This post is a part of the Creative Business Development Series.

Almost a year ago, I wrote a couple posts called, “Do You Have A Heart For Your Business” and “Why Having Heart Is Not Enough To Sustain Your Business“.

To this day, I still stand behind everything I said in those posts… maybe even more-so at this point.

Why?

Because I know what it’s like to have struggles, to face hard decisions, and to come face to face with the reality that I just don’t know the right answer or the right path to choose. Business isn’t always a breeze. It’s tough.

What keeps me going?

Well I’m sure there are several things, but one of them would be that I love what I’m doing. I have a heart for my business. I love helping and teaching people. Whether it be teaching about natural health or teaching about growing a business, I love to share my knowledge and help other people make their dreams a reality.

I’d call that “heart” wouldn’t you?

But, like I said before, having a heart for business doesn’t automatically mean your business will be successful. You can love what you do and still not make any money. You have to work hard to make money, and that’s not always the most fun part of business.

There are several things that can help you stay motivated to keep your business fire burning… maybe not so brightly, but still… burning.

One of the big things that I feel like I’ve recently figured out is that my business has to have meaning to me.

The work that I’m doing… whether it’s making physical products for parents to use on their children or digital products and services that I offer creatives looking for help and answers about their business, I have to find meaning in it or I’ll burn out.

If I didn’t find meaning in it, I’d be doing it for the fame and money (and let’s be honest… there isn’t a lot of that floating around here) and that would lead to burnout really quickly.

Meaning in your business can come in many different ways, and you don’t always know how to put it into words. I don’t think I could put it into words for the longest time. I just kept coming back to it. I’d hit a road-block, stop and search for the right path, stumble around aimlessly, finally get on a path and get going again.

But you know what? Over and over, I’ve come back to the same things, and these things represent me so well.

Simple DIY living, natural health, and teaching others.

What makes something meaningful?

I’ve heard it said that meaning comes from the connection between the effort and the reward. That connection can be tangible or intangible. Money can make something meaningful. Helping others and feeling good about it can make something meaningful. Being an authority on something can make that thing meaningful.

What meaning does my work have?

I find meaning in empowering women to care of their families naturally and to pursue their creative dreams. I find meaning in being able to provide the resources and help they need to take charge of their lives, live it the way they choose, and not regret it. Their confidence in themselves is my confidence and my joy.

My work has meaning. Does yours?

Open up to me in the comment section below. Tell me how your work has meaning. If you aren’t sure, that’s okay too. Saying it is a start. Tell me why you enjoy doing what you do instead.

Today, I’ve got a story to share with you. A personal one. A story about horrible customer service. A story about the negative impact that crappy service can have on your business.

Here it is…

Last week, I was off to the post office to mail some packages for several orders that needed to go out ASAP! Typically, I do all of my postage online, but every once in a while something comes up and I need to go to the post office.

Now, I live in Podunk. Never heard of Podunk? Well, it’s out in the sticks with the rest of the hillbillies, and yes, I love it. It does have it’s downsides at times, but the benefits far exceed the bummery things. I know that many of you think I’m crazy, but so be it.

Anyway, I have a post office 5 minutes from my home in one direction and another 20 minutes in the other direction. The closer one is much smaller, and there’s only 1 employ there each day.

Normally, my trips are fairly quick. There aren’t many people at my small town PO so I’m in and out. This day was different though.

I left home, packages piled up in the front seat, kids packed in the back, and headed to the PO 5 minutes down the road. When I got there, no one was there but me.

The elderly lady that cleans the PO was outside pruning the rose bushes when we go there. She LOVES my boys and came over to the car to talk to them so I left them in the car while I ran in to drop off my packages so they could chat for a bit. You see, here in Podunk we can do things like that sometimes because we know everyone, and it’s a bit safer. Another pro to living in the country!

When I went in, the doorbell rang to let the PO worker know I was there. I put my packages down, got out my card to pay, and waited. I waited. I waited. And I waited some more. I was getting a bit impatient from all my waiting. I could hear her in the back talking, so I knew she was there. She just wasn’t coming.

