How to PR and sell e-courses and e-books

By Paula Gardner of Do Your Own PR

So you’ve delved deep into your interest and passions and come up with an inspiring and motivating programme that you can sell on a global scale. You know you’ve got a killer product but without getting people to actually come along and take a look at your site how are you going to seduce them into falling in love with it?

The key is in marketing and PR.

But you don’t have to think big agency bucks or huge strategic marketing plans. Just tapping into that same passion that inspired your product in the first place can really work wonders. I call this the MELT factor, as just like something melting, once you start the process it seems to carry on with a life of its own.

M - Market your product / ecourse / ebook

• Optimise your site with the search engines. If you just want to get started you don’t have to pay a fortune to do this (although you will get many emails from search engine optimisation companies suggesting that you do). Just do a search on the subject and there are many web sites that will give you the advice for free. I can recommend a good guide at www.company-wizard.co.uk
• Write a Press release and send it to your local papers and any other publication, website or radio programme that might find your product of interest
• Talk about it on forums and network in e-networking clubs like www.ecademy.com . Write a short article on your subject, or use some of your ecourse, and offer it as free content to websites in return for a link
• Start a newsletter and publicise it on your website, in your signature and on forms and discussion groups. A regular newsletter that is a combination of good practical help and ideas plus a little soft selling can go a long way towards marketing your products.

E - Elevate your product to professional status

It’s not just something you are interested in; it’s your business so invest in it.

• Get a good website. If you shop around you don’t have to pay a small fortune to get something sleek and professional
• Invest in those business cards
• Simple touches like an email signature with website links and a brief description of the site can elevate your business from hobby to professional status.

L - Love it

I see lots of people who have set up their own small businesses only to admit that they haven’t told their friends and colleagues because they are shy, or afraid of being laughed at. This is such a shame.

Think of all the people you know. And all the people they know. What a huge untapped resource. Imagine if you tapped into your passion for your subject, be it fine wine or doll making, and sent an email or catch up letter to everyone you knew telling them conversationally what you are doing now. Imagine how many of them would remember and mention you to their friend who was interested in fine wine or doll making, or who might email you back with “That’s a great idea, you should get in touch with....”

And suddenly more doors are open for you, more people are buying from you, all because you’ve re-tapped into that passion.

T - Time

It’s so easy for someone else to say spend time on it. But the temptation is to set it and then sit back, celebratory glass of wine in hand, and say “Phew! Glad that’s done”. But you do have to spend time marketing and promoting your product. Even 15 minutes or half an hour carved out from each day will soon start to pay dividends. It might sound a little, but over a whole year the impact will be phenomenal.

Schedule it in so that it is a sacred as any meeting or dentist appointment. As the results start coming in, you’ll find yourself wanting to do more!

Setting up a regular newsletter is a great first step to building up a reservoir of potential customers. Check out our newsletter ecourse for the low-down on how to set one up, create a compelling and readable newsletter, promote it effectively and, of course, use it to sell your products without being seen as a spammer. For more info click here.

Do you want some help marketing your product? Contact us now to discuss what areas you need help with and how using the services of a Virtual Assistant could help.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Blogs: 17 Mistakes professionals make with their blogs

I came across this article and thought it would benefit readers to take the time to look at their own blogs to see if they are guilty of any of these mistakes – I know I am and I will be rectifying those soon!

Are you getting results from your business blog? Is it getting harder for you to spend time on your blog because you’re just not seeing how it is going to pay off? If so, you’re not alone. Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going.

Make no mistake, blogs are a great tool for building community, interacting with potential clients and marketing your services. And, it’s not enough to set one up and post occasionally. You have to use it effectively to drive traffic and gain readership.

We’ve discovered several common mistakes professionals make with their blogs. Mostly, they aren’t using some of the features available to them with their blogging software, because it hasn’t been sufficiently explained. Eyes glaze over with the mention of RSS, pinging, trackbacks and permalinks. Professionals may be ignoring these things, hoping they don’t really need to know. But they do if they want results from their business blog.

