Internet Marketing For Solopreneurs

I received this question from a coach recently:

“I am a career coach and have been coaching one-on-one for the past few years. I decided to start creating group programs and a few months ago I offered a Coaching Group option to my newsletter subscribers. Basically, I envisioned it as a group of 5-10 people who would get together on the call twice a month and ask me questions about their careers. I promoted this a lot - through a networking group, my newsletter, web site, seminar sites - but could not get a single participant. What am I doing wrong? How can I get people to sign up for my coaching group?”

Biana’s Answer: What strikes me from your description is that you are just offering a Career Coaching Group. That is not enough for me to make a decision if I need your group and if it would work for me.

Is the group for people in their 20’s, just starting their first jobs? Is it for people in middle management trying to move up? Or is it for people trying to switch jobs? Or maybe it’s for people who are unemployed and need help landing a job asap?

As you can see, there isn’t much information about who exactly you are doing this group coaching for, so your potential customers are not sure if it’s for them. And if they are not sure, they will not sign up.

So how can you create a better group coaching offer? Don’t just call it a coaching group, name it something meaningful, name it something that will communicate value and give people an idea about who it’s for, so that they can self-select either in or out.

For example, my How To Make Thousands Of Dollars With Teleseminars program tells you right there, in the name the value and who it is for. It teaches people how to create extremely profitable teleseminars. So, if you are in the market to learn how to create effective teleseminars, you will know from the name that this program is for you.

So do not call it a coaching group. Instead, create a very specific program for your target market that helps your target market solve one of the problems that they are experiencing. To get the most people register for your group you will need to offer them something they really want. For example, if your target market are college students looking for their first job, how about a program on landing a great job right out of college.

The next things you want to do is to create a compelling sales letter for your program. And then you need to create a good marketing plan to market the program.

You need to give your target market enough information about your program, so that they can say: “This sounds like a program that will help me solve the problem that I am experiencing. I really need the solution and this program offers it to me!”

Once you get your target market to think this way, you will get many members for your group!

For step-by-step directions for creating effective and extremely profitable group programs that your target market needs, grab my How To Make Thousands Of Dollars With Teleseminars at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zteleseminars

Biana Babinsky

I was asked on one of the calls I did recently about what steps I would recommend to take for a coach who wants to take their coaching from a part-time hobby to a full time profitable coaching business.

It takes time to re-adjust and what you need to re-adjust the most is your way of thinking about what you do. When you have a hobby, your priority may not be making money. When you run a business, your priority is to have a profitable business that brings in income.

You also need to re-adjust the way you think about marketing. Marketing is the cornerstone of your business and helps you bring in clients. If you are not marketing your business you will not be able to have a successful business, it’s that simple.

Here are some marketing tips to help you take your coaching from a hobby to a successful coaching business:

- The very first thing to do is to decide on a good target market for your business. Before you can bring in clients consistently, you need to decide on WHO these clients are. After all, if you do not know who your clients are, how are you going to bring them to your business?

Make a decision about who your target market is. Knowing your target market will help you make other decisions and will help you simplify your marketing. And we all want to simplify our marketing :)

- Decide on marketing techniques you’d like to use to market your coaching business. It is great if you want to use blogging, and social networking, and article marketing, and public speaking, and e-mail marketing to promote your business. However, don’t start using them all at once!

The best way to market your business is to pick one technique, master it, start using it on a regular basis and then move on to the next one.

And remember, you don’t have to use every marketing technique you have heard about. For example, I have clients who enjoy public speaking, who speak often and for whom public speaking is one of the most effective techniques for getting clients.

On the other hand, I have a client who says that she would never ever do public speaking, it’s just not for her. Her favorite marketing technique is blogging, she is good at it and she uses her blog to generate interest in her business.

Pick the techniques that you enjoy applying and you will be more successful with them.

- Have a marketing plan! Create a plan for bringing in more clients, marketing your business, etc. You are much more likely to take action if you create a plan and put it on paper.

Members of my online business mentoring program have access to thousands of dollars worth of resources on creating a marketing plan, picking a profitable target market and using online marketing techniques to promote their business. Get immediate access to all these resources by joining us at http://www.MarketingSalad.com

Biana Babinsky

After reading my my blog posts on list building, many coaches have asked me what comes next. Once you get some people on your list, how do you leverage your list to get clients, make money and improve your business?

Just like with using any other marketing technique, in order to get the best results from your newsletter, you need to create a plan to get clients, make money and get results with your newsletter list.

Here are some things to think about and include into your plan:

- You Need To Bring In More Subscribers Every Single Day. Your target customers subscribe to your list and they also unsubscribe. Your goal for your newsletter list is to have as many people as possible see your message and learn about your business. Therefore the more people you can attract to your list, the better.

- Publish Your Newsletter On A Regular Basis. Your subscribers will not do business with you and will not buy from you unless they hear from you. The only way they will know about your expertise and about what you have to offer is by reading your newsletter issues.

Research shows that people need to hear from you on average 7 times (sometimes many more!) to buy something from you.

If you want results from your newsletter, such as more clients and more money, you need to publish! Publish your newsletter on a regular basis with useful information that your subscribers want to know about AND promo’s of your own products and services. A win-win for everyone.

- Create Products In Different Price Ranges. While lots of people are interested in coaching, the vast majority of them will never become your one-on-one coaching clients.

Some can’t afford one-on-one services, others may be able to afford them, but are not at the stage where they can justify the money they are going to spend.

But many more people would be willing to pay for group coaching, ebook, audio and other products because they cost much less than one-on-one service packages.

Create your own products and offer them to your list - that way you are using your list to build passive income streams for your business.

In my Grow Your List Home Study Course I discuss how to use your list to get clients, make money and create passive income streams. Check it out at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

How do you use your list to get clients?

Biana Babinsky

I am sure that by now you have heard about social media and social media sites. Lots of people are networking on them, talking about them and using them to promote their businesses.

Because there is so much information about social media and social networking everywhere, I have been getting lots of questions about social networking from my clients, members of my mentoring program and web site visitors.

Everyone wants to know how to get results from social media web sites. And by saying results the majority of business owners mean “more clients”.

So how can you, a coach, consultant or other business professional, use social networking to get more clients for your business?

What you want to use to use social networking for is to meet and connect with your target market. Just like with any other marketing technique, you want to get your target market to know you, so that they can do business with you.

My recommendations for using social networking effectively are:

- As always, look for where your target market is and go ahead and meet it! There are tons of groups on many different networking sites, and you can start by participating in a few different groups that your target market frequents. Don’t join every single group that you see - there are thousands, if not millions of those, and you will never be able to use all of them.

Instead, find groups where your target market hangs out and networks. Increase your visibility by participating in the groups.

Everyone knows the leader, right? The best visibility comes when you are the leader of the group, so start your own group where your target can hang out and you can demonstrate your expertise!

- What’s the next step for your target market? What step should people in your target market take in order to get into your sphere of influence? They subscribe to your newsletter!

Make sure that you offer people plenty of opportunities to get on your list.

- Explore social networking sites and use the available resources. Different social networking web sites have different resources for you to use, and some are not so obvious. Some offer resources to post your upcoming events, post your articles and blog posts, etc. Use the available resources to get more visibility and exposure for your business.

I discussed many more ideas for using social networking to promote your business during the How To Create Social Networking Plan That Gets You Clients Teleseminar last month. You can get the audio recording of the How To Create Social Networking Plan That Gets You Clients Teleseminar at http://www.marketingsalad.com/social-networking.html

Biana Babinsky

Over the years I have helped hundreds of coaches get clients and sales from their newsletters. Since I have worked with hundreds of coaches on improving their newsletters, we have had quite a few conversations on how often to send out a newsletter.

