Strength In Business with Krisz Rokk

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney Disney World is a magical world. Millions of people visit Disney Parks around the globe to leave their daily worries and struggles behind and tap into the energy sources of the “Happiest Place on Earth”. Disneyland is indeed an amazing place for people of all ages and walks of life. Furthermore, it is a well of knowledge and wisdom for entrepreneurs, marketers and open-minded business people who’re eager to learn proven business and marketing principles that can be applied to their own enterprises. A few months ago I visited the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida with my family. We focused on one of the Disney Parks where fairytale dreams come true. You guessed it; we went to Magic Kingdom. We took all kinds of pictures, we went on several rides, watched the fireworks and parades, and obviously, we had those delicious Mickey Mouse ice creams. We had a wonderful time together. Being the marketing addict I am, I also looked at this entire experience from a marketing standpoint. If you love marketing, there’s no way you can walk through Disneyland without taking ‘virtual’ notes and being inspired by consistency, the love for detail and the well-executed marketing strategies. There is so much to learn from the marketing genius Walt Disney who left us these amazing gifts and Theme Parks… It would be a crime to put all his teachings into three simple marketing lessons. However, I do want to share with you the marketing lessons that most stood out for me because they can be applied to ALL businesses. 1. Provide a Magical, Seamless Experience Have you noticed how happy people are when they enter AND leave the Disney Parks? Have you noticed how happy visitors are while being in the parks and engaging into all kinds of activities? That’s quite unusual. Not many parks in this world manage to accomplish that. But Disney does. And it does it sooo well. Disney Parks are clean. Disney Parks are perfectly laid out. Disney Parks offer dining locations for all budgets. Disney Parks have wheelchair rentals, stroller rentals, locker rentals, service animal relief areas, smoking locations and hundreds of ATMs. And of course restrooms everywhere. Disney employees are very polite, helpful and knowledgeable about every aspect of the parks. On top of that, you get to experience all kinds of shows, parades and fireworks. Everything is laid out perfectly so that visitors can relax and enjoy their mini-vacations to the fullest. Everything is taken care of by the organizer. Ultimately, Disney Parks offer a perfect setting for an unforgettable experience. 2. Use Idiot-Proof Directions to Guide Your Customers The biggest nightmare for an organizer AKA business owner is seeing visitors / customers running around your entity clueless, shoeless and asking employees “Where can I find this?”, “How do I get there?”, “Where should I go next?”… These type of questions are killer to a magical experience and I’m literally blown-away of how well Disney’s managers have taken care of these type of killer questions from arising. Disney Parks are very well organized. There are signs everywhere. The signs are easy to understand and navigate, the instructions are clear and you always know how to get from A to B without ending up in C. Plus there are lots of places to pick up copies of maps in several languages if you missed to grab one when entering the park. As we all know, a confused mind never buys. A confused customer never buys. Therefore the big takeaway here is to do whatever it takes to avoid visitor ...

Instant Articles are a new way for publishers to create “fast, interactive articles on Facebook”. Speed has become a key ingredient in today’s social age. The terms engagement, responsiveness and instant are dominating the space. People seem to be obsessed with likes, shares and comments. Messages are sent to brands without proper reflection. If you manage to pause for a second, you might ponder upon the following questions: Does speed trump thinking? Does speed trump etiquette and integrity? Technology has made it easier for individuals to communicate with businesses from all over the world. No matter what size your business is, or what industry you’re in, if you have a Facebook account, people can message you. It’s that simple. Let’s have a quick look at consumer behavior, shall we? By now we know that people… * like to hang out on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Co. * prefer to stay logged in on all the social platforms * consume more and more content via their mobile phones * want fast access to information whether that’s video, audio or in a written format What about the providers? What do companies like Facebook, Twitter and Co. want? For one, they want to keep users in their environment. The more you stay in the Facebook environment, the more you’re exposed to content and ads provided by Facebook. The likelihood of you purchasing something increases. Therefore, building a seamless user experience has become crucial to all these social platforms. And this is where Facebook Instant Articles come to play. Content Marketing is King A lot of people misleadingly think that content marketing equals blogging. Nothing could be further from the truth. Video is content marketing. Audio is content marketing. Podcasting is content marketing. Articles and press releases are content marketing. Facebook knows about the power of content marketing and continues to invest heavily into video, audio and written content. Integration is key, and if you look at how Mark Zuckerberg runs his business, you understand why cross-channel thinking has helped him build an empire. At this year’s Facebook Developer Conference F8, Mark Zuckerberg announced Instant Articles to being rolled out to all publishers. Previously, only a select few – mainly large media companies such as for e.g. National Geographic or the BBC could publish their articles on Facebook. The good news: As of April, any publisher can publish Instant Articles. What are Facebook Instant Articles? Instant Articles allows publishers to share their blog posts on Facebook by delivering a fast and immersive reading experience for users who access your articles from a mobile device by clicking a link. The content loads super fast. On top of that, publishers can use Instant Articles for monetization purposes. Here’s where you can sign up for Instant Articles: https://instantarticles.fb.com/ How to Become a Publisher on Facebook in Three Steps 1. Prepare At Least 50 High-Quality Articles AKA Blog Posts Before you start the Instant Articles process, make sure you have at least 50 quality blog posts on your website. Yes, 50 is a must, a requirement from Facebook. However, to be on the safe side, I recommend you have at least 60 high-quality articles in place. And here’s why: For one, you might encounter some heavy coding issues on the Facebook side, or your articles won’t display the way you’d like them to and are requested by Facebook. This is often the case when you use several different media sources in one blog post such as slideshows, a podcast player, an embedded video, all kinds of social share buttons etc.

