.

Click on the names and you’ll see a list of everyone who’s reacted to the post. Anyone who doesn’t already like your page will have an Invite link next to their name. Click the Invite link to ask them to like your page.

Over time, this will increase your audience and traffic as more people take this offer.

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Are you ready to get massive amounts of organic traffic? Are you afraid? Excited? Let us know!

More Facebook Algorithm Changes Will Bring Struggles For Those Unprepared

The next time you think about posting “Which version of my new book cover do you like the most? A, B, or C?” on your brand page, you may want to think twice. Here is why, and it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Facebook’s algorithms are highly likely to classify your post as so-called “engagement bait.” Starting this week, Facebook will begin demoting individual posts from people and pages that use engagement bait. In other words, a post where you ask your readers for a vote on a post may be “punished” by Facebook.

How Engagement Bait Works

Engagement bait is a tactic to create Facebook posts that entice people to interact with the post through likes, shares, comments, and other actions. The purpose is to boost engagement and get greater reach on News Feeds artificially. We have all seen these types of posts. Some are annoying; some are simply stupid, some are even fun — but Facebook considers them all spammy.

They typically fall into five categories:

React baiting: Asking people to react to the post (includes like, love, haha, wow, sad, and angry).
Comment baiting: Asking people to comment with specific answers (words, numbers, phrases, or emojis).
Share baiting: Asking people to share the post with their friends.
Tag-baiting: Asking people to tag their friends.
Vote baiting: Asking people to vote using reactions, comments, sharing, or other means of representing a vote.

Well, we have probably all been guilty of this at some point (at least I have.) But from now on, posts and pages that use any such tactic will be demoted.

People have told Facebook that they dislike spammy posts that lure people into interacting with likes, shares, comments, and other actions. To battle these tactics and promote more authentic engagement, Facebook teams have reviewed and categorized hundreds of thousands of posts to inform a machine learning model (artificial intelligence) that can recognize different types of engagement bait.

Latest News Feed Changes Overall Hit Author Pages Hard

But the issue for authors and publishers is not one about Facebook regulating clickbait. The fight against clickbait, fake news and engagement bait is one that has to be fought. But all these

measures come on top of recent Facebook algorithm changes that increasing diminish the organic reach of business pages on Facebook.

Remember: the news feed algorithm regulates whether your fans see the content you post on your business page.

In September, Facebook announced another change to the algorithm that determines what people see in the news feed. The Facebook headline was:

“News Feed FYI: Showing More Timely Stories from Friends and Pages.”

One way of showing timely content higher-up in the news feed is to show people stories about things that are trending as soon as they occur, so you can immediately know what your friends or favorite Pages are saying about the stories of the day.

In October, the social network officially launched its secondary news feed called Explore. This feed generally features posts from Facebook Pages users do not follow. The main news feed, meanwhile, hosts posts from friends and pages that users do follow. However, in six test countries, Facebook removed page feeds (unless paid) altogether from the users’ main news feed.

Then, November 14, Facebook published additional information about the algorithm changes directly impacting business pages:

“All of this means that Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.”

In other words, if you write a post promoting your most recent book, only a fraction of your page fans or friends will see it. If your fans do not follow your page, your post is going to end up in the alternative news feed, not the main feed, if it shows up at all.

And if you do the math for an organic promotion, you immediately see where the problem is. This is an arbitrary example: 5% organic post reach times 10% click rate means only 0.5% of your fans will arrive at the Amazon page. If you then multiply with a 10% conversion rate, the book sales you are going to get are close to zero (0.1%). In other words, given these assumptions, you would need 2000 Facebook fans to generate 1 sale with a Facebook post relying on organic reach. Can your page do that right now?

Evolution Or Revolution?

Facebook, from its outset, has struggled with the seemingly opposing objectives. One is Facebook’s original purpose of “being a social network” where people see and share what they like (i.e., babies and kittens). The other goal is about maximising profits from advertisers who clog our news feeds with the latest buzz about their products and services. And that includes authors and publishers who buy ad space on Facebook to promote their books, clothing, and cleaning services.

It seems the pendulum between the competing objectives is currently swinging back towards Facebook’s purpose as a social network—not in a black white fashion, but to some extent.

According to an analysis by Parse.ly of referral traffic to over 2,500 sites, the world’s biggest social network Facebook has been pushing less and less traffic to content. Google officially reclaimed its spot as the top source of referral traffic.

But What About My Business Page On Facebook?

Wait a minute. Isn’t it the case that many authors were told that they should build up social media presence, particularly on Facebook? Many businesses have built Facebook pages for their brands, book series, or services. But over the last years, the organic reach of Facebook pages has reduced significantly.

Remember, organic reach is the total number of unique people who were shown your post through unpaid distribution. If you had 3,000 fans on your page and you reached 300 (10%) with a post, you could consider yourself lucky. And these days, the percentage is so much lower.

The fact is, Facebook wants you to pay for your reach. Facebook wants you to run ads and “boost” your posts.

And the cost of doing so is going up and up and up. Facebook does not even argue with that. David Wehner, CFO at Facebook recently commented:

“In Q3 [2017], the average price per ad increased 35%.”

But for small businesses such as indie authors and small publishers, there is also a question of affordability.

If the cost-per-click or cost-per-conversion continues to rise at the rate it currently does, the ROI of Facebook ads that try to send people to the Kindle Store to buy a $2.99 e-book is simply no longer there (if it ever has been.) Running ads will be by definition be an expense or luxury, not a way of generating a direct positive return from resulting book sales.

In other words, entrepreneurs will have to rethink how they can best reach their readers. If you solely rely on Facebook, you may want to review your strategy now.

Of course, Facebook will remain a key channel for time to come. But perhaps it is time for businesses to reconsider off-line promotions, putting more emphasis on list building, fan clubs and other means of engaging with current and potential readers. (No, I do not have the solution.)

The old rule in life holds so true in internet marketing: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Because when a giant starts moving just a little bit (in this case Facebook), it can cause an earthquake for the many “little fellows” around it.

Do you work alone or do you have a team?

When you have a team, that team is the key to all of your productivity. However, it doesn’t just start and stop with “hiring a good team.” Keeping employees motivated and engaged is the job of their team leader. This may be you or it may be someone else that you’ve hired to help. In this article we share 15 ways to not just keep employees productive, but increase your productivity by a 1000%.

If you work alone, we’ve got your back as well – next week we’ll release the solopreneur version of this article so, stay tuned!

Okay, back to the team…

Employees can be hard to motivate. There are 16 personality types out there (and far more sub-versions of each), and chances are your employees are comprised of many different versions these.

If you want to increase productivity – you have to motivate these employees. Simple as that. With these 16 personality types, there are many ways to motivate people. The tricky thing with staff is that since not everyone is the same, not everyone is motivated the same way. So, you need to employ a number of techniques to ensure that your motivational message is getting across. Below are the top 15 ways to get your staff motivated today.

1 – Incentivize

Incentives can do wonders for getting your staff motivated. Be it extra vacation, or movie tickets, or dinner reservations at the hottest spot in town; there are many things that you can do to incentivize your staff to hit their marker. This can work for sales and marketing roles, as well as customer service. The clearer you make their marker, the better. That way they know exactly what they need to do to reach that incentive.

However, some people do not respond well to being given something. Some are more language-based when it comes to receiving compliments. So, for those people you don’t have to change the whole game but it will mean a lot to them if you throw in  card, or express thanks with your own words, when awarding them their  incentive.

2 – Instill Trust In Your Staff

Letting your employees know that you trust them is something that not only motivates them to do their job, but it creates an atmosphere of mutual respect. If you have ever worked for someone who was domineering and never complimented any employee, you know what it’s like to feel undervalued. It may actually be part of the reason you became an entrepreneur in the first place.

A lack of trust can demotivate an employee completely, causing a decrease of productivity, business losses and more. From errors to snapping at a customer or another employee, a frustrated and under-appreciated employee is bad for not just you but your entire team. And can start a negative domino effect fairly quickly. So, trust them and appreciate them. Not sure how to do that? Verbally is a great start. Don’t make things complicated. Simply let your employees know they are trusted by telling them exactly that and asking for their opinion on projects. A little will go a long way.

3 – Have Smaller Goals for Your Staff

Most companies set big monthly goals, especially for their marketing teams. While one large goal per month can motivate some, others are scared away. Smaller weekly or monthly goals work better because they immediately boost morale and confidence in a team. As a result, productivity and numbers grow after a few weeks or months of the employee hitting their smaller goals. They catch the bug. Hitting targets is contagious! As they gain confidence, and you gain sales, so it’s a huge win-win for everyone. Smaller sales goals are also great for when business is slow – so don’t be afraid to have your staff hit the town with business cards and a good conversation piece.

