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Build Your List with Interviews

How To Build Your List With Interviews

Not only can you build a list by interviewing other people,
you can also create new content for your own programs, get
thousands of dollars worth of information for free, pop out
an info product in a matter of a few days and have multiple
streams of revenue coming into your business.

You see, there are actually a lot of very knowledgeable experts
who are lined up waiting to be interviewed so that they can
increase their own exposure. Taking part in an interview series
is both compelling and rewarding for them and most will be
happy to help you spread the word which, of course, will radically
increase the size of your list.

I created an interview series last year and getting the interviews
was actually pretty simple. Yes, it took a little bit of legwork,
but nothing worth having comes without effort.

Here are the 5 basic steps to creating an interview series and
turning into a profitable project that you can repeat over and
over again:

Step 1: Pick your topic

Create a topic that excites you and that you know will excite other
people and this will make it simple to sell and promote.

One tip to finding if others are interested in the topic is to put
out a quick survey using SurveyMonkey.com. This way you can get
direct feedback and know that there’s water in the pool before you
take the plunge.

Step 2: Interview your experts

Create your wish list of experts and start getting in touch. One
of the easiest ways is to simple ask people you already know who
they might be able to recommend. Some of those people you already
know might make great interviews also, so don’t rule that option out.

Step 3: Build your list

Ask each expert to share the recording with their list and
circle of influence. You simply host the playback of the recording
on your website and have an opt-in box for people who would like the
MP3 downnload. This is just ONE of many ways to begin building your
list with interviews.

Step 4: Create your info product

After you have between 5-8 interviews, go ahead and package them
into an information product. You can include transcriptions of the
calls, worksheets to guide people along, helpful resources, etc to
really add value to the project.

Step 5: Start the cash flow

Remember all of those people who opted in to get the free download
of one of the interviews? If they were interested in that, I bet
they’d love to have the whole enchilada. You’ve already demonstrated
the value that the interviews offer. Many of those people will be
more than happy to purchase the entire program. You can deliver this
as a digital download (MP3 recordings and Ebook) or as a physical
product (CDs and binder). The best is to offer both and let clients
choose. If you sell a physical product, I recommend including the
digital download as well. The immediate access to the information
will help with sales and the physical product will increase the
perceived value.

If you want to learn more about how you can create a very profitable
interview series and have a whole lot of fun doing it then sign up
for the FREE teleseminar that I’m having on Monday, June 29th at
6pm EST. Even if you can’t make the call live, I will send you a
recording, but you have to sign up to get access.

Just go here to register: Interview Series Profits

Cheers
Tom

 

Become a Published Author…if I can do it, so can you!

 

Charge What You Deserve Interview with Tad Hargrave

Thanks for signing up for the call. Here is the playback link from yesterday’s call with Tad Hargrave.

Have a great week!

Cheers
Tom

 

Make More Money with a Smaller Market: 5 Reasons to Narrow your Niche as a Service Provider

It’s like pulling teeth to convince some service providers that they NEED to narrow their niche. I understand that it can seem very scary at first, but service providers such as coaches, trainers, speakers and consultants need to recognize that they can’t work with everybody. And, in fact, they will be able to actually help MORE people by narrowing their niche. One of the best marketing tips that I ever got was that I needed to make my market smaller.

Here are 5 reasons why it’s important to narrow your niche if you’re a service provider.

1. You’ll know what to sell.
To be successful, you need to create solutions to urgent problems. You can’t identify a market’s urgent problems if your market is “everybody.” But these problems become very easy to identify once you begin to narrow your niche.

2. You’ll know HOW to market.
Every market will have a different set of emotional “hot buttons” and triggers. They will also identify with different types of marketing approaches. This is a great reason to narrow your niche. Once you learn exactly who your market is, you will know exactly how to market to them.

3. You’ll know WHERE to find your audience.
Trying to solve all problems for all people creates an obvious problem: where do you begin? When you narrow your niche, you will know exactly where to find them. They will be hanging out on very specific forums, blogs, social media sites, networking groups, etc. One of the greatest challenges that many business owners face is knowing exactly how to find their market. Fine tuning your “who” will make the “where” a simple question to answer.

4. You’ll spend less money on marketing.
Since you now know exactly who you want to work with and where they’re hanging out, doesn’t it seem fair that you can expect to spend less on your marketing budget to get in touch with them? Yup! This is a great way to really get the most bang for your marketing buck.

5. You’ll be able to work less and make more.
Wow…now that’s a good reason to narrow your niche! And it’s a valid reason to boot. The more you can narrow your niche, the more efficient you can work. Your thoughts, energy and marketing ideas can go into “ultra laser-focus” mode, making you a lean, mean, money-making machine. OK, no more metaphors, but you get the picture.

So, what can you do with this new inspiration to narrow your niche?