“Your aim should be to set up marketing systems so that people constantly want to do business with you. Think of marketing as getting a horse to water. The job of sales is then to persuade the horse to drink the water.” – Mac Attram What are some of the biggest mistakes small business owners make? Does a small business in the US face different challenges than a small business in Europe or Asia? Is there a common theme aka pattern worldwide? These are some of the topics Krisz Rokk and multi-award winning speaker and investor Mac Attram talk about in this podcast interview. Mac Attram is an international speaker, investor, mentor, incubator, educator and author. He is best known for helping entrepreneurs and small business owners grow their businesses rapidly and for performing business turnarounds. In 2013, Mac was named “Executive Coach of the Year” in the UK at the annual APCTC Awards, and in 2015 was a “Business Mentor of the Year” and “Trainer of the Year” finalist. Mac has shared the stage with some of the world’s premier thought leaders and speakers, including Robert Kiyosaki, T. Harv Eker, Blair Singer, Bill Walsh, Keith Cunningham and Les Brown. In the Interview: 04:51 – My life had changed dramatically from that point of decision 05:26 – Things can go wrong 07:45 – There are 43 reasons why businesses fail 09:40 – Systems and processes in your business… Do they work or do they not work? 11:11 – Some business owners make excuses when the government changes rules and taxes 13:33 – Managing your cash flow 14:30 – Do business owners in the US, Europe and Asia have the same problems or do they face completely different challenges? 19:00 – There are 5 key areas that you must look at 24:30 – A theme to the 43 reasons… 26:27 – Which side of the coin would you like to be on? Key Takeaways for Small Business Owners * If the processes are not documented, where people can find exactly what to do, your business will not survive. * As the business owner, your personal behavior will determine the success or the failure of that business. * Business development doesn’t come before personal development. * If your business becomes successful, you created it. If your business fails, you created it. Now, which side of the coin would you like to be on? People and Resources Mentioned * Face It & Fix It: How to Avoid Disaster and Turn Around Your Small Business – Available on Amazon Where to Connect with Mac Attram You can reach Mac at MindSpaceBusiness.com. Furthermore, you can book a FREE 30 Minute Business Success Session (value of $497) at FaceItAndFixItBook.com. Where to listen and download Here are some of the options you have: * Listen to the show on iTunes. * For all Android users, hop over to Stitcher. Enjoy this interview with Mac Attram and Krisz from StrengthInBusiness!

“It’s important to decide on what types of leads you want at the middle & bottom of your sales funnel.” ~ Chris Knipper, CEO & Inbound Marketing Strategist at Kuno Creative Marketing funnels… Sales funnels… Website conversion funnels… If you put these words into the Google search box you’ll find numerous blog posts, infographics, videos, software programs and of course all kinds of free reports and downloadable PDF’s outlaying the importance of having funnels AKA optimized funnels in your business. And as always, you’ll also find a bunch of articles talking about the “death” of funnels. Nothing new, right?! Let’s start from scratch… What Exactly Is A Funnel? The most common definition goes like this… From now on we’ll use the noun form of funnel. So, how does a funnel work in real life? Say you’re in the kitchen and you’re using a wide-mouth funnel to put the remaining three liters of tomato juice into three one liter bottles. All of the tomato juice is forced through the small hole in the smaller bottles. The end result: 100% of your initial tomato juice is sealed in three bottles. No waste whatsoever. Now, what happens when you put your prospects, leads and / or customers through your funnel? Do all of them who enter the funnel at the top come out at the bottom? That would be magical! Unfortunately, we both know, that’s not the case. So, where do all these people go? How come they leave your funnel? Here’s the bitter truth: Your funnel has holes! Only the folks who qualify make it to the next level. The rest leaves the party. The Freebie to $97 Product Marketing Funnel Most of you are familiar with the slogan: ==> Offer a valuable and relevant Freebie to people who visit your website. Don’t let them leave empty-handed. By now, it’s difficult to find a website that hasn’t incorporated this strategy into their online marketing approach. The exchange is simple: You receive something of value (hopefully) and in return you give away your email address and the permission to keep you updated as to what is going on in that particular business or community. Once this person AKA business has your email address they will most likely put you through an autoresponder or follow-up sequence making sure that you get the “right” information. The goal is to build a long-term relationship based on trust and mutual respect. So far, so good. And then, somewhere along the line an offer pops up. It’s a highly relevant product that tackles your problems and promises to relieve your pain. For $97 you get XYZ and you no longer have to stay awake at night staring at the ceiling wondering when Captain Cook is coming to save you. But what if they don’t buy my $97 product? Did my marketing funnel fail? Nope, your marketing funnel didn’t fail IF you manage to put these very same people back into another funnel. I’m talking here about a different marketing funnel with a different offer. They’re not interested in your $97 product? No problem. Do your best to down-sell them to a $47 product. If on the other hand they want to buy more from you, up-sell them from $97 to a $297 product and put them into another marketing funnel. Use down-sells, up-sells and cross-sells to move people through your different sales and marketing funnels. These triggers are very powerful. Deploying the AIDA Model Now, let’s take our funnel and combine it with the AIDA model to complete the journey of an ice-cold prospect turning into a paying customer. AIDA stands for: * Awareness: This is where person XYZ has to become aware of you and the solutions (y...