4 – Give Them a Purpose For Working

Sure, a paycheck is a purpose, but a paycheck can be found anywhere. When people are given a purpose or a why, they can  better realize and contribute to your vision of the company. This not only boosts productivity but that helps build mutual respect – and that is huge in the business world. Even if it is someone who cleans your salon every week, mutual respect is a big deal. Let’s be real here: People talk – and the more clarity you offer around WHY your business does what it does, the more that talk is about that why. A ‘why’ brings in more business, motivates employees and provides purpose, drive and energy for growth. Do you share your ‘why’ with your employees enough?

5 – Radiate Positivity At Work

Being positive all of the time is impossible. But it’s important to acknowledge and understand the effect it has on your employees; even the ones you interact with virtually. Sharing a ‘best foot forward’ personality and being positive in the workplace works wonders for your staff morale. They not only see that you are energized by the business, but that you realize that minor issues are just that: minor. You move on from the little things and continue with the bigger mission. When you bring a ‘solutions based’ way of thinking to the table, negative vibes go out the window. You’re job as a leader is to be pragmatic and motivational. Positivity will fuel that.

6 – Be Transparent – With Everyone

This can be hard, especially if you are an introvert, but being transparent with your staff is one of the best things that you can do to help keep everyone and everything on track. Give an “open door” policy, so they feel comfortable coming to you with a work issue. This not only helps resolve or avoid issues, but it helps your staff recognize you as a human – and not just as the boss. How does this boost productivity? When people feel more like a community with a leader and less like minions with a boss, work becomes the reason you ARE a team, and not a burden you share as a group.

7 – Motivate Individuals, Rather Than the Entire Team

Going back to the 16 personality types, as a leader you’ll need to understand that everyone responds to motivational techniques differently. Some respond to actions, while others respond to words. Some absorb what you are telling them, and others take a little more prodding for the words and actions to take hold. One way to avoid jumping through hoops to figure out what motivational technique your staff responds best to, is to have the entire group take a Meyer-Briggs personality test. Including yourself! This is a great tool to get everyone tp better understand each other, and create a work environment that will be a more productive, more positive place for everyone.

8 – Learn What Makes Each Employee Go Red in the Face

Everyone is different, and sometimes people do not tell you upfront whether something is wrong. So, you may have to take the lead and be the first to talk. Ask questions. Be inquisitive. Ask what they do and don’t like working on, share the big picture company goals, respond to their questions and ask your own questions. Discern their goals and then invest in their professional growth. Be a leader. During one-on-one check-ins listen to their ideas, because they know the best about what they do. Respect them and they will respect you, and give their all to you company’s purpose.

9 – Practice Reward-Based Feedback

This is something that works well for those with or without commission-based sales. Some of us are simply not good at selling anything, so missing out on commission-based rewards can be demotivating. One way to rectify that issue is to have a reward for the friendliest staff member, or the staff member who has worked overtime without any negative comment. You will be surprised how much motivation and productivity this boosts. Do not underestimate the power of a smile and some positive motivation.

10 – Prioritize Their Work-Life Balance

Fun is important. Especially at work. Are you encouraging your employees to have fun with their work? The simple fact is, the more we look at work like play, the better, more productive we are at it! Encourage a little silliness in the office to instill this practice; Be sure to be it special dress days, or themed dinners for the staff. All work and no play will drive anyone mad and to complete burn out. Be silly, encourage play. It’s all about the mindset after all.

11 – Have an Open-Door Idea Policy

It’s amazing how much rapport a “please” and “thank you” can establish amongst a team. When people feel respected and acknowledged, progress and motivation come more naturally. An open-door policy when it comes to suggestions and ideas also works – and you can learn some cool new ideas from your staff. When employees feel that their voice matters, they feel confident about their positions in the company and that they have more at stake than just a paycheck.

When people feel important, their work reflects that. They are energized and feel full of purpose.

12 – Let Them Lead

Motivating employees is not just an exchange; It’s about showing them they make a difference and are valued – and a lot of leaders, bosses, and company owners completely miss this point. Every time you have a meeting, be it large or small, let a different team member lead the conversation and the topics discussed. Not only can they share their opinions and be heard this way, but they are motivated to make their words and ideas happen afterwards. It’s also nice to see if they have a shared view as the others staff, and it makes them feel appreciated.

13 – Produce The Bigger Picture

It’s important that employees understand the big picture purpose to their work, and can see that what they are doing in the moment will eventually contribute to an end goal. Sometimes is can be hard to do this, especially in an industry where it doesn’t seem like there is an end goal, but there is always a why. Whether it was to create better marketing plans, provide training on how to sell something online or just give AMAZING hair cuts; bring this point up with your team constantly and remind them that what they do impacts this. T Give them tasks and projects to work on and make sure they understand how this fits into the big picture. Talented employees will go above and beyond what you expect of them – and that will show itself off to the customers, too.

14 – Have Recognition Rituals

Whether it’s a monthly meeting or a dinner or a special event, make your employee recognitions known and a ritual. It makes it even more special to the person receiving the recognition when it’s done publicly – and it is a good motivator for getting your staff onboard for future projects. Those not being recognized will also feel the energy created by the recognition. Gratitude is contagious.

15 – Assume That People Want a Good Job

Sounds odd, huh? It shouldn’t. People innately want to do well. They want to do a good job and feel accomplished, and feel like they are a part of something. Give the them the opportunity to fulfill on this and enlist a little faith that their main objective matches yours. 

Over the last year or so, you have most likely heard about and probably even watched a webinar presentation online, or two or eight.

Webinars have become one of the most effective ways to educate an audience on your area of expertise. And establish your position of “knower of a few things” in that particular area. They’re a great way to distribute content in a one-to-many fashion and simultaneously build your list of prospective customers.

Whether they last 30 minutes or 90 minutes, chances are, if you’re doing them well, they are packed with valuable content, powerful testimonials and great offers for those who are ready to take action.

But…

Webinars are NOT an overnight production. They can take days or even weeks to organize and develop into the masterful presentations they become.

So…

How do you make the best use of your webinar content after spending countless hours in creating it? How do you make that webinar work for you, create more business and nurture your leads and customers… over and over again?

You repurpose it!

As a boutique digital marketing agency with high-end clients, we understand the value of a high-performing webinar AND the secret value of reusing the content to reach and connect with new audiences, build a larger list and convert more sales. Just using all that content for a webinar is almost a shame.

Over the last few years, we have locked arms with a number of our clients on their webinar campaigns and had tremendous success in repurposing their content. Some ways work better than others but it all depends on the specific content you are teaching and who your audience is.

There are many reasons why we believe, with numbers to back it up, that using your content from a well-planned webinar is a smart, strategic move…

First, it allows you to work smarter, not harder. So many people feel the need to create so much new content in a short amount of time rather than diving deeper in the content they have created in the first place. And not only that, but to a potential customer just learning about your area of expertise, small chunks of content pulled from a very large, long webinar, can be FAR more easily digested and retained.

Secondly, it allows you to stretch your resources by leveraging multiple types of content formats. In laymen terms, there are a lot of different types of learners out there – visual, auditory, read-write and kinesthetic. By repurposing your content onto and into different formats, you are able to reach a larger audience in their preferred style.

But what does this look like? Exactly how do you suggest I play chop-shop with my webinar?

Glad you asked!

Below are the 5 most popular and most effective ways to take the quality content from your webinar, chop it up and double, triple or even 10x your audience.  

1. Truncate webinar recordings into short videos

Let’s be honest, in today’s fast-paced world, most people don’t have 60-minutes at once to sit down and consume a webinar. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t need that dish of awesome business that you’re serving.

One of the best ways to share your products, services & solutions with those who aren’t able to watch your presentation, is to chop it up into short videos! By doing so, there are a number of ways you can utilize the content; uploading them onto youtube, creating video tutorials, using them as free resources on your website and more!

With more than 10 hours of media being consumed per day in the U.S. alone, and a growing amount of that time devoted to videos on devices (not just TV) , you simply cannot go wrong by turning your hard work video content. Think shorter, more accessible videos that spread like seeds across the social networks.  

2. Turn it into an email campaign

With over 1 billion business-related email accounts out there, and over 50% of emails being opened on mobile devices in 2016, go ahead and leverage the power of email marketing! Put the content of your webinar before your leads’ eyes again!

There are two ways you can turn your webinar content into an email campaign…

First, let’s continue with the idea of videos. Once you have chopped up your webinar into smaller clips, extracting the 3-5 key elements of your presentation, you can build a 4-6 day email campaign around it.

How? Simple.

Let’s say you discuss four major take-aways and solutions during your webinar. Your next step is to cut out the sections where you discuss these in the  webinar and break them up into four videos. Make sure they are no longer than five minutes each. Now you’re delivering a deep dive of value and information on your given topic. Once complete  these videos will produce about 15-20 minutes worth of video footage to use for your email campaign.

After the videos are prepped, create an email campaign, which can run from 4 – 14 days and encourage people to view the videos. From there the possibilities are infinite between tracking and follow-up.

This is a great way to reuse masterful webinar content, engage with the audience and deliver value to those who may not necessarily have shown up for the full viewing.