Before working with me, many of my clients have sent out their newsletters once every two or three months. Sending out your newsletter once every two or three months will not bring any results - this is way too rare for building relationships and getting your subscribers interested in what you have to offer.

If you are struggling with how often you should send out your newsletter, here are frequently asked questions about the frequency of sending out your newsletter:

Q: I don’t want to bother my subscribers too often, and sending out my newsletter more often than every two months feels like I am bothering my subscribers and wasting their time. What should I do?

Biana’s Answer: First of all, you are not bothering your subscribers by sending them your newsletter. They requested it by subscribing to it and they want to hear useful and interesting things from you.

You are the expert, and they want to read information and tips that come from you, the expert.

Q: I only send something out when I have news in my business, such as a new service. Why would I send out my newsletter if I have nothing new in my business?

Biana’s Answer: Your newsletter is not just about your business. While you should use it to promote your business, you should also use it to build relationships with your subscribers and sharing useful information with them.

You need to send out your newsletter more often in order to build relationships and connect with your readers. Also, if you do have a new service to promote, promoting it just once will not do much. Your potential customers need to see your information at least 7 times before making a purchase. Therefore, you should promote your new service in a few of your newsletter issues in order to get more clients.

Q: Every time I send out my newsletter, a few people unsubscribe. So if I send out my newsletter every few months, I will get fewer unsubscribes, right?

Biana’s Answer: Think back to the purpose of your newsletter. Its purpose is NOT to get fewer unsubscribes. Its purpose it to introduce you to many people in your target market, promote your expertise and sell your products and services.

As I mentioned in the answer to the previous question, your potential customers need to see your message on average 7 times before deciding to buy from you. They also need to remember that they heard your message earlier. If they only see your message every two months they will not remember it at all. So if you only send out your newsletter every few months, very few people are going to believe you and buy from you.

Learn the exact information that I use to help my clients get clients and sales from their newsletters with the Grow Your List Home Study Course at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

You may have noticed this phenomenon as well. Many years ago it happed to a client of mine. My client joined an online networking group to promote his expertise and get clients. This was a group frequented by his target market, so it was an ideal spot for him to network and promote his expertise and his business.

He jumped right in and was fairly active in this group from the very beginning. He posted messages every other day, answered questions and networked with many members. He really enjoyed talking about his subject matter and it showed through his messages as well. He became seen as an expert almost immediately and he became to reap rewards.

As a result of his actions, he started getting traffic from the group. Every week he would check his web site statistics and tell me that he was getting a nice amount of traffic. The traffic brought him sales as well - he did two consulting projects with people who met him through this group. He sold his e-books and got quite a few people from the group to attend his seminars.

But as more new clients and commitments came his way, he did not have time to participate as much. Some of the things he was doing had to be cut from his schedule, so he decided to cut back on his social networking. He started to participate less and less in the group.

After some time he reported that he was getting much less web site traffic from the group, now that he participated less. Once he stopped participating in the group, he stopped getting any traffic from it.

Things like that happen to business owners all the time. We get busier and stop participating in social networking groups, and stop getting the traffic from them as a result.

But there is a better way! You can continue to receive benefits from a social networking group, such as leads and sales, long after you stopped participating in those groups. To do that, you need to actively promote your newsletter while you are still a member of the group. That way, some of the members of the group will get on your list and you will be able to keep in touch with them long after you leave that group.

I still get sales from people who met me in groups that I haven’t been to in years. And one of my new one-on-one mentoring clients this year is someone I met in a group that was closed down four years ago. This person was on my list for many years, she has been to my teleseminars and now she is working with me one-on-one.

So if you want to keep in touch with people you meet through social networking for a long time, make sure you promote your newsletter! Promote it in your profile, link to it from your signature, post a link to it from your “About” page, etc. The more visible you make your newsletter, the more people will get on your list, and the more people you will be able to keep in touch with even if you stop using some social networking groups.