“Once you learn the art of promotion and copywriting, you can have a business fail but the skillset of promotion and copywriting can move beyond that particular business.” – Heather Ann Havenwood Dying, transitioning, evolving… Words that are often used to describe the current state of email marketing. A controversial topic as so many gurus, specialists and experts have proclaimed the death of email marketing. In spite of all the buzz, how can we deploy this marketing vehicle to attract more of the right clients? This is what Krisz Rokk and serial entrepreneur Heather Havenwood talk about in this podcast interview. Heather Heavenwood is a serial entrepreneur, author, podcast host and marketing coach. She is the CEO of Havenwood Worldwide LLC and Chief Sexy Boss. Heather is regarded as a top authority on internet marketing. To prove that she’s the real deal, in 2006 she started, developed and grew an online information marketing publishing company from zero to over $1 million in sales in less than 12 months. In the Interview: 01:40 – What were your top 3 success ingredients to achieving $1 million in sales in less than 12 months? 06:01 – We sometimes promote other people vs. ourselves 08:00 – The skillset of promotion 09:16 – How important is copywriting for email marketing? 13:15 – What happens when you get an email from support@… ? 14:28 – What NOT to do in email marketing 15:46 – The fluffy looking big images 19:31 – A confused mind will never buy 22:08 – The current state of email marketing 24:23 – The future of mobile marketing and SMS marketing 26:15 – How Donald Trump uses SMS marketing 27:49 – Classified ads 30:20 – Two powerful stats Key Takeaways about Email Marketing and Beyond * How do you get your customer or your avatar customer as fast as possible? How can you find them as fast as possible? We did that through JV Marketing. * People still learn better when they’re Face-to-Face. * The number one lesson you just forgot: you forgot to cover yourself legally. * Copywriting is everything. Copywriting is THE skillset. * Email nowadays is like entertainment; personal entertainment. * Human behavior hasn’t changed. The technology has changed but how we purchase and how we think hasn’t necessarily evolved. * In the email is the relationship. People and Resources Mentioned * Joe (Joseph) Sugarman – Copywriting legend * Dan Kennedy – One of the world’s highest-paid copywriters * Larry Pino – Former CEO of Dynetech Corporation * Mobit – Specialized in SMS marketing * InfusionSoft and MailChimp – Email marketing providers Where to Connect With Heather You can reach Heather at Heather Havenwood or Sexy Boss Inc. Where to listen and download Here are some of the options you have: * Listen to the show on iTunes. * For all Android users, hop over to St...