3. Turn leftover Q+A into a blog

Most webinar platforms today offer the ability to engage with your audience LIVE during the webinar through a chat box or question & answer section. If you haven’t used it yet, be sure to play with this feature on your webinar platform. Direct questions and feedback become  huge resources post-presentation, as I will show you in a minute.

Imagine having the ability to directly engage with your viewers, ask them questions, create suspense and make an online experience not only interactive but more fun? THAT is what you create for your webinar attendees when you utilize the chat/Q&A feature of your webinar.

But it gets even better.

Save the questions that get asked in the Q+A box during your presentation. I don’t care how; get a report emailed to you, download the chat weekly from your evergreen webinar, write those babies down, but store them somewhere safe! These are gold.

After you have settled in from all the excitement and successful results you created from your live webinar stream, take out the list of questions. As you read them over, watch for common themes, questions asked repeatedly, and perhaps more information you could have delivered that would have helped make the answers more obvious. Some of these might be “where do I click to buy?” Those are the questions I am talking about. I’m talking about “but how did you do that with your X product?” And other conceptual based questions that inquire about your product and/or service. These people have done a beautiful thing; they’ve set you up to tell them more about what you and your business can do for them!

Almost needless to say, over the next few weeks it would be extremely advantageous to compose a few different blog articles based around the questions you received.

Chances are if one person asked a question – at least one or two others had the same question. So for what reason would you not use that to your advantage?  

Give some insight into the questions that were asked on the presentation. The sooner the better as the content is still pretty fresh in your viewer’s mind and may still be on the fence for purchasing your product or service. If you were REALLY motivated, you’d then take those blog posts and actually create some retargeting campaigns to the audience that viewed but did not buy.

The biggest benefit to repurposing your webinar content into a blog article (or more), is to keep the lead (viewer that did not buy) engaged. Your job is to take this content and  give them even more value in new ways. Always be thinking: how can I reach my potential customers today? This is the very reason we repurpose the webinar in the first place.

 BONUS:  You have, or at least should have gathered, all of your webinar attendees’ email addresses and added them to your list. Now send out an email with a link to the newly posted blog article on your site!

4. Create an ebook

Ebooks are a great way to deliver content to your audience, and reformatting those key elements from your webinar is one of the easiest and most effective!

For a small fee you can have someone transcribe your webinar and either edit it yourself or have a copywriter do so. Easy as that!

This is a great resource both for attendees of the live presentation as well as a new audience that you can market the ebook to. Either way, its an easy way for you to churn out more quality content that your audience can consume on THEIR time in a format they may like better than the original video.

BONUS: Send this out as a free gift to those that attended your webinar!

5. Create an infographic from your webinar’s core concepts

Infographics are one of the most effective and concise ways to deliver insight and value to an audience. They’re sexy, simple to understand, fun to consume, effective,informative, can be printed, and often get shared organically on social media.

The best way to create an infographic from a webinar is to take the key 3-5 concepts that you shared, as any good webinar should have, and break each one down into a few bullet points or sentences that get the overall message across. Obviously, a 1 page infographic isn’t going to reveal every point made on an hour-long webinar, but the purpose of an infographic is to get the main points across in an effective and well-illustrated manner. Actually, to illustrate this VERY point, we’ve gone one step farther and made you an infographic from this blog. Grab your own copy here.

==>> Grab your own copy here.

It’s important to remember that repurposing content doesn’t mean that you simply copy and paste the same message into a different format. You will want to make an effort to personalize each version so it fits the platform you’re publishing it on. Remember, your leads, customers and colleagues will respect you for the quality of what you distribute, not how much. Now get repurposing!

You only have to do ONE thing to truly increase your leads AND continuously turn those leads INTO customers.

This one thing can mean the difference between a lead Xing out of your order form OR signing up for a lifetime subscription of your product. Or perhaps it’ll be the difference between a lead hitting the ‘download now’ button or clicking off your website entirely. Or maybe it’s going to be the difference between a new lead opening your email or marking it as spam. It affects ALL of these scenarios, ALL the time. 

And that one thing is…

‘Sharing.’ 

And by this, I don’t mean the ‘Share’ button on Facebook.

Of course, your market research, sales funnel, content marketing and security tested, and having a Google-ranked website are all important elements of an online business.

But are you sharing?

Let me explain, as it’s highly important you don’t mistake or interpret this version of ‘sharing’ for giving any of your business away for free OR pushing sales pitches all the time.

If you want to increase the business you’re doing, you need to share what you know. This can be accomplished in infinite ways. Here are a few:

  1. Writing for your own blog

  2. Guest blogging for other’s blogs

  3. Vlogging (video blogging)

  4. Creating a free group on Facebook where people can learn more about what you know and reach out to you for help

  5. Posting on social media about the latest trends you’re keeping up with and concepts/products you’ve recently learned about

  6. Sending out a newsletter to your list about a new product/concept you think would be valuable to them

  7. Offer 3 people the opportunity to try your latest product for free for a limited time in exchange for feedback

By no means do I suggest you offer yourself or your products up for free… but the fact is: you sharing actively about what you specialize in, whether it’s making socks or building online sales funnels, is often the difference between your success and failure.

This is about more than positioning yourself as a guru or the expert of your field. It’s more visceral, more emotional and much more raw than that. The importance of ‘sharing’ in business boils down to this: if you don’t care enough about what you are selling to share it, why should other people care enough to buy it from you? It’s that simple.

This is your livelihood. Do you care? Do you share? I’m not just making a bad joke here, I’m making a very expensive point, for those of you still choosing not to.

This (your business) is the reason you get up in the morning. No more of that BS about waiting for the weekend. As a business owner (and a person that exists on this planet of awesomeness) you have to LOVE what you do and what you’re creating enough to shout it from the rooftops.

Did I go too far with that one? Maybe you’re not proud of what you do. Maybe you’re stuck. You need a different blog post altogether then.

My point is that when your “work” or business becomes your true passion, it should feel easy to share.

Not there yet? Dreading your Mondays? Google Gary Vaynerchuk and watch every single one of his videos and then come back here. 

Moving on, here’s a quick example to make the effect this ‘sharing’ thing can have a bit more clear:

I have a friend named Joe Hughes. He is, to say the least, an incredible horse trainer. As are his kids. Joe and his family are helping to save the wild horses, Brumbies, of Australia. In order to do this, they are training them and then rehoming each horse. Great idea, right?

Here’s the catch: Joe and his family live in the middle of nowhere. Literally. They have thousands of acres in New South Wales, Australia. We’re talking the kind of place you need four-wheel drive all year long.

So what does Joe do? He shares.

Every step of Joe’s horse training method, 4BP, is available online via the videos he shares daily on his Facebook page. You can watch and learn how Joe trains these horses, start to finish. He’s created and shared videos covering all kinds of scenarios that come about during the training process; fearful horses, stubborn horses, mare, stallions… and the list goes on and on.

Joe is now reaching over 100k people per week organically and that’s JUST on Facebook. So, what has sharing these videos done for Joe and his family? It’s created free, organic traffic that has peeked the interest of thousands online. Rehoming these horses just got not only easier but more lucrative; their value has increased with the growing interest from the masses. People from around the world now know who Joe and his family are. 

Due to the effect of this sharing, Joe and his family are now positioned to begin selling merchandise (which they have begun to do already), as well as advertise for people to come and learn the training method first hand. People are sharing about his training with other people and a network of supporters has formed. But most importantly? Joe and his family can continue on their mission to work with these horses and make the world a better place. Their efforts are now being received globally. Just through sharing, an entirely new world of possibility and opportunity has opened up. 

So what is the lesson here? Share.

If you do nothing else for your business today, share. I don’t care which social media, website or email service you use – just SHARE. Get your message out, your why, and all the parts of what you do that light you up.  

You are your biggest asset, and after you, it’s those you reach. 

The more you share – the more that reach will grow – and the more you’ll find yourself learning along the way as well. Your goals and targets may begin to shift and morph as new connections present themselves. The more connections you make, the bigger your network grows, the more leads, customers, friends, colleagues and possible partners you’ll meet along the way.

You’ll never know what kind of opportunity you’re missing out on until you share. 😉 

Over the last several years, we’ve launched countless online courses both for clients and ourselves. From personal development courses, to Facebook trainings, to health and wellness programs – we’ve done it all!

Some crushed it and some…well, got crushed.

Combined, these launches have resulted in millions of dollars invested and over $10,000,000 in revenue.

The other day in the office, as we were preparing for our newest product launch, we were talking about the lessons we’ve learned over the years of what it takes to enjoy a successful launch. We realized that there are tons of elements and actions that nobody tells you about when it comes to launching a successful online program.

So, we decided to change that.

From sweat equity to marketing tactics, we wanted to share our Top 21 Secrets nobody will tell you about launching an online course.

Whether  you are someone who is in the middle of a launch, launched or simply planning to launch an online course someday, this is a must read.

My message point blank: you caNOT launch an online course without these 21 secrets. You would be committing marketing suicide. Read up and launch away:

1. Sell your course as a proof of concept before launching.

Save yourself time, money and a whole lot of energy and do this immediately.

