marketing

Do You Really Need a Coach?

I work with a lot of Coaches – on the “I’m their web designer” end of things. People have asked me what these clients of mine sell, so I’ve tried to best explain what it is a Coach does and what they are selling and many folks not in “the biz” don’t quite understand the dynamics of Coaching. Some (like my husband -ah-hem-) even had the thought that it’s a scam or rip off. (“You’re just paying for someone to tell you what to do?!?”) And, well, yes. You are paying for someone else to tell you what to do.

But for many of us (raise your hands now if you are feeling lost, stressed, upset, depressed) that is exactly what we need. I’m sure there is an insane amount of psychology out there on the dynamics of having a Coach, but I’m not going to get into all that (you can google that on your own). However I am going to share a few of my experiences and thoughts on the matter – because I am a blogger now and from what I know about blogging, I get to do that. [superemotions file="icon_wink.gif" title="Wink"]

Top Signs You Need to Consider Hiring A Coach

When it’s time to start working, you would rather be doing the dishes/laundry/cleaning the toilet. (extra points if you actually clean the toilet rather then working)

When the person you talk to most has that glazed over look in their eyes when you talk about your business, cause you keep saying/complaining about the same things over and over. (my husband can attest to that)

When you sit down to work at the computer and you start your day by surfing the net for anything and everything NOT related to your biz. (stupid amazon.com gets me every time)

When people start emailing you wondering if you’ve fallen off the face of the earth cause you have not been twittering/facebooking/blogging like normal. (and it’s not b/c you’ve been on vacation or something)

When your actual vacation is approaching and you are filled with dread rather then excitement because you feel like your business will fall apart if you leave.

When you get a new lead or prospect and you react with a “oh, crap! not another one!” (believe me, it happens)

When you feel like you are (or actually are) working non-stop but still can’t afford to buy yourself a morning latte (or in my case, red bull)

When you decide to take on a client who does not mesh well with you, knowing it’s only gonna be trouble, just to have a client.

And here’s #1 for me — the day you decide “I’m going to go back and get a ‘real’ job – it’s gotta be better then this”.

I know there are more signs, and for each person and type of business I’m sure the signs vary. I’m guessing if you take a step back and look at the low points of your business you will be able to recognize your own personal signs (so next time, you can nip it in the bud).

If one (or more!) of those signs hits home with you, I recommend looking into hiring a coach, even if it’s just for an hour. I can attest to the fact that even just an hour can make the biggest difference in the world. And here’s my personal opinion why:

What a Coach Can Do For You

Validate You. Speaking from a female perspective (cause, um, I’m a girl) there is little in this world that is better then having someone tell you what you feel/think is right/ok. As women, I think we question ourselves way too much when it comes to non-traditional female stuff (don’t be offended at this, please). For me, when someone questions my decisions/feelings as a mother I can say “screw you!” but when it comes to my business I feel timid and shy about my feelings, plans and ambitions. Having someone else (especially a peer) tell you what you think/feel is right is empowering.

Enlighten You. Many many times, even if you think you have it figured out – you don’t. A good Coach will open doors for you that you had never even thought of before. Maybe you know you need to do X, but the key to making that happen is to realize why you are not doing X already. A Coach can help you pin point what the real problems are (for example, point out some conditioned behavior that you never thought you had). When you can finally see what’s really standing in your way, you can knock it out -or off- a lot easier.

Motivate You. It’s true that you may already know exactly what you should be doing to solve whatever problem that you are having. If that’s the case, then why haven’t you started doing it yet? It could be partly because you need to be sure you are right (see “Validate You”) and it could be partly because no one is there to answer to. When you are only answering to yourself, it can be hard (sometimes impossible) to motivate to get that going.

I realized that when my family is gone, and I am alone in the house, I eat A LOT of cookies and potato chips. But when my family is here, I am eating things like bandanna and granola bars. Why? Because I can get away with the junk food when no one is hear looking over my shoulder (and it’s almost like it never happened). I think the same thing plays out in my business. Since no one is here looking over my shoulder, I can be as sloppy and unorganized as possible and then blame my problems on anything and everything else.