Content marketing, social media, affiliate marketing, video marketing, SEO, webinars, teleseminars, podcasting, pay-per-click (PPC), social advertising, and the list goes on and on and on… No wonder small businesses are overwhelmed. Wait, there’s more… Let’s not forget to add all the offline marketing methods to the above and of course, everything that revolves around developing products & services, managing employees, increasing cash flow, maximizing profits AND building long-term client relationships that yield to a higher retention rate. Who’s overwhelmed just by reading the above without having done anything? Well, welcome to the fascinating world of a small business owner. Giving Small Businesses a Boost Now, if you’re already a savvy member of the small business community, the following statements and questions will give you a broader perspective into the alien lifestyle of those desperately trying to keep up with technology and all the Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram craziness going on. * I stayed away from online marketing because I don’t get it. I don’t see the value in posting on Facebook and all those other channels. It’s just a waste of time and I don’t have much of it to waste. * Where do I start? What should I do first? So many online gurus… and all of them preach different things. * I have a limited budget to spend on marketing. Should I shift all of that from offline to online? * How can I measure my marketing efforts online? * How can I generate sales? Or is it just for branding, awareness and what not? Common questions, right? Every time I talk to a small business owner that shies away from online marketing, I hear some, or all of the above… Instead of dissecting the anatomy of strategic brand-building and online sales generation, I decided to pull out the common elements and organize them into three groups. Not to worry — I’m going to avoid the nitty gritty details and focus on the big picture. It’s time to dig into those patterns… 1. Social Media Exhaustion Overwhelm and exhaustion — two words that are often associated with social media. With more than 200 social networks fighting for our attention and big players insisting on downloading several of their apps (see Facebook’s latest app strategy), there’s little to no escape for us.  ==> Share a quick update and let your friends know what you’re up to. ==> Snap an image and engage with your followers. ==> Record a live video and share some quick tips with your customers. All this translates to spend your time on social media; spend your money on social media; and ultimately, become social media. No wonder, some people already started ditching social media. Even celebrities. In an interview with the Associated Press, rapper Izzy Azalea who quit her Twitter and Instagram accounts in February 2015 said the following: “Yeah, so nice not to be on social media so I’m kind of going to continue that until, maybe forever. I think it’s disgusting. I don’t think it’s nice to stick your camera through somebody’s fence and hedge and take a picture of them in their yard and think that’s OK at all.” [Source: International Business Times, UK] OK, back to the small business space… Let’s say you have no clue where to start, or you have set up a couple of social media profiles but you haven’t done much so far — What to do n...

“Loyal customers, they don’t just come back, they don’t simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you.” ~ Chip Bell, Bestselling Author What happens when a pipe bursts in your house? You look for a plumber. So, you check your rolodex… Hm, no plumber in there. The next thing you do is you call a friend, colleague, or you ask your neighbor. Rarely do you jump on the internet looking for a plumber without previously gathering valuable information by consulting your peers. According to a recent BCG study, referrals and recommendations from friends, colleagues and other consumers trump every other source available. Consumer rely on word-of-mouth two to ten times more often than paid media. If all the above is true, how come there’s so little emphasis on word-of-mouth aka referrals? Why are business owners so obsessed with trade shows, events, brand websites, SEO, advertising, direct mail, email marketing, you name it — instead of referrals? Don’t get me wrong… All these marketing instruments are great and when applied strategically they will definitely help you boost brand awareness, gain credibility and long-term turn a cold audience into a warm one, gather leads and prospects, and ultimately convert them into customers. Here’s what I suggest: * Set up a client referral system. Create and implement a formalized internal referral system. * Don’t ignore the conventional, externally focused marketing programs. The truth of the matter is that a solid referral system (step #1) will give you many times the results for less time and money than conventional marketing and sales programs do (step #2). Do you have a formal referral system in place? You see, most small business owners will say “Nope”. They will tell you that sometimes they ask their customers to refer them to friends and family. But that is too generic. It happens randomly. There’s no process behind it. Nothing. And here’s the bad news: You’re leaving big money on the table. Referrals — both direct and indirect, are essential to increasing the number of clients and consequently your income. Your Journey from Random to Intentional Means Putting a Formalized Referrals System in Place Before I highlight the benefits of developing a formalized referral system, let’s have a look at the key elements or components of it. First off, a formalized referral system is INTENTIONAL. Meaning, you’re not just pulling current customers by their elbow and asking for random referrals. Intentional means you have a process in place. Second, you need to INVEST into it. You have to put work into it. Your referral program can go from a simple Thank You note up to monetary rewards. BTW the magnitude and size of the reward depends on your customers. Don’t confuse creativity with math. What is your customer lifetime value? What does it cost you to get a customer from the street and convert that person into a client? It all comes down to maths! Third, it has to be INTEGRATED. You have to ensure that the referral program you’re about to create and implement is integrated in your business process and your entire team knows about it. You want your sales people to know about it. You want your accountants to know about it.