When launching an online course your goal should be to sell it to cold market leads that have turned warm through your funnel. However, before you go out there and attempt to sell cold (or rather to people who honestly don’t know you from a fly on the wall), sell it to people one on one!

If you can’t create desire for this product from people offline, and with someone who already knows and trusts you, you’re digging a hole.

In fact, many of our clients sell their course before they have even created it!

Now, you’re probably thinking….what?! How do you do that?

No, no…you do not have to be a magician and create it hours after you sell it.

The proper way to do this is to first host a webinar, sell your product for a future launch date (usually 30-45 days out) and if people buy it, create it! This way you know there is a market for what you are selling, and even people who have invested in your course before you’ve created it.

2. A big Facebook advertising budget does not guarantee your course will be profitable.

Just as money can’t buy you real friends, it also can’t buy you success online.

There are some marketers out there that will tell you the bigger your ad budget, the bigger the success – which is simply not true.

A big Facebook ad budget is great once you have your campaign dialed in and producing results, because now all you have to do is pour some more money in the pot and scale.

But this simply is not the truth fresh out of the gates.

Testing always comes first, and during a testing phase your advertising budget should be small. You go slow and steady and collect as much information as possible while you’re learning what works best with your target market.

SYour best bet is to spend a little money ($10-20) every day until you are producing good results (conversions that make you a profit) and are happy with your targeting. T and conversions…then, and only then, should you think about scaling and ramping up that advertising budget!

3. You’ll want to procrastinate on the big things.

This is not your boring high school paper…. you won’t want to procrastinate on your launch. After all, this is your business!

When you get to the techy stuff (integrations galore can appear out of nowhere), some of it can take long hours and you don’t want to leave it to the last minute.

This is the kind of thing you want plenty of time to test for – and not to procrastinate on. Leave yourself room for errors, troubleshooting and getting things working properly.

Email campaigns, merchant accounts, integrations, webinar platforms, split tests, web pagess and every other finely tuned integrated piece of your launch must be functioning at 100% come the day you turn traffic on.  Without these you are compromising your result before you even get your first CPC.  

Repeated testing prior to the launch makes a huge difference.

Go through each step of the process, multiple times, to ensure that you have a well-oiled machine for your leads!

4. Affiliates won’t sell your course, they will generate leads for you.

While JV’s and affiliates can be great partnerships, they aren’t often going to sell for you. This is your business and you are responsible for the bottom line. What you set up and put in place is what will make the difference – not the people pitching it. 

Remember: Affiliates are lead generators. Not salesmen (or sales-women!)

Most of these partnerships will require you to do most of the work; have the product created, already sold (with data to prove it), have email campaigns deploying, established webinars, etc. Many affiliate partnerships will only involve an affiliate emailing their list with an email you wrote. This is not uncommon and is still wildly useful!

Sure, it can be a great way to grow your reach and fill your lead pipeline, but the dirty work all must be done by you first. Do not forget this. Do your homework and partner with people that will generate leads within your market. 

5. Payment plans can boost sales.

As you have probably seen across the market, the required investment for participating in an online course can range anywhere from $47 to $25,000 depending on the type of course and the value it delivers.

If your course is offered at anything over $697, it will generally benefit you to offer some sort of payment plan, even if this means the customer is spending an extra 10% over time.

Most people simply don’t have an extra $1000+ sitting around in the bank, as scary as that sounds. So, by you allowing them to pay in multiple installments, you highly increase the odds of them saying “yes!”

6. Your course name matters.

Okay here’s the thing: Some people overthink this and you get titles like:

How to Profit by Selling Somewhere between 5-20 Pandas on the Internet for Fun on Tuesdays but not Fridays and only when your first name is Jeffrey Smith

OR the opposite happens and they totally under think the name and get this:

How to Sell Pandas

The name matters!

You want it to stand out enough that people remember it but be clear and conscice enough to convey what it’s teach quickly.

You can get gimmicky later on and come up with shortened names like: Amazon or Lululemon. But initially – your product name needs to be clear and catchy.

Using those principles (let me repeat: clear and catchy), the best name for this course would have been:

How to Sell 7 Pandas on the Internet (except on Fridays)

This last option does 3 things:

– Conveys quickly what the course is teaching

– Gives a definitive target or goal for the customer that’s interested

– Has a little bit of added humor

Have some fun and be precise!

7. You will constantly be answering questions

If you are going to put yourself out there and share your message through a course your are selling, be prepared to answer questions.

How much does this cost?

What will I receive from it?

What have others done with what they’ve learned?

Do you have testimonials.?

And on and on…

While most of these questions will be for the customer to rationalize in their head why they should or shouldn’t invest, we know this to be a bunch of noise.

People don’t buy based on logic, they buy on emotion. If they are asking analytical and logical questions, they are in their head and are more concerned with failing than succeeding.

Either way, you are the product creator and the educator, so be prepared to sell, sell, sell!

8. People buy why you created the course just as much as what the course is about

Every module, activity and video in your course should relate back to both your mission and the problem you are solving for your audience.

As Simon Sinek, a world renowned thought leader and author of Start With Why says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

When people are reading your sales letter and investing in your course, they want to buy into your mission and your purpose just as much as they want the results from your course.

Be sure that all of your content and messaging is congruent with why you do what you do and let it shine through on a whole other level in your course!

9. Plan to spend long hours writing email campaigns

One of the most underrated aspect of an online product launch is the emails that are required.

Each time we launch a product, one thing we make sure to do is set aside many hours devoted to writing emails…

– Welcome emails (download a free gift and brief introduction)

– Indoctrination emails (getting to know you)

– Engagement emails (encouraging them to take specific action)

– Webinar sequence emails (before and after)

– Cart abandonment emails (people who leave your site with unpurchased products in their cart)

– Follow up emails

– And the list goes on…

Whatever your product or service and however you want to slice the pie, there are still going to be a number of email sequences that have to be drafted, edited and added to your autoresponder, and this takes some time!

Can you outsource this task?

Yes, however, if it is your first campaign, it is imperative that your voice shine through these emails. So, if you are going to outsource, be sure that you have gone through to outline the emails and that the copywriter knows your style and your message.

10. Plan to spend some quality time crafting your sales page

Your sales page is extremely important, so plan ahead to invest some quality time into it.

It is the last thing people see before they buy and you want it to cover a lot of ground.

A good sales letter will talk about:

– Your mission and why this is important to you

– A tiny bit about you in order to achieve credibility and authority in the niche

– Who the ideal audience is for the course

– The layout of the course

– Handling common objections that may arise for people and…

– Testimonials!

While all of these are important, testimonials are crucial. People want to know if others have achieved success with what they are about to purchase. Its reassurance that the course is worth what they are going to pay. 

11. Most people won’t finish any of the online courses they buy

No matter how good your course is and no matter how good you are, most people won’t finish the online courses they invest in.

Why? Simple…

Most people don’t take responsibility and really ever finish anything they put their hands on.

However, here is a golden opportunity for you!

Knowing this fact, allows you to upsell your customers with accountability and coaching sessions. Some will and many won’t go for this. But the ones that know themselves and are truly committed to what they are seeking (the type of customers you want) will invest the extra money and have you alongside for the ride.

If you choose to go this route, it is extremely important that while you invest time and energy into your clients’ projects, you cannot afford to emotionally attach yourself to the outcome. Many times, even the clients that hire you for your accountability and coaching support will not follow through and finish the course.

It’s just the way of the business.

12. People don’t buy your expensive marketing, branding and design, they buy you and your course!

While the branding, design and marketing of your course is certainly important, if you have not done your market research prior to launching….you’re doomed.

Too many entrepreneurs think that they have the next big thing that everyone on planet earth will not only want but will buy….until they launch.

When you get to the bottom of what makes a launch successful, it is NOT the marketing, branding or design, although they do help; it is the value you portray and the results they will receive from going through your course. Period.

Don’t waste thousands of dollars on a high-end customized website when you could spend the time that is required honing and crafting your message for your audience.

13. You’ll want to throw in the towel at some point before you launch

Somewhere along the way, you will get tired, burned out, frustrated, annoyed, stuck and will want to throw in the towel.

Don’t.

You’ve come too far!

Your mission and purpose for launching your course must outweigh any of the obstacles that can and will land on your path.

Remember, you are not the only one who has ever launched an online course, nor are you the only one who has experienced challenges while doing so.

If you really are ready to throw in the towel, take a break – maybe even put it on the side and listen to your heart. If you can’t stop thinking about it for the coming days and weeks, pick back up where you left off and proceed with a fresh mind.

Once you’ve launched, no matter the results, you will realize it was all worth it!

14. You will question your value as a human being if your launch is a bust

Simply. Not. True.

While it is quite natural, as human beings, for us to question our worth and value if a launch does not go as planned but understand, that is all just a story in our head.

Your mind will do this because you probably have seen some experts out there run a launch for an online course and crush it, bringing in millions of dollars.

There is a great saying that squashes those stories in your head…”Don’t compare your chapter 1 to their chapter 21.”