When you work with a coach, more then likely they will be giving you challenges, checking in with you and keeping tabs on your work. Knowing that you are handing $$ to this person and they are watching you can really motivate you to make those changes needed to get you back into the swing of things.

Push You. After motivation there is pushing. I call it pushing because I think there is a step past motivation that is uncomfortable and difficult – and that is going outside your comfort zone and accomplishing things you had written off, don’t want to do or had never even considered.

Empower You. This is my #1 reason for hiring a Coach. When you work with someone who knows what they are doing, who is confident and knowledgeable and strong – their attitude and strength carries over to you. When someone you respect tells you that you are worth it, that you are good at what you do, you have an easier time believing in yourself. And ladies, I know many of you can agree that lacking confidence is one of the biggest setbacks in our entrepreneurial game. When you walk away from a coaching session knowing what you need to do and how you are going to do it AND feeling like you can do it, it stays with you.

So…how do you find this magical solution to your problems? I know there are a lot of Coaches out there. There are Coaches for everything, too. It can get confusing as to who is right for the job, who knows what they are talking about and who would fit well with you. Especially when it comes to paying for it, because if you are like me you don’t have a money tree in your backyard and every dime counts. My first suggestion is to not look at their fees. Don’t hire one coach over the other because they are cheaper. While a low-fee coach may be the best person for you, that should not be your deciding factor. Make the decision up front that you are going to part with whatever amount of money it takes to hire the coach that fits with you. And make it happen — start with one hour and see how you feel after that. When it comes to hiring a Coach, you have to consider the big picture — a few hundred dollars now (while it may hurt and you may be eating pb&j’s for a while) can equal increased profits out the wazoo down the road (and then you can celebrate with an expensive steak dinner).

Searching for your Coach.

Since I work with (and know) a lot of coaches, I know it’s hard to find the right one right away. My best tip for finding that match is to do your homework. Look for some Coaches (get references and search the web) and read their stuff – subscribe to their newsletters, read their blogs, download their freebies, follow them on twitter. Find a Coach that writes in a voice similar to yours. Find a Coach who’s topics make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You’ll know. Once you have found that one (or a few) that you feel connected to, ask for a free consultation. If you leave that call feeling like you’ve found a new friend – then they are the one for you.

Need Somewhere to Start?

Here are a few coaches who make the hair on the back of my neck stand up when they write. I invite you to follow them on twitter, subscribe to their newsletters and see what they have to say. While my opinions are just that – my opinions- I can attest that reading their freebies and newsletters alone have changed my business and my attitude. (You may notice some of these are my own clients – no, I have not struck a deal with them or anything, but since I spent a lot of time reading their materials while I worked, I got to know them and fell in love with what they are about)

Elizabeth Genco Purvis: The Marketing Goddess. This lady is top notch when it comes to empowerment. If you feel your business -and income- is sliding off into oblivion, she has the right tools to pull you back up and get your business moving again. [also twitter.com/elizabethgenco]

Michele Woodward. If you are feeling lost in what you are doing right now, whether you are still at a crappy corporate job, running a less-then-successful home business or in between work, she will show you why you are where you are at and how to change it. She also makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside about yourself. [also twitter.com/michelewoodward]

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein. Despite the fact that she is my sister (and typically I do not listen to my sister) I have gained immense knowledge about “the biz” from her. She’s been there, done that. She can show you what things you should stop doing, where you need to bulk up the efforts and how to piece together a financially successful business from scratch. [also twitter.com/elizabethpw]

Laurie Foley. I akin Laurie to Apollo Creed in Rocky III. She’s that Coach that’s right there training you for the big fight, and is on the sideline when you’re in the ring, pushing you to get back in there for the knock out. She brings out the championship fighter in you. [also twitter.com/intuitioneer]

Have you had an awesome experience with a life or business Coach? Please share your experiences by adding a comment below or email me with your thoughts – I would love to add some more names to my list of recommended Coaches!! Or just let me know your theories or thoughts on hiring a Coach – I’d love the insights!! [superemotions file="icon_biggrin.gif" title="Big Grin"]

~Victoria Potts Keale is a newbie blogger, website designer, entrepreneur extraordinaire, mom, wife, daughter, sister… well, you get the gist. She lives in her hometown of St. Louis, MO in an old haunted farmhouse with her 2 kids and drummer hubby. She has 15 tattoos and wants more. She loves 80′s music. She thinks writing bios in the 3rd person is wacky. You should email her and tell her what else to put in her bio – victoria@lynnraedesigns.com – but don’t spam her, cause she’ll get angry.