For more help with getting clients from social networking, join me for the How To Create Social Networking Plan That Gets You Clients Teleseminar at http://www.marketingsalad.com/social-networking.html

Biana Babinsky

About Biana: Biana Babinsky is the online business expert and author who teaches coaches, consultants and other business owners how to use social networking to get clients. Join her for the How To Create Social Networking Plan That Gets You Clients Teleseminar to discover how to use social networking to get newsletter subscribers and clients for your business. You can learn more and register at http://www.marketingsalad.com/social-networking.html

One of the first things that I teach my clients is how to to start and use a newsletter that will get them clients - every time.

A newsletter is a great way to connect with your potential customers, build relationships with them and get more clients and more sales. My newsletter has been a source of clients and product sales for many years for me. This is why starting and publishing an effective newsletter is one of the first steps I teach to my clients who want to run a profitable and sustainable coaching business.

If you don’t publish a newsletter yet, you should start doing it now! Here is how to get started publishing a newsletter:

- Pick a newsletter publishing service to use to send out your newsletter - there are many to choose from. Aweber, 1 Shopping Cart and many more. Compare the pricing and features that each service offers, and see which ones you will need for your business.

- Make a commitment to sending your newsletter out on a regular basis. The only way to build a relationship with your subscribers and convince them to buy from you is by being in touch on a regular basis. You have to make a commitment to send out your newsletter on a regular basis, otherwise you are just wasting your time.

- Offer a free gift to everyone who subscribes. A gift can be an e-book, audio recording, special report, etc. You want to bring in as many subscribers as possible, and an attractive gift that your potential subscribers want will convince more of them to subscribe to your newsletter. More subscribers = more potential customers to keep in touch with and build relationships with!

- Write an effective newsletter that provides your subscribers with value and at the same time promotes your products and services. When people read your newsletter, they want to read valuable information that is going to help them. Use your newsletter to promote your expertise and share information with your subscribers at the same time.

Your newsletter should provide a nice balance of tips for your subscribers and at the same time let them know about your offerings.

In my Grow Your List Home Study Course I share the exact steps for starting and publishing a newsletter that will help you get more clients and product sales. You can grab it at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

Biana Babinsky is the online business coach, expert and author who teaches coaches, consultants and other business owners how to grow their lists and use their lists to get clients. Get her Grow Your List Home Study Course to discover how to grow your list faster and use your list to get product buyers, teleseminar participants and one-on-one clients. Learn more about the Home Study Course at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

A few years ago a client of mine asked me when he will be able to stop marketing. “Well”, he said, “I am marketing to get more clients. Once I have enough clients I can stop marketing, right?”

I said: “Imagine that two of your clients decide to stop working with you. You will immediately need two new clients, but you will not be able to get them immediately because you are not marketing.”

After talking about this for a bit, we came to a conclusion that he will never be able to stop marketing.

Has anyone ever stopped marketing? Only if they closed their business.

Think about commercials you see on TV every day. The commercials that we see on TV are commercials for huge companies whose names everyone knows - Pepsi, Ford, etc. Everyone knows what their name is and what they do. But that does not stop them from using commercials to promote their brand and promote their new products.

So when should you stop marketing? The answer is never.

If you do not have enough clients in your business, you need to continue marketing. But even if you have enough clients (and have more clients on your waiting list), you should still continue to market your business. Here is why:

- It takes time to convert a lead into a client. Imagine you need new clients all of a sudden, but you have no one in your pipeline. If you haven’t marketed in a long time, you will not have any leads or prospects to convert into clients, and, therefore, you will have to get started by marketing for leads and prospects.

If you always market your pipeline is always full and you always have plenty of prospects to turn into clients.

- You reach new potential clients every time you market. That’s true! Every time I market, whether I am doing search engine optimization, speak in front of a group or teach a class, I get in front of people who didn’t know about me before, but are now exposed to my expertise.

Every time you market you reach new potential clients who have the potential to turn into real clients - how cool is that?

- You get more product sales. Even if you do not need one-on-one clients, marketing is going to help you get more product sales and use your multiple streams of income to increase your bottom line.