Here’s a list of what we found on a recent trip around the professional business blogosphere:

Content

1. Not posting frequently enough (recommended 2 – 3 times a week).

2. Content is not focused and the target audience is not clearly defined.

3. Posting articles that are too long, instead of using extended post features.

4. Not linking profusely (because the professional isn’t researching their field on the internet).

5. Poor spelling, bad grammar and typos.

Design

6. No name of author in tag line or on side bar.

7. No author photo.

8. No signature or name in the footer; no way to tell who wrote post on a multi author site.

9. No subscription form; no way to get blog updates through RSS or email.

10. No way for readers to leave comments and use trackbacks.

11. Too many categories or none at all.

12. No information about their business services and products.

13. Calendars for no reason at all (what is the point of those calendars anyway?)

Marketing

14. Blog isn’t submitted to blog directories.

15. Not pinging each time a new post is published.

16. Not using trackbacks referring or linking to other blogs.

17. No blogroll or list of favourite blogs or websites.

If you’re considering using a blog to build your business, optimise it by taking time to learn the features and steps that will ensure success. A blog is like any other marketing tool – you've got to use it correctly to get positive results.

Here are a couple of suggestions

1. Get an ebook and take the time to learn about your blog software or hosting provider.

2. Hire a professional blog expert to coach you on how to rev up your blog.

Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman are two blog experts who have teamed up to form The Blog Squad (http://www.fixmyblog.com). They provide advanced training and coaching for professionals who want to beef up their blog for marketing optimization. Each month a blog is selected as Blog of the Month and undergoes a rigorous makeover. At the end of the month, the blog must pass the Blog Squad Seal of Approval to be certified a success. Patsi and Denise also publish a popular blog at http://www.buildabetterblog.com

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Improving my email marketing

At the beginning of the year I set myself various targets that I wanted to achieve in my business and one of them was to improve my email marketing campaign.

I decided that I wanted to take my newsletter to the next level and start using a paid subscription service to distribute it. I set a timescale of achieving this goal in April so that my May newsletter will go out with the new service.

So far I have signed up with AWeber as they seem the best 'fit' with what I want to achieve and I know a few colleagues who use it and recommend its service. I would be interested to hear other people's comments on AWeber - please post a comment.

Are you utilising this important marketing facility in your business? If not, I suggest you consider it to see how this can improve your sales. Concerned that you don't have time to manage and maintain a newsletter - hire a Virtual Assistant.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Blogging as a useful marketing tool

What is a Blog?
A Blog is an online diary detailing an Authors thoughts and ideas. Used effectively, a Blog can help businesses reach their customers, target market and industry.

Why should I use a Blog?
Blogs are fast becoming a ‘must have’ addition to a businesses’ marketing and PR activities.

Used in conjunction with a website, newsletter and other media, a Blog can become another means to stay in touch with your target market – therefore increasing the chance of them saying ‘yes’!

I don’t have the time, how can I still utilise this tool?
To ensure that your Blog is successful, you need to make posts on a regular basis. If you can’t do this, then delegate to someone within your company or outsource to a Virtual Assistant.

Resources
Below are the top 3 software available for writing Blogs. However, technology changes daily so have a look at what is around!

Blogger – free facility and software which is extremely easy to use
Wordpress – open source but some programming skills would be an advantage
Typepad – small monthly cost involved

To learn more about Blogs and how it can help your business, contact us now.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

How to get your first customer

One of CKPA's target markets is start up businesses and I think the most popular question they have, regardless of industry, is how to get their first customer. I saw this article and thought it might be beneficial.

By Robert Warlow - Small Business Success

Starting a new business is always tough. You have spent hours and hours putting your Business Plan together, sorting out the financing, arranging your office and buying equipment. And the big day arrives - you have to get out there and secure your first customer. It all looked so easy when you were planning, but now this is real and doesn’t seem as effortless as you thought.

What practical steps can you take to ensure your business gets off to a flying start?

Put a plan in place
If you didn’t write a Business Plan (tut tut!) then putting pen to paper is your first step. You have to carefully plan what you want to achieve and what you are trying to do. A Plan will help crystalise your thoughts and ideas and act as a spring board for creative thought.

It will also be a useful boost when you come to review your progress against what you set out to achieve – a cause for celebration or a kick up the backside!

The key element in your Plan is to spell out exactly who your typical customer is going to be. Are they young or old? Well off, or on the look out for bargains? Single or married?

Once you have clearly defined who you are after then chasing your first sale becomes easier.

Email all your contacts
You may not think that personal friends and family may be interested in your product or service, but don’t forget that they have friends and family as well and so can help spread the word!

