Self Employed Success » Marketing

On Being YOU in Business

Karyn Greenstreet — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 07:28:00 +0000

A few days ago, a client (let’s call him George) asked me whether his marketing is “professional enough.” He was worried that his text was “too personal” and didn’t make his company look like a large company.

George is a very funny, likeable, insightful person. His email newsletter is extraordinarily humorous and real. He’s always telling stories about himself and his nutty family in his articles, then relates those stories to the point of the article. George exposes who he really is to his customers and prospects, and they love him for it.

People are so numb to all the marketing that’s coming to them. Let’s face it, we ignore a lot of email and offers that come our way. When I asked George what his open rate was on this email newsletter (“open rate” means the number of people who actually open his email as a percentage of the total number he sent), he said his open rate was 75%!! Wow!!! In this day and age when 20% open rate is considered industry average, 75% blows me away.

You really want to form a personal connection with your customers and prospects. It’s crucially important for you to BE YOU, whether you’re crazy or serious, spiritual or pragmatic. Let people know who you are and what you’re all about. Don’t try to hide behind a corporate exterior. Professional, yes, but not distant, remote or unapproachable. If there is more than one person in your business, it’s okay to say “we,” but don’t say “we” if it’s only you. (Why hide that you’re a one-person business? It’s a tremendous asset to be a one-person business!)

I’m so tired of faceless companies and I bet you are, too. I’m not saying that you should expose all your personal problems and foibles which might detract from your message, but exposing your personality really helps to build relationships. It’s a little scary to let people know who you really are, but it’s also honest and full of integrity.

Me? I’m a lot of things, some of which you already know, and some that might be a surprise:

I love being self employed. I’m an evangelist about it.
I adore being in nature and hate crowded, polluted places. The photo above is my husband and I last autumn at the top of a mountain we hiked. We hiked in Cornwall, England and Yosemite, and will continue to be in nature until the last breath leaves our bodies. .
We bought a house in the country so that we could be in nature always. It’s heaven. Okay, the deer eating my flowers isn’t heaven, but the rest of it is.
I have a distinctive laugh that people seem to enjoy. Which is cool, because I love to laugh! My sister and I have the exact same laugh, and when we get together the energy escalates through the roof.
My family is loving, warm, supportive and totally insane. I couldn’t live without them.
My spirituality is simple: I believe we all are here for a reason, we all have gifts to give, and it’s our responsibility as humans (and souls) to give these gifts to the world.
I get angry at people who are being mean to others.
I love to share what I know, and when I learn something new, I love to tell others about it. This is sometimes annoying to my family who really don’t care about business plans or internet marketing. Spoil sports.

What about you? Who are you and what’s unique about you? What are you going to share with your customers?

So go ahead, be YOU!

The I Love Lucy Guide to Marketing

Karyn Greenstreet — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:30:42 +0000

In the 1950s television show, Lucy has one overriding goal: to break into show biz and to get Ricky to put her in his nightclub act. The thousands of wacky and inventive ways she went about trying to achieve this goal is what made the TV show so hilarious.

Here’s what Lucy can teach you about marketing: there are no silver bullets, no magical “one perfect technique” that will help you achieve your marketing goals. (We all wish there was one ideal marketing technique that will send flood of customers your way, don’t we?) I work with clients in 39 different industries and I’m hearing the same story from them over and over again: in this economy, you have to use multiple marketing techniques in a coordinated, integrated fashion, because people will come to you through all those channels.

I had seven prospective client phone calls this week. Where did they come from? Five different marketing techniques! One came because she’d been a subscriber to my email newsletter for several years; another came because our connection on Facebook. One came from an article I was interviewed for, in Entrepreneur Magazine’s November 2011 issue. Two came from Googling “small business coach.” The final two came from word-of-mouth referrals from other clients.

The other thing my successful clients are doing is tracking the results of their marketing efforts and making tweaks along the way. Don’t spend all your time being busy “doing” your marketing that you never step back and look at the big picture. Put on your CEO hat and be strategic about your marketing.

Ask yourself:

Have my marketing goals changed, or will they change in the coming year?
In the past 12 months, which marketing techniques have brought the most customers?
Are there any marketing techniques that used to work well, but now are not as strong?
Are my marketing techniques up-to-date, or could some of them use a tweak and a facelift?
Which marketing techniques take the most time, and can I delegate some of the work to others to free myself up?

And take a tip from Lucy: if at first the results aren’t stellar, take a step back and look for another creative way to achieve your goals. Above all, never give up on what you really, really want!

P.S. If you’re spending all your time being busy doing work for your business, then you’re not acting like a business owner, you’re acting like an employee. Join my Leap Year masterminding and mentoring program and give yourself the gift of “CEO Time” each month to plan and implement your big goals for 2012. (Plus there’s a 3-day live Retreat Weekend where you can step away from your office, brainstorm with everyone in the program, and get things done! How cool will that feel to check something massive off your To Do list?)

The Power of Branding in Launching a New Service

Karyn Greenstreet — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:18:18 +0000

We think of branding and we instantly think of products. Let me tell you a story about the importance of good brand design when launching a new service.

For six months, my JV partner Pamela Wilson and I have been working on a new mastermind group program. We realized we wanted it to have its own brand, its own personality, separate from either of our existing businesses. Together we went through a series of steps to identify not only the brand, but the program itself. I’d like to share those steps with you now so that you have a checklist for branding your services.

Here are some things to think about when you’re creating a brand for your new service offering, whether it’s a group coaching program, a training class, a mastermind group, or a special package of services you’ve bundled together:

Ask the big questions first.

Start with the most important questions: Who is this service for? And what do they need?

This will help you to get a clear understanding of your target audience, and from that knowledge you may find that the name of your new service offering comes to the surface easily. For us, we said we wanted this mastermind group to be for small business owners who have been in business 3 or more years and were ready to take their business to the next level. The name Leap Year came easily once we defined our target audience and their needs. (It didn’t hurt that the Leap Year program would begin in 2012 – which is a leap year! )

Decide on the personality of the service.

Is it serious? Is it playful? Is it creative? Is it linear? Come up with five adjectives that describe how you want people to perceive the brand of your service. With Leap Year, we wanted it energetic, powerful and inspiring. So when Pamela created the logo, she melded those adjectives together and came up with the perfect logo:

Be consistent in everything you do around your brand.

Branding isn’t just about logos. It’s about the colors and graphic elements you use, about the words you choose, even about the music you select. Use your brand in all your marketing and communication materials, even down to the handouts you create or the ebook cover you design.

When putting together our website, we wanted to create an invitation video with an animation to start it out. Pamela used the logo and colors to create the animation, then enlisted her son Gabe Zurek (who is majoring in composition so that he can learn to write scores for films) to come up with several musical themese for the video. After watching the video with each of the different pieces of music, this one stood out as being perfect for how we wanted to portray our brand:

By putting all the branding elements together, you present a cohesive package to your customers through your time with them, from marketing through delivery. Start small: put a brand name to your service packages, groups and classes. From there, you can grow your brand with logos, colors, text…and maybe a little music, too!

P.S. Want to know more about Leap Year? Visit the Leap Year Mastermind Group website here.

What’s Your Intention?

Karyn Greenstreet — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:59:14 +0000

I went to a professional video techniques workshop this weekend with Rick Toone and Ken McArthur. They focused on the importance of planning in creating video as a marketing tool for your business, being strategic in your intention for the purpose of each scene, the overall message of your video, and what will you do with it.

I know I harp on strategy and planning a lot, but bear with me as I harp on it some more. What Ken and Rick were talking about regarding creating videos for your business applies to every thing you do to market your business. Some people enjoy writing blog posts or creating videos to market their businesses. Some people enjoy public speaking and networking to market their businesses. But before you get your hands and head into your next marketing project, ask why you’re doing it: who are you trying to attract, what are you trying to say to them, what you want them to think and feel as they interact with your marketing technique, and what you want them to do afterwards.

But don’t forget the biggest why of all: Why are YOU doing this particular marketing technique?

I’m speaking on Wednesday to a group of women entrepreneurs at the Women’s Business Forum. Before I write that speech, before I haul myself out of bed before the sun rises, before I stand in front of an expectant group of business owners and talk about the psychology of marketing to women, I have to think long and hard about my personal intentions for this program.

Sure I want to educate them and introduce myself to them…that’s a given, a basic necessity, the bottom-floor reason why I’m doing it. I have always deeply admired what the Women’s Business Forum is doing: as a non-profit organization, they empower female small business owners to succeed by offering free educational programs and mastermind groups. Giving 1-hour and 4-hour workshops to this group, free of charge, is my way of contributing to the magic that is the WBF. I’ll do it as often as they invite me to do it.

It’s not my intention that someone walks away from my presentation on Wednesday and says, “Gosh, I can’t wait to hire Karyn for thousands of dollars!” (I won’t say no if they do…I also have an intention for earning a large income from my coaching and consulting business. ) But if one person walks away with a little more knowledge, a great marketing technique, a brilliant way of looking at their business through a different lens, I’ve done my job.

Of course I’ve planned out my speech. Of course I’ve planned out my wardrobe. Of course I’ve loaded up with business cards. The most important implementation I’ve done is to stop and ask myself: Why are you giving this particular speech, on this particular day, to this particular group?

Strategic thinking starts with self-knowledge.

(P.S. Thanks to Rick and Ken, I’m re-energized around creating videos for my biz. Keep your eyes and ears open for more great Ask Karyn Anything educational videos coming soon! Submit your questions here.)

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Easily Create and Market Your Ebook

Karyn Greenstreet — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:24:51 +0000

You know that ebooks are an important part of your marketing model as well as a great stream of revenue for your business. Whether you give away free ebooks to spread your message and build your list, or you sell ebooks to your customers, ebooks are a brilliant tool.

I have written five ebooks, and have many more in the pipeline. I also create all my student guides in ebook format.

But there are three problems:

How do you get started writing an ebook, figuring out the content, and standing out from the crowd with your topic?
Once you write it, how do you make it look professional and eye-catching? That’s tough work if you’re not graphically-minded or you can’t tell a font from a fondue.
And after you create the ebook and a super cover design, how do you market your ebook?

Lucky for us, Kelly Kingman and Pamela Wilson have created eBook Evolution to solve these problems. It’s chock full of solid advice, including a 41-page guide with step-by-step instructions on how to organize and write your ebook, a guide to create ebook covers and page layouts, a 69-page launch guide for marketing your ebook.

Kelly and Pamela also tell you how to get free software to create your ebook — and even free fonts, too. I’m so pleased they made the potentially cumbersome project of writing, designing and marketing your ebook easy and fun. (Lots of worksheets and checklists are included…very useful and concrete to keep you on track.) There’s nothing to stop you now from creating all the ebooks you want!

Plus you get 10-page guide for creating your cover page and ebook contents using the free Open Office software, and 2 ebook templates you can use right away: just add your content.

This tidy bundle of instruction and templates is immensely helpful to take your ebooks to the next level. Just looking at the way Pamela and Kelly have written and designed the eBook Evolution ebooks will give you lots of creative ideas for your own ebooks.

The nicest part is this…

You will design your own ebook, so whenever you want to make changes to it, it doesn’t cost you a dime. That’s a big problem if you have someone design your ebook for you, so a do-it-yourself mentality will save you up-front and in years to come.

I can’t wait to create my new ebooks from all I learned in this program — and I can’t wait to see YOURS, too!

Want to learn more about eBook Evolution? Check it out here:

www.stickyebooks.com/get-ebook-evolution

Note: this is not an affiliate link. No affiliates were harmed in writing this review.