Please feel free to use this blog in whatever, but make sure you credit it back to the author (link it up here!!) and send us a note that you used it, cause we’ll give you some link-love right back.

You Have a Website … Now What?

Many business owners get that first big website (or sales page, or opt-in page), spending *months* working on writing the copy, getting their logo done, finalizing the website design, and all of the other busy work involved in the launching of a new site.

Then it’s launched, and it’s like, well, now what?

Cause I’m here to tell you, no magical fairies are going to send traffic, leads, or customers to your website just because it exists. Advertising is expensive, and all of those too-good-to-be-true schemes and tricks to drive traffic to your site are just that, too good to be true (trust me, I tried most of them to no avail!). Especially in the beginning, you will need to take action to drive good, targeted traffic to your site, to build your list and make sales.

Here are three strategies you should use to build your list & customer base, now that you’ve launched your website.

1. Publish High Quality Content

You *must* be creating high quality content if you want anyone to come to your website (or for that matter, buy from you). I don’t mean content with a load of keywords, or any particular type of content (could be articles, audios, or videos) … just content that a human being in your target market will get value from and will *love* you for providing.

Not only should this content be on your website, but you will also be using it in teleclasses/webinars, on your social networking sites, as give-aways for joining your list, and in your email promotions. So if you’ve built a site that only contains information about you & your business, now it’s time to add valuable tools, tips, and strategies that your audience will find interesting, useful, and/or enlightening.

2. Develop Relationships With Your Target Market & Others Who Serve Your Target Market

Very few people will stumble upon your site and buy something right away, especially if you are selling high-ticket items or services. You must develop a relationship with them over time if they will trust you enough to start working with you.

My favorite way to develop that relationship is via social networking on Twitter and Facebook. Not only to I provide great content to my networks on these sites, but I engage them in a conversation about themselves and their businesses… and even help them by sending traffic to their sites! If social networking is not your thing yet, the same strategy applies for in person networking, phone calls, and live meetings with potential clients… develop that relationship before you expect them to go to your website (or make the sale).

Same concept applies to other people & businesses who also serve your target market. Once you develop a relationship with them, you may be able to engage in joint ventures where you promote each other, become affiliates for each other, and even create projects together. But this is not going to happen until you develop a relationship with them & they know you are a high quality partner.

3. Ask

There’s nothing wrong with promoting yourself, your website, and your business … as long as you do it in a way that shows “what’s in it for them”. The easiest way to do this is to offer free high quality content. If what you are “selling” is free and valuable to your target market, it will be easy & straightforward to “sell” them to go onto your site. But this only works if you already have valuable content *and* have already developed that relationship.

The "You" Factor

Recently I designed a website for a client’s new online business. They had provided me with a description of the business and a few pages of content – and with that we created a very clean, nice looking WordPress website. We even created a squeeze page with a newsletter sign up so they could get a jump on building their list. Two weeks after the site was complete, I received an email from them complaining that no one had subscribed to their newsletter yet and they were upset. Why was their new site not working? They even went so far as to look into hiring one of those so-called “SEO Guru’s” who promise they will get you millions of customers overnight! (Yeah, sure.) I assured the client that their site was fully set up with all the SEO tools websites can have – and send them a list of things they could do to help draw traffic to the site.

I’m still unsure if they took my advice and starting investing time into promoting their site – but the experience proved to me that many people still have the “If you build it, they will come” attitude about websites. As a designer, that’s a lot of pressure. And pretty much impossible.