Email every one in your address book and tell them, if they don’t already know, that you are starting up in business and need their help. In your email describe what you do and the products you offer and request that they forward it to everyone in their address book. A bit ‘spammy’ I know but when such a note comes from someone you know then it doesn’t seem so bad.

For those family and friends who don’t have email, call them, write to them, to officially launch your business. Very quickly word will spread and enquiries and orders will start to flood in.

Ask for a referral
It’s possible you may have ‘road-tested’ your business before you decided to go full time. In that case you will already have a small database of customers. Ask them if they can provide you with some names of people or businesses whom they think may be interested in what you have on offer.

A referral, or positive recommendation, is a powerful and easy way to give your business a kick start. If you want, why not offer a small gift, or a discount on the next sale, for all customers who refer someone to you? This gesture will further cement your relationship.

Tell everyone you meet
Be a walking advertising board for your business! Find any opportunity to tell people, especially strangers, what you do. Be enthusiastic! Have a rehearsed opening which encapsulates everything about the benefits and problems your business offers and solves.

Take your business cards wherever you go and leave them all over the place! Supermarkets, restaurants, shops, anywhere where people will find them.

Be a media star
The local newspaper or radio stations are always on the look out for stories which are of interest to the locality. Don’t expect them to run a story along the lines of ‘And today, Joe Bloggs has just started in business doing …’. Your story needs to be interesting and have an unusual slant. Did you travel the world and come up with your idea whilst riding a train in India? Did you have a flash of inspiration following a shocking experience? Carry out a survey which shows that local people are crying out for a service such as yours. Think of something that will grab the editor’s attention and this will increase your chances of appearing in print.

Build relationships
Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a sale on the first approach. Sometimes you have to be patient. A way of achieving your batch of first sales is to concentrate on building a relationship with your prospective clients. Keep in touch, remind them you are still around and, assuming you have targeted correctly, they may eventually place that coveted order!

If you are about to start your business get planning right now and start to implement some of these ideas to get your new business off to a flying start.

© Robert Warlow - Small Business Success www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz

Small Business Success is a resource dedicated to helping small business owners be more successful. If you are looking for a regular flow of ideas and tips then subscribe to the Small Business Success, a free newsletter, which provides you with quick tips, ideas and articles.

For more information visit http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz

CKPA can help any business start up in the beginning stages of business - contact us now to find out how.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

4 great business card ideas

By Robert Warlow - Small Business Success

How often have you opened your office drawer to find a pen only to have to search your way through a pile of business cards collected over the past few months? Your immediate response is to throw them away and that’s the problem with business cards - they are usually unmemorable.

Here are some ideas on how you can make your business card a bit more useful.

Handy Websites
On the reverse of your card, why not list some web sites which your clients may find of use. They don’t have to be related to your line of business, for example you could print details on a site providing a list of jokes (useful for speech writing!).

Do You Remember?
Going to a networking event is the equivalent to a business card swapping club! Once your card goes into someone’s drawer they are unlikely to remember where you met. So on the back of the card, print “Do you remember we met at ………. and discussed …………” This should be a good memory jogger!

Print Your Picture
Our minds are more efficient at remembering pictures than words. Why not print your picture on your card? When the recipient looks at your card sometime later, he is much more likely to remember who you are and what you do.

What’s The Date?
People are always scratching around to find out what the date is. Print a calendar on the reverse of your card. This gives an excuse for someone to keep your card permanently in his pocket.

Take a fresh look at your business card and see what you can do to make it more memorable.

© Robert Warlow - Small Business Success
www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz

Small Business Success is a resource dedicated to helping small business owners be more successful. If you are looking for a regular flow of ideas and tips then subscribe to the Small Business Success, a free newsletter, which provides you with quick tips, ideas and articles.

For more information visit http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Volunteering as a marketing tool?

Now I am not a marketing expert but I have read plenty of books on the subject and am in the process of producing my marketng and PR strategy as I want to raise my profile significantly over the coming months.

However, money is always an issue for small businesses and I am already spending a large chunk on a fabulous looking professional leaflet (as opposed to one you can tell has been done on computer at home) so budget for other things is pretty tight. But I am also conscious that I need to spend money to make money (very wisely of course).

I am part of a BNI chapter and have been asked to become a part of their leadership team as the Membership Co-ordinator. I didn't hesitate accepting as it would raise my awareness and profile with other chapters in my area and also increase my confidence. I am really looking forward to the role as I can use all my skills as a Virtual Assistant to do the job.

