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.

So 15, heck, maybe even 10 years ago, you were probably one of the many skeptics who didn’t quite see the value in having a website.

Pay lots of money to someone that hibernates all year in a dark basement behind their computer, developing a site for you in some hieroglyphic coding, so you (and your site visitors) can be frustrated when the needle didn’t move? No thanks.

Things sure do change fast.

Today your business probably doesn’t exist, or at least turn a profit, if you are not online in some form.

Okay, let’s assume you bit the bullet and have a website. Now that you’re online profits are soaring….right?

Wrong.

Just because you are online today – have a website, Facebook page, and maybe threw some spaghetti at Google AdWords and SEO to see what stuck, does NOT mean you are marketing your business effectively.

But we’re not telling you anything new, that’s how life is for most small businesses online. Actually, many of them don’t even know how to gauge the “effectiveness” of their online presence. And this is a very fundamental problem, that when corrected, changes everything.

But first let me throw one more metaphor at you:

You want to get healthy and fit so you pay for a bunch of books on exercise and buy a gym membership but you never read the books and never go to the gym.

Sounds pretty stupid, right?

Well, that’s exactly what some small business owners are doing by creating themselves a nifty little website and praying that people land on it. If only the internet gods had a 1-800 number we could all dial and just put our requests in: “Hi internet gods! I have a request for next month. I need about 400 middle aged women to find my website and buy my new yoga line that makes them feel young and beautiful. Thanks!”

Okay, I went a little far with that one but I kid you not – this type of insanity is running budding businesses, full of potential, straight into the ground.

So, what’s my point?

There are a lot of factors that go into achieving a successful marketing campaign. And they don’t need to remain a mystery. In fact, let’s get the first one super clear:

Market Research. Say that three times. Market research, market research, market research. You have no business selling anything online before you do your market research.

At D4Y, we NEVER touch a project before completing our market research. Meaning, we head out onto the world wide web and see what’s happening in our clients’ space, see what’s being sold effectively, when it’s selling, who it’s selling to, and how they’re selling it. This is all so we can better develop a campaign that will produce results!

However, during this market research, we come across a lot of websites and brands that, for lack of better words, could use some help…

Simply put, many businesses are not making the best use of their website and marketing efforts.

So what are they doing wrong, you may ask?

We consistently see businesses making the same three, killer mistakes. Mistakes that in 2016, you simply cannot afford to make… because by 2017 you will be out of business.

If you want to not only keep up with the times but also keep more money in your pocket, heck, even create more money to put in your pocket, keep reading…

Mistake #1: Not establishing who you are

One of the most common and detrimental mistakes we see from businesses today is a lack of establishing and communicating who they are. This would seem kind of obvious, right?

Well, you would be surprised how many companies don’t mention who they are, why they exist and what their mission is on their website.

In essence, they’ve lost before they even started.

These also tend to be the same companies that claim they are doing online marketing but nothing is working…go figure!

Why is stating who you are and what your mission is, so important?

That is the easiest way for your audience (another bone to pick that we’ll get to later) to resonate with you and quickly determine if their values align with your brand’s values.

When someone learns who you are, it immediately creates trust and rapport. Now that website visitor, is closer to becoming  a customer or client.

If you lack this content on your website, it becomes harder for visitors to resonate with you and your message, deterring them from ever doing business with you.

In a digital world where there is competition everywhere you look, it is vital that you stand out. Being clear about who you are is what makes you stand out! No one can be you.

If you are hoping that random traffic from the internet happens to stumble upon your website, enjoy the little logo design in the top left corner, navigate their way through the clutter of information that tells them nothing about who you really are, and instantly pull out their wallets to buy something from you, you’re dreaming.

The entrepreneur’s guide, Start With Why, written by the highly sought after thought leader, Simon Sinek, illustrates the importance for not only businesses, but everyone, to start with WHY.

Why do you wake up every morning?

Why are you in business?

Why do you do what you do?

In his book, Sinek states: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Think about it; the best selling brands in the world don’t merely exist to make money. Of course, they are in business for a profit, but their legacy is what drives them to be great.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s late CEO, lead the company with this vision for their why: “To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.” Today, Apple sells the #2 smartphone on the market, is one of biggest producers of computers, remains the biggest online music hub and has recently broken into the TV scene. As you can see, Jobs’ mission and vision, and his why for Apple, has lead them to change the game in multiple industries.

Every product they produce is in alignment with this why; from design, to use to marketing.

Apple has a purpose and a mission that people want to be a part.

Isn’t it easy to see when a company leads with a driving mission, purpose and vision, they can come to not only dominate but influence change amongst multiple industries, and attract millions of loyal households worldwide?

Mistake #2: Jack-of-All Trades, Master of None

This one can be bad, really bad.

Way too many businesses want to be everything to everyone, rather than mastering their own craft and appealing to a specified audience.