Knowing that my kids were outside talking the cleaning ladies ear off, I opened the door again to check on them. “Ding-Dong”, the bell rang again. All looked well outside so back in to my packages I went.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. I knew she had to have heard me. The bell on the door is pretty loud, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and figured she was just busy with something else. After what felt like forever, certainly much longer than it should have been, I started tapping my card on the counter, shuffled around a bit, and cleared my throat a few times. You know, all those annoying things to get someones attention. Nothing.

Back out the door again to check on everyone. All was well and everyone was still happily talking. Back in. Doorbell going off for the third time. I though surely the PO worker would be here this time, but no. Not a sign of anyone.

After 10 minutes of standing there waiting… yes, seriously… 10 minutes… she came around the corner to help me. Did she say she was sorry for making me wait? Did she give me a reason? Of course not! She acted like she hadn’t missed a beat. She weighted, labeled, and totaled my order, and that was it! Well, she did say, “Have a good day” on my way out the door.

I was so frustrated that I seriously thought about taking my business to the other post office 20 minutes away. Thankfully I knew that was crazy and not worth the effort. What I did know was that this was a perfect example of customer service that sucked. I needed something and although my need was met, it wasn’t met in the way it should have been.

Mistakes Made And How Not To Make It In Your Business

#1 – A doorbell is to get your attention. When you hear it, you should come running.

When you get an email or a phone call, you need to have a way of notifying yourself that customers are waiting for a response. You may check your email once a day. If so, reply to all emails when you check it. If you check it several times a day, don’t forget to mark messages as unread if you don’t respond to it right away. That way you don’t forget about it. Same with phone calls.

#2 – Do your job. If your job is to help people who come in to mail their packages, then you need to pay attention to the front counter.

Your customers supply money to your business. They keep you in business. They are important. Your job is to meet their needs. If they have a question, answer it. If they have a suggestion, thank them and consider it. If they place an order, get it out quickly. Think about the different ways customers can contact you, and pay attention to those places so they don’t get overlooked. It can be hard if you’re in a lot of different places, but it pays to have a system of checking all those places so no one gets ignored.

#3 – If you’re busy, acknowledge the customer and let them know how long the wait will be.

When someone contacts you via email or on your website contact page, do they know how long it will be before you get back to them? If not, you need to set that up ASAP. There’s nothing worse than emailing someone and expecting them to get back to you in a decent amount of time, but then not hearing from them for 2-3 days. Website contact pages typically redirect to a message confirmation page, and most email accounts have a similar option too. If your customer is leaving you a phone message, make sure to let them know that you’ll get back with them in x number of hours in your message.

#4 – If you make a mistake or mess up, say you’re sorry.

If for some reason you leave a customer waiting, apologize and let them know what happened. Don’t make excuses. Take responsibility for the slip up. You can even go as far as offering them something that says you mean you’re sorry like a nice coupon code.

Have you had a similar waiting experience with a business? What did it teach you about the importance of customer service? Share your stories with me in the comment section below.

It’s inevitably going to happen.

Someone’s going to place an order and end up not being happy with it. They’re going to complain. They’re going to want their money back. They’re not going to return again.

It’s unfortunate, but there’s no getting around it… especially with an online business.

So what are you to do about it?

Read on my friend because today I’m talking about how to deal with unhappy customers gracefully and keep your business’s good name unblemished in the process. You ready?

Businesses usually fall into two categories…

• Product based
• Serviced based

Either way, if customers aren’t in the picture, then the business won’t be in the picture for long either. You get what I’m sayin?

Read the following, and see if you agree.

If it weren’t for your customers, you wouldn’t be in business. True? True.

So that means your business is about your customer. Right? Absolutely.

And you know that customer service can make or break a business. Correct? You bet.

So what’s your conclusion about customers and their importance in your business?

I hope you realize that they are extremely important and valuable, and that you need to position them in the center of your business.