The Parthenon Philosophy is the most powerful marketing concept I have ever encountered. It was introduced to me several years ago by marketing master Jay Abraham. And since, everything I do in business is based on this very same principle. Most small businesses owners I interact with continuously rely on one or two marketing approaches to grow and sustain their business. Direct sales and / or referral marketing aka word-of-mouth marketing are the two most common instruments businesses deploy to get more clients and increase their revenue. What happens when direct sales becomes less effective? What happens when people stop sending you referrals? Your business stream diminishes and you start losing ground. That’s not a very smart approach, don’t you think? So why not increase the stability of your business by building it on several robust pillars aka revenue streams. Why not build a Greek Parthenon type of business from the very beginning. The Diving Board Philosophy vs. The Parthenon Philosophy Let’s start with a brief description of both philosophies. * The Diving Board Philosophy states that you build your business on a single revenue stream or marketing pillar (e.g. direct sales). * The Parthenon Philosophy states that you build your business on several robust pillars or marketing profit centers (e.g. direct sales + referral system + joint ventures + advertising + email marketing + telemarketing + podcasting). OK, so now that you understand the underlying principle of the Parthenon Philosophy and why it’s critical to build a business that has a strong foundation, you might be faced with the following trick question: But which pillars? Especially with the online craziness going on and the gazillions of marketing weapons at hand, how do you know what works and what not? How do you know which pillars to pick? I’ll get into that in a few seconds but first, let’s have a closer look at the different ways you can grow your business. It’s not as complicated and overwhelming as most people think it is. Actually it’s quite simple. There are ONLY 3 ways to grow a business… any business. Let’s hear them from marketing legend Jay Abraham himself.     The 3 Ways to Grow a Business These are the ONLY three ways you can deploy to grow your business: * Increase the number of clients * Increase the average transaction value * Increase the frequency of repurchase (get more residual value out of each client you have) Now, let’s head over to the pillars of the Parthenon as I promised previously… Greek Parthenon Pillars We are bombarded on a daily basis with all kinds of marketing instruments, tools, messages and what not. And there lies the biggest challenge: Where do you put your attention? Which ones do you choose? Here’s a quick checklist as to how to go about this topic so that you pick your marketing channels wisely: 1. Always start with your prospect’s and customer’s mind. Get inside the head of your ideal audience: prospect, customer, client, or patient. One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is they start with tactics or strategies. That’s the wrong order. Start with targeting first. 2. Be crystal clear about your unique selling proposition (USP). Be a preferred choice. 3. Pick your offline marketing streams first, especially if you have a brick and mortar business. Nothing beats Face-to-Face marketing to this day and age.

Modelling big business isn’t a good thing if you’re a small business. Big businesses have a different agenda. Big businesses have different economics aka they operate with “play money”. One of the biggest mistakes I see small businesses make is copying what seems to be successful. They look at how big brands are advertising and then they try to copy that. They look at how big companies are posting on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & Co. and they are desperately trying to model that very same behavior. I’m here to tell you that you’re copycatting the wrong stuff. Please understand that big businesses operate differently. For one, they need to meet shareholder expectations. You have boards, presidents, vice-presidents and CEOs, and all of them need to play their role in the game. Sometimes it takes ages until decisions are made and implemented across the entire ecosystem. On top of that, big businesses can more or less afford to target anyone with a pulse and a wallet (as Dan Kennedy says; giving credit where credit is due). If you’re a small business owner, you really don’t need to go down that path unless of course you don’t care about wasting your precious time, money and other resources. Small Business Challenges Here are three common marketing mistakes for small business owners to avoid at all cost: 1. My perfect prospect is anyone with a pulse and wallet. Big businesses have different economics. They can pour $2 million into advertising hoping to reach as many humans as possible and if the campaign fails, well… than they pull another $2 million from their marketing budget and try something else. You can’t afford to do that. The combination ignorance and desperation is the worst possible. Therefore you need to think through the entire profile of your perfect prospect. WHO is a great fit and who’s not? What motivates your ideal client? What are his / her desires, interests and frustrations? How do they buy? What does your ideal client think about himself/ herself? Nail your audience. And remember: broad messages aren’t effective and practical at small business level. 2. Offline is better than online (or vice versa). There is no good or bad distribution channel just like there’s no such thing as good or bad media. It’s all situational. One media is better than no media. Two marketing channels are better than one. Actually, you need to deploy as many media and marketing channels as you can get results from. Big businesses are all over the place. You don’t need to copy that strategy either. Just make sure, you’re in the right place(s). If trade fairs are your preferred offline method and you get great results from that, excellent; stick to that. If your ideal clients like to hang out on LinkedIn, that’s where you have to be too. If you can reach out to more prospects via Facebook, consider running some highly targeted ads. There is stability in diversity. Never underestimate the impact of multi-media integration and cross-channel marketing at a small business level. 3. Pricing is the key ingredient of my business success. How do you know a novice sales person from a pro? The novice plays only one card: price. Can you beat Amazon or Walmart when it comes to price? No? Well than, what’s the point in being one of the cheapest, if you can’t be THE cheapest?!

Facebook is the go-to platform for social advertising. The powerful targeting options allow you to reach a highly relevant audience; people who are most likely to engage with your post, download your freebie and/ or purchase your product. Are you looking to trigger an emotional response, inspire consumers to click and get results from your Facebook ads? Knowing how to create effective ads that get results isn’t easy. If it were, we’d have a heck of a lot more advertisers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Co., don’t you think? From organic to paid, here are top five Facebook marketing hacks and tips for you and your social media team. Put These Facebook Marketing Hacks to Work for You 1. Run Facebook Ads Without a CTA Button This might be a shocker for some people… After all, Facebook provides us with a rich variety of CTA buttons, so why not use them? I’m not suggesting you stop using the CTA buttons for good. What I’m saying is test your ads against those without a CTA button. Keep your copy. Keep the same imagery. Simply remove the button. Here’s a screenshot from one of my latest podcasting ads targeted towards the German speaking audience…     All my Facebook ads that have no CTA button are outperforming those with a CTA button. What if this applies to your ads too? Test it out. You’ve got nothing to lose; and the upside could be very rewarding. 2. BLC: Build a Facebook Funnel that Converts BLC stands for Blog – Lead Ads – Conversion. This Facebook funnel has the following three layers: * LAYER #1: Drive traffic to your blog using the combined power of organic and paid reach. You do this by setting up Facebook ads with the objective “clicks to website”. Your main goal here is to build your Website Custom Audience (WCA). * LAYER #2: Run Lead Ads targeting your WCA and Lookalike Audience (based on WCA and / or your Facebook fans). The main goal in this second stage is to increase your list. Obviously, you want to attract the most relevant audience. * LAYER #3: Convert prospects into customers. You do this by creating a powerful autoresponder aka follow-up email series. On top of that, you create Facebook ads with the objective “Website Conversions” and you put your offers in front of those most likely to buy – for example your email list. Obviously, there are a lot of Facebook funnels to choose from. The above funnel is effective and it’s not too intrusive. Remember, we’re advertising on a social platform! This is a proven system that works. Give it a go. 3. Use Tools to Sync Facebook Lead Ads Contacts If you run Facebook lead ads you’ll reach a point where you will look forward to having a tool that syncs your new contacts in real time with your CRM / Autoresponder. Fortunately, there is help available to integrate and speed up the process. There are two tools that I recommend you take a look at: Driftrock Lead Response and LeadsBridge. The first one is more appropriate for agencies with medium to large contract workload. The second tool, LeadsBridge is a perfect fit for smaller businesses who work with CRM providers and Email marketing services such as aWeber, Mailchimp, GetResponse, HubSpot, Salesforce, Infusionsoft etc.     4.

“I think podcasting hasn’t been set up in the most user friendly way – but the fact that they [podcasts] are still popular – despite how broken the system is, shows how well-liked sound online can and should be.” – Alexander Ljung, Founder & CEO of SoundCloud talking to The Telegraph iTunes dominates the game… And there is currently no other podcasting system out there that provides the level of experience, content, and networking podcast listeners and consumers demand. In the meantime podcatchers and sophisticated audio-sharing services from all over the world are desperately trying to gain market shares and increase their audience. Quite a battle going on behind the scenes, hence the term “broken” podcasting system aka podcast distribution system. Let’s change perspectives. What if you’re a podcast producer? What podcasting system(s) do you have in place to support your growth? Do you have a checklist for creating and publishing a podcast? RELATED: 5 Reasons Why Podcasting Is Important to Your Business To help you set up your own podcasting system (this applies to podcast producers), I decided to share one of my checklists with you as it has helped me effectively filter relevant topics, increase productivity and publish shows faster. See what this checklist can do for you. Adjust This Podcasting System As Your Business Evolves The following easy-to-follow podcasting system includes three simple steps: * Step 1: CREATE * Step 2: RECORD * Step 3: PUBLISH & PROMOTE Let’s have a detailed look at each of these three phases. Step 1. CREATE 1. Pick a keyword and create a click-worthy headline. Coming up with a compelling headline is very important. But what if you’ve run out of ideas? Use BuzzSumo. Simply type in your chosen keyword and let the tool display the most shared content for that particular keyword based on the top 5 social media channels Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Pinterest. 2. Start your podcast with a catchy opening phrase. No matter whether you’re prepping for an interview session or you’re simply recording your latest blog post, start your podcast (or your article) with a short punchy phrase. You can extract a sentence from a speech or interview. In case you’re recording your blog post, you can open up with an interesting quote or question. 3. Structure the content of your show. Use bullet points to highlight key elements of the show. Divide the content into chunks. Think of Miller’s Law and the magical number seven. According to cognitive psychologist and Princeton University professor George A. Miller, most people’s memory is limited to holding seven (plus or minus two) pieces of information. [Source: Encyclopædia Britannica] So, please do yourself a huge favor and don’t go into 140 tools to master online marketing… unless you want to stop people’s mind at tool number #7 or annoy your entire audience. 4. Give yourself permission to post and answer questions. Here are two questions I find very valuable. No matter what topic you talk about, or what niche, market, or industry you serve, you can always post these questions and provide helpful answers. * Why Does This Matter? * How Is This Relevant to You? 5. Always end with a call to action (CTA). Include a strong ending with a call to action.