When you know that you are damn good at one thing, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to try to win over everyone.

There are so many companies in the marketplace today that focus a mile wide and an inch deep, instead of an inch wide and a mile deep.

What I mean by this, is that real success comes from depth. You cannot win a championship without a bench. One hit wonders in the entertainment biz never get remembered. Top chefs never own a fleet of mediocre restaurants. The same goes for entrepreneurs.

You get the point. Find YOUR niche and dig deep in the trenches to strike gold! Create value, build your portfolio, establish customers for life and not customers for a paycheck.

Once you’ve established yourself as an expert or authority in a specific niche, it is critical that you define your audience.

If you are in the food industry, you can’t say that your target market is “everyone” simply because everyone has to eat. Is your focus on organic? Italian? Fast food? Etc.

If you’re creating an online marketing course, who are you speaking to? The beginners? Advanced marketers? Do you focus on Facebook marketing? Brand messaging?

The more defined and specific your avatar, the higher quality client you will attract.

Why is this?

If you know exactly the type of person you want to sell your products or services to, it makes it a heck of alot easier to not only find them, but for them to find you. If you’re offering them exactly what they want then you’re already speaking to them in ways that they will respond.

I come across a lot of business and life coaches on the internet regularly. It appears everyone out there today is a business and life guru, but I digress…

Most of these coaches seem to have no idea who their ideal client is, so instead of speaking to a specific niche, they speak to the masses, and attract no one. Are you a high-level business coach or a struggling single-parent life-coach? Are you a weight-loss coach or a bodybuilding competition coach? Do you coach people on building businesses or closing sales?

There are major differences amongst all of these!

People are extremely picky about where they spend their disposable income, so if you speak to everyone in your messaging, chances are you are going to speak too broadly for your ideal customer to hear you and miss the opportunity to work for them.

Ever heard of Bulletproof?

Most well known for their addition of butter to coffee and popularizing the term “biohacking”?

Founder Dave Asprey understood that there were successful systems in place for sports franchises to win championships, real estate professionals to sell eight-figures worth of homes in a year, why not develop a health formula for people to work, think and live more productively?

Bulletproof sticks to biohacking and biohacking only.

They don’t wander off into manufacturing technology products or even bringing soda into your home. They know what they are best at and they stick to that. Making their name, and the Bulletproof lifestyle trend, spread virally.

So, want a quick fix to mastering your trade while avoiding becoming the jack of all of them?

Find your favorite hat, wear it damn well and become the hero business for your defined audience.

Mistake #3: Not Tracking Customers

This one’s pretty straight forward. In laymen terms, if you are not tracking your customer statistics in 2016, you simply cannot expect to ever “crush it” in your business online.

For those who are keeping up with the times, technology enables you to track every action taken by your clients. From the second someone lands on your site to the time they, well, leave, you must be tracking what your client is doing.

What kind of power would you have with your business if you knew:

• How long your average visitor was staying on your website?
• Where they clicked on the most on your site?
• The email address of every potential lead?
• The percentage of people purchasing something when they visited your site?
• How long leads were staying on your site without buying what they put in their cart?
• Whether a lead ever returned to your site ever again?

Knowing all of this and more, can mean the difference between a successful business and a shop that has to close it’s virtual doors… for good.

So, why aren’t you doing it?!

I cannot tell you the number of websites that I visit who don’t really care what I want or ever really care to get to know me, let alone even ask me for my email address to stay in touch. It’s like ending a date without ever asking when you can see the person again. Basically, I’ve lost interest before I even click off that site.

Like I mentioned earlier, there is a science to it all. If you’re not implementing the systems that work, it’s most likely because you didn’t even know there were systems… nevermind how to implement them.

I want to convey to you the importance of doing all of this.

First off, obtaining their email address is the minimum you should be doing when someone lands on your page – for a multitude of reasons. 

The main reason you’ll want to catch their email is so you can deliver a free gift to them. People like, I mean love, free stuff.

If you are a weight-loss coach, and someone lands on your site and sees a free eBook showing them “5 things you can do today to lose weight”, you’re in! They will undoubtedly give you their email in exchange for that freebie.

Once you have their email, you can communicate with them a bit differently. You can send them a series talking a little bit about who you are and what you have accomplished (to build trust and rapport) but more importantly, share why you do what you do. Get them relating to you.

Second, tracking conversions and cart abandonment means knowing the numbers in your business in a whole new level.

Having the ability to contact someone after they abandon their cart can drive sales through the roof!

I was speaking to a business owner the other day and they said by merely beginning to track this number, they were able to increase sales by 34% in 1 month!

They had a lot of traffic to their site, a lot of people adding things to the shopping cart, but a large percentage of people not finalizing the purchase.

With a simple email and $10 off coupon for first-time customers if they completed the purchase within 24 hours, sales came pouring in over the next month.

These are just two examples of tracking your customers and what they can do to your business. Imagine if you only implemented these two things?

What if you implemented five more?

What would that do to your bottom line?

Let’s take a quick look at Amazing. I mean Amazon.

Amazon as we all (or at least should) know, is the largest online retailer on the planet and is expected to reach $100+ billion, with a “B”, in revenue for 2016. I think the proof is in the pudding but those numbers show that they’re definitely doing something right.

One of the greatest and revenue-generating tools on Amazon’s site is the “people who’ve purchased this item also liked…”.

Boom!

They learn your buying habits, present to you what they know you will like, you click a button and next thing you know it’s at your doorstep in two days thanks to Prime.

Can you imagine what this has done to their revenue?

They also track you, your buying habits and your searches quite closely, which you would realize if you ever saw an Amazon ad following you around the web with an item you recently looked at.

These are the little nuances of tracking which, over time can create a massive shift in your bottom line numbers.

The saying goes, “What is not tracked, is not done.” In this case meaning, if you’re not tracking your customers, you can’t capitalize or monetize all of the information at your disposal

It’s amazing what can happen to your business when you begin to make tiny shifts little by little. Whether it’s gathering your team and establishing your core mission, defining who your audience is or maybe even adding a tracking tool or two to your site, you can probably see the compound effect of doing so.

Finally, with technological resources at your disposal like never before, it’s crucial that you employ these techniques ASAP, unless of course you struggle mightily from mistake #1, in which case you should get a move on it yesterday!

If your business struggles from any of these common mistakes, maybe you can use some help. We’d be happy to offer you a FREE 15-minute strategy session and assist you with implementing these tactics properly into your business. At D4Y, our mission is to help you help yourself impact more people with your products and services!

Sign up for your FREE strategy session HERE.

If you are reading this article, chances are you are an entrepreneur or aspiring one. With that being the case, you either have mentors or are impacting other lives by being one… or both.

In a working world where there is still a significance and necessity placed on formal education and years of experience, mentors are changing the game. Mentorship is becoming the key to success of budding (AND experienced) entrepreneurs.  

By definition, a mentor is: a person or friend who leads a less experienced person by developing trust and exhibiting positive behaviors. In my experience, a mentor is someone more experienced than I who is willing to take me under their wing to coach and guide me and assist me in developing and realizing my true potential.

A few months ago, I co-wrote (actually, with one of my mentors) an article titled 7 Lessons From 7 Millionaire Mentors which covered some of the most substantial lessons I have learned from my experience with mentors.

With most recent college grads struggling to find jobs, let alone one they enjoy, many are abandoning the corporate route and instead, turning to entrepreneurship. While no program, course or institution can truly teach entrepreneurship other than entrepreneurship itself, a large percentage of these college grads are finding that the best way to learn, and in fact, shorten their learning curve, is to link arms with a mentor.

To illustrate the profound impact mentors can have in and on our lives, I thought I would head back to the drawing board…

The following are the 5 ways that having a mentor can and will shave years off of your learning, expand your network, keep you grounded in your journey and propel you towards living the life you dream of. While all of these will certainly leave you longing for a mentor, especially if you don’t have one yet, but be sure to read all the way through as we appropriately saved the best for last!

1. Personal and professional networking

They say, “In life, it’s not what you know, but who you know.” Absolutely true. Who knows you and who likes you also won’t hurt!

When you venture out into the real world of business and entrepreneurship, you realize how much smaller it is than you ever would have imagined. In my case, my last mentor used to coach my current mentor, who used to be business partners with one of my best friends’ mentor!

A great mentor typically has a large circle of influence and is very well connected. It is not the fact that they are so connected which makes them a good mentor, but rather their success in their field and understanding the value of building both personal and professional relationships.

If you develop a true relationship with your mentor, which you unequivocally will want to, the chances are that they will open up doors for you in ways you could only imagine.

One of my closest mentors, who has gone onto become one of my dear friends, is a personal development and business speaker and coach. He travels the United States weekly, speaking to crowds that range from 30 to 1000+, occasionally with world renown experts, authors, speakers and leaders.

Last year, we hosted an event in New Jersey with 850 attendees with one of the all-time best-selling authors, and most connected man in business, as our keynote speaker. I had the opportunity to share a bit of my story along with some of my greatest insights I gained while working with my mentor.

Prior to the event, I had the privilege of spending some quality time with my mentor and the speaker, during which we really connected. He gave me his personal number and told me to stay in touch and if there was anything he could do to help move my career forward, he wanted to help.

This goes to show you that while the concept of 6 degrees of separation does exist, a valuable mentor will often be able to cut that in half!

2. They will tell you the truth, even if it hurts

Mentors are, in many ways, teachers. One of the greatest thing they will ever teach you about is yourself!

Now, you must be thinking… “how could my mentor know more about me that I do about myself?!”

Well, it’s not that they know more than you about yourself, but they are most likely going to tell it like they see it. They are vested in your success on multiple levels so they want to see you grow and develop into the person you deserve to be.

At times, this may not be the most comfortable process, but comfort is the enemy of change. In order to change your results, you’ve got to be willing to change what you’re doing and often times that requires changing your mindset…which can really rattle your skin.

While working for one of my mentors, I was around 18 or 19, I ran into some conflict. I had got into a habit of showing up slightly late for work, about 5-10 minutes or so pretty much everyday. He never called me out on it so I got more comfortable with strolling in late. One day we had an important meeting lined up for 9am and I was supposed to be in at 8 to run through some notes for the meeting. I overslept and was running 20 minutes behind schedule so I gave him a call to let him know I would be late…again.

What happened next taught me a lesson I carry with me to date. I told him I would be in around 8:20 and he said to turn around and go home, take the day off, I was no longer needed at the meeting.

My heart sunk.

I had just let down my mentor who had consistently gone out of his way to pull strings for me and line me up for success. I felt awful.

The next morning I showed up an hour early to greet him and rightfully apologize. When he walked in, I asked him if he had a few minutes to speak with me. I apologized for slacking off, strolling in late consistently and not bringing my best game to the table, he deserved better. I vowed I would never be late again while working for him and would proceed to always show up early for life thereafter.

The moral here is that he called me out and while it hurt, he was 100% right in doing so. If he wouldn’t shake me up, who would? Since that day, I have consistently showed up early for meetings (and practically everything else) and with a will-to-win attitude!

3. They will challenge you

Mentors are there to help challenge you to grow. If they are not challenging you, they most likely are the wrong mentor or you simply work a job. Most of the time, you seek out a specific mentor because they are an expert in your desired field and you know that they can assist you by shortening your learning curve and open some doors for you.

While mentors are there to teach and guide you, a great mentor will push you to pursue your biggest goals. Sometimes this means putting you on the spot and giving you a task you may not have experience with but they have faith you will complete it. The reason they do this is so you grow by necessity. Many times in business and life, we accept jobs or tasks that we are familiar with, remaining in our comfort zone. When we are thrown in the fire, we have no other way out but to learn! Knowing this, your mentor will want to challenge you and see how you handle the unfamiliar…as you will see a lot of it as an entrepreneur.

Other times, they may seek you out for insight, reversing the roles. This can be exciting and scary all at the same time. You don’t have to be perfect, they are only asking for your advice! A good mentor understands that they don’t know everything, so they choose to surround themselves with people that fill the gaps for them. If they took you under their wing, chances are they like and trust you so they might occasionally ask you for input on a project.

A mentor of mine in the network marketing industry once wanted to challenge me to take on a leadership role within my team more quickly so she called me up one Sunday and asked if I could explain the compensation model on Monday’s team call.

I panicked. Me? What if I messed up in front of the team and gave the the wrong information?

She reassured me that I had been around long enough and showed the plan to enough people that I could do it. So I did. And it went really well! In hindsight, I was glad she challenged me to step to the plate as that not only developed a stronger belief in our team and who they were following, but a bigger belief in myself!

4. You’ll develop a lifelong friendship

A mentor is not only there to guide you in business but in life. Many of my mentors have become close friends and advisors to me.

An effective mentor understands that their role is to be dependable and also authentically engaged throughout the process. You are there to learn and grow while they are there to teach (and learn).

Part of this process is done through building a bond with someone you can trust and consult.

They say “If you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business,” so making your relationships a priority, especially with those who want to see you succeed, such as your mentors, is vital.

One of the greatest joys in business is partnering with like-minded individuals who have become close friends, on big ventures that feel like a dream. Doing so with someone who has guided you and coached you along the way is even more rewarding, knowing you have really elevated your game.

I’ve had about a dozen personal mentors in my life, excluding my parents, five of whom I am still close with, two of whom I speak with multiple times a week. These are people whom I reach out to for business advice, life insight and often just to catch up.

5. Streamline your learning curve

Out of all of my mentorship experiences, this has to be one of the most impactful. There is a saying that goes something like: “You learn the most from your mistakes.,” and While there is merit to that, I believe you can also actually learn more from other people’s mistakes.

Sure, we certainly learn from our mistakes but what if we didn’t have to make that mistake in order to learn the lesson? And drive the ball of success?

A few years ago, I was living in Boston and working in Real Estate. I had the good fortune to be working for a Broker who had 20+ years of experience and knew every nook and cranny of the city in and around Boston. He taught me a lot about sales, service and dealing with clients but the greatest lesson he passed on was qualifying clients.

He had learned the hard way that the first step in working with a client is qualifying them! There were tons of stories of him and other agents he had worked with over time that didn’t really understand this until years had gone by.

Before taking the clients out to go see any unit, he would check their credit, discuss budget and also have them fill out other paperwork – he wanted to ensure that they were serious about moving forward (and were financially able to) if they liked a place they saw.

This allowed me to understand the value of my time, one of our most valuable assets, and not waste it with people who were simply “searching” and tire kickers.

I probably would have learned this lesson over time in my career, but the fact that this was one of his major keys to success that he shared with me from the get go, allowed me to streamline my success in the business and be much more productive with the clients I chose to work with.

My hope for you is that you take what you’ve read here today and seek out a mentor that can aid in streamlining your learning curve and jumpstarting you to success!

In the end, mentors are really just a lending hand on your journey, but can play a vital role in your development and success. I strongly believe every entrepreneur deserves and requires a mentor. If nothing less, it makes the entrepreneurial journey a little less lonely!

Out on the World Wide Web, there have been some MAJOR breakthroughs over the last few years in favor of business owners.

The biggest innovation all business owners need to be aware of (outside of the massive changes that social networking has ignited) is the birth of the automated sales funnel…aka ‘the value ladder.’

Why should EVERY business owner know about this?

Let me ask you… Do you wish your business was creating more money while simultaneously requiring less of your time?

Do you want to automate your sales process?

Do you wish you were sharing your message and offers with more people around the world? And growing the number of people that were aware of your business… daily? If not hourly?

Do you wish you were doing more to scale your impact to the world?

Do you wish you could use the information you knew about your customers to target the right people with the right message, at the right time… in the right place… with total ease?

Okay, I think I’ve made my point. A value ladder does ALL of this. Or rather, it can, as long as you set it up to do so!

So how do you do that?

There is a sea of tools available to you. However, if you don’t consider yourself “tech-friendly” creating a value ladder can become a huge headache.

Which brings me to the one and only con.

While some basic value ladders may only require one or two software applications to run, others can get quite complex. In layman’s terms: some of this stuff can become pretty “techy.” So, if you already struggle online, I strongly consider hiring a digital marketer/developer that understands what they’re doing. They can help show you the way, or implement the value ladder for you.

Are you getting this? I can’t make this up: the pros to a value ladder are endless, if not a NECESSITY for online business owners, (as well as many brick and mortar businesses out there!) The only con is that you may have to hire a professional to help you capitalize and profit on the shifts taking place across the web.

Another version of what I’ve just told you is: vegetables can improve your health, but you have to either buy them or grow them in your backyard. Pick one and the sky’s your limit; the value ladder can change your business as you know it, give you more freedom and increase your profit… but you have to do your homework or get some help…

Ready to eat some spinach and grow some biceps? Keep reading…

See, most businesses who operate online host a flat website; visitors land on their page, and when they aren’t directed to take any sort of action they leave without giving their email, obtaining any real value and even worse – they’ve not spent a dime! This is a business owner’s nightmare. This is like someone stumbling into your store to buy some coffee but leaving because there’s no one to take their money. Without even leaving you their email or phone number to find out how much your coffee might cost. They’ve lost interest. Meanwhile, you’re in the back stocking bags of coffee to sell and wondering why no one is buying it. 

Now, we all know what a standard boring website looks like: too much blank space in the wrong places, some ugly distracting color scheme, way too much text (that we never read), maybe some tabs on top sending us everywhere and nowhere all at once and occasionally… hidden somewhere on the home page… a magical box for us to type our precious email address into so they can send us their wildly uneventful monthly newsletters that we won’t ever read. That may have been a run-on sentence but I made my point, right?

Let’s agree to NEVER be the owners of those websites again, okay? Thanks.

With all this talk about internet marketing, automated income, sales funnels, value ladders, webinars, lead magnets, tripwires, upsells, down-sells… it’s enough to make your head spin! At D4Y Brand Builder we understand how confusing it can be just deciding where to start. 

That said, let’s get to the good stuff; your value ladder.

A value ladder, simply put, is a process that takes your leads, and eventual customers, through a step by step process. They most likely start as contacts you acquire from cold traffic and your value ladder moves them through that process to become customers that are regularly buying high-ticket items and are raving fans. The key is to deliver a higher quality of value every step the client takes along the value ladder.

It’s important you understand the way it looks in real life, so let me describe a recent situation I experienced where a personal trainer took me from Facebook friend all the way to raving client in a matter of weeks:

About a year ago I noticed I had packed on an extra 15-20 pounds since college, and I was pretty committed to losing them. A day or two later, I saw a friend of a friend of mine post a blog article on her Facebook about losing 20 pounds in 30 days.. I thought: Give me that NOW, please!

The next week, I was on her blog again and noticed an ad of hers for a free video series about an at-home exercise routine she’d created. All I had to do was enter my email address and the video series would be mine. Seeing this tipped me over the edge. I wanted that information. It was possible to lose weight and exercise from home? I was in!

After entering my email I received a 5-day automated email sequence. On the last day, there was an offer for a FREE 15-minute consultation… sweet! I signed up and a few days later we talked about my health goals and what I was/wasn’t willing to do in order to achieve these goals.

Based on our discussion, she suggested that I do a 16-week challenge to shed some fat and build lean muscle mass. Since 80% of our health is based on nutrition, she first offered to customize my meal plans for 16 weeks.

Our conversation continued and we got to talk about what it REALLY takes to have more muscle, something I also wanted. While eating healthy would be great and continuing my yoga routine would help, I was serious about gaining muscle. She then offered me a personalized exercise plan for 16 weeks that would expedite the process. This 15-minute free consultation had turned me into a customer. I was sold! 

I was all excited about my new plan, but before we got off the phone I told her I was worried about staying committed throughout the process on my own. She said this was normal and understood where I was coming from, so she offered me one-on-one coaching calls each week throughout my 16-week transformation. 

Amazing… I was ready to go!

So let’s back up here, back to that moment I stumbled onto her site. I was, looking at some free information about losing weight and I ended up spending well over $1500 and hiring a coach who would customize my workouts, design my meal plan and hold my hand throughout the process.

Now THAT is the power of a well-structured value ladder!

I learned about her expertise with some free content; her blog. She then brought me closer to something we call a lead magnet, and in this case, it was her free 5-day workout video series. It can also be a video blog, free ebook, free report, case study, webinar, etc. The point is to educate your audience that YOU are an expert in your field and you can help them reach their goals.

Once a lead is captured, the goal is to move them into making a small purchase and loosen their wallet – this wallet-loosening item is called a tripwire. This is usually a low-cost offer anywhere from $5-20 in the form of a book (sometimes free plus shipping), an ebook, a sample or small course where they can get a taste of your core offer.

There is a saying: “it is a lot easier to keep a customer than to acquire a new one” and 5 times cheaper, too! The way to do this, again and again, is to treat your customers like gold; provide them with great products and service so they keep coming back for more!

After they have taken the first major step and been converted into to a customer, it’s time to up the ante.

This next offer should be reserved for customers that are excited about you and your content and have shown that they are willing to invest in your offerings. 

This is where your core offer comes into play. A core offer is usually between $497-997 and is about 10 times more valuable as the tripwire or any mid-range product they purchased. The core offer should be a course, one-on-one coaching, an event or something along those lines.

For some business owners, the core offer will be the end of the road… meaning the end of the customer’s lifetime value. For others, this is where the profit margin really starts to grow. 

Cue the profit maximizer!

Depending on your niche, the profit maximizer can be a mastermind program, higher level coaching offer, paid live workshop or even a bundled package of your products/services. This is called the profit maximizer because your profit margin on these deliverables is often very large! You already have the customer and over their course of going through your funnel, have more than covered your cost to acquire them.

And THAT is your value ladder…the most simple, effective and profitable way to structure your business!

The best thing about a value ladder? It works for practically ANY business! Chiropractors, dentists, nutrition companies, technology companies, personal development leaders, etc.

If this is all still new to you, be sure and pick up our MODERN INTERNET MARKETING LINGO 1.0 infographic which will surely help you decipher some of this tech-lingo.

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! 

Other than the fact that it’s 2016 and we are living in the most digitally connected age in human history, there are 4 major ways why an online business will completely change your life…TODAY!

Entrepreneurs are a unique breed who are consistently looking for and creating change in the way we live our lives.

With every new platform comes an entirely new world of opportunity. The computer allowed for faster computing and automating processing. The internet created a place for sharing ideas and messages globally and within minutes. Applications have empowered creators to build their ideas into fruition (which there is now an app for). And Facebook opened up a new world of connecting people and targeted advertising campaigns.

If you are an entrepreneur, an employee or simply someone that is looking for a new adventure, here are 4 major ways your entire life is going to change and why you need to pour a glass of water, pull out your laptop, and begin building your online business.

1. Freedom to work from anywhere.

Let’s talk first about the coveted “millionaire internet entrepreneur” lifestyle.

While it is easy to get consumed by the flash, bling and bang of those handful of internet entrepreneur rockstars that CRUSH it, we often don’t see the story behind the glory. These experts, while paving the way for the masses of future online business owners, pour their heart out mastering their craft for years and years before reaching the top.

The breakthroughs these pioneers experience, now allow for the common man, with some inspiration, valuable content and a laptop, to hop online and create a business from scratch in 48 hours or less.

The dream of living that plane, train and automobile lifestyle of traveling the world and living large may not be a day away but it certainly is an idea away. There isn’t much quite like the ability to turn an idea into an automated, money-making machine from the comfort of your backyard hammock.

The good thing about building an online business, is that while you may grow into a 7, 8 or even 9-figure business at some point, technology allows for you to run it from anywhere in the world. You never again have to sacrifice a precious moment with your family. 

Let’s be honest, the other reason you entered into the unchartered waters of entrepreneurship is because you wanted to fire your boss. I can say with certainty that is what did it for me.