It got me thinking though about other free profile awareness and advertising and I am researching other opportunities to volunteer as it holds a host of benefits to me personally and professionally. These include:

• Giving back to the community
• Providing my expertise and skills to organisations in need
• Increasing my contacts network
• Raising my profile and that of my business
• Learning new skills and gaining more experience

I am also beginning to talk to my network to research opportunities available for board members as this is another good avenue to take. If you know of any vacancies, please email me.

If you haven't considered volunteering before, now might be the time to do it. Speak to your contacts to find some worthy causes. You never know what might come of it for you and your business.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Use your VA to Guarantee a Successful PR Campaign - Part 2

As promised last week, here is the concluding part for this article. To view part 1 of the article, please click here.

By Emily Gordon of Do Your Own PR (www.doyourownpr.com)

Placing Articles
Writing articles is a great way to promote your business and present yourself as an expert in your field at the same time. You can get your VA to place those for you on various free websites that publish articles. There are hundreds of these websites around and you could have your VA research the most prominent ones. We list top ten sites in our Promote Your Business by Writing and Selling articles ecourse. The more often your name, business and website are promoted (because of course you will have these listed at the end of every article), the more likely potential clients are to find out about you and to visit your site - leading to more potential sales.

Follow up Calls
Once all the press releases have been sent out you can get your VA to follow them all up with a telephone call about a week to ten days later. It is quite useful at this stage to have a personal contact (i.e. your VA) and she can ascertain the general level of interest in your product, business or service as well as make a note of when to re-call as and when necessary. Editors will often be interested in your business but not feel that they have the time at the moment to discuss things further. They can let your VA know the best time to call them back and she can keep an up to date record of who to chase and when, building up a rapport with various people and publications on your behalf. When they are finally ready to talk, she can set up the time for both of you.

Keeping You Informed
It is at this stage that your VA will really come into her own. You will have been carrying on running your business as usual and in the meantime your VA will have contacted everyone on the list that the two of you made at the beginning of the campaign. She can send you the outline database or chart and you can then get a good idea of how things are progressing.

It can take months for some publications to come around to even looking at your press release and having someone on top of who has read what and who hasn’t is invaluable.

Your VA can keep you up to date with who wants to know what, whether you need to write another article or call them yourself. Your VA can keep on top of all of these contacts by regularly ringing around and acting on the most recent advice such as ‘yes, I’m interested but won’t be able to do anything with it for at least two months’. In two months’ time you could have a regular feature in one of your most sought after publications.

Your VA can also keep abreast of developments in terms of how you are achieving your initial goals and targets. If you said that you would have contacted 100 publications by the end of the first month then she will be able to remind you of this goal and to ensure that it is completed.

If you said that you will have written another press release and 2 new articles then your VA can also act as your ‘conscience’ and ask you whether you have completed these tasks yet. Your VA can really help you to get on with what you said you were going to do in the first place.

Fielding Calls and Dealing with Responses
Let’s suppose that your PR campaign is wildly successful (and why wouldn’t it be?) and you are inundated with replies, questions and responses. You can’t handle the work load let alone the requests for interviews and appointments. Having your VA on board here can be hugely helpful in terms of fielding those inquiries that are really important and need tackling at once and those that can wait. Your VA can even be trained to help out with basic queries, and one of the benefits of building a long term relationship with your VA is that she will have an in depth and up to date knowledge of your business as well as an interest in seeing it succeed.

Sending out information
You can often find in business, especially where you are a sole trader or a small company that you are spending an awful lot of time in merely sending out information. Whether it be responding to initial enquiries, sending out promotional material or distributing your newsletter. Providing prompt responses and mail outs are vital to the success of any business but is one of the most time consuming tasks.

Running a PR campaign can involve loads of additional mail outs and having your VA on board to undertake this task can be absolutely essential. If as a result of a successful Press Release or article you are inundated with responses, it can prove invaluable to have your VA set up with an email address with your company name so that all enquiries are directed to her in the first instance. This will ensure that these are dealt with straight away and your VA can provide an initial personal response and enable her to sift out the more genuine enquiries while you spend your time dealing with those that are most promising in terms of leading to a new client relationship.