So I did a bit of research on the concept of websites just “existing” and making you money. I downloaded every report I could find from so-called guru’s and discovered, through the haze of buzz words and empty promises, that each of these gurus are pushing these magic “X-Factor” techniques that are guaranteed (!!) to make you $10,000 overnight (!!) while you sit on the beach sipping your margarita. Everyone said the same thing, and most of their tools do work. But the thing these gurus left out was the amount of time and energy YOU need to put in your site to build it. Yes, it’s possible to create a website that will make passive income for you. It’s possible to wake up in the morning with those awesome “You’ve got money” emails in your inbox. What is not possible is for you to create a website and then do nothing, and expect the money to just start rolling in. Websites are not the Ronco™ Rotisserie – you can’t just set it and forget it.

The X-Factor Tools

There are tools that have been proven to work in building a profitable website. Below is a list of the big ones, the ones all the gurus profess and I have seen work. Check out your own web business and see if any of these pieces are missing.

A subscription program (eZine or Auto-responder series)
A “Pink Spoon” page or section, offering a freebie to your subscribers
An easy to navigate, browser-friendly website with information on who you are and what you can offer your clients
A blog or article section of your site with fresh content
An easy-to-find way to connect with your visitors – contact form, call in number, or email address
Social Networking accounts for you or your biz (Twitter, Facebook Fan pages, Linked In profiles, etc…)
RSS Feed – a one-click way for visitors to sign up to receive updates from your site
Multimedia – use videos and audio to connect with your visitors and promote your site.
Advertising – either AdWords or cross promoting with your networking buds
Affiliate Programs
Membership sites or Forums – so your visitors can interact with each other
Downloadable products or programs at various price points

By far these are not the only ways to build a profitable business, but these are some “big dogs” when it comes to promoting your business online. But the list – and the work – does not stop there. You have to try and envision your business as a living thing. It needs care and maintenance to survive. It needs YOU to grow.

The You-Factor

So you’ve got a great website, a nice little freebie for your subscribers, and introductory video about your business and a twitter account. What’s next?

Spread The Word. Once all the basics are in place, you need to start creating the buzz for your business. Take a look at all the contacts that you have – send a quick note to them announcing your business. Add links to your business everywhere you can on the web – social networking sites, friend’s websites, on your email signature – heck, wear your URL on your t-shirt if you think it will help! In the early months of a site, you cannot rely on good SEO alone to drive traffic to your site.
Tell Your Business’ Story. Make sure when you are marketing your new business you are clearly telling people what you do. I find many times I create a beautiful website for someone and even after it’s launched I still don’t exactly know what they do or how it would benefit me. When promoting your new site, use very specific terms to descirbe what you offer and who it”s for. That will also help with the “word of mouth” marketing. If Suzie gets asked if she knows anyone who does X, and she remembers your new business sells X, she will pass on your info. If she doesn’t know you do X, she can’t spread the word.
Get Your Expert Status Out There. Don’t rely on your newsletter alone to showcase your knowledge. Take old articles and publish them as blog posts (with a teaser to subscribe to the newsletter at the bottom of the post). Submit your articles to article-sharing sites. (ezinearticles.com) Post your articles on Facebook. Offer guest posts on your friend’s sites. Do anything and everything to get your knowledge – and name – out there.
Plaster Your Face Everywhere. Don’t let your awesome video just sit alone on your site. Create a You Tube channel. Add your video to MySpace & Facebook. Open up a 12seconds.tv account to share your videos. You can even subscribe to video sharing programs that will put your video out on every video site imaginable (tubemogel.com or heyspread.com)
Make Sharing Easy. Add “share this” buttons everywhere on your site. Sales pages, regular static pages, blog posts, etc… make it an easy one-click for someone to spread the word on you. Many bookmarking sites provide easy copy&paste code for your site so you don’t even need any code knowledge to add it. (reddit.com, digg.com, stumbledupon.com, Technorati.com or Yahoo Buzz)
Make Following Easy. Utilize your RSS feed by signing up for a Feedburner.com account, which gives subscribers more options to receive your feed. Add links on your site for your visitors to follow you on Facebook or Twitter.
Get Your Voice Heard. Record yourself reading your article and add a “listen now” button to your posts (see AudioAcrobat.com). Look into services like Blog Talk Radio where you can share your knowledge and hit a whole new market.
Make Friends. Join networking sites, enroll in group mastermind programs and participate in events where you can get in front of people AND gain business knowledge. Pass out your business card!! Schmooze! You’d be amazed at the number of people who find me through their networking circles – word of mouth is still the best marketing tool out there.