Working long hours, being told what to do and even worse, how to do it, just to get slim pickings of an already thin pie, is not what most people’s “dream life” consists of.

Humans are social and creative beings, we are meant to explore, experience and exchange with others. The vast world of owning an online business allows for just that.

If this resonates with you at all, read further. Just be prepared to earn your stripes as you go along the entrepreneurial path and don’t you EVER forget the reason why you got started.

2. You gain access to a global market.

Never before in the history of mankind has it been easier to connect and do business with people all over the world through the click of a button, (or blink of an eye for all you Android users out there). I think this section is rather self-explanatory but I’ll go ahead and dive deeper for the newbies.

With the tools to leverage like Google, Facebook and ClickFunnels (if you are not familiar with at least the first two, an online business probably isn’t for you), starting a business, driving traffic to your site, capturing leads and converting sales has never been a more streamlined process (so long as you have a funnel). 

These types of platforms allow us to zero-in on who our perfect avatar is, how to speak their language and even more importantly, where to find them on the world wide web.

The days of billboards, radio ads and postcard promotions are long behind us. People aren’t looking at your billboards on the highway anymore, they aren’t even looking the damn road! Studies show that 3 out of 5 drivers in the United States text and drive (don’t quote me on that and please stop texting and driving!). Also, please stop spending money on old, mainstream methods of advertising too, thanks.

Just few years ago, a handful of big-box retailers owned the shopping marketplace. Now, because of what online businesses allow for, those stores are dropping like flies while companies like Amazon, eBay and Alibaba are skyrocketing.

The shift in the consumer’s mind to shop online more effectively, conveniently and often cheaper, has created a huge opportunity for internet entrepreneurs to capitalize on.

Anyway, as you begin your online business venture, be sure to build local and within your own community at first, but always think global! 

3. Low overhead and high margins.

About 10 years ago, most small-business owners never saw the benefits of having their own website. Obviously they didn’t have the foresight for what the internet was doing to people’s buying habits, which is a whole other story we can explore over coffee if you ever make it out to Orange County, California.

Websites were expensive, inefficient and consumers hadn’t truly opened their hearts and minds to buying online yet.

If you ask those same small-business owners today if they think a website is useful, I bet 9 out of 10 will tell you they don’t know what they would do without a website.

I can at least say for myself that if I look up a business on Yelp or Google and they don’t have a website, I don’t trust them and probably am not giving them my business.

Starting an online business today can be so inexpensive, literally costing you only a few hundred dollars. With all of the tools I discussed earlier, you no longer have to invest big bucks to create an operational, automated, scalable sales funnel.

At D4Y Brand Builder, and in many of our client’s companies, we use ClickFunnels to create straight forward, functional sales funnels. But definitely don’t take my word for it that it’s simple. You can grab a free month and check it out yourself here. 

One of the greatest advantages to having an online business is that you can leverage your time by using these kinds of simple, inexpensive applications.

Creating a product or e-course that can be sold online, allows you to tap into the world of doing business 24/7. You can be sleeping in Boston when a customer in China comes to your website and purchases a digital training course for $2000. BAM!

Making money in your sleep is the ultimate state of leverage! 

4. Scalability

While high margins can be hard to come by in brick and mortar stores, an online business can create that scalable, recurring revenue you’ve always desired.

It doesn’t cost you much at all to create a good product that people want. It won’t cost you much to market it either, as we covered before. However, the return on your investment in creating something that will outlive you is immeasurable!

Another reason to think BIG when building your online business is the opportunity for unlimited income, meaning you won’t ever trade time for money again…music to an entrepreneur’s ears. You unequivocally will have to put in tons of hours and effort to create a legacy brand and product, but that should come from inspiration not desperation.

Finally, the best way to scale is to have a brand or product that goes viral. Do your research, create a product people want and need already, be creative in your delivery and let the cyber world take your business to new heights.

As you can see, you can start your online business with very little and for very little. Now is the time to cash in on that big idea you’ve always dreamed of bringing to life. Just be sure to have fun and do good for the world along the way.

We all know how hot social media is. Facebook reports more than 1.55 billion active users monthly. What’s happening is that marketers are finding themselves struggling for visibility and to be able to grab the attention of users who they consider to be in their target audience.

Even though there are more than a billion active Facebook users, it does not mean selling your product online is not as simple as promoting and selling. You are going to need to have a solid strategy!

Facebook has reduced the number of organic views your posts receive in the newsfeeds of those users that ‘like’ you. They have done this in an effort to increase their advertising dollars. Yes, you can still have a solid following that lets you market and promote your products and content with no charge to you, but unless you have a good strategy that will not happen.

Let’s face it. There are an incredible number of Facebook groups, pages, and marketers that you have to try to come out on top of. It’s difficult to be seen among the millions. You need to plan your moves out long before you make them if you have any hope of achieving your goal. This step by step guide will help you to create a social media marketing strategy that converts.