How to Get the Best Out of the Relationship with Your VA
Having a VA can be one of the most worthwhile investments that you make for your business. But it is surprising how many people actually under use their VA. If you think of your VA as a developmental tool for your business, a marketer, who can win more clients then you have made the first step towards a rewarding and beneficial relationship. Your VA could easily pay for herself many times over.

Copyright © Do Your Own PR 2004. All rights reserved.

I hope you find this article of interest and if you want to see how a VA can help your business, have a look at our website (http://www.ckpa.co.uk/).

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Use your VA to Guarantee a Successful PR Campaign - Part 1

By Emily Gordon of Do Your Own PR (www.doyourownpr.com)

Embarking on a PR campaign can be time consuming and nerve racking. So, delegating some or all of the tasks that you don’t like, don’t want to do or that you just haven’t got time to do really does make sense. Here we will show you how you can work closely with your Virtual Assistant to maximize your PR campaign’s success and create a long term partner to take some of the load off your shoulders and allow you to also get on with the business you started in the first place!

We’ll take you through ten ways to hand over PR activities to your VA, and ensure that both of you feel comfortable and excited about the whole thing!

How to hire the right VA in the first place?

Instant Rapport
This needs to be there. During the telephone interview do you get along? Does she give you the impression that she understands what your business is about and what she can do to help it grow? Does she make you feel at ease, and do you understand her and where she is coming from? Is she comfortable with taking on PR activities? If not try another VA.

Before You Begin
In general working over the telephone and internet you are relying on a ‘gut instinct’ but if you really feel that you want to meet your VA first, no matter how far away they live, most VAs will be totally agreeable to having at least one initial meeting face-to-face to get things up and running.

Try Her Out
Suggest a trial period before signing a contract and make sure that there is a get out clause which you can use if things don’t work out. Make sure you understand and agree with the terms and conditions in the VA’s promotional literature and check that the contract ensures confidentiality.

Day to Day
Give it a while; start off with a few small tasks and see how your VA handles them. Does she respond swiftly or do you have to remind her (you can’t take this chance if she may be contacted by journalists – they need immediate action)?

Respect Her
Make your VA a partner in your business and share your successes and failures. Use her skills and talents and treat her as a sounding board for ideas too. It will make a noticeable difference to your business; helping you develop your sales, gain more clients and generally raise your profile.

How To Get Started
Once you have decided to use your VA as one of the key tools in your PR campaign the two of you will need to start off with a thorough briefing / brainstorming session.

Goals
Let your VA know the required goals and outcomes of your campaign. One way to make sure is to undertake a brainstorming session, either in person or over the telephone. Together you could come up with potential contacts and ideas that you hadn’t yet considered.

Setting up a Media Database
Your VA can do the research for this by acquiring a list of publications and finding the contact details for your target hit list of editors and journalists. Once you have agreed on the type and scale of the campaign you can have your VA set up a media database. If you use a database such as ACT already then you could ask your VA to simply transfer these details here. However, you could easily make one up from scratch and it could even include all of your goals, aims, objectives and timescales so that your VA can keep you up to date and informed of how the campaign is progressing.

Editing and Proofreading
Use your VA as an additional pair of eyes to proofread and edit press related copy such as press releases and tip sheets, as well as ebooks, ecourses and your own web site copy. How many times have you read websites or articles only to find spelling mistakes and punctuation errors? Sometimes when you write an article you can become so bogged down with the detail and the message that you want to convey that you simply overlook the final touches. Allowing your VA to go over it with a fine toothcomb will ensure that any errors are corrected and that your business is able to continue to portray a professional image.

Cuttings
Rather than plod through all the publications, trade and professional magazines that you may or may not have been featured in after your campaign has started (journalists rarely let you know when something is coming out, you have to find that out for yourself), a VA can keep on top of all this and inform you when you are featured in the press. But a VA can also clip any press articles that may be relevant to your business, even interview with competitors, or ideas for future markets, so that you are provide with a steady stream of useful information.

Sending out Press Releases
Physically sending out press releases is time consuming and can be stressful. What better way to avoid the tension than to get your VA to handle it for you? Your VA is one step removed from your business and so can provide a professional and much less emotional outlook. It also gives your business a much more professional look and feel.

Copyright © Do Your Own PR 2004. All rights reserved.

Part 2 coming next week.

I hope you find this article of interest and if you want to see how a VA can help your business, have a look at our website (www.ckpa.co.uk).

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions