Let’s review the steps you should take to create a high-converting opt-in. You might also hear this called a lead magnet, freebie offer or lead generation tool. Go time !!!

Develop a list of 10 topics.
You have to choose a topic that is near and dear to your heart. It should be a reflection of how you intend to work with your clients. Don’t limit yourself to what you can create; videos, PDF graphic workbooks, or simply a written resource will all serve you just fine.

Personally, I provide my clients with templates, checklists or questions that tie together into no-brainer content. My opt-in is 10 Email Marketing Templates (fill in the blank style, Baby!) And when you work with me, well, I’m straight-forward – even when it comes to editing.

An opt-in resource acts as the top of a sales funnel; it’s the first way that a community member will interact with you, so take your time with making it great. A few mistakes I see:

• Not giving enough value. You’ve got to play big these days, “89 Awesome Marketing Tips” not “8”, etc. Dig deep inside yourself to come up with the best possible creative concepts you’ve got.
• Writing what you want, not what your clients want from you…more on this later…
• Getting too fancy. It’s a freebie. No need for bells, whistles, 6 week challenges, etc. Nathalie Lussier published some great results on her 30 Day List Building Challenge if you’d like to read more on this.
• Giving away the farm. Sorry, most people won’t read your 100 page book. It’s a nice gesture, but in this case, best to have people pay for your 10 full color chapters of brain candy

Ask for feedback everywhere.
Now that you’ve got 10 topics in your brain case, give yourself a week to think about which ones are best for you. Choose three of them as your top 3.

Go post the top 3 to your Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, on social media, and, maybe, send them out to several colleagues or friends for feedback.

We really want to start to get a feel for which headlines resonate with people. To do that, we have to simply ask them what they think. It’s not that fancy, but it can be extremely effective.

Write your first draft personally.
When I saw this opt-in question posted on Facebook, I noticed several copywriters pitching their services to the woman asking the question. No. Uh huh. Stop right there.

Your opt-in is  reflection of who you are as a coach. It’s your heart that needs to spill onto the page for your readers. And since it’s your business selling your professional services, it’s important that you take a first stab at what you want to write.

A draft can look like:

• Bullet points with some supporting data
• 10 links to opt-ins you like (or blogs, etc.)
• Supporting research data for the opt-in

If you really don’t want to write, don’t. Create a series of videos, meditations, or other visuals and have a copywriter tie them together with a few words & automated email series for you. Why not compile a list of your top 28 favorite quotes, even?

Get it set-up on your networks.
Now comes the fun part. After you have developed your opt-in, you have to make sure it’s set up correctly. The first question is double opt-in vs. single opt-in. Depending on your email subscriber, you may not have a choice.

Double means subscribers get an email, Are you sure you want this? and must confirm their email. Single is simply, Great, you’re subscribed. If your double opt-in person signs up for a second single opt-in offer (i.e. webinar is single, freebie is double) they will be lost in an abyss until they confirm their subscription. I lost 37 people this way. Every one hurt.

You aren’t finished once the freebie goes live on your website:

• Add it to social media profiles
• Put it in author profiles
• Test it from several browsers
• Try it from your iPhone
• Consider a pop-up & test it

Make sure your emails are hitting your list, too. Check on this periodically by seeing when your last subscribe popped onto your list. Even with zero promotions, just by doing the above, you should get a few new folks a month.

Track your conversions.
How closely you monitor this number is up to you. Basically, you want to get an idea of which sources send you the most subscribers so that you know where to spend your time and, sometimes, money.

Typically, close, careful tracking does not apply to passive list building within your social media networks. However, if you pay for a Facebook ad, for example, yes, you’ll want to add a tracking pixel that tells you how effective those conversions were. (Er, how much it cost you per person to add to your list.)

Likewise, if you do any guest blogging, you also want to know how effective any or all of those websites are at driving traffic to your list. The two tools I recommend are Google Goals and JetPack for WordPress – but there are several.

The other advice I can very cleverly tell you is that you will always see a bump in leads after something awesome has happened – and this doesn’t really require super-stealth tracking. For example, you ask a friend to mention you in a newsletter and you get a dozen new opt-ins.

Now, I would argue that if you have a very aggressive goal for yourself, tying your outcomes to your total reach in numbers is highly recommended. In some recent research, I learned that during a six or seven figure launch, it was the size of an email marketing list that played a huge piece in the success of the campaign.

Analytics teams were able to evaluate how many sign-ups (3 to 5%) would come from a list and therefore calculate how many affiliates (or the size of the affiliates’ lists) that they needed in order to hit their projected sales numbers (i.e. based on the cost of the program.)

Final Words of List-Building Wisdom
Regardless of whether or not you test your headline in a viable market, some opt-ins simply do not perform well. “How to Write Quickly bc It’s Due in 4 Hours” was a complete flop for me. A “Blog Writing SEO Checklist” performed moderately well for several months.

Change your topic every several months if possible. You can also have multiple sales funnels with different opt-ins if you choose to target a different niche. This may also make sense if you have the bandwidth to do so for a specific program launch.

Finally, you probably want to enter an “active” phase in your list building at least 1-3x / year. This is when you actively promote your free offer in order to gain new subscribers to your list.

Just remember that no matter what you do, it’s what you DON’T do that won’t help you. So make sure you keep your eye on the long-term prize to ensure new folks are following you every so often.

The post How to Write a High-Converting Opt-In appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

Even the best marketers in the business know that a 3 to 5% attrition rate is natural. But when your number of unsubscribes starts creeping towards 10% per email send, it’s time to take action.

Let’s dig in to how savvy marketers are starting to shift the way they think about email marketing (and how to curtail high email unsubscribe rates):

Only send a newsletter when you have something to say.

Ali T. Brown (or Ali Shanti) has run a few successful seven figure businesses. But she just didn’t feel like herself anymore. In a recent podcast interview with Amy Porterfield, she told listeners that she decided to shift inward and scale down her life.

Known for her bold, left of center choices, Ali also modified her thinking about email marketing. “Why am I sending a newsletter every week?” she asked. And the answer was, basically, because that’s what modern marketing conventions tells us we should do.

If you don’t have something to say – and your only goal is to get eyes on your brand – you probably don’t need to send a newsletter. Er, you definitely don’t need to hit send just to hit send.

However, if you are launching a new project, want to let readers know about a cool resource, or are driven to share great content, by all means, send a valuable message to your subscribers.

Won’t your list get cold? Maybe. But if you are like most coaches, you’ve got a marketing plan in place for at least 3 months full of speaking gigs, affiliate launches & hot new programs. Why not send an email once every two weeks? Or try for once a month?

Psst…and definitely be wary of launch phases where you send multiple daily emails. While this may seem like a good idea, sending emails to a buyer who isn’t ready to buy just might push them to unsubscribe.

Consider trying a new trick where you only send emails to those who opened your last email (a cool feature offered by AWeber & other ESPs.) This advanced feature might be the key to really increasing your sales (instead of more frequent mass messages.)

Give more value to your audience – like WAY more value.

How do people get to know like and trust you? By the content marketing you put out to the world. This can be in the form of videos, social media posts, blogs or downloadable resources.

They also want to see that you’re fully present in your brand. Your connection to your tribe is what will make or break your brand. High-end coaches with just a few clients can earn as much as those selling to the masses just based on the loyalty of their following.

For an example, take a minute to read some of the posts that Danielle LaPorte shares on her Facebook page. She’s consistently vulnerable, honest & writes beautifully. But she also pitches her products regularly. Her underlying theme is to keep folks attracted to the products she’s selling and the events she’s hosting.

You, too, need to give more value to your readers. Mindset advice is a great mix in, but depending on your list, people joined to learn from you. And that means giving them usable tools to take action right now.

Clean up your list with a fond farewell to inactive subscribers. 

As part of the advice offered by many brave souls, they like to suggest a periodic purging of your email marketing list. I am hesitant to recommend this to anyone with less than a few thousand subscribers on their lists.

Therefore, if you’ve hit the 3,000 point, give yourself a little purge of sorts. Use a bold headline like, “You’re fired” or “Please Unsubscribe Now” and tell readers why you’re taking such a brash stance.

Ask that anyone who isn’t interested in what you have to offer – get clear about your content over the next few months before doing this – kindly leaves your niche. Let them know you’d only like to connect with folks who are actively engaged in your offers, too.

From the numerous reports I’ve heard, the majority of list subscribers stayed put. They became more active in the community and accepted the “Get Lost” email as a club they were privy to instead of a sassy challenge.

Re-Center your psyche for optimal acceptance. (Haters gonna hate.) 

The ultimate advice I can give you is quite simple: Haters gonna hate. Those who unsubscribe (just like buyers who never buy) were dead weight on your list anyway. You were not gaining anything from their presence in your community since they were not engaged members.

Ok, so that’s a little cavalier. Unsubscribes hurt our feelings. We work hard to create awesome content people want to read. And those who basically thumb their nose feel like a personal affront.

You have a few options:

• Balance this with the positive: what good happened in your business this week or month? Remember that as long as you are present in your brand, traction happens.
• Regularly perform more list building. By replacing those who unsubscribe with new members, you’ll keep you numbers up, while attracting new potential clients.
• Try to see your number of subscribes as a vanity metric. It’s just a number. What matters is how engaged list members are. Do they give you positive responses?

Finally, I always read through my unsubscribes before deleting them. I asked one woman to tell me why she peaced out. You’re very observant, she told me. And her reason for leaving (a broken link?) proved to be invalid feedback too, absolving me of any personal responsibility. Ahh. <— Sorry for that snark. I’m only human.

The post 4 Solutions for High Email Unsubscribe Rates appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

Remember that where you are is not where you will be. When you see a successful business owner they had to get smacked around a bit. We all did.

And if learning to be an entrepreneur hurts you the most, it also makes you pretty much unshakeable once you make it though the gates of Hell, too.

I spent three years pounding the pavement with a start-up corporation. I lived in a friend’s basement to cut living costs & often perused the free samples at Costco for lunch <— true story.

I want to share exactly how you can get started with your new coaching business. Not all these programs are free after the first month (only 18 are), but the basic idea is to keep your costs as low as possible while you figure out what’s next for you.

LeadPages / Optimize Press / Heyo

Sales page building websites allow you to avoid a website during your first list-building initiatives. Basically, simultaneous to opening an email service provider account, you will connect a stellar free offer to your sales page.

Ok – there’s a little catch – these are only free trials. You’ll need to have yourself prepared to hit the ground running if you intend to make things happen for free (otherwise, it’s about $25 / month for these services.)

A website, on the other hand, costs about $800 to $1,500 for a basic WordPress template 5 page site. Most of WordPress is free, as well, but in order to create a website, you’ll need to buy a domain name and hosting services.

I currently use BlueHost (roughly $10 / month). GoDaddy has limitations my programmers did not approve of, and InMotion Hosting crashed my email about once a week.

The good news? If you decide to DIY your website, there are some excellent coaches willing to walk you through the process. Check out UDemy and sites like Lynda.

MailChimp / Constant Contact

These are email service providers or ESPs. They let you communicate en masse with anyone who has signed up for your free offer on the sales page we discussed in point numero uno. LeadPages won’t allow you to send emails, so, yes, you need this.

These two (plus many more) are free until you hit a certain number of subscribers to your list. By the time you hit that number, however, you should be earning at least enough from your list to cover the costs of membership.

MailChimp includes pretty, clunky templates and works perfectly for basic email sending functions. You can purchase credits if you want to automate a process, like making your free offer a daily email.

After 4.5 years in my copywriting business (once I transitioned into coaching), I switched to AWeber. I think their program requires a bit more techy know-how. For one, the templates look a bit archaic – especially the free versions.

Second, if you have multiple lists, even with the same names on them, you are charged for “email storage” based on the total. I deleted every duplicate recently to pay $20 / month instead of the $30 they were charging me in storage fees.

When you’re ready for an upgrade, check out Ontraport and Infusionsoft. I’m hearing a lot more positive things about Ontraport lately. “Confusionsoft,” as it’s jokingly referred to, has a steep learning curve and carries with it an overhead cost of at least $250 / month plus apps for scheduling (Appointment Core), etc.

Why would you pay that much for Infusionsoft? Integration. It’s a powerful piece of software that lets your clients get very focused emails from you. When you develop advanced email sales funnels, you’ll need these features to increase your sales conversions.

Facebook Business Pages

The social media site Facebook lets you create & manage your business page for free as long as it’s connected to a personal profile. I’ll keep this short and sweet. The reason you need this (and any somo profiles) is twofold: to build your personal brand and to legitimize your online business. 

Take a day to set up every single free profile you can think of: Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Reddit, etc. Add pics, logos, etc. later if you have to (or get them done right away.)

Canva

Love isn’t a strong enough word for this 100% free graphic design site. Choose the size of graphic you need and get to work dragging & dropping pretty things into it. It’s perfect for memes, or basic ads.

If you have done a bit of graphic design, you know that looks must be layered. Start with a background, add a picture, add text, etc. Taking my advice [<— that’s a link to a Canva tutorial video I shot] on this will save you at least a few hours of tinkering. Promise.

Pic Monkey is another free program that lets you edit your photos. I tried it briefly but wasn’t clear on why it was a better resource as a whole.

Fiverr

When I use Canva, some of my creations look like a 5th grader designed them. I accept this self-critique as a sign that I’m just one of those chicks who probably shouldn’t do her own design work.

Fiverr lets you pay $5 / project to have someone create graphics for you. It has it’s ups and downs. Comprised of mostly outsourced workers, the designers often try to upcharge – an extra $10 for three lines of text, etc. so keep your instructions basic.

Contently

Created for freelancers, this website gives you a personalized link to your own profile. Are you a designer, copywriter or other creative professional? Until you have a website, you’ll need to house a portfolio somewhere. Upload all your work here as a first step to showing clients what you can do for them.

Google Hangouts on Air 

When it’s time to host your first webinar, look no further than Google Hangouts on Air. I have now hosted four webinars, growing my list by 40% in just two months.

You can also practice on Blab, which integrates with Twitter for live Q&A interaction. As far as I can tell, the only difference between HOA and Blab is that Blab allows for personalized, live interactions. Plus you get to be all cool & modern by hosting a Blab.

If you are feeling savvy, you may prefer to embed your HOA into your website to create a live video feed. You can add a chat app to get around the live interaction issues, as well. (The current Q&A feature on HOA is one sided.)

Now, my goal with HOA was to grow my list. I prefer a small, intimate audience. You can expect about 30% of your sign-ups to attend your live webinar. Once your reputation brings in 100s of sign-ups, you will no longer be able to use HOA.

Take a few minutes to research Webinar Jam and other programs that are designed to host the masses. Second, look for cool features like screen recordings, etc. There’s no reason you can’t turn your teaching into sweet giveaways or paid mini-courses.

Since we’re talking free, remember that Mac Book Pros include iMovie; you can record your voice and your screen, then upload the native video to a hosting platform, too. Vimeo or YouTube will work just fine.

Skype

International phone calls? Not anymore. My clients use Skype to interact with me. We’ll often turn off the video due to slowness issues, but for the most part, Skype gets the job done.

Many coaches are also turning to Skype to do live coaching calls with their clients. For some fields, this can be a lot more empowering than just talking on the phone with your clients.

PayPal

PayPal is a third party payment system that allows your clients to pay you via credit cards or their own PayPal accounts.

I don’t just create my own payment buttons (a small piece of code I slap into my WordPress pages), I also invoice clients, receive payments & pay vendors with PayPal. They will charge about a 5% fee. (You aren’t paying this fee unless you are getting paid.)

Awesomely, the minute you receive a payment, you receive an email telling you who paid what. Bank transfers take about three business days; you simply click a few screens to get your money moved over to your business account.

The one downside for me so far (after 5 years) is the resolution center. A vendor stole $200 from me for webwork he did not perform. I was unable to recover those funds the way I might have with other platforms. Also, PayPal is somewhat hands off, so don’t expect great customer service should you encounter an issue.

Team Work / Asana / Teamwork

These tools are project management systems. Several of my clients use these programs to manage large projects across a team. They work well for agencies or other multiple-person teams. You can assign a task list to individuals.

They also keep all notes updated while providing an interactive client experience. Instead of a client sending 10 messages, they can add one and copy all workers. Files, images, etc. can easily be stored in the client’s online file, too.

Finally, if you don’t want your clients to get too intimate with your team members, these systems keep their personal information private. Of course, they’ll have signed non-competes, as well, but as a copywriter who’s engaged with 100s of businesses, these were my clients’ preferred platforms.

Toggle

Wonder where your day went? Toggle is a timekeeping clock for your desktop. If you feel like your biggest obstacle is spending too much time on client projects, try this free little thing to keep you in check. It can help you discover if you are over or under billing folks.

Calend.ly / Time Trade

Hands off scheduling tools, you can just send your contacts links to a calendar to schedule a call with them. Dates & times go right to your calendar (mine is on my smart phone.) and you’re emailed the call details. Integrated with Google Calendars, Calend.ly is a free scheduling service for appointments.

The downside is that you only get one free appointment calendar with Calend.ly. To get around this, I set mine up for 20 minutes. Client calls are 30 minutes, so I gave the 20 minute calls a 15 minute buffer. This covers (for now) both discovery sessions and client work.

Time Trade is another free scheduling tool. Again, once your business grows to the point that you have multiple offerings for multiple clients, you’ll need to pay a small fee, but, eh, free is a good place to start.

If you choose to purchase Infusionsoft, Appointment Core is an integrated program my clients swear by. They say that the time this saves their admins from rescheduling alone has more than paid for the system.

What are you really looking for in a calendar tool? Seamless integration. Your calendar tool needs to be easy for you to use, send clients reminder emails and texts (better they cancel than you waste your time trying to call them), and make your scheduling a hands-off no-brainer.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media scheduling tool. You can add up to three accounts for free in order to automatically schedule posts to your social media feeds. And that’s fine & dandy for your ongoing promotions or generic mass messaging.

The key to successful social media, however, is engagement. You need to be a real human, creating real messages to a real audience. You need to be on your networks at least a few times weekly if not almost daily.

You may also look into Buffer and Sprout as other options. Personally, I was unable to assess the difference between the three as anything remarkable. Rumor also has it that Facebook Scheduling gets you more engagement according to the Facebook algorithm.

I did not find that to be the case in the three months I spent testing the theory. However, if you are only using Facebook, skip Hootsuite and schedule right from your Facebook business page instead.

Free Isn’t Always the Bees Knees

Keep in mind that the more you hope to grow, the more you’ll need to spend. Those earning $100,000 or more per year put out 30% to 40% to run their business (on a support team, software programs, etc.)

The second piece of this equation is quite simple: the more features you need to use, the more money you’ll need to spend. Free is only as efficient as the goal you need to accomplish.

The post 18 Free Resources for Bootstrapping Your New Coaching Business appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

I’m going to share a little piece of my soul. On January 6, 2011, my business partner of 3 years sat me down & said, “I need to go at this solo.” I packed a box and left with nothing. He did not write me my last commission check; he threatened to fight my unemployment, claiming I was being fired.

At the time, it felt like my entire sense of identity was being crushed. Having planned a move, I was suddenly jobless & homeless. I simply couldn’t believe someone could be so cold-blooded. Had I really dedicated my entire life for all those years to such a shitty human being?

Even friends that I loved, trusted & relied on ducked out of the way to avoid my emotional shrapnel. “Get over it,” they said. My hands didn’t just feel empty; I felt empty. How was I ever going to shine my light again?

I decided to use my anger as a tool to help me fight back. If I wallowed in pity, he won. And, no matter what, he was not going to win. I’d sold (from a 0 revenue start-up) $120,000 my second year of sales. All the major, residual corporate clients had been a result of my sales efforts. I had the power in me & I could do this.

Rebuilding a Tiny Lovely Empire 

Within 2 months I was repositioned with a new lifestyle business as a sales copywriter. An agency offered to barter my website & I’d procured my first shiny new business license. I was finding purpose again, reaching out to do what I did best: share something I was passionate about.

Within 4 months I had my first paying clients on the books – at a rate of $50 / hour going straight to my solopreneur business bank account. Wow.

By the end of the first year, I was successfully paying all my bills. And when my lawsuit in 2012 against my business partner found me receiving a generous settlement, I burst into tears of gratitude. Thanks to a little hustle, I was able to bank 100% of the proceeds – and this became the downpayment on my little a few years later.

Rising from Ashes to Fly High

Over the years, my business has transitioned. I’ve managed to work part-time and earn a full time living. I’ve taken up to 8 weeks off for vacations every year, fulfilling my love of nature & travel.

In 2014, I bought a home in the suburbs. I planted an organic garden (me? laying down roots?) and learned this October that the love of my life & I will be expecting a baby in February 2016.

Sharing this is difficult for me, but it’s a story that needs to be told. I want you to know that you can rise up, too. Everything you need to have the life (& income) you desire is in you.

You just can’t give up, even when you’re sleeping in basements & crying yourself to sleep…eventually, as with all goals, persistence pays off. Will you take responsibility for working hard to achieve what you desire in this life?

The post “No matter what, he was not going to win.” appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

What are you worth? It’s the most loaded question you’ll ever need to ask yourself in your business. After all, in the professional services industry, so-called experts run the gamut from PhDs to stay-at-home-moms. What qualifies one individual more than another to charge more?

In reality, we are each procuring previously researched data, results & outcomes from others in order to create our own programs. There is very little new research taking center stage these days.

You, my friend, are you-nique. You’ve got a distinct set of offers to make to the world. And I’d like nothing more than to help you sort out how to charge for your services.

What do others in your industry niche charge

Before you start pulling prices out of the air, take a look at your top competitors. See what kind of rates they’re charging. For VAs, copywriters, designers, etc. you’ll begin to see a range or market value.

For coaches or professional services (i.e. health, nutrition, life, business and executive), you’ll note that there are probably a few products from hour long webinars to 6 month long masterminds ranging in price from the low end to the high end.

You have to start somewhere.

As you build your portfolio in the first few years, before you’ve landed big-name clients, you may need to fall at the bottom of the accepted market value.  Just like an entry-level job, you’ve got to put in your time showing why you’re clearly worth the prices you’re asking clients to pay you.

Second, starting at more reasonable rates lets you cut your teeth. You can get a feel for all the things you like, and don’t like about your business. Modify your business model based on what you learn (including an increase in prices.)

How are your services different (your UVP)

A huge indicator of your worth is what only you can give to your clients. For example, medical and financial writers will always be paid more than generalist copywriters.

Think about how you can differentiate your services. This can mean embracing a niche directly, or simply using your unique journey to attract others who need to connect with someone who has been there, done that.

In the coaching industry, specifically, working for a corporation might not be enough of a UVP. You need to come up with an experience only you have. Sara Shaw from The Entreprenette is one of my favorite examples.

She set out on a journey to sell her handbags to the masses. What she learned makes her the perfect coach for women looking to break into fashion and retail areas of expertise.

Are you in a position of authority right now

When your colleagues begin to see you as an expert, you have arrived. And that means connecting with the right people. Perception of your authority will allow you to double your rates. But first you have to earn it.

This might mean speaking gigs, attending conferences, or simply using your online presence to gain access to affiliates that rock your niche.

Another excellent way to gain authority is by writing a book or performing specialized research. Sally Hogshead is one of my favorite examples of this method in business.

She paid a research company to help her determine what it was that people found “fascinating” in general. After applying these principles to business & marketing, she hit the speaker circuit, writing a book in the process…and gaining instant authority…even though she had very little experience previously in the business field.

Don’t try to get fancy with your pricing offers

There are a lot of ways you can bill your time. Some of us prefer project rates (a lump sum for a set of work), others bill hourly, and some prefer multi-month engagements.

Whatever method you choose, you absolutely cannot get fancy with your pricing. No one likes to be slapped with up charges and no one likes to be confused about how much money they are spending.

For example, don’t try to bill by the minute (a recent coaching concept I adamantly refuse to stand behind). However, you might consider selling your time in one hour blocks (like I do for my copywriting.)

Make your sales copy totally transparent: For X dollars, you get Y. And make payments super easy to make with a PayPal button or other online programs. If you prefer to accept checks, create a standard email template that tells users exactly how to proceed:

“Please mail a check for <amount> to <address.> As soon as this check is received you will be directed to my calendar to schedule your first appointment.”

Higher prices mean a longer sales cycle

Remember that if you want to charge higher rates, it will take you longer to attract those perfect clients into your world. It’s easier to spend $47 on a program than it is to invest $470.

Your perception (the liar in your head you call an ego, dear) of yourself may be that you are not as successful when only get a few folks to engage in your program. Especially if you see a colleague commenting on how full their client roster is. Ouch.

The reality is that your one client at $470 has 4x the value, right? Therefore, whichever business model you choose, stand confidently behind it. There is no right or wrong answer; you must charge the rates you feel are in line with your value & self worth. 

Another trick is to regularly pitch your list until you find a sweet spot. You may start with an offer of $500 for (5) hours of coaching or creative services and not get a single taker. Alter this to $97 for (1) hour of <insert offer here> and 10 people might jump forward to check you out.

The post Pricing Your Products for Mindset vs. Reality appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

I have not only built businesses from the ground up twice, I have spent the last five of those years in the trenches with other business owners, tweaking their sales & marketing processes via my copywriting.

It’s always a big question mark when you get started with a new business. Everyone wants to sell you something and tell you what you need to do to be successful. This is where my advice to clients gets really real. You should only listen to the folks that have achieved exactly what you want out of your life. 

I’m going to give you a practical little question & answer blog, followed by a badass checklist. If you cannot answer these questions, you need to go back to the drawing board and dig a little deeper with the kind of business you truly desire.

Now, let’s go:

How much money do you need to earn per month?

A lot of coaches tell you that you’re not dreaming big enough. But you have to know where the stars are in the sky before you can reach for them. This process is sometimes referred to as Money Mapping.

Open up an Excel file or Google Sheet and document what it costs you to live. This checklist includes:

• Rent / Mortgage
• Water / Sewer
• Electric / Gas
• Food / Restaurants
• Gas / Tolls
• Car Payment
• Car Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Internet / Cable
• Entertainment
• Clothes / Misc.

As you sum up these numbers, you might be tempted to cheat by pretending you don’t spend an extra $20 / week at Starbucks. You have two options to nip your cheating in the bud: Give yourself a set amount of cash each week to play with and/or carry a notebook in order to document your spending.

You can’t afford to cheat because those little extra expenses add up over the course of a year. A $50 salon visit that you put on your credit card x 10 visits / year = $500, right? And yes, you deserve pretty toes – so just do the right thing & put your little sanity-savers in the sheet, please.

What options do you have to make this transition?

Now that we know how much money we need to pay our bills, let’s think about ways that we can make this new business transition a reality. First, how high is your number?

If you are earning a high salary in your current job, and your living expenses reflect this, you’ll probably need to keep your job and save your money for several months before you can transition to a new business venture. Despite the sensational headlines all over Facebook, six figures in six weeks is not a typical earning goal of a new business.

The decision tree looks like this:

• How many months worth of income do I have saved?
• Based on expenses, how much do I need to save?
• Do I need to continue working until I can lower costs?
• Can I take a part-time job to supplement my income?
• How many clients do I need to meet these bills? (To follow)

The reason most small businesses fail is because they under-estimate their expenses. When your bills are higher than the amount of money that you bring into the business, you’ll dig yourself deeper & deeper into debt, until your options are so limited you’re forced to say sayonara to your dreams. Nobody wants that.

Who will you sell your services to and how?

As you begin to plan your strategy to achieve your income goals, you’ll also want to consider what you’ll sell. If you are a yoga instructor, there is only so much you can charge per class based on what everyone else in your area is charging. This concept is known as Market Value.

While there is typically a scale of prices for most services, to be at the top of your game, you need to be aware of what the competition is doing and how you’ll do it differently. You can be the best, the cheapest, or the first. 

You’ll need to consider (yup, another checklist!):

• An add-on or special service so that you can increase your fees
• The number of hours you need to work based on your pricing
• What’s unique about your concept versus the competition
• Creative concepts you can build in to provide more value

Next, it’s time for you to take a closer look at the HOW associated with your new business. Since this is the essence of your marketing plan, don’t expect to know this right away. As many of my new business clients quickly learn, you can create the best online products in the world, but if you don’t have an audience to sell them to, you won’t earn a dime.

Switch to a clean sheet in Excel and begin to map out the marketing methods (the how) you’ll use to promote your business. Remember to make sure they are methods you enjoy. If you hate the way you look on camera, don’t attempt video marketing just yet. Stick to 3-5 things you can do consistently.

• Social Media
• Email Marketing
• Blogging
• Networking
• Conferences
• Speaking Gigs

Each of your ideas will break down into more specific plans, but this is the gist of your new business overview. Think about one more thing: Is there a community you are currently plugged into that you can easily sell your services to?

Maybe you’ve been training in kung-fu for 10 years. This group of people would represent potential buyers if you are able to offer them the right service. Developing an offer they want to buy makes your how a lot easier.

What do you want the next 5 years to look like for you?

Obviously, based on the above, you will need to earn enough money to pay your bills. Once you’re standing on solid financial ground, though, you are allowed to expand into the other things you’d like your income to do for you. What other goals do you have for yourself over the next five years?

Think about a few realistic accomplishments that are important to you. You’ll want to base these on numeric goals, which means using numbers to support what you write on this list. Don’t be afraid of those numbers. Until you have a complete picture of how money ties into your happiness, you can’t understand how hard you have to work.

Once you see your dreams on a spreadsheet, you just might realize that you’d prefer to take a different direction so that you can work less hours, etc.  You should choose a 5 year plan that will help you be fulfilled and feel 100% accomplished if you are able to achieve them:

• Paying off the mortgage in 3 years
• Buying a new car in 4 years (or 5)
• Saving $5,500 / year for retirement
• Investing in a rental property ($30K downpayment)
• Traveling to Central Europe in 2018 ($3,300 x 2ppl)

How Does Your New Business Feel?

What we accomplished here was very simple: we laid out the reality of your business. When you know what your income goals are, you can begin to build your ideal business from the inside out. If everything added up for you (and you know you’re ready to get started) here are a few final action steps:

• Open a bank account for your business. To simplify your life, place all the money you earn in this account and pay all your business expenses out of this account. Keeping your business finances separate from your personal finances makes accounting easier.
• Develop an online presence. You don’t have to pay for a website right away (though I recommend buying the domain name and at least putting up a placeholder 3-page website). Create a Facebook page and several other online accounts to give a real feel to your new company.
• Attend a few networking events. Start to talk about what you do to others. Assess how this feels to you. Do enough events that it feels natural for you to discuss your company, “I’m a sales copywriter and coach. I help people learn to profit from their passions.” Repeat 100x.

And just so you know…I’m really proud of you. We were all new to this business stuff once. Taking the first step is the hardest. I’m so happy you got there!

The post A Badass New Business Checklist (What You REALLY Need to Know) appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

Huh, I said. How come shipping is so high when a shiny new book is just $11? I flipped over to Amazon. For just $10 I could purchase my book and have it arrive in one day. Where did I order my book from?

When it comes to business, commodity items (typically durable goods) have quite a few competitors. We can use this concept in our coaching & service based professional businesses to make sure we’re on par with the market value of our offers.

Ready to learn?

Keep Your Eye on the Locals 

If you own a yoga studio, who else in your area sells yoga lessons? You want to become familiar with:

• How much the other studio charges
• What times they teach their classes
• Who their instructors (expertise) are
• Any specials or promotions they run

Asking these questions puts you in the know. It does not mean you should borrow their idea. However, it keeps you realistic when it comes to better serving your clients.

For example, if every other studio offers a “pay what you can” Wednesday, and you charge $20 / class, you may need to adjust your offers to let your clients try before they buy, too.

Pricing is NOT About Your Needs

It is very easy to slip into a mindset where you believe that you need to charge a certain amount in order to meet your overhead costs and/or pay your bills. Stop.

What you charge cannot only be based on the amount of rent you pay for a studio space if the market value of what you offer (i.e. Spanish classes) is easily available elsewhere (a commodity offer.)

Be aware of not charging more money than competitors for the same services because of your own personal needs. If you want a higher price tag on your products, get more specialized. Approach a niche like yoga by offering hot yoga or prenatal yoga. Create a Spanish for travelers class that only focuses on basic communications.

For online businesses, explore how you can also go deeper in order to give more. Including:

• Retreats or mastermind sessions
• Workbooks & planning guides
• Care or welcome packages

Don’t Get Old School…Ever

Features & benefits selling has moved on. Instead of speaking about what your product offers using “we” terms, you need to switch the emphasis to the buyer. In general, old selling sounds like:

• We’re known for our
• Our service can’t be beat…
• Find out why <Name> is #1 in…

You can see just by reading those teasers that this version of sales has nothing to do with what you’re offering the customer, or how you’ll make their life better. As internet sales take over, your web copy needs to quickly give answers.

All of your sales copy should reflect a shift into client-centric language:

• You get
• You’ll find
• We offer you

Know Your UVP Inside & Out

Your Unique Value Proposition is what makes you the best at what you do. It ties into your niche and can be related to your education or personal experiences.

To find yours, you have to think about your bigger “why.” Who do you want to serve? Consider what drives you to get up every single day and go to work.

With a personal brand, charisma plays a huge role. What words, ideas, phrases, or concepts can you use to draw in your ideal clients?

Consider your teaching style. Can you shift the focus to a specific age bracket that you want to serve? Don’t be afraid to get creative when it comes to the way that you run your business; this will be the calling card for others to work with you.

To sum up keeping an eye on the competition, the key is to keep your eyes and ears open. You should.

The post Know Thy Competitor appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

How many hours a week do you spend on social media? I’ve been reading a lot of messaging in my business groups that goes something like, “$20,000 in 2 weeks.” And I want to debunk these Facebook headlines once and for all.

I don’t mean to undervalue the contribution of most business & marketing coaches. However, I want to clear the air on the concept of “it’s easy.” It’s not easy. Anyone who tells you that building a business just happened for them is leaving out just a few crucial steps.

Let’s dig a bit deeper into these crazy headlines.

Campaigns take months & months to prepare for. 

Having a great idea is only the first step in an arduous process. After you develop a concept & test it with your audience, you have to begin piecing together a marketing campaign.

From creating the product itself to rolling out the technology to sell it can take months and months. If you’re still engaging in other money-making endeavors, this work has to be done on nights and weekends.

One morning I got an email from my business coach at 5am. She was already up, in full make-up, hopping on a train to NYC for an event. It was January and she was just starting the promotions for a May event.

Building your audience is the most exhausting step.

Even after you create the shell of your business, such as a website and social media business pages, you’ve got to work on building your online presence. In order to sell your products and services you have to have an audience to sell them to.

This means that you can create the best ever ecourse (how to sell your ecourse, maybe?) but if you don’t have people to sell it to, well, you’ll be a bit sparse when it comes to sales.

When you see an incredible Facebook headline, remember that they have taken months or years to build their email marketing lists. Often they also have affiliates and partnerships so that these connections can promote to their lists, too.

Just to get the idea behind how this works, let’s say that I have 10,000 people on my email marketing list. We can expect a 3% to 5% conversion or sign-up rate – so let’s say 40 of my people enroll in my offer.

If you also have a list of 10,000, I may ask you to promote me to your network. Again, 40 people might enroll. If you have 10 partners, you should be able to enroll 400 people, and so on and so forth.

Within this type of promotional network, you may also offer someone with a large list a percentage of every sale they make for you. So, for the 40 people you enrolled for me, I might give you 25% of the sale – that would equal $250 on a $1,000 coaching program. Now times 40 by $250…and you can see how the money rolls in, yes?

30% to 40% goes right back out the door for services. 

I was shocked to learn how much most companies spend in order to bring in their business income. There is a tipping point where the amount you make is more than what you spend. However, you’ll need to discover what that number is for yourself.

You’ll need to have some of this budget up front, as well. The key is to remember that you can’t do it all yourself. You don’t have enough hours in the day. Expect to hire people to do the pieces you don’t want to handle yourself.

This will include website designers, copywriters, social media experts and a VA to manage it all. Oh, and how are you getting paid? PayPal takes about 4% off the top, too.

You might also choose to pay for ads on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Google Adwords my also be a good option. These can be done at the beginning stage to build your audience and/or at the launch phase to promote your program.

Money earned is not the same as product delivered.

When you see a Facebook headline that boasts a dollar value, this might not be from start to finish. If someone bought your coaching services, you still have to offer that coaching.

So, you can technically earn $20,000 in two weeks, but then you’ll need to spend the next 3 months earning that money. The dollar value seems high, because it’s the total of your earnings over a few months.

Let’s go back to my business coach. During her big event, she may earn $50,000 in three days. However, this total dollar value took her six months, three smaller events, and weeks of promotions (webinars, Facebook ads, etc.) to get those clients enrolled in her programs.

Ok, one more step…now that they’re enrolled, she’ll spend months coaching them before…she starts all over again for next year. The total lifetime value of the average coaching client is about $3,000 to $5,000.

In other words, you can’t just earn $20,000 in two weeks. I wish you could. But the intricacies of building a business require years of learning and building an audience.

Next time you read one of those Facebook headlines, just know that, well, if it was actually true, I’d immediately invite you to my private mansion estate in Hawaii…and I surely wouldn’t be writing blogs anymore.

The post Getting Honest About Big Money Facebook Headlines appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

As you continue down the road, you see a billboard that says, “Real men go to <jewelry store>,” and then another, “Don’t finish last.” What do you think when you read this brand messaging?

In reality, we are being sold to all the time, via email, via telephone, on social media, when we listen to the radio or read a road sign.  Even when you go to the grocery store, there’s a secret (very cool) science at work that’s designed to influence our purchases.

As a business owner, you might start to realize how you, too, need to use sales psychology in order to gain new clients. Even in an industry where we serve others, we still have to be mindful of how we’ll attract the right buyers into our world.

Take a closer look at good sales versus bad sales.

Bad sales messaging is impersonal. It uses scare tactics & challenges our egos so that, should we choose to buy, we regret our decisions. Spending the money makes us feel taken advantage of and frustrated that we caved – especially when we hear the same commercial a week later advertising only three left…again.

Great sales messaging educates our buyers and asks them to make a choice to work with us. Once the sale is made, these buyers feel good about their purchase. They are happy & excited because they got what they think they wanted.

Several years ago, sales tactics were based on challenging the psychology of the buyer. As the internet gave rise to review sites, sales people could no longer, basically, get away with offering sub-par services. This meant that businesses had to rely more heavily on relationships.

Impersonal brand messaging turns off your buyers.

People buy from people they know, like and trust. It’s a sentiment you’ll hear me express again and again. Our brand messaging has to speak directly to the people we want to buy from us.

When you challenge a buyer with sayings like, Buy now or For a limited time, you have to follow through on this promise. If you only have three left, you should only have three left (and not be getting a new shipment in two days!). If the sale is only until Tuesday, there shouldn’t be another similar sale starting on Wednesday.

Our authenticity is one half of our sales messages. When you write sales copy, make sure you provide real limitations on your offers, not imaginary constraints. This reputation will follow you. Your audience, then, will recognize when you only have one sale a year & be more likely to act during those times.