Just like a batter in baseball, if you strikeout on your first launch, take a seat on the bench, regroup, strategize and re-launch!

Never. Give. Up!

15. Week 1 of your course can prevent a majority of refunds

While not everyone will go through your entire course, almost everyone will at least move through the first week or two…so make sure it rocks their socks!

your first week is really lousy, unengaging and uninformative, you may be doing some refunds.

On the other hand, if it is fun, engaging and really helps them move closer towards accomplishing their goals, you’re good to go.

Most people offer a 30 or 60 day money back guarantee to ensure their customers enjoy their experience through the course. However, we suggest offering a money back guarantee with a little asterisk that says they must go through the entire course AND complete all related work in order to receive a refund.

Think about it…if you are launching a course you truly believe will allow your customers to achieve x,y,z when they put the true work into it (like you did in creating the course), you have to stand by that.

Believe us, there are a lot of tire-kickers out there who really have no intentions of building much of anything in their lives but will invest in tons of courses, events, coaches, etc. to feel like they are progressing. These are the ones who will ask for a refund. So, if you require them to go through the course and complete all of the work that comes with it, not only does it make it harder for them to ask for a refund, it will hopefully lead them towards their dreams.

16. Round 2 – Instead of creating a whole new course, simply relaunch

Just because your first launch doesn’t go as planned, doesn’t mean your course needs to be scrapped. Often times, the launch simply needs to be re-strategized and marketed differently.

Entrepreneurs are creatives at heart, but don’t let all of your hard work and effort go to waste simply because you didn’t succeed your first time around.

If you followed step #1 above, then all you need is a relaunch, not a new course.

17. It’s the same amount of work to launch a low-priced course as it is a higher-priced course

As we spoke about earlier, online courses can range in prices. Finding the right price for you can be a little tricky.

Sometimes you feel that launching at a lower price point will lead to more sales and a higher one will scare people away.

Whatever price point you go with, be prepared to work. $47 courses and $7,999 courses are often the same amount of work.

The good thing is, you can tweak your price once you have started the launch. Sometimes you’ll want to move it up and sometimes down, depending on the response.

My tip – start off on the lower end for what you feel is the going rate in the marketplace. It’s better to underpromise and overdeliver, causing you to increase prices a little bit over time rather than shooting for a high ticket course and overpromise, underdeliver.

18. Everything takes longer than you think it will

The good old saying of Murphy’s Law, “What can go wrong, will go wrong” is ever so true with an online course launch.

Not only will things take longer than you expect, they often won’t work properly like you expect them to…

Email campaigns won’t trigger, ads will get disapproved, your show-up rate to your webinars won’t be what you expect and the conversions won’t produce the results you were hoping for.

Which is ALL okay!

That is the fun part about launching a course online.

Stick it out and deal with one thing at a time. Trust me, it will all work itself out over time…so, give it time.

19. Customer service matters – before, during AND after the sale.

Do NOT underestimate this. Your customer service/follow-up is one of the most important elements of your funnel.

How do you engage with the best possible customer service?

You nurture new leads.

New leads with questions who are willing to reach out and check your FAQ page, send in an email question, use your chat feature or pick up and call your customer service team (or you) on the phone, are INFINITELY more likely to become customers… and repeat customers!

The more you take care of these people, the more likely they are to purchase not once, but many, many times.

Not to mention, they’ll be more likely to reach back out with more questions, give you more ideas for improvements to your products, provide you with testimonials, engage on membership platforms AND recommend you to their friends.

Think of it this way: If your funnel were the framework of your car, customer service is the oil that makes it run. The blood of your funnel.

20. Regardless of how many times you test…$h*t happens

Does it seem like you’ve heard this a few times so far?

Because it is true!

It really doesn’t matter how many times you test the sequences and all the tech stuff associated with an online course launch, things will go wrong (aka – $h*t happens).

Always, always, always leave time for testing before rolling out the official launch. The last thing you want to happen is for the emails not to trigger or the webinar malfunction, landing you with a big fat bagel in your bank account!

Once you’ve launched and are rolling, be sure to set aside time bi-weekly for further testing. As the funnel is flowing, more leads go through it and you make some tweaks, there is a tendency for things to glitch out once in awhile.

At D4Y, we believe there is never too much testing!

21. You are fired up and ready to go…until your competition launches days before you

This WILL happen. Every time. Who cares?!

You have to remember that your course is different because of YOU. So remember to infuse YOU in it.

This exact thing recently happened to us. For a few hours we pondered if it was still worth launching…but of course we did!

We are unique and attract a different demographic than our competitor who has a much bigger reach and been in the game much longer.

Just because someone else plays guitar and sings the same kind of music as you should not hold you back from sharing your message with the world and pursuing your dream.

First things first, what is Brand Identity?

If we go with the technical definition according to the American Marketing Association, Brand Identity is defined as the representation of your company’s reputation through the conveyance of values, attributes, purpose, strengths and passions.

In laymen terms, your Brand Identity is what sets you apart from the rest of the noise out there.

Without it?

You’re just trying to scream louder than everyone without developing a voice that communicates with your target audience on a deeper level.

It’s not just about your product or service anymore. It’s about who you are, what you stand for, and why you do what you do.

Nowadays there is more noise and more competition than ever before.  We went from an average of seeing 4-6 advertisements per day 50 years ago to seeing an average of 400 per day, just within the last few years.

It’s safe to say that with so much competition for your audience’s attention now, that the new way to stand out is to RESONATE with them and make them feel understood by you on a deeper level. We are no longer in a transaction-based marketplace but rather a connection-based economy and in this new environment, Brand Identity is KING.

Let’s review…

We are no longer in a transaction-based marketplace but rather a connection-based economy. You have got to understand what this means! So, keep reading…

Customers are looking to engage and connect with the brands and businesses support, making it ever so crucial that businesses reciprocate with their audience.

In a transaction-based marketplace, people are willing to buy with you because it’s convenient, it’s simple and you have what they need.

Today, in our evolved connection-based economy, customers want to support the brands and businesses they are loyal to, even if it costs a little bit more or is slightly out of their way.

So, what is the best way to capitalize on this information and identify your brand identity?

Keep reading and you’ll soon understand the 4 major points that will help you craft your brand’s identity!

1. Identify Your Brand using Carl Jung’s 12 Archetypes

Chances are if you’ve ever seen a good movie, the entire story line was modeled after one of the 12 Archetypes. An archetype (which originated in Ancient Greece), is simply a universal stereotype used to tell stories that are relatable.

Here are the 12 archetypes as listed by Sparkol.com

1. The Innocent aka The Dreamer/Romantic – Think McDonalds

2. The Hero aka The Superhero/Warrior – Think Nike and Michael Jordan

3. The Regular Guy aka The Good Guy/Everyman – Think Carling

4. The Nurturer aka The Saint – Think Ford

5. The Creator aka The Artist – Think Apple

6. The Explorer aka the Seeker or Wanderer – Think The North Face or Indiana Jones

7. The Rebel aka Revolutionary or Outlaw – Think Harley Davidson

8. The Lover aka The Idealist – Think Victoria Secret

9. The Magician aka The Visionary – Think Disney

10. The Ruler aka The King/Leader – Think Rolex or American Express

11. The Jester aka The Fool/Comedian – Think Old Spice

12. The Sage aka The Wise Scholar – Think National Geographic

Now, I’m not going to go over every single archetype but here are some simple steps you can take towards defining which of these archetypes has the most affinity with your brand and your audience….

2. List Your Strengths

This may sound overly simplified but this is exactly what you need to convey to a message to your audience as quickly as possible.

Who are you?

Some questions to answer to help you define this are…

– Funny or Formal

– Big or Small

– Boring or Surprising

– Reserved or Outspoken

– Stylish or Classic

– Inexpensive or Premium

– Masculine or Feminine

– Young or Mature

Your audience should be able to identify exactly who you are with every marketing message that you send. Simplification is the way to go.

Next…

3. Define Your Customers Needs

Each of the Archetypes above ha an equivalent message that resonates with that specific audience.

For example, the Rebel Archetype most resonates with that audience’s need to FEEL as if they are not subjected to the same rules as everyone else.

A need to feel as if the rules don’t apply to them….you know, like those big, bad, long-haired tattooed Harley guys and gals?

The ones that rev their engines as the light turns green so the whole neighborhood knows that a Harley just drove by?

How about Victoria Secret?

It’s as simple as FEELING sexy or romantic!

From the sleek see-through lingerie to the sexy, exposing bras and underwear, Victoria Secret aims to leave their customers feeling sexy for themselves and their spouse.

What does your audience need? Stability, comfort, freedom?

Take the time to diligently go through the 12 archetypes and find which one closest represents how your customers desire to FEEL…then implement that style into your brand!

4. What Makes You Different?

This seems to be the part that everyone wants to overcomplicate. But I’ll tell you a secret:

To be different, you don’t need to have some fancy, unique, selling proposition or tagline.

It truly can be as simple as communicating with your customers the WHY behind how you do what you do.