Action step:
Take out a sheet of paper and write down exactly who your ideal clients are and what they need MOST that you can supply. Answer the following questions:

Who are they?
What do they like?
Where do they hang out to learn or gather information?
What hobbies do they have?
What’s their biggest fear?
What’s their biggest desire?

Take 10 minutes to answer these 6 questions and you’ll see that your marketing vision will become much clearer.

 

Meet Me in Atlanta

Hey there. Thanks for popping in. I’d love to know if you’d like to participate in a cost-friendly, 2-hour workshop here in my hometown of Atlanta sometime in the next couple of weeks. You can let me know by emailing tom@chargewhatyoudeserve.com or simply post a comment on this page.

If I get enough response I’ll make this happen. This will be a great opportunity for you to work in a unique setting on fee-setting and marketing strategies that you can put into action immediately for your business.

I’m looking forward to your input!

Have a great week.

Cheers
Tom

 

How are Pages different than personal profiles?

You probably aren’t monetizing your Facebook activity very well if you haven’t started your own Facebook Group or Page. I want to wanted to share what a Facebook Page is so I decided to go straight to the source. Here is some great information describing the differences between Pages and personal profiles that I found on the Facebook Help site.

“Each user is permitted to maintain a single account, which is represented by a profile. Profiles can only be used to represent an individual, and must be held under an individual name. This account can also be used to manage multiple Facebook Pages that represent businesses or other organizations. You may only create Facebook Pages to represent real organizations of which you are an authorized representative, and fans of these Pages won’t be able to see that you are the Page admin, or have any access to your personal account.

All personal site features, such as friending and messaging, are also for personal use only and may not be used for professional promotion. If you add a user as a friend, for example, this person will be invited to be a friend of your profile and not your Page. Using personal site features for professional promotion, or creating unauthorized Pages, may result in your account being warned or disabled.”

I hope this was helpful.

You can also find out:
What is a Facebook Page?
How are Pages different than Facebook Groups?

Cheers
Tom

 

How are Pages different than Facebook Groups?

Another question that I get very often regarding Facebook is what is the difference between a page and a Facebook Group. Once again, I decided to go straight to the source for the best answer. Here is what I found on the Facebook Help site:

“Pages can only be created to represent a real public figure, artist, brand or organization, and may only be created by an official representative of that entity. Groups can be created by any user and about any topic, as a space for users to share their opinions and interest in that subject. Pages can be customized with rich media and interactive applications to engage Page visitors. Applications can’t be added to groups.

Pages are designed to allow Page admins to maintain a personal/professional distinction on Facebook, while groups are a part of your personal Facebook experience. If you’re a group admin, your name will appear on that group, while Pages will never display their admins’ names. Additionally, when you take actions on your group, such as posting on your group’s wall, these actions will appear to come from you as an individual. However, if you post or take other actions on a Page you own, it will appear to come from the Page.

As long as a group is under 5000 members, group admins can send messages to the group members that will appear in their inboxes. If the group exceeds 5000, admins can’t send messages to all members. Page admins can send updates to fans through the Page, and these updates will appear in the “Updates” section of fans’ inboxes. There is no limit on how many fans you may send an update to, or how many total fans a Page can have. It’s also possible to restrict access to a group, so that new members have to be approved, but access to a Page can only be restricted by certain ages and locations.”

I hope this was helpful.

You can also find out:
What is a Facebook Page?
How are Pages different than personal profiles?

Cheers
Tom

 

What is a Facebook Page?

I’m often asked to define a Facebook page and one of the best answers comes straight from the source. Here is an excerpt from the Facebook Help page regarding what a Facebook Page is.

“A public figure, business, or brand can create a Facebook Page to share information, interact with their fans, and create a highly engaging presence on Facebook. Pages are distinct presences that are optimized to represent a business, and are separate from user profiles. Like profiles, they can be enhanced with applications that help the organization communicate with and engage their fans, and capture new audiences virally through their fans’ recommendations to their friends. More than 3 million users become fans of Facebook Pages every day.

You can easily use your personal account to manage a Facebook Page for your organization. You can create your Facebook Page here. Please note that only the official representative of an organization is permitted to create a Page – “fan” Pages are not permitted and will be removed.”

I hope this was helpful.

You can also find out:
How are Pages different than personal profiles?
How are Pages different than Facebook Groups?

Cheers
Tom

 

Coaches, Trainers and Consultants: 5 Tips to Thrive in any Economy

There are many things that you can do to stand out in a noisy crowd and attract clients who are eager to work with you regardless of what’s going on in the economy. They key is to always be growing, improving and improvising. Here are 5 tips to help you along the way to more success for your business.

1. Create multiple offers for your market.

It’s incredibly important, especially in today’s economic climate, to create multiple opportunities for your prospects and clients to say, “Yes!” You can offer audio recording, e-books, group coaching or training programs, multiple levels of private coaching or training, etc.