The first thing you need to do to deal with this issue is to try to keep it from being an issue in the first place.

Take a look at your product’s description or sales page.

• Does it describe your product accurately?
• Are you listing all the features of your product?
• Are you explaining the benefits your customer will receive from your product?
• Are your photos doing their job in giving your customers a good visual?

Next, take a look at your policies.

• Do you have them?
• Are they complete and covering all the bases?
• Are they understandable and clear?

If you see holes, fill them in. Get a second opinion by asking someone to read them for you and let you know if they see any gray areas. Talk to your business buddies and see how they handle certain situations, but be careful here… customer service looks different to everyone. Don’t follow along with what your friends are doing just because it’s working for their businesses. Listen to their advice and opinions and then decide what’s best for your businesses and your customers.

Cover all your bases. Let your customers know what to expect from you. This can help save you from having to deal with unhappy customers in the first place.

Like I said before, unhappy customers are a given in business, but how you treat them (your customer service) will reflect on your business for a long time.

If you do your best to correct the problem they have to their satisfaction, then you’ve made them happy, kept a customer, and hopefully they’ll tell others about you.

I recently read something on Etsy that said there are studies that show that if a customer’s complaint is resolved, as many as 90% of those unhappy customers will purchase again. 90%!!! That’s huge! That right there is convincing enough to take the time to please them.

The thing you need to keep in mind is to treat all your customers the way you’d want to be treated. Will it always be easy? No, of course not, but in the end, once you’ve done what you can to make them happy, it will have been well worth your effort.

Many times when dealing with unhappy customers there will come a point when you realize that there isn’t anything you can do to make your customer happy. Nothing. It’s totally out of your control.

So what’s the next move on your part?

My best advice would be to humble yourself and apologize that things didn’t work out the way they would have liked, refund their money in full, and move on to the next customer.

If there’s a lesson to be learned on your part, great! I hope you learned it and you will correct the problem on your end, but if you did everything you could to make that customer have an enjoyable experience with your business and it didn’t work. Move on. Don’t stress about it and exhaust yourself. You have too many other things that need your attention.

Have you ever dealt with an unhappy customer? How did you handle the situation… gracefully or not? Let’s talk about it in the comment section below!

What feelings come over you when you think about holiday gift giving? Besides the insanity of  fighting off the masses for the latest and greatest gizmo that is.

I’m talking about planning your list, finding the perfect gifts, making them extra special, and connecting with those you love most.

What does that feel like to you?

I don’t know about you, but it brings a warm, peaceful feeling to my soul!

Finding the perfect gifts for those on your list and making them extra special says a lot, but now I want you to switch gears with me for a bit and think about it this way.

How are you going to go about making a connection with your customers this holiday season? What are you going to do to make them feel extra special? How are you going to express gratitude to them for trusting your business to be the perfect gift for someone on their list?

Stick around because I’m about to give you 3 steps you can take to growing your business community over the holidays!

It’s That Time Of The Year

Now is the time to start prepping your business for this season’s influx of orders. The time is NOW to assess your business and tweak any areas that need sprucing up. Is this a step on your list of business to-dos?

Here’s a great post from Kelli Christensen on Handmadeology called “Preparation H – H is for Holidays“. Check it out and see what you need to keep in mind over the next month or so.

Okay, so besides getting your business in gear and prepped, there are 3 steps I want to share with you that will help you make your customers feel appreciated and connected to your business this year. Check out the infographic below and be sure to pin it to your business boards on Pinterest!

So there you have it. 3 steps to help you grow the community around your business this holiday season.

Let’s take this party to the comment section below! Share one tip you’re going to use from this post to grow your community this holiday season.

Photo Credit: Blacklist Studio Prints

Knowing your ideal customer is the key to successfully selling your products and services, and it will make every business decision you need to make easier.

Imagine knowing the type of person who wants to buy what you have to offer, whether it be a product or service. You know what they like and don’t like, you know what blogs and magazines they read, you know when they are most likely to buy something as a gift, you know how to talk to them, and more.

Knowing these things about them will help you position your products in a way that speaks directly to them. It will also help you to make business decisions such as what to blog about, what social media sites to use, and where to advertise your products or services.

It helps you to hone in on your message, to make it clear.

Find Your Ideal Customer

When you sign up for my weekly newsletter, you’ll receive The Customer Discovery Report for free.

There you will learn the difference in your target market and your ideal customer. You’ll learn how each of these is an important part of your business, and how they’re used in your marketing. You’ll get 4 power-packed worksheets to help you discover each of these parts of your business as well as 7 exercises to help you get to know your ideal customer on a deeper level.

Identifying your people is the first step.

Getting to know them is the next step.

The more you know about your customer, the better equipped you are to position your products in a way that appeals to them. You can speak their language, and you’ll know where they’re most likely to hang out at online.

By knowing more about your customer, you’ll connect with them and they’ll trust you more. Connection and trust leads to repeat buyers and business growth.

I’ve put together some articles that are full of tips and tricks to help you get to know your ideal customer even better.

Click here to get to How To Grow Your Business By Knowing Your Ideal Customer.

How I’m Going To Help You Find Your Ideal Customer

Reaching out to your customer is the third step.

That’s where I come in.

Besides all of these free resources, I wanna work with you one-on-one to help you with your customer woes and to help you brainstorm some ideas that will help you reach out to your customers.

If you’re struggling with locating where your customer is at or how to reach them, let’s chat. We can spend 30 minutes to an hour just digging deep into who your customer is, different ways you can reach out to them and market your business, as well as get feedback on what you’re doing right now.

Sometimes it’s just helpful to run things by someone else and get a different opinion other than your own.

Our chat can be via Skype or via the phone. I’m really laid back so don’t be nervous. We can even talk business in our PJs!

I wanna help you get a grip on this area of your business. Let’s see what we can come up with together.

If you’re interested, just send me an email and we’ll schedule a day and time that works for both of us.

$85 – Half hour

$150 – Full hour

xo, Meagan

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Photo credit: Just Watch The Fireworks

We all need more good habits in our lives.

I’m sure if I asked you to, you could make a list of good habits you’d like to incorporate into you life, right? Well, I’m not asking you to, thank goodness. Phewww!

My point is, we all have things we want to change. Change is uncomfortable, but beneficial at times.

Now do something for me. Think about your business. Think about some things you’d like to change in it. What habits would you like to incorporate? Just think.

Okay, now I’m going to share # steps that you can take to make any of those changes a reality.

Okay? You ready? Fabulous!

1. One thing at a time

Let me say this plainly. You WILL get overwhelmed if you try to change a bunch of things at once. It’s too much to focus on and then when you quit, you’ll feel awful. Just don’t do it. One change at a time.

2. Start with the easiest change

When you’re trying to get out of debt, financial coaches will advise you to pay off your smallest debt first. Why? If you focus on the smallest debt, it’s the easiest to reach. It’s doable. It’s not going to take you years. It’s encouraging and motivating when you do it. It builds your confidence that you can do it, and it sets you up for future success on bigger debts.

If your goal is to build a million dollar business, that’s great, but it would be best with starting with… maybe $1,000 a month at first.

3. Stick with it for 1 month

Research shows that it take 30 days to create a habit and have it stick. So when you think about it, how easy is that. It’s one month and that’s not too long. Whatever it is you’re trying to change, stick with it daily for 30 days. Create something you can use to track your progress or have an accountability partner. It will help you stay focused, on track, and the further you go, the more motivated you’ll be to continue.

4. Put it in writing

You’ve heard the saying, it’s easier said than done. Sure you have. Well, same goes when trying to make a change. If you write it down and put it up where you can see it, you’re less likely to forget about it. Make it pretty, put it on post-it notes all over your house, whatever it takes. Put it in writing, sign it, and keep it in front of you at all times so you don’t forget.

1. Map out a plan of action

Any goal needs to be broken down into simple steps. You can start at the end and work your way backwards or you can start with where you are now and work your way forward. Whatever works for you. The point is, if you break that big goal down into smaller steps, it becomes easier and more manageable to stick with.

2. Know your “why”

Why are you making this change? What is it going to do for your business? What’s it going to do for you? Include all of this good stuff in your plan of action… written down so you can go back to it for a refresher if you need it.

3. Identify barriers to success

What are the things that are keeping your from making this change? Have you tried to make this habit a part of your business before? What went wrong? Where did you have trouble? Write all this down so you don’t make the same mistakes twice.

4. Know your temptations

What are the things that would cause you to slip back into the old way of doing things. Really think about this and write these out because it will help you to remember them when they pop up. Oh yes, they will show up. If you’ve identified what they are, you’ll be more aware of them and how to deal with them when they creep in on you during your 30 days of habit training.

5. Create firewalls to your tempatations

Just like firewalls protect from a fire spreading to another room and just like they protect areas of your computer from damage due to a virus, they will also protect you from giving in to the temptations you identified above and slipping back into your old way of doing things.

So when you see that temptation coming at you, you’re prepared with something that will help you keep from giving in. The more you conquer that beast, the less often it will raise it’s ugly head, and when it does, it won’t be so hard to say no the second, third, and fourth time around.

 5. Be accountable

Accountability is one of the best ways to stick with something. It’s so easy to let things slide when you’re only accountable to yourselve, but when others are counting on you, it’s like the extra fire under your rump that keeps you going.

Find people who are having the same issue. Create a mastermind group. Make sure you put them into your plan. Get together and talk about how your change is going, what you’re struggling with, and help each other brainstorm ideas to make it better.

6. Nip negativity in the bud

Whether the negativity is coming from you or those around you, stop it right now, right in it’s tracks. Negativity is a joy-kill, and it never did anyone any good. Just put an end to it.

For every negative thing you say or think, replace it with two positive thoughts. Eventually you’ll be in more of a habit of thinking positively than negatively. If you’re surrounded by people who are negative, dump em’ and dump em’ quick. They aren’t motivating you to move forward. They’re only hindering you and not worth having in your life.

7. Have a slogan

Come up with something fun, motivating, and snazzy that helps encourage you towards your goal. Write it down where you can refer to it during difficult or discouraging times. Repeat it to yourself when you’re feeling like giving up. It’s just a way to remind yourself of what it is you’re trying to do.

8. Reward yourself

Rewards can be great motivators. When you successfully complete certain pieces of your goal, reward yourself with something fun. For example, if you’re committing to sticking with something for 30 days, that’s a little over 4 weeks. So at the end of every week, reward yourself with something small to keep you focused and motivated. Once you’ve met your goal of 30 days, give yourself that big reward… you deserve it. Remember to make it something worth working for!

9. Take it one day at a time

Anytime you have a goal, you need to break it down into smaller pieces. If reaching your goal is too far away, it’s going to feel impossible… yes, even 30 days can seem like forever, especially if you’re doing something your really don’t enjoy. Think about today and today only. Worry about tomorrow tomorrow. Just focus on doing what you need to right now to get closer to your end result.

10. No exceptions

This is an absolute. When you’re trying to break an old habit that is caused by a temptation and replace it with a new habit caused by that temptation you have to be so consistent it’s not even funny. That’s the only way to make the new habit stick. When the temptation comes up you have to do the new habit, not the old one until doing the new habit becomes so natural you don’t even have to think of it any more.

11. Take breaks

All business and no play makes it easier to slip back into old habits. Don’t work all the time. Take breaks throughout the day, and remember to spend time on things your enjoy.

12. Avoid tempting situations

When you’re just starting to learn a new habit, you definitely need to avoid the situations and temptations that normally trigger your bad habit… at least at first. If you normally check your email every time you finish a task, only check your email one time a day. If you tend to spend way too much time reading blogs, consider not reading any blogs for the time being.

13. Don’t give up

Sometimes we just give in a go back to doing what we know we shouldn’t. If this happens to you, don’t beat yourself up. These little failures are what makes us stronger and leads us to success. Instead of feeling guilty you need to regroup and refocus. Think about what happened and why it happened. What can you add to your original plan to prevent this from happening again? Do you need to tweak your plan in any way?

Where in your business do you need to take these steps to change a bad habit?

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photo credit: NubbyTwiglet.com

You’ve made the decision to go for it and reach out to the press for a magazine feature.

You’ve broken your goal down and you know the exact steps you need to take to make this dream of your’s a reality.

One of those steps just so happens to be creating a press kit.

A what?!

What the heck is a press kit? Why do you need it? How on earth do you make one of those?

These are the questions I’ll be answering for you today. Stress no more! Your press kit problems are solved!

What is a press kit?

A press kit is simply a packet of information about your business and/or product. It’s like a resume of sorts, and sometimes it’s referred to as a media kit.

When you’re contacting members of the press for a feature somewhere {magazine, television, blog, etc.}, you’ll send them your press kit via snail mail or email, depending upon what they prefer, so they can get a good overall view of who you are and what your business is about.

It contains things like 1) a letter of introduction, 2) information on your business, 3) information on the product you are submitting, 4) previous press on your product, 5) media on your product, and 6) promotional materials. This can vary depending upon what you’re submitting for a feature.

Why you need a press kit

The goal with your press kit should be to provide a brief overview of your business and to answer potential questions the press may have about you or your product.

You’ll also want to create something that is eye-catching and rememberable so that you will stand out among the hundreds of other press kits and be contacted for more information.

How to create a press kit

When you send your press kit out whether it’s via snail mail or online, your best bet at getting noticed is to have it packaged nicely. Think professional and simple. Now if your business is over-the-top and extravagant, then go for it. First and foremost, stay true to your brand!

Editors get submissions all the time and they aren’t always the ones to go through them. Many times they have interns go through and set aside the best of the bunch. What can you do to make your submission stand out?

First of all, it needs to reflect your brand. I’m talking about graphics, logos, and fonts here. It needs to be simple, small, easy to mail or handle, and not in some funky shape… like mailed in a tube mailer or something. It needs to be put together well and secured so nothing gets lost. You can even include a content page that shows what’s in your kit. If you do this you’ll want to number each piece so it can easily be found and kept in order.

If you’re sending it through the mail, you’ll need a folder, and if you’re sending it online, a zip file is nice because you can put everything together in a pdf file and you can include all the individual files for your media and related press if you have it.

Press Kit Contents:

Letter of Introduction

Three things… attention-grabbing, simple, and personalized.

Your letter of introduction should be the first page of your kit, and this page is the key to getting the rest of your kit looked at. This page is what will get your kit moved into the “YES” pile.

Here you need to briefly introduce yourself, include a list of the contents in your kit, and tell the editor why they should care about your product and what it will do for them.

You need to do your research and address the editor by name just like you would do if you were contacting a blogger and pitching them for a guest post. None of that “Dear editor” crap. Be personal. Remember, you’re a small business. Don’t get sucked into thinking that by sounding like a big business you’ll stand a better chance of getting their attention. In fact, the opposite is true. They’re looking for unique businesses with great products. Something new and original to show off.

Lastly, keep it short and sweet. Three paragraphs max. Sign off, and sign your own signature for another personal touch.

Information on Your Business

This page should provide a brief overview of your business such as why and how you got started, how long you’ve been in business, what you’re current projects are, and a bit about you. Remember, short and sweet.

Product Information

This can be laid out similarly to the page with info on your business except this is totally devoted to the product or service that you’re trying to get featured. Briefly talk about the product {what it is, who it’s for}, explain why it’s great and what problem it solves for your customer, and include a brief list of FAQ’s if applicable.

Press

This would be copies of articles, newspaper clippings, previous magazine features, etc. on your product. If you’ve landed a few product reviews or features on blogs, print the posts off and include them as well. If you’re sending your press kit via email, just include the links to the reviews/features.

Media

If you have any audio or video related to your product, send that as well. For example, if you made a promotional video as a part of your product launch, burn that onto a cd and send it.

Promotional Materials

This includes things like a business card, postcards or brochures featuring your products, professional photographs, and product samples. If you’re providing a product sample, be sure to include it as you would package it so they can get a good look at the entire product.

In the end, there’s really no one way to put a press kit together. As long as you are brief, to the point, reflect your brand accurately, and give enough information to represent your business and product well, you’ll have done what you needed to.

Have you ever put a press kit together? If so, do you have any additional tips or information to include?

If you’ve not put a press kit together, but you’d like to have your product featured in a magazine or on tv, what’s holding you back… where do you need help?

Share with me in the comments below!

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watercolor by Jessica Durrant via Etsy

You’re serious about using your blog to market your business. You want to provide value to your readers, to craft a community around your brand, and to build an engaged audience of loyal followers, but…

You aren’t getting many visitors to your blog.

You’re getting even less comments on your posts.

You’re not getting any social shares.

What to do? Where to go? What’s the problem?

If you want to make your blog work for your business but you aren’t sure how to get there, then hop on over to Oh My Handmade to read my guest post all about it!

Click Here to read the full post…

photo credit: SonnieTrotter.com

Let me ask you a simple question.

What’s the next step for your business?

If you answered something along the lines of getting some serious press for your products, such as a magazine feature or a television feature, then what are you doing to make it happen?

I know you’ve got a plan. You’re making your dream of a magazine feature one of your goals for the year. You’re researching what you need to do to get there. You’re ready. You’re excited. You’re motivated.

Simplifying

It’s time to begin, so where do you start? At the end of course. When you’re taking a big, monster-sized goal on, like getting in the press, it’s best to start at the end with the actual feature and work your way backwards in order to create the steps you need to take from beginning to end.

So what does your journey to the press look like? Well let me help you out when it comes to breaking that big, monster goal. You may find your path to the press looking a little something like this…

1. Give product a makeover
2. Take awesome, magazine worthy photos
3. Get at least 3-4 high-quality blog features/reviews
4. Collect customer testimonies
5. Make video of product in action
6. Create press kit
7. Make sample products
8. Research 10 potential magazines
9. Narrow choices down to 4-5
10. Send out press kits

Limit Yourself

Once you’ve broken your goal down, start limiting yourself by giving everything a completion date so you don’t drag things out. For example:

1. Give product a makeover - 1 month
2. Take awesome, magazine worthy photos - 2 weeks
3. Get at least 3-4 high-quality blog features/reviews - 3 months
4. Collect customer testimonies - 2 weeks
5. Make video of product in action - 1 week
6. Create press kit - 2 weeks
7. Make sample products - 2 weeks
8. Research 10 potential magazines - 2 weeks
9. Narrow choices down to 4-5 - 1 week
10. Send out press kits - 2 weeks

Now that you’ve set some time limits, you have a deadline to help put the pressure on… something we all need a little bit of to get us going at times.

You may take the whole time you’ve allowed yourself to get through the first step or you may fly through it in half the time. No worries because you’re ready to go on to step 2, and you’ve got another deadline for that to focus on.

Slowly, but surely, your dream of seeing your product on those shiny magazine pages will become a reality, but it requires you to put in the effort and to take the first steps. Your success is primarily in your hands!

Is this a goal of yours? Where are you on your journey to the press? What are you struggling with? Share your insights with me in the comments below!

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photo credit: elr°y | Photography

You know who your ideal customer is. You have a profile of them, and you can visualize them as if they were sitting right in front of you. You know where they spend their time – online and locally, and you have a marketing strategy in place that gets you in front of them.

You know how to make your products visually appealing to them. You even know how to draw them in and tell them all the great features your product has to offer, but you’re still having trouble getting them to BUY your products.

I recently came across this great tip that’s been floating around the internet for some time now, but I’m not really sure it’s used all that often. I mean, I’ve heard of it, but it wasn’t until recently that it really made sense to me, so I want to share it with you.

You Need To Speak To Your Customer

When you’re selling products online, whether it’s in an online marketplace, like Etsy or Artfire, or on an e-commerce website of your own, you have to write content or product descriptions that appeal to your customer. The whole point of a product description is to describe the features and benefits of your product and to help your customer see how buying your product will meet a need they have.

You Need To Provide Solutions, Answers, And Results

But what if you don’t really know what need they have? What if you just can’t see where they need help? Wouldn’t you like to find your ideal customer and be able to read their mind to see exactly what questions, concerns, or problems they were facing so that you could be the one to answer them?

Of course you would!!

Now you’re probably thinking that I’m going to tell you to “ask your customers what problems they’re facing”, which you definitely should, but what if you don’t have customers yet or what if they don’t respond to you when you ask them? What then?

Asking them isn’t going to do any good.

Here’s what you need to do instead of asking.

You Need To INVESTIGATE And LISTEN

You know where your ideal customer is hanging out at. Go there and hang out too. If it’s a forum, browse the threads. If it’s a blog post, read the comments.

Find out what problems they’re talking about. Learn what their struggles are. Listen to what they’re saying and how they’re saying it.

What words are they using to describe their problem? How can you use those exact words in your product descriptions or sales page to lead up to how your product or service will provide the results they’re looking for.

How To Read Your Customer’s Mind

One of the best places to investigate and listen to your ideal customer is on forums, and it seems like there’s a forum for everything these days.

The trick is to use forums to find helpful information on your target market and then use that information to give your product or service descriptions the boost they need to convert browsers into buyers.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Go to Google.com and type in “forum:niche” without the quotes to find forums where people in your niche hang out at. Just replace the word “niche” with whatever your’s happens to be. So for example… forum:cake decorating or forum:web design. Google will then give you a big list of all the top forums in that niche in order of popularity.

2. Pick a forum to visit and look for a search tool or a search field that will let you search for certain phrases that people have written about in the forum posts. You may have to register for some forums to search, but that shouldn’t be a problem since that’s where your market is at… and you definitely want to be where they are!

3. In the search field, type in some of the following terms and see what you get:

• “advice about”
• “I need help with”
• “can anyone help me with”
• “I’m looking for”
• “I need”
• “question about”
• “where can I find”
• “I want”
• “desperate for”

There are a lot of phrases you can search for, but you get the idea.When you get results for these phrases, go through the posts and read what the people are talking about. You may find questions they have that you can answer in your descriptions, you may get an idea of what magazines they’re reading or what they love/hate about ads, you may even find out something they’ve been wanting to learn about… hence your next blog post. The possibilities are endless as to what you can come across in forums, but if you really want to become an authority in your niche and you want to really provide answers and results to your customers, then you need to get inside of their head and know what they’re thinking. This is one way to do it.

When I searched through a cake decorating forum, for example, here are some things I found:

Threads that were named:

• Need some advice: Please help
• How do I cover a large area with luster dust?
• Sending my cake abroad

How cool is that? You can check those threads out & address those concerns in your products or services if it’s applicable. You can teach about it in your next blog post. You could write and sell an e-book on it!

Plus, if the forum topic was recent, you can always address the issue in a blog post and then go to that thread and leave a brief answer/solution with a link to your post. Be sure not to shamelessly self-promote. Definitely leave some tips, but be sure to leave the link to your post too. That’s what forums are for… to spread information.

Well, I hope this has been helpful to you. Forums are a great place to do market research by getting into your customer’s mind.

Good luck, happy searching, and may the mind-reading force be with you!

{This post was originally written for my newsletter subscribers… which always receive exclusive content not available here on my blog. If you want access to this exclusive information, sign up via the form below.}

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