For instance, Flex.com donates 10% of their profits to 10 charities based on different colors for their watches. Each color represents a separate charity.

The why is because one of the owners lost his mother to breast cancer. So, they built a watch brand around an opportunity to raise awareness for a variety of different cancers out there.

This is what makes them different. 

They are not just another watch company, they are 3 guys with a purpose who just happen to be selling watches to make a difference.

In fact, to prove this point even more, let’s go deeper –

That same watch company almost went out of business because they actually tried to become something they weren’t…they strayed from their why!

With gold and silver big face watches being the trend today, they shifted from their bread and butter to try and meet the entire market rather than reaching more of the right audience who loves their original concept.

Entrepreneur and host of CNBC’s The Profit, came to the rescue, advised them to get back to their roots and remember why they began the business in the first place, struck a consulting deal with them and they are now back on the rise!

Your brand’s story is what’s going to separate you from the rest, the most.

Figure that out and you’ll carve out a bigger piece of the marketplace by authentically communicating this story and exemplifying why your brand is different.

Follow these steps to better define your brand, start including the WHY behind your business in all of your marketing and watch the needle move higher!

We work in a world where you can buy anything. Anytime. Anywhere. So receiving things and providing things has literally become a game, played most diversely and extensively by the digital marketing world.

Think about it. If you want to buy ice trays for your freezer, you might go to Amazon. If you want to buy a lamp, you might go to Overstock. If you want to buy, well, anything, you most definitely go to Google. 

All the things that we could possibly want are available to us at any time. At least in most first world countries.

What does this have to do with setting yourself up for a million dollar day?

Everything.

Only two things are going to make you stand apart from the noise of such an instant gratification driven culture.

And those two things are: YOU and the WAY you do what you do.

In the movie Across the Universe there is a moment and a quote that has been coming to mind a lot lately:

“Surely it’s not what you do but it’s the way that you do it.”

As an entrepreneur in this world, your success does not equal your client list, your bank account or the size of your house. These are all subject to change. Constantly. Your success is and always will be most driven and measured by the YOU that you show up as. Success is in the way you conduct business. Is it your best? Are you proud of it?

The way you conduct your business will determine the people you positively impact. And the quality of work you exhibit. Day in and day out. 

You might be disagreeing with me right now, but hear me out:

My barefoot trimmer is a perfect example. My friend and I have our horses’ feet trimmed every six weeks, as they need proper care even though they do not wear traditional horseshoes.

Many trimmers out there would come, trim, collect their payment and leave.

Not our guy.

He drives his truck carefully onto the property so as not to blow a ton of dust up. He takes his time and greets our horses, assuring them of their safety and his good intentions. Then he asks how the horses have been moving, taking in everything we have to say and asking more questions if he needs to. Then he assesses the way their feet fall to the ground, looks for nicks and chips and hoof health and tells us how he thinks their feet look. And throughout all of this he stays hydrated and takes care of his body while he’s working.

He has respect for us, respect for the horses, and respect for himself enough to take great care in the way he does his job. And in doing so, he sets these horses up for success. And it’s all because of the way he does his work; with care and patience and honor.

And guess what? He’s got a long wait-list of clients, has started to turn away work and is cherry picking the people and horses he really enjoys working with. He has positioned himself where he could easily charge more, too, if he wanted. 

Is this sinking in? The way he does his work is what breeds him more success. And the way he does his work is with care.

So, let me ask you, are you setting your clients and customers up for success? 

More importantly… are you setting YOU up for success? This will directly impact the way you do things and whether or not the best version of you is even available that day. 

Therein brings us back to the five steps to your million dollar day. Because if you set yourself up for success and take care of you, the way you do everything will be impacted. And by default your quality will be your best, you will set yourself apart from others in your industry and you will attract the kind of work you truly want. … And a million will be just the beginning. 

This isn’t to say it’ll be easy. But it most certainly can be simple.

Focus on these five steps and you’re setting a foundation of respect, care and personal authority that will go a very long way.

These are intended to be the very first steps of your day because the mind is in it’s most malleable state in the first few minutes of the day. Think of the following like 5 hacks into living your most successful life possible! 

1 – Got to bed early and wake up early.

Benjamin Franklin is quoted to have said: “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. 

He is also quoted as saying: “The early morning has gold in its mouth.”

You’ve been hearing this since you were a kid.

Get your sleep. Your body will thank you. And it’s true. Take enough care to sleep 7-9 hours through the night (again, depending on what YOUR body needs). This not only revitalizes you physically but also mentally. You’re more alert, quicker to problem solve and much more capable of making rock solid business decisions with a well-rested brain.

I’ve discovered through working from home that I prefer to wake up early and get my top priorities done early on in the day. I’m faster and happier when I do so. 

Grinding happens, too. And there are the inevitable late nights that sneak in. But that’s okay! Take naps. Find out just how much sleep your body and brain need to work optimally and consistently get it. 

2 – Make your bed.

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” – US Navy Admiral, William H. McCraven

While this may seem like a menial task…you’d be dumbfounded by the number of struggling entrepreneurs I come across that do not make their bed!

Why make your bed when you’re just going to get back in it later that night?

Making your bed, as simple as it may be, still requires discipline. You wake up to your alarm clock, your mind starts racing about your exciting day ahead, you slip out of bed and off you go. And then there’s some of us that actually stay in bed and just pull out the laptop. 

Dude. GET UP!

Actually getting up and making your bed sets the tone for your entire day. It’s the easiest way to start off with a ‘win’. How do you expect to pull off multi-million dollar deals if you can’t even find time to make your bed?! 

And finally… if all else fails and your day goes awry, at least you have a nice, neat and cozy bed to go to sleep in, preparing yourself for the next day’s adventures.

3 – Finish your day on paper first.

You’ve slept well, made the bed and now you’re at your desk. Or wherever you prefer to work. This next step is critical: map the day.

The great Jim Rohn said, “Don’t start your day until you have finished it on paper first.”

Meaning, you should know, in detail, what your day looks like from start to finish; what you will accomplish and what your priorities are.

Putting it all down on paper (or whiteboard or chalkboard or whatever works for you) and scheduling the day accordingly gets your brain to identify its priorities, and keeps those specific neuro-pathways firing and reminding you all day long. You’re now aware of what you need to do and therefore much more likely to do it.

Not to mention, if you get derailed by an emergency meeting or project, you’re not surprised or thrown off your game. You can on the fly ask for help, re-work your priorities and effectively communicate about those priorities with colleagues and clients.

Success begins with a plan. This does NOT mean that that plan is the only path to success, or that you will even end up following that particular path at all… but it most definitely starts with it.

4 – Fill your cup.

There’s an image floating around Instagram right now that says: “You can’t pour from an empty cup.” – Unknown

This could not be more true for me. And I bet you can relate.

If I don’t do something every day that nurtures me, my day falls apart. Truthfully, for me, it may not happen first thing in the morning, but so long as I can see it in the schedule (AND have blocked it off so no one can try to book me during that time), I’m good. I’ve learned this about myself.

Ideally, many will want to do it first thing in the morning; read a book, journal, workout or make a super delicious smoothie. It could be as simple as making a cup of ice cold, lemon water. SOMETHING. Anything to nurture yourself.

My point is this: find the activities that work for you. And if you can, do them early in your day. Your vibe, the vibe of your business and the success of the rest of your day depend on it. When you are full and feeling good, you’re brain and body are ‘ready.’ 

5 – Reach out to your network.

I love this quote:

“If your business comes from relationships, relationships should be your business.” – Doug Ales

Do not forget to nurture your network, talk to your colleagues and always be meeting people.

This doesn’t mean you have to go to your local grocery store and introduce yourself to everyone there. This really means: asking for help when you’re stumped, sharing a success with a colleague that will appreciate your win, sending out a free resource to your mailing list, saying thanks to a teammate that followed through on that project for you, giving kudos to those you see really kicking butt in your niche, making introductions between people you think could contribute to each other or sending work to a friend when your workload is full.  

Communicate. Connect. And contribute!

Be generous with your connections. Feed them, build them, talk to them and share with them.

“The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.” – Keith Ferrazzi

Find ways to be in touch and do it often. And do it early in the day. It will add fuel to your fire you didn’t even know was missing.

And there you have it.

Five steps… not particularly easy, but most definitely simple ways to set yourself up for that million dollar day. 

I wonder what time you’ll get to bed tonight? Who you will talk to and what kind of nurturing activity you’ll do? Please comment below if you’re feeling inspired!

Okay, so you’ve made it through the first four steps that will lead you to building a successful online business! Those 4 pieces to the puzzle, alone, can make you plenty of money… enough for you to quit your job and devote yourself full-time to your online business.

However, the game really changes with this fifth and final step. If you’re “in it to win it” and want the big bucks that will pay you for many years to come, let’s move right into the goodies!

Step #5 of starting your online business…

Keep building your list and selling value them!

When someone gives you their email address because they want your value-packed freebie… they are now on your prospective client list. When someone purchases something, you want to put them onto a customer list.