“Facebook carousel ads are outperforming link ads.” You hear this statement over and over. Is it true? Will Facebook carousel ads outperform your link ads? To be honest, I don’t know. You’ll need to test and see whether this applies to your industry, niche, or products too. Running carousel ads on Facebook that showcase multiple images with a destination URL most certainly outperform my link ads. Furthermore, this also applies to my clients who have tested Facebook carousel ads. For them, and for me, the statement is true. Related: 10 Eye-Opening Facebook Advertising Facts And now, Facebook has added this very same carousel format to its organic features. For those of you who want to start experimenting with this new option, here’s what you need to do. How to Create an Organic Post Using the Facebook Carousel Format Let’s start this quick journey by going through the four Photo/Video options currently available on your fan page. * Upload Photos/Videos: This is the oldest feature available within the Photo/Video section. You can add photos or videos to your status. * Create Photo Album: You can upload multiple photos and create an album. * Create a Photo Carousel: This is the latest add-on we’re going to talk about. * Create Slideshow: Just like a Facebook slideshow ad, you can now add up to 7 photos to your status and create a short video. Here’s what these four features look like…     Follow these steps when creating an organic Facebook carousel post: 1. Click on “Create a Photo Carousel” and add a destination URL. Note that photos will be automatically taken from the website you’ve chosen. Not to worry though, as you can add new photos and deactivate the once that were pulled from your URL anytime in the process. 2. Next, have a look at the images that were pulled in and if you don’t like them, simply click to remove from carousel. Go to the “plus” sign and upload new photos to replace the ones from your website and / or add these new ones to the carousel. You don’t like the order the images are displayed? No problem. Simply drag the images in the order you see fit. 3. Adjust or change the destination URL of each image. You do that by hovering over the image and editing the URL. Place the URL you want your image to link to and confirm. EXAMPLE For example, I uploaded three different images to my carousel post that weren’t originally on my website. After that, I edited the destination URL of each image and added the according blog post URL thus ensuring people are forwarded to the right article. This is what my organic Facebook carousel post looks like…     One more thing… The last image in your carousel will always display your logo – that is the profile picture of your Facebook fan page. Furthermore, the destination URL of this image will always be the one you placed when building the post from scratch. So far, you can’t edit this URL. Therefore make sure you choose the right destination URL when creating your carousel post. Bet on Your Strengths What exactly do I mean by that? Find out what your best performing blog posts are and share the top 3-5 articles as a carousel photo post. Don’t know what your best blogs are? Use Buzzsumo to find the most shared content for a domain. The free version of Buzzsumo will provide you with your ...

Amazon is the ultimate sales machine and Kindle is a publishing powerhouse. Some businesses use the platform to sell physical items, others go digital – that is, they harness the power of (e)Books thus adding an additional stream of income to their business. A very smart move indeed. Many people mistakenly believe that you have to be an outstanding writer, or some sort of a marketing wizard to get your book published on Amazon. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Kindle can be very effective for authority positioning and obviously, for making sales. The eBook business gives you leverage and helps you build new sales funnels faster. Therefore, I do recommend using Kindle’s free tools to help grow your sales. Yes, there’s iBooks and Barnes and Nobles, however, if you want to dominate this space from the get-go, you need to start with Amazon aka Kindle first. Kindle Marketing Made Easy The following 10-step checklist will help you publish your book on Kindle to position yourself as an expert authority, draw in quality prospects and make more sales. 1. Pick a great title. Start by having a look at the bestseller lists in different categories. Research bestselling titles such as * How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, or * The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey Look for patterns and commonalities. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. A key to business success is to model what’s proven and tested to work. The exact same rules apply to marketing on Kindle too. Come up with a click-worthy title to differentiate yourself from other authors. 2. Include a well-written description. By the time I’m writing this, Kindle allows you to use 4,000 characters to describe your book. A well-written description gives your readers a short glimpse into the content of your book. It’s basically the very first time your readers experience your style, humor and writing approach. You want this experience to be a great one thus leading people to act fast and purchase your book. Therefore use those characters wisely. Maximize your impact. 3. Place your book in two highly relevant and less crowded categories. To get this step right, you’ll need to do a bit of research. The last thing you want is to place your book into a super crowded category with tens of bestsellers. Obviously, once your book gets traction and has good sales, moving it into a broader category could be a possible Kindle marketing strategy. However, if you’re just starting out, I suggest you do the opposite. Place your book into subcategories that are less crowded. Leverage different marketing channels and promote your book both online and offline. Get good reviews, improve rankings and increase sales. 4. Use seven relevant long tail keywords that best describe your book. Buyers search on Amazon just like browsers do on Google. So, if you want your book to be found, use all the options Kindle provides you with. You can include seven keywords – both short and long tail keywords. 5. Upload an enticing cover image. The idiom “A picture is worth a thousand words” applies to Kindle as well. Make your image stand out but don’t clutter it with text. Use bright colors and big fonts to catch the readers attention. The cool thing about Kindle is that it let’s you test different cover photos without needing to go through the entire publishing process from anew. 6. Make use of Kindle’s pre-order option. The next thing you can do is to capitalize on Amazon’s pre-orde...