Step #1: Goal Identification

Whatever you goals are make sure they are realistic. Sure we’d all like to have 1 million Instagram followers but for most of us that’s not very realistic. Start to plan your social media strategy campaign make realistic goals. More realistic goals might be to grow your brand or to increase your sales using Facebook to promote your products. Those are very realistic goals.

When you define goals that are realistic, it makes them obtainable, which in turn helps to keep you motivated, and it gives your social media strategy a good place to start from.

Sure, you may one day get a million Facebook likes, but begin slowly and build – walk before you run!

Once you identify what your goals are, you can move to Step #2.

Step #2: Create Measurable Objectives

You need to have in place ways to measure the performance of your strategy. After all, if continue doing what you are doing and it’s not working then that’s a waste of time, effort, and sometimes money. If you can’t measure whether or not your strategy meets your objectives then you don’t know if you made a wise decision.

After you set your goal you need to be able to determine what you need to measure to determine whether you are successful. These are what business owners refer to key performance indicators.

There are a number of statistics to measure, like visitors, shares, followers, revenue, likes, etc. What you have to do in order to understand if you are heading towards your goal is to set objectives along the way.

Begin with simple objectives, such as get 50 shares for one post, grow followers by 100, or get 100 new likes. There are a number of options, but they are all easy to determine. If you want to generate traffic then measure the visitors that you gain from the social media accounts that you use.

One of the most popular tools for measuring objectives is Google Analytics. There are others, but Google Analytics is free and easy to use.

Step #3: Conduct a Social Media Audit

A social media audit will let you work out how well it is working with your social media accounts and the best way that you could improve things in the future. The easiest way to do your audit is to create a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is an easy way to keep track of data from your audit and then later you can use it to compare the next audit you run. Hootsuite also offers a free template that you can use.

To start your audit, list all of your social media accounts you are currently using. Determine which channels are successful and which have not seen that success. Once you have the groundwork for your audit in place, you can begin to evaluate the various social media accounts, how well they are performing based on your goals and what you could do to improve your results.

Keep in mind that Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook each have a common user type that is easiest to reach on that particular platform. Take notice of these particular demographics and then align your goals for each platform based on where you can get maximum effect and efficiency. These demographics can easily be found online.

You need to identify your target audience from these demographics and then you need to adjust your social media marketing plan.

Step #4: Select Your Channels

It is impossible to reach everyone with all the platforms, and it is important that you do not spread yourself too thin. If your target audience does not use Instagram then don’t use it, or if only a few potential customers can be found on Twitter don’t use it. Maximize your benefits in the social media channels where you are going to get the maximum benefits.

Time is money, so don’t spend it on something that you will not see results or where you will see minimal results.

Step #5: Learn by Watching Others

There is a lot to learn by watching how others are handling their social media marketing, good or bad.

Avoid the mistakes that others have made, and find influencers in your own niche who have figured it out and then learn from them. After all, if they can be successful, so can you. Also keep a close eye on your competition, as they are more than likely on social media too. You can learn from your competition as well. Keep them close so you know what they are up to.

Keep a list of your competition and what their campaigns look like, what moves they are making, how they were able to execute these moves, etc.

Step #6: Decide What Your Content Will Be and Create Your Editorial Calendar

You must have a well thought out content plan for your social media campaign(s). In fact, it is key to establishing your brand identity. There needs to be a consistency across all the social media channels you are going to use. For example if tweet out hilarious pictures of your dog on Twitter, but on Facebook you are professional in both tone and voice, your audience is going to be confused and uncertain about your brand.

You can stay on track by creating your content plan along with your editorial calendar. This will also help you maintain your brand identity. There are different times for you to post with people living in various time zones and acting differently throughout their day. It’s important for you to know these and take advantage of them.

For example, according to BuildingSocialProof.com:

– Facebook peak time – 1pm – 4pm
– Twitter peak time – 1pm – 3pm
– Google+ peak time – 9am – 11am
– Instagram peak time – 7am – 9am and 5pm – 6pm

Step #7: Test, Analyze, & Adjust

You are not going to create the perfect plan first time round – nobody does. That’s why you need to track your strategies, and then analyze what you find, and adjust accordingly. When you react to your social media marketing campaign, adjust, and test, you will have the ability to achieve significant improvements in performance with minimal work.

Step #8: Keep Your Audience Engaged by Automating Your Marketing

You want some help running your campaign(s) and while you can hire someone to do it, your best option is to implement the right automation tools. You can save a bundle of money, keep your audience engaged, and reduce the time it takes to do that. There are a number of tools available that will allow you to automate your marketing. Do your research and find the one that feels like it’s a good fit for you.

Those individuals that you reach with your social media marketing are all potential customers, so always treat them well, including on social media. Keep them engaged, and answer their questions promptly.

You are Ready!

By implementing these 8 steps, you are as ready as anyone to make your social media campaign successful.