How long did it take you to answer this question? In other words, do you already have a clear, definite idea of your key business objectives?

Many entrepreneurs don’t. Or, I should say – they don’t beyond “I need to make a living” or “I need to pay my bills.”

NOT a good business objective.  One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from Sonia Simone, Sr. Editor at Copyblogger.com. It goes:

If your business model is “I want to make money on the Internet,” you’re not going to get very far. The Internet is profoundly indifferent to your desire to make money with it.

I think we can safely take this a bit further. Not only is the Internet profoundly indifferent to your desire to make money with it – your intended customers – those all-important first-time visitors to your site – are actually resistant to it. More often than not, the money you are hoping to make will need to come out of their wallets – and believe me, they know this.

This explains why web surfers are such a skeptical bunch. It seems everywhere you turn, someone is trying to get some of your hard-earned money.

Of course, some online offers are legitimate and worthwhile. Others? Not so much.

Therefore, it’s very difficult to build a solid, sustainable business if your primary business objectives are focused solely on your wants and needs. First, you need to demonstrate that you can solve real problems and build a little trust and credibility with your audience. It takes more time to do this online than off – it is just the nature of the online beast – but it is possible to achieve by being consistent, honest and committed to providing value to your readers.

One great way you can speed up this process is to build/solidify your professional reputation as a go-to expert in your field. Your length of time in business and any professional awards, credentials or degrees you have obtained are definitely worth noting. In addition, writing insightful and beneficial articles and guest blog posts are great ways to accomplish this with content.

So, once again we are back to providing value to your readers and committing to the “give” side of the relationship. If you already have clear business objectives that keeps your customer in mind, kudos!

If not, this is a really important first step to not only identifying your ideal customer – but also will help clarify how to find more of those type of clients – and how to keep them happy and coming back for years to come.

Til Next Time,

PS Next week, I’ll continue this discussion by taking a look at specific ways to identify your ideal customer based on your overall business objectives, how to create customer profiles, and how to use content to drive this entire process. Be sure to sign up for our RSS feed (icon at the top of the page) to get the rest of the series!

Today, I want to share a post with you re: the recent FTC decision to impose regulations on Social Media Marketing.  What I like most about this post is the plain English interpretation. My brain tends to hear anything that is too technical (or any “legaleze” for that matter! ) as blah, blah, blah – so I appreciate it when someone breaks things down and gets to the bottom line.

The take away from the recent FTC ruling is this – if you are open, honest and transparent in your dealings as an online marketer, you will be okay. Post disclaimers and acknowledge your relationship with any merchant or vendors you promote or review.

I personally think this is a good thing – or at least a neutral thing – to anyone following the methods discussed here at WebCopyResults.com. Being open, honest and transparent is essential to building long-term relationships with your customers. Trust is at the heart of every good relationship – and full disclosure builds trust.

For the full analysis, click here.

Til Next Time,

PS Nothing business related here today. It’s autumn where I live – the leaves are in their full glory and we are promised a bright sunshiny day. If you live in an area where you get to enjoy this fleeting glimpse of the best nature has to offer – by all means,  get outside and enjoy it! The best part of this whole content creation and marketing thing is that it is a marathon, not a sprint.  Just a quick reminder that it is okay to take time to enjoy the moments of your life.  Have a great day!

Apparently the fine folks over at aWeber got the memo that I have declared a moratorium on information products for the month of October. I am assuming this is true because they were kind enough to deliver some awesome information right to my email inbox – FREE and without any prompting on my part.

Actually, the email containing this great information began with a simple “thank you for your business” and contained links to two high-quality presentations on autoresponders (video) and how to build a quality opt-in email list (MP3).

I highly doubt my blog is even a blip on the radar over at aWeber – and I am positive they have no idea that autoresponders have been on my radar for a while – both as a topic to cover and as a tool I need to better leverage in my own business. However, as a paying customer of their service, it makes sense that this type of information might be useful to me.

And it was.

And I was grateful to receive it.

(And yes – I added a reminder to make sure I actually use this information to my “MONETIZE THIS!” folder… )

See how this ties in with my series about applying consultative selling skills to the content you post and distribute? The powers that be at aWeber don’t know me and have never met with me face-to-face – but so far, they are doing a great job already of establishing what I imagine will be a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

In addition, they have ensured that I will open the next communication I receive from them.

Which is EXACTLY what we all want to accomplish with our own content, isn’t it?

Til Next Time,

PS Are you are still on the fence about which email marketing program to use for your business? If so, be sure to check out aWeber. It took me a while to get the hang of their email templates (fault rests squarely on this user, I am sure!) – but once I did, I found their system very easy to use and have been pleasantly surprised by the level of customer service they provide.

Plus, they send you cool AND useful information!

This week, we’ve been talking about how to incorporate consultative selling principles into your web copy. The goal, of course, is to strengthen and solidify relationships with your prospects and customers.

To recap – the first step in the consultative selling process is to first understand your audience – their likes, dislikes, goals, concerns, etc…  What makes them tick, more or less. The fact they are attracted to your site (content) in the first place is the most obvious place to start. If you blog about how to maintain your weight by eating healthy, your visitors have at least a passing interest in that topic. (Or they just want to beat themselves up for what they are currently doing wrong… ).

What might not be as obvious, however, are all the tangential connections related to your primary topic.  Individuals interested in healthy lifestyles may also be interested in exercise equipment, nutritional supplements or even active vacation options. If you aren’t sure what appeals to your readers – ask. Include questions in your post script message asking for what they’d like to see covered.  Conduct surveys (offer a free report or other incentive to encourage participation). Get involved in (or follow) conversations on forums and blogs outside, but connected to, your primary topic. You don’t want to get off topic – but do want to be able offer information and products that will appeal to and benefit your readers.

This doesn’t need to be some big formal undertaking or yet another thing to add to your “to-do-but-never-will” list. Instead, view it as an ongoing learning process. Train your brain to look for interesting and useful things related to your niche or industry that make life better, easier, more profitable or more fun for your readers. Remember, your goal is to provide value – and the content you provide is the primary means of accomplishing this online. The process of building an online business and a devoted following is a long-term project – so you will need fresh content ideas for a long time to come. Developing a better understanding of your audience is a great place to start this process and get your brain thinking in this direction.

Ok, great. This all sounds wonderful in theory – but how do you possibly pull that off when you also, um… have a business (and a life) to run?!

Simple. You adopt a “Set It and Forget It” mentality. You want to automate and streamline these tasks as much as possible so that you aren’t reinventing the wheel for each new visitor to your site.

Here are 3 Ways you can accomplish this:

• Set Google Alerts to have information on the topics of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. This is a great way to pick up relevant and timely topics without having to spend time looking for it. I keep all my alerts in one folder so I can find them quickly when I need information. (I also organize my bookmarks by topic and use an email folder titled “article ideas” to capture ideas from incoming email messages). Anything to prevent me from having to spend time “looking” for relevant information.
• Rebrandable reports are also a great thing to offer to your readers. If you don’t have the time (or inclination) to create your own value-added reports – or you want to supplement your offerings with broader topic selections, rebrandable reports are a great way to accomplish this.  Here is an excellent article by Lynn Terry on the topic of rebrandable reports from the perspective of how to create your own.  (An outstanding idea, by the way!) There is also a lot of value in using reports created by other authors as a means of offering great content on topics you don’t normally cover yourself.
• Autoresponders are the epitome of “set it and forget it” technology. Create a set of messages one time, schedule their delivery frequency, and have them sent to every new email subscriber from the moment they sign up for your email updates.

This list is just a starting point to get you thinking of how to streamline and automate your online content development and delivery. In future posts, I will cover both rebrandable reports and auto responders in a lot more detail.

Til Next Time,

PS Be sure to sign up for WebCopyResults.com Tuesday Tips for even more ideas and tips on how to grow your business online with content!

This week, we’ve been talking about consultative selling and how it relates to your web content.

To clarify, when I talk about “consultative selling” in this context, I am not referring strictly to a monetary exchange for products or services. In this case, I am also referring to the broader concept of “selling” your thoughts and ideas as you build your audience online. It is about establishing relationships with your readers and building value into what you have to offer with content.

When I was a sales manager, I encouraged my sales team to stay in touch with their prospects and clients on a regular basis. I told them that if they were going to cold-call on a business one time and never follow up – they might as well spend the day going fishing. (Come to think of it, I think some of them may have taken me up on that suggestion… ). In our industry, the likelihood of a single interaction translating into a closed sale was very small. It was important, however, to keep filling the funnel and positioning ourselves as the go-to resource when a business needed our type of product. It was a very timing-specific sale, so being “in the right place at the right time” was important.

Staying in touch with our prospects helped us accomplish that.

It is common knowledge in the world of sales and marketing that prospects rarely buy based on a single experience or impression. Instead, it reportedly takes anywhere from 7 to 10 impressions before most marketing messages have an effect. I would venture to guess that number is even higher online. Why? The Internet is saturated with hype and “noise” – and people are naturally more skeptical of offers and claims made by businesses they don’t know and may never hear from again.

This offers an amazing opportunity for you. You can differentiate yourself from all the anonymous fly-by-night web businesses out there by being consistent – and by keeping your readers best interests first.

Ways you can do this include:

• Consistently offer value with original informative content.
• Pass along valuable free or low-cost resources that can make your clients more successful.
• Create an in-depth product review if you purchased a product that worked great for you. (But, keep it real by pointing out its faults, too).
• Send links to live case studies related to their niche or industry.

Look for ways to share tidbits of useful information with your readers.  Each offers an opportunity to stay in front of your audience and further build your credibility as an expert in your field. Its a true win-win situation.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about a couple of ways you can streamline and (almost) automate this process.

Til Next Time,

PS If you have any further questions re: the consultative selling process and how to incorporate it into your web copy – feel free to contact me via the contact page.  Also, please feel free to leave a comment or suggestion below with your thoughts on this topic!