Need help with marketing? Join my online business mentoring program, http://www.MarketingSalad.com to learn directly from me how to create a successful online business. Click here to join for just $1 for your first month.

Biana Babinsky

Biana Babinsky is the online business coach who teaches her clients how to get more web site traffic and clients online. Join her online business mentoring program to discover how to use the Internet to get over 98% of your clients! Join now at http://www.MarketingSalad.com

Is your business in balance? Or are you working on 25 projects and 15 marketing initiatives at once, all while thinking: “I should really be using this brand new social networking site that I just heard about!” ?

If that sounds like you, it is time to re-think how you do business and see if you can prioritize your actions, while still accomplishing everything.

Here are some of the things I do in order to achieve more balance in my business:

- Automate everything that I can. Lots of things can be automated online - scheduling of blog posts, automatic product fulfillment, ezine software, etc.

Take action: Take advantage of technology to automatically get people subscribing to your list, downloading your products, registering for your classes, etc.

- Outsource tasks that I don’t enjoy doing and can’t automate.

Take action: Take a look at everything you are doing and see which ones can be outsourced.

- Long term scheduling. I always know what’s coming up for my business for the next 6+ months. That way I can plan the tasks I need to do, marketing I need to do, etc.

When you know what’s coming up long term, you can schedule backwards. For example, if one of your goals is to have an ebook written by the end of October, 2008, you know that there are tasks that need to get done every month/week/day in order for this to happen.

Take action: Create your marketing plan!

- Multiple streams of income. Creating products, such as seminars, ebooks and my mentoring program has really improved my work/life balance.

I can have as many or as few one-on-one clients as I want. (I usually have 3-7 clients at any given time), and I don’t put my marketing efforts into getting one-on-one clients.

Instead, my marketing is concentrated on getting leads for my business.

Take action: Create multiple streams of income for your business!

Biana Babinsky

About Biana Babinsky: Biana teaches coaches, consultants, virtual assistants and other business owners how to get more clients, create multiple streams of income and run a successful online business. Join her mentoring program at http://www.MarketingSalad.com to discover how to create a successful online business.

Many of my clients have asked me if they should use article marketing to promote their business online. Here are just a few reasons to use article marketing to promote yourself:

- Article Marketing Helps You Build Your List. I am sure you know that building your list and conversing with your potential clients is extremely important. I have tried dozens of list building techniques, but I keep using article marketing, because it is effective and it helped me add tons of people to my list.

- Article Marketing Helps You Promote Your Expertise. One thing that many successful experts do is writing. They write articles, books, ebooks and other products. When your potential customers read your articles, they are automatically seeing you as an expert.

- Article Marketing Helps You Tap Into Brand New Markets. When your articles are reprinted on other blogs and web sites, people who have never heard of you before will read them and get exposed to your knowledge and your expertise.

Every time your article is reprinted, you are able to tap into a brand new circle of potential clients that you would have never reached otherwise.

- Article Marketing Helps You Start A Conversation With Your Potential Customers. People buy from people they know, like and trust. How do they find out that they know, like and trust you? By having a conversation with you! Your article is the first step in that conversation. Here is how it might go:

Step 1: Your Potential Customer Reads Your Article
Step 2: Your Potential Customer Follows The Link From The Article To Your Web Site
Step 3: Your Potential Customer Subscribes To Your Newsletter
Step 4: Your Potential Customer Reads Your Newsletter, Gets To Know You Over Time
Step 5: After Learning About You, Your Potential Customer Buys A Product, Registers For Your Class, Or Becomes A Service Client

More and more online business owners are realizing how powerful article marketing can be. Every time I read articles in article directories, I see more articles from coaches, consultants, virtual assistants and other professionals posted there.

This is why I only have 12 seats left for the Article Marketing Teleseminar Series that starts next week. Click Here To Learn More About Article Marketing Teleseminar Series before all the spots are gone.

Biana Babinsky