The real X-Factor in marketing your business is YOU. Think outside the box when you start a new business and use as many tools as possible to promote yourself online. The competition is fierce out there, and the time you invest in promoting yourself really determines your success. Once you have your basic tools in place, start by investing just an hour a day in getting the word out there. You’ll be surprised at how taking just that little amount of time out of your day can increase your site traffic – and your bank account.

PS – Don’t forget to check in on how you are doing! I highly recommend subscribing to tracking software (google.com/analytics) and actively track your sites performance. Take an interest in how people are finding you, and what keywords that are bringing them to you. Take that info and exploit it! If most of your traffic comes in through Facebook, then step up your game on Facebook! It’s obviously working.

~Victoria Potts Keale is a newbie blogger, website designer, entrepreneur extraordinaire, mom, wife, daughter, sister… well, you get the gist. She lives in her hometown of St. Louis, MO in an old haunted farmhouse with her 2 kids and drummer hubby. She has 15 tattoos and wants more. She loves 80’s music. She thinks writing bios in the 3rd person is wacky. You should email her and tell her what else to put in her bio – victoria@lynnraedesigns.com – but don’t spam her, cause she’ll get angry.

Stylin’ Sales Page Tips

Think Outside The Box! I mean that literally as most sales pages are set up as a long box of content, centered on the browser screen. There are things you can do outside of that box to boost your visibility. First off, make the background around your box of content pleasing to the eye – you can choose a background color that makes your content “pop” or add a graphic (such as you logo) watermarked on the background. Repetition of your brand is always good. Don’t make the mistake of having your background color be too bold – an obnoxious bright red may make people uneasy and leave the site.

Adding your site navigation menu along the bottom of the page can help increase your traffic as well – if someone is leery about signing up for your offer they may want to investigate who you are a bit more, and adding your site navigation gives them a way to see who you are and what you do.

Add bookmarking links above the content. I recently had a client ask me to add bookmarking links to her page – an idea I had not thought of before! After a bit of research, I found that adding links to diggit, reddit, twitter, facebook (the list goes on) is a very easy way to give people the option to spread the word about your product or offer. Most bookmarking sites have the link code available on their site so all you have to do is copy and paste it into your code!

Say “no!” to clipart! Be mindful of the graphics you add to your sales page. The days of Power Point stick figures are over. With all of the stock photography and stock graphics sites out there, you can add very professional looking images to your sales page with little to no cost to you. People can tell the difference between clipart from Word and professionally designed graphics. In addition to content-driven graphics, if you are selling (or offering for free) an eBook or Audio program, having a 3D graphic custom made to fit that product helps the visitor visualize what they are going to get by signing up.

Personalize! Adding your image, signature or video to the sales page helps the visitor feel connected to you and helps to build the relationship. Show your visitors the results you got from your system or product by adding pictures of you enjoying the benefits (like an image of your vacation house or you having a great time doing something resulting from using this product)

Match their investment to yours. This is especially true for sales pages where you are selling a product (rather then building a list and offering a freebie) – if you have a basic, content rich sales page with little customization, no graphics and no personalization you can give the impression to your visitors that this product is not worth your own time and money!! If it looks like you only spent 15 minutes creating your sales page, there is a good chance people will not be willing to invest hundreds of $$ to your product.

Be mindful of your content. You may have spent hours developing great copy to sell your product, but if you do not format the content correctly, chances are no one will have the patience to read through all of it. Use an easy to read font (like Veranda or Tahoma), don’t let your paragraphs go too long (break up paragraphs into 2-3 sentence statements), use headers and subheaders, & bullet points.

~Victoria Potts Keale is a newbie blogger, website designer, entrepreneur extraordinaire, mom, wife, daughter, sister… well, you get the gist. She lives in her hometown of St. Louis, MO in an old haunted farmhouse with her 2 kids and drummer hubby. She has 15 tattoos and wants more. She loves 80’s music. She thinks writing bios in the 3rd person is wacky. You should email her and tell her what else to put in her bio – victoria@lynnraedesigns.com – but don’t spam her, cause she’ll get angry.