Treat these lists with love and discernment, they are worth their weight in gold.

Over time, these lists can and will make you more money than anything else if you treat it appropriately. That’s why you want to build an email list of customers… because if you treat them right and help them get what they want… they’ll help you reach a six-figure income and beyond.

Do not, and I repeat, do not send junk to this list… treat them like gold.  Send them incredible, life-changing information… and do so often.

Occasionally you can then recommend other products of yours or even affiliate products. NEVER offer them something just to make money. If they have been loyal enough to you and stay on your list, the least you could do is screen what you send them.

A good rule of thumb is to never recommend a product or service that you yourself wouldn’t or haven’t used. This way they know you have their best interest in mind. This goes a long way.

You can start by selling an ebook… then maybe webinars, DVDs, courses, coaching, seminars, other programs, there really is no shortage of stuff. If you have a good product and you treat your list well by helping them achieve their goals, they’ll continue to buy from you.

Over time, if you do nothing else but create value-packed products to continually sell to your growing customer list… you have the makings of a six-figure annual income.

While you’re continuing to grow your customer list, you should also continue growing your prospect list… those people who you’re trying to attract with your free stuff. You’ll always want to promote your freebies… and build a list of as many prospective clients as possible. The goal of any business is to have more leads than time…fill that pipeline!

Then, once they buy, they get put onto your customer list… which is 100 times more valuable.  That’s because it’s SO much easier to sell to an existing customer.

Action item here?

Go and scale! Keep bringing in new leads with your free offers, turn them into raving clients, rinse and repeat!

So there you have it. These 5 truths will help you start a successful business online.

Find a group of people with a major problem.  Then create a product or service that offers a solution to that problem.  Next, create a lead magnet that draws them in. Give them the freebie in exchange for an email address. Once you have their email address, then the fun begins! Create a sales presentation that entices them to invest in your full product or service.

Finally, build a list of customers who you can continuously engage with and market to again and again, selling relevant, valuable products.

It really doesn’t have to be any more difficult than that.

Hopefully you see that the entire process of building your list and making money online can be broken down into simple parts, together forming a system that can be repeated over and over again.

My wish for you is to apply these 5 steps diligently into your online business, create an impact for people out there that are searching for answers and live the life you’ve always dreamed!

Welcome back! So far we’re moving right along. We’ve covered finding your target market, creating a product and creating a lead magnet to lead to that product so that we can build a list. We’ve even covered your sales presentation to get people to subscribe and buy. If you missed any of these, check out the previous blog posts in this series of how to build your most successful online business.

Next step? You need to get people to SEE your freebies.

Step #4 of starting your online business: Promoting your content and lead magnets anyway you can!

A squeeze page, sales page, or any page on your site, without traffic is like a restaurant in the desert… no one will see it.

With so many ways to generate traffic these days, actually driving consistent traffic is one place where most marketers drop the ball. They just can’t seem to find enough people to give their free lead magnet to!

This is important because the only way to make a lot of money online is by creating lots of traffic. How can people buy from you if they do not see you?

That traffic should be created with the purpose of getting people on your list. If you don’t focus on this, you better hope you are selling a high-ticket product or service and making your focus the delivery of that. If that’s not your goal, you will want to make driving and optimizing traffic a primary action within your business. 

Your list, when cultivated well, will often be a HUGE income generator and your most profitable long term asset. How can a list of people opting into a free lead magnet become your most profitable asset? You must think about the lifetime value of a customer on your list… not just the initial sale.

I’ll say that again because it is UBER important! You must think about the lifetime value of a customer on your list…not just the initial sale.

In all honesty, you may not make a ton of money on the first sale, but over time, if you continue to engage with your list and present them with value and irresistible offers, it will really add up. What does traffic have to do with this? Let me explain once more: 

The more traffic you run to your free content and lead magnets; the more people opt onto your list; the more opportunities you have to offer these people value; the more opportunities you have to offer these people irresistible offers; the more likely they are to buy from you… and then to keep buying.

A well nurtured, engaged list of 10,000 people can be like having your own ATM that gives you $5,000 to $10,000 and beyond, any time you want! 

Here is a key point: One of the most important parts to creating a successful online business is building a list of customers who want to keep hearing from you and buy from you. Too many marketers create a product, build a website and then sit back and wait. And wait, and wait. And wonder why they’re not making any money.

You must actively promote your lead magnet and free content (and offers) any way you can. There’s no use having a valuable freebie if no one’s going to see it. You need to work hard at promoting your free offer and building your list… do NOT expect people to find you haphazardly.

The only way for people to see your offer and join your list is to generate traffic. I know I am repeating myself but I want you to really get it!

How can you generate traffic? Gald you asked! You can use tools such as Google Adwords, Facebook and about a dozen more traffic sources to grow your list faster. 

Your entire goal is to build a list of responsive prospects who WANT to hear from you and become customers. The way to build a responsive is to offer up valuable information, products, and services… and then promote them as much as possible. There is no short cut to what I just said; you have to promote; you have to drive traffic.

With the right content and enough traffic, you can get your list to buy from you, again and again… which over time, will build the foundation of a six-figure online business.

Now that we’ve talked about putting eyeballs on your offer…
Go out there, create some ads and drive some traffic!

So, now that we have identified our target market (those specific people whose problem you can solve) and created a value-packed lead magnet to use to draw our prospective clients in (that thing that begins to solve their problem), it’s time to put these prospective clients in front of some profitable offers!

Step #3 of starting your online business: Create a site that PROVES you can solve their big problem!

Now, once you have your target market, created a product or service that will solve their big problem, and you have a killer lead magnet to give away… you need to create a persuasive sales page or webinar on your site that PROVES you can solve their problem.

You can do this with a well-crafted sales letter or webinar. This is really nothing more than a presentation that gives prospects more information, content, and reasons why they should buy your product. It’s what you use to persuade the reader to buy. 

After all, you have to PROVE to people that your product can and will help them. There is so much noise in the crowded marketplace today making it vital that you stand out from your competition.

Your sales page or webinar is what does this. Once they’ve received your lead magnet, you’ll want to drive them to your sales page or webinar at some point in the funnel.

You can have a written sales letter, video sales letter, or webinar to do your selling. No matter the method, you must be persuasive enough to get people to open up their wallets and part with their hard earned money.

Again, they have a problem… you have the solution. The strongest way to show them how their life will improve when they use your product is to paint a clear picture for them using testimonials and case studies.

Think of your sales letter or webinar as your 24/7 sales person… but instead of them going door to door, talking to one person at a time… your sales pitch is written down on your site. This allows you to scale your message and speak to a larger crowd.

You want to speak to your market’s pain points in which you are offering solutions. The deeper you dig with hitting their pain points, the more emotional they will be in purchasing your solution.

It all comes down to showing the prospect you have their best interest at heart… that you really want to help them get what they want.

One of the best ways to reach their heart is by showing testimonial videos from real clients who have had success with your products or services. This creates relatability for the prospective client which will often allow them to relax and feel comfortable that you are the right answer for them.

No matter who lands on your site… they’ll be thinking “how does this site content or information help ease my frustrations or solve my problems?” In other words, what’s the specific and measurable benefit you offer to someone that lands on your site?

Again, this is why you want to find the BIGGEST problems and focus your presentation on those… since they’re in the “search mode” for solutions to their problem.  People are already motivated to solve their issues if they’re online looking for solutions… so you have to show them that YOU are the one who can help them.

People don’t buy products… they buy solutions. People don’t buy fertilizer… they buy a green lawn. They don’t buy a drill… they buy a hole in the wall. They don’t buy a diet… they buy fitting into that old bathing suit.  So focus on catching their attention with the problem… and then using the sales letter or webinar to PROVE you have the solution.

Bottom line, here is where to go from here…

Craft a well-written sales letter, video or webinar and make sure the message matches exactly what your market wants. This is the part that will really loosen their wallets, so make sure you don’t take any shortcuts here!

What does fishing have to do with your online business? And how is it going to eliminate hard selling and help you create a list of people that are literally begging to purchase form you? Keep reading.

As I mentioned last week, creating an online business can feel more like falling down a rabbit hole. There is certainly no shortage of courses, programs and content out there, but what I have found is a shortage of proven systems…which lead me to creating this blog series. You can read Step 1 here if you missed it.

Now that we have covered the first true step in creating a successful online business, finding a problem that people want to solve urgently, it’s time to move onto step number two.

Step #2 to starting your online business: Find the perfect bait. Why? Because now that you’ve found the market you want to sell your product or service in, you have to attract your customers. Set your bait and go fishing!

What do you use when you go fishing? Worms! Works are the perfect bait, or as we say in the internet marketing world: lead magnet. These lead magnets attract the fish; your potential customers. The only way to attract lots of potential customers is to make sure that your bait is geared toward your target market. How do you do that? You have to use bait that they’re interested in.