2. Share social proof or testimonials of your work.

Even if you’re just starting out, it’s very impacting to provide testimonials about what people have achieved by working directly with you or by working with systems or programs similar to what you offer. An example would be a brand new life coach who can present testimonials from people who can explain how life coaching in general has been a helpful and valuable tool in their lives.

3. Focus on the value that you offer and not the process that you take clients through.

In the simplest of terms, people want out of pain and into pleasure. They aren’t very concerned with the step-by-step process to getting there; as long as they know they can get there.

4. Be the “bridge” between where your market IS and where they want TO BE.

When you provide the tool, system or support for getting your clients from where they are to where they want TO BE, you’ll find it’s a simple task to convert them into happy, paying clients. But remember, don’t describe the color of the bridge; just take them across.

5. Add video and audio to your marketing approach.

This provides a very personal touch to your marketing and let’s prospective clients get to know, like and trust you much quicker than others who are competing for their business.

For an amazing interview series with dozens of valuable tips from service professionals who bring in an average of $700 per hour, visit: http://chargewhatyoudeserve.com/eis_dig.php

 

Multiple Prospects? Multiple Solutions!

When you are offering only one service or product, you’re putting a tremendous amount of undue pressure on yourself.

Every time you face a prospect you know in the back of your mind that it’s all or nothing.

Why not alleviate this pressure and at the same time give your market a selection of choices.

Here are a few ideas:

<>Newsletters, articles and free reports

<>Information products

<>Group programs

<>Split-fees

You can cover all your bases from “home-run” services to free information such as newsletters and articles.

Let’s go through these one at a time.

Most people need to get to know, like and trust you before they invest hard-earned money into your services.  This might take 5 minutes or 5 months.  Everybody is different.  That’s one of the main reasons to offer multiple solutions for your clients’ problems.  Not any one is going to be best suited for all of them.

Newsletters, articles and free reports:

These are, without a doubt, three of the best ways to get people interested in what you have to offer.  If you give them valuable, practical information at no risk whatsoever then they will be more inclined to trust you when you offer more expensive solutions.

What about those prospects who truly cannot afford your fees?  Newsletters, articles and free reports are a godsend for these people.  They need information that they can trust, but they aren’t capable of shelling out the money just yet.

For others it absolutely frightening to hand money over to somebody that they don’t know.  Give them the opportunity to know, like and trust you and their guard will come down.  Just be sure to always respect and honor this trust.  Consider it sacred and you can have long lasting relationships with your clients.

Remember, it’s MUCH more expensive to acquire new clients than it is to retain existing ones.

Information products

Information products come in all shapes, sizes and prices.  They can be free, 15 page downloads all the way to multiple CD and book packages ranging from a few dollars to $2500 and more.

I watched one ezine guru go from $450 to $1500 for the exact same info product in ONE year.  And she gets it.  Obviously people have found her information to be worth thousands of dollars.

One of the easiest ways to create an information product is to record a teleseminar or a series of teleseminars, have the audio transcribed, then package the audio and book.  You can keep it to a simple PDF text and MP3 audio download or create a physical product.  Both can be very useful for your clients and very profitable for you.

Group programs

Teleseminars and workshops are great ways to leverage your time and offer your services at a lower fee.  You can do this and make excellent income because you are working with several people at a time.

If you are providing superb value for your clients then many of them will want to get closer to you and hire you one-on-one.

Group programs are also a great option for current clients who are struggling with the financial commitment of more expensive private services.

Split-fees

Many coaches offer a set number of sessions per month for a set number of minutes each session at a set price.

For instance, they might offer four, 45-minute sessions per month for $500.  This becomes very restrictive in terms of what you’re offering your clients.  Not everybody is going to need the same number of sessions each month for the same amount of time.

Take the same example and make a slight adjustment.

Package A        Package B

Sessions per month:        Two                    Four

Length of sessions:          45 minutes       45 minutes

Investment:                        $400                  $700

Imagine your prospects actually having choices?  You don’t want to confuse them with too choices, but you don’t want to limit them to an “all or nothing” either.

This is also great insurance for not having to discuss your fees too early in a sales conversation.

You can be honest and say that you have multiple solutions for their needs and you would like to get more information first.  More on that when I discuss tips for communicating fees with confidence.

Profit Step

Write down split-fee packages that you can offer.  Include 2-3 different packages.

Challenge: If one of the packages is offering the same amount of time that you currently offer your clients, I want to challenge you to raise the price of that package at least 50% above what you currently charge.

Cheers and Success

Tom

Note: This was an excerpt from the Charge What You Deserve Coach in a Book.  To discover more practical techniques for how to charge what you deserve and get it go to:

http://tinyurl.com/cntn7k

 

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