Buying personas can help you speak perfectly to a niche 

Buying personas started in the car buying industry. Play a little game next time you take a road trip & see if you can spot who is driving what kind of car. For example, the Toyota Prius is marketed to middle-aged women, typically upper middle class based on the price point of the vehicle.

On the other hand, the Chevy Cruz was specifically designed for college kids and young adults. Check out the standard features like an iPod jack & killer stereo system.

Car companies invest thousands of dollars to gain a deep understanding of each buyer they want to target. They give these buyers a name and treat them like they are actual customers. This lets them target their niche perfectly.

You need to create a similar buying persona for your business. It’s important to understand:

• What drives your ideal clients’ buying decision?
• How do you need to price services for this buyer?
• What features would make their lives easier?
• Where do they hang out & how do you target them?

When we write to values, it’s not sales.

Once we use our research to effectively answer the above questions, we can begin building out how we can effectively sell to this niche of buyers.

Now, let’s assume you are selling high-end coaching services to executive women. After you’ve done a bit of research on your specific niche (perhaps women in IT?), think about the lifestyles of those women.

They are going to have a set of values that looks like:

• Highly educated with advanced degrees
• Use corporate speak i.e. circle back with me, etc.
• Have high expectations & be over achievers
• Be limited with their time & work long hours
• Value organized, concise communications
• Male-dominated office cultures

Good sales copy will reflect all of these specifics. It should be short (they don’t have time to read long sales pages.) It should be carefully spell checked and buying buttons should work seamlessly.

When your brand lines up with the values of your buyer, it isn’t sales-y. Ever. It’s sales-y when your buyer feels … get ready … sold to. When you push someone to buy something that they don’t want, or need, they’ll be turned off by your messaging.

A quick breakdown of how to rock your sales copywriting

Practice with the concept of writing to a buyer’s values until it feels natural to you. And use this quick formula:

• Develop a buying persona via research
• Write out their values, needs & desires
• Use these values to craft sales copy
• Make sure the copy practices good sales
• Promote your offers in the right places

If you get stuck, remember that we offer copywriting packages and business coaching. Don’t hesitate to let eMarketing Copywriter help you launch your next big campaign. We’re here to mentor you & see to it that you succeed in all your personal endeavors.

The post How to Write Sales Copy That Doesn’t Sound Sales-y appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.

But managing a team of employees and subcontractors was just too overwhelming for me. I not only had to pay everyone else first (even after a record breaking $27,000 contract close!), but I also had to bring in the revenue in the first place.

While I take pride in having succeeded – my partnership dissolved for personal reasons – I knew that my next chapter had to fulfill me on a much deeper personal level. I had no desire to hustle to book meetings or spend four nights a week rubbing elbows to try to make a sale.

Those of us who choose to work in yoga pants performing digital services (you know I became a copywriter, right?) are considered lifestyle businesses.  We are solopreneurs, working mostly alone from a home office.

Since 2008, as the use of subcontractors and 1099s has grown substantially, lifestyle businesses represent a hugely growing group of entrepreneurs who are leaving a JOB to pursue a suitcase dream. Is a lifestyle business right for you?

You prefer to work mostly alone 

Why does Bill Baren have a team of several full-time employees? He prefers to work in a think-tank environment. He also realized that to build a seven figure business required a support team.

Empires are very different than micro-businesses. And 30% to 40% of the revenue they earn goes right back out the door for support services, like business managers and website design work. A lifestyle business is often a solopreneur who not only works alone, but also keeps almost 90% of their earnings for themselves.

This also means you’ll spend a lot of time alone, typically at your computer, performing client work. Yes, you can leave your office to have meetings, but the more you go out, the more you cut into your revenue stream by spending time sipping coffee.

Ask yourself:

• Am I willing to be deadline driven?
• Do I excel at being reliable?
• How do I feel when I’m left alone?

You have a figure-it-out mentality

If you choose not to spend money on software and technology, you’ll need to take the long way home. These days are the most frustrating you’ll every spend. There is no IT guy to call to fix the printer.

You’ll need to be able to tackle obstacles with eyes wide open…and not be afraid of them. When there’s a client issue, yes, you can phone a friend. More likely, though, you’ll sit in your office simmering with anger, crying, and, finally, draft what you think is the perfect email response…

Only to have it backfire and start the whole simmering-crying cycle over again…

The point is, you figure it out. You don’t throw up your hands, miss a deadline or stop what you’re doing because you have an obstacle. You are able to pull it together, find a solution & focus on moving forward (after you stop crying, of course.)

Ask yourself:

• Am I good with technology & biz systems?
• How do I handle learning new things?
• Do I focus on solutions or problems?

You have well-defined money goals 

With the birth of my son in March, one thing became very clear to me; the hours I spend with him are precious. I am never going to get that time back, but I can always make more money.

What things do you value in life more than the money you earn at your JOB?

I initially believed I could jump right back into my business, booking meetings & copywriting while the baby slept. Except he didn’t sleep. His schedule is as predictable as an earthquake.

The only option I had was to take a step back. I had to let go and be ok with these changes. You have to learn to prioritize what matters versus what can wait until tomorrow. 

If you choose to pursue a lifestyle business, you have to know exactly what your lifestyle looks like for YOU. Do you want to make a million dollars and own a big yacht? You’ll need a team to support you to the multiple six and seven figure level.

On the other hand, maybe you simply want to replace a salary from a reasonable job. You might desire to stay home with your kiddo, too, or just earn enough for a few awesome vacations a year. And that’s the essence of a lifestyle business.

Ask yourself:

• Do I know what I want out of life?
• What’s my ideal income per year?
• Why would I pursue this path?

Note that these decisions are up to you. Owning a business is still a job. You’ll still have good days and bad days. The only difference is that, well, on those bad days you can take a break to eat some ice cream.

The post Can a Lifestyle Business Work for You? appeared first on eMarketingCopywriter.