Lead magnets (your bait) are typically offered at no cost. Your goal is to create a valuable, enticing freebie. Most often these are in the form of a report, ebook, download, webinar, etc. These lead magnets are pieces of content that offer a taste of the solution to a problem that these potential customers face. Fish have the obvious problem of wanting to eat so they can keep alive. That worm is therefore their perfect lead magnet. Unfortunately for that fish, the fun stops there. Most funnels go on to entice the potential customer further, but we’ll save that step for another day.

Back to that juicy lead magnet you’ve got dangling. The idea is that in return for the freebie you are giving your now highly interested (and hungry) potential customer, they provide their email address. Once you capture this information they become a prospective client in your funnel. Win-win; they get the worm/lead-magnet and you get their contact information.

When you give away a free tip, technique or solution that people can use instantly, they will want to hear from you more. This is because a lead magnet that speaks to your target market translates to you attracting potential customers that will WANT to join your list and buy from you. A lead magnet that speaks to your target market will be in alignment with a problem they need solved. Mix this solution with the value that you believe in providing as a business owner and this lead magnet will position you and your business so that you never have to “hard sell” anyone. 

Based on your market’s biggest problems you will want to create something valuable to give away for free… like a collection of helpful tips or a series of mistakes to avoid.

Give people an actionable item that is a taste of the solution to solving their problem. Give them something that is so helpful your prospects WANT to hear more.

Presto!

This is how you start building your list of hungry prospects who will buy from you, over and over again.

It all starts here… with choosing the right market and offering up something valuable for free, so they want to keep hearing from you.  

Once they want to hear from you and are on your emailing list, you can keep in touch with them and increase the chances of them buying repeatedly from you.

Again, selling is nothing more than helping people solve a problem they are motivated to solve.

So, if you offer great value for free upfront, and help enough people get what they want, they will start chasing after you. Now THAT is one financially strong position to be in!

When you’re offering solutions to problems that you know and understand, you will be seen as someone who cares and has people’s best interests at heart. And hopefully, this is true! You will be unlike other marketers who simply try to sell first. This is key.

A lot of entrepreneurs miss out on the opportunity to build responsive, engaged lists of potential customers because they never create a lead magnet that will help someone immediately. Many believe they should charge for their knowledge from the very start. This is a mistake. You certainly don’t need to share everything you know for free, but offering up valuable nuggets, (i.e. lead magnets), that begin to solve pain points that your potential clients and customers are facing, introduces you as a generous and potentially helpful expert in your market.

Go to Costco on any given Saturday and you’ll usually find workers giving demonstrations and offering free food in the aisles. These are lead magnets in a very basic form. These samples are demonstrating value before the you have to risk any money. And let’s be honest, it works! We all are full by the time we leave the store and have a few more things in our cart than we intended on getting.

Your lead magnet is like your own personal demonstration. You’re giving away something someone can use right away to get a result, while simultaneously learning more about you and your brand. You’re demonstrating your knowledge and proving that you can indeed help them. That’s when they want to join your list and hear from you more.

Once you build your list, not only can you keep in touch with your potential customers, but if you do it right… you can continue offering products to them on the back end.

You can make repeat sales with them by continuously offering them valuable information they can use to get what they want. Then, you can soft sell other products as well… either ones that you created or ones you may offer as an affiliate. The possibilities just keep growing. 

After the lead magnet, you have the opportunity to lead a potential customer into upgrading and becoming a customer. You can offer them a full length program, course, product or maybe even a specific service; whatever it is that comes next in your sales funnel.

Your customer list soon becomes your biggest money making asset because you’re able to keep offering value to your list; giving them tips, techniques, and content they can use.

When you have people searching YOU out instead of you having to chase people down… life gets easier and so does generating automatic money from your online business.

Trust me… if you want to make more money, stop trying to make more money. It sounds counter-intuitive but re-focusing on your efforts to provide more people what they want through your lead magnets truly works. Share what you know with your market!

Someone once told me, “Focus on the numbers and you will lose sight of the vision, focus on the vision and the numbers will come.” I have built all of my businesses with this philosophy and I wouldn’t ever do it another way!

So, here is your next task… 

Offer life-changing, incredibly valuable information in your lead magnet and share with your already defined target market… this will get people WANTING to hear from you.

Take this pivotal step and watch more people join your list. This directly translates into money in your pocket when your funnel is up and running. More to come on that in Step 3! 

Over the next five weeks I am going to reveal the five secrets to building successful online businesses. These are secrets I’ve used myself and seen work for others. No B.S. I am no guru, but I do know what works. And this week’s secret is simple, easy to apply to ANY business and effective almost immediately… 

The problem with most “guru” business courses and programs out there is that they don’t tell you the truth about what it takes to start a REAL, successful online business.

That’s right… they flat out lie to you and try to tell you there’s a magic solution to making money online… a magic button that once you press, money starts flowing in.

What’s worse… they continue to string you along and have you believe that if you keep investing somewhere between  $29.95 and  $97 per month, each and every month… sooner or later you’ll know the secrets of really making it online.

But don’t you see what they’re doing?  They’re just stringing you along, with a ton of other people, mostly because they believe the more people they swindle into paying each month, the more money they’ll make each month.

These constant lies are what keep you from taking action towards the REAL steps that actually lead you to start a successful business online.

Well, I’m sick and tired of seeing all the lies floating around.  I’m here right now for the sole purpose of teaching you the real truth about making money online… giving you the steps I’ve used to create very successful online businesses.

See, over the course of my career, I have realized that people don’t want more content and more value, they simply want more results! And THAT is the secret. Get them in, get them out and get them on their way to creating results.

Realize that the possible standstill your online business has experienced up until this point is not necessarily your fault. These so called gurus and experts are peddling their hyped up programs filled with great content but they are missing one major key…structure. It is this simple fact that causes your results to stay the same, all the while separating you from your hard earned money.

THIS is the real reason you’ve had trouble making money online. All the clutter of information out there confuses most people. What business owners want is a blueprint, a system, a proven process that can take them from vision to fruition.

If you learn anything from this post, please learn this: If you keep buying into the $7 e-books that promise you the world, and you keep buying into the programs that sound too good to be true… you’ll end up frustrated, confused, and deeper in debt.

I can’t stand the idea of you continuing to merry-go-round around your own success… which is why I’m here right now;  GIVING you the proven steps to building your business online.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be revealing these EXACT steps which I have personally learned and used to helped my businesses grow thousands of percent.

Success is the best revenge, so let’s get right to it.

Step #1 of starting your online business: You must sell products and services to people who are ACTIVELY looking to buy!

I’ve learned that the true secret to making money online is: finding and helping a large number of people solve an urgent problem.

If they have problems to solve or desires that are unfulfilled… these people are likely to buy anything that answers their prayers.

You can’t make money online unless someone buys something… be it a product or service.  Who is most likely to buy something from you, you ask? Well, someone who is urgently looking to solve a problem.

In the society we live in, consumers have become accustomed to “instant gratification,” and that cliche “quick fix”. We see it everywhere: Lose 20 pounds in 30 days….Fix your marriage with this ONE thing….Make $10,000 your first month….etc.

People want results, but more than ever, they want results NOW!

That is why you want to find a group of people who have a problem. The more desperate this market is for solutions, the better your chances are of selling to them… and at a premium!

A few weeks ago, I was at a mastermind where I met an acupuncturist from Texas. He told me that he found a formula that has allowed him to assist over 1200 female patients conceive, whereas before they found him, they had tried the proverbial “everything in the book.”

The fact that his results and testimonies were so strong meant that people were flocking to him. Getting pregnant wasn’t something women wanted a few years out, they wanted it immediately. So, what did that mean for him? These clients were willing to pay him a premium to solve their fertility problems immediately!

The key to creating a profitable online business (any business for that matter) is finding markets where people are currently spending money, then standing in front of them with a BETTER offer so they buy YOUR product or service.

If someone wants to lose weight, chances are they’re desperate and actively searching for a solution. If you have back pain and you’re sick and tired of living in discomfort, wouldn’t you highly consider buying a magic pill that can help you get rid of that back pain?

The idea is to STOP focusing on trying to make money. Focus on delivering a solution to a market in-need and develop a well-crafted message to gain their attention.

Following this path is the most convenient, low hassle way to making money and building a large list of people who want to hear from you.

This is why products in the wealth creation, employment, weight loss, and dating markets will always sell; these are markets where people want to fix those areas of their lives immediately.

Those who are unemployed want to find a job. People who are overweight want to lose weight. Adults who are single want to date and people who are broke want money.

If there’s no problem or huge desire, there’s usually no sale. The more painful the problem, the bigger the opportunity for you to create a successful product or service.

People don’t buy products or services. They buy solutions.

People don’t want a mortgage, they want a home. College students don’t want loans, they want a degree.

Don’t sell. Solve.

If you can provide the solution (mortgage, loans, etc.) that will streamline someone’s path to their desired outcome, and you create a win-win situation! 

So, here is your action step, or secret if you will:

Find large problems that people have… then create a product or service that solves it. Building a large list of loyal customers who will keep sending you money, over and over again, is easy when you do that.