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee Marketing fundamentals are boring and unsexy. So, why bother with the very basics of marketing when there’s a new tool waiting to be discovered around every corner? Today, everybody seems to be a marketing mogul – better yet, an online marketing wizard. The focus is on the latest buzz. A lot of fuzzy information is shared with great passion and unwavering belief. Hype marketing strategies and techniques are in. So, if you’re looking for the next wiz thing in marketing, the next shiny object, than you shouldn’t be reading this. But if you’re looking for something for real business owners and that is to build a solid business that is going to be around for the next 20+ years than read the following very carefully: Stop ignoring the basics of marketing. Stop ignoring the building blocks of your business. You need to build your business on a STRONG foundation! In order to do that you’ll need to master the business and marketing fundamentals. Legendary football player, coach, and executive Vince Lombardi once said, “Excellence is achieved by mastery of the fundamentals.” The same is true in business. Marketing Fundamentals: How to Master the Basics Here are two marketing fundamentals to help you succeed in today’s competitive business environment: 1. Know Thy Ideal Customer. This one should be a no brainer, and yet many brands and companies fail at it. You pick your customers. If they don’t pay their bills on time, remind yourself that you picked them. If they’re looking to squeeze everything out of you for as little as possible, remind yourself again, that you’re the one who picked them. The two issues I mentioned above are quite common among small business owners (corporates too, actually). So, if these problems kill the most precious commodity you have on this planet, your TIME, not to mention the stress these issues cause… …Why on earth aren’t you investing time and resources to really get to know and understand your audience better, so that you can pick your customers more wisely? * Who do you want to work with? * Who is your ideal customer? * What are their problems, frustrations and fears? * What do they secretly desire most? Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. Choose them wisely. Don’t be afraid to say “no” to customers if they are not your best fit. No need to over-complicate your life and business with people who are not aligned with your values. Related: How to Find the Right Prospects and Make Price Irrelevant Back to marketing fundamentals… Target marketing is essential to your business success. Be as specific as you can when defining your ideal customer avatar and don’t shy away from adjusting the profile as your marketing evolves and business grows. 2. Capitalize on Your Strengths. Far too many business owners and companies devote their precious time to correcting their weaknesses. I get it. Since you’ve been in kindergarten and school, people have directed your attention towards your mistakes. Instead of praising you for your talents, they’ve punished you for your mistakes — Hence the drama AKA brain wiring “Be average, fix your weaknesses”.

“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions.” – Dr. John Demartini If you want to improve the quality of your life, ask yourself better questions. If you want to take your marriage and relationships to the next level, ask questions that bring you and your loved ones closer. If you want your business to thrive, ask intelligent questions. Mediocre questions yield mediocre results. Good questions yield good information. Great questions yield remarkable results. We all know how important it is to master the fundamentals, yet we often focus on other things that get us through the day. Knowing your ideal customers is critical. Positioning your business strategically is essential. Getting referrals and building strong joint venture partnerships is key. Related: How To Harness The Power Of Positioning And Branding I can’t tell you how often I’ve consulted with small business owners who couldn’t articulate their advantage in the marketplace. We first had to go out and gather feedback from some of their most loyal and happy customers to nail their competitive advantage. Yes, often times its as easy as that and yet, so many businesses fail to ask their customers for valuable feedback. Before I share with you the five questions that I suggest you start asking your customers, I’d like to point out the following: ===> Customers value being asked for their opinion. They enjoy being asked what they think. Therefore make it a habit (or a ritual) to survey a couple of your customers every single month. The rewards of this approach will be especially apparent as you acquire more of your ideal clients and your business grows. Obviously, you can also use the insights provided to create more relevant products and services for your target audience. Ask Your Customers for Feedback 1. Why did you pick our services? Why did you purchase our products in the first place? WHY-questions are very powerful. Yes, this is a rather “open” question that allows your customers to tell the story behind their buying decision. Listen closely to the words your customers are using when describing your products / services and more importantly, the reasons why they decided to trust you with their business. Don’t let your customers get away with a general answer. Ask additional questions such as “How did you feel when you purchased our products?” Don’t be afraid to dig deeper. Remember, emotions influence what we buy. Seldom will you find buying decisions to be rational, disciplined, and process-based. People buy based on emotions and then justify their decision based on logic. 2. What’s one word you use to describe us (our business, products, or services)? This one is a trick question because it requires a faster response. Most of your customers will throw in several words and phrases. Wait, listen and once they’re done listing the words that come to mind, make them pick one. Just one word. Are people struggling to pick one word to describe what it is that you do? Does the same word come up over and over again? These are tremendous insights for a future positioning strategy and marketing message. 3. Tell us about your favorite service experience you’ve had with us: How have we exceeded your expectations? This question will force your customers to deliver concrete examples thus allowing you to discover specific features and benefits about your business that you can use as a differentiating factor. As you might have noticed, the questions build on each other.