A client called me recently for help with her website’s homepage. She had been working for several days on what to say on her homepage and was still felt tentative and unhappy with the results.

I took a look at what she had written so far and told her, “It’s not bad but your voice is totally absent from what you wrote. It could be just about anybody’s web page.”

“That’s it!,” my client cried, “It doesn’t feel like I wrote it! But how do I make sure my voice comes out in my copy and make sure that my home page gets people to take the next step?”

This is a very common problem for small business owners who are doing their own marketing: they assume because they’re not marketing “experts” their own way of saying something isn’t going to work.

So they take classes, read books, and ask others for help—and end up with bland, lame marketing that still doesn’t get them them the results they’re wanting.

How the Best of Intentions Will Ruin Your Marketing

This woman is the last person you’d expect boring copy from. She’s witty, a great story teller, and has a refreshing “tell it like it is” candor that makes her very effective communicator. (She’s a coach who works with women over fifty who are, in her words, “tired of putting their lives on hold.”)

So what the heck happened?

Three things actually:

1. She tried to sound like a “professional coach”

Every profession has at least one “professional voice.” It’s the voice that comes through in the articles found in specialty publications written for your profession.

This voice usually comes “academia”—the people who are doing research at universities and think tanks.

There’s nothing wrong with academics: lots of good stuff comes out of their work.

The problem is that academics usually write for other academics, not for the general public. For this reason academic language is full of jargon and technical terms and it’s very formal: written in a passive voice.

Unless you happen to be another academic this writing is dry and tedious to read. And if people don’t read what you write they’re not going to take the action you recommend and that’s what marketing copy is all about: helping customers take action.

2. She took copywriting advice too literally

There are literally hundreds of books, classes, blogs, you name it out there with advice for writing effective marketing copy.

I think it’s great when I see business owners actively looking to improve their marketing skills. The problem I see however is when business owners try to adopt the copywriting guru’s voice for their own.

In the worst case, they end up with copy that reads like a string of meaningless marketing cliches.

Even if they pull it off and write something substantive about what they’re selling, their customers are still buying from someone other than who they really are.

Ultimately, our customers are doing business with us not Joe Copy Guru. It is our voice they hear when we pick up the phone and when they talk with us.

Even if your own voice is less than perfect it’s better that customers consistently hear the real you.

3. She tried to use everyone’s feedback

My background is in advertising and consumer marketing and I strongly recommend trying your marketing out on a few customers before you send it out to the general public.

Typically then, the business owner will ask a customer or two and perhaps a few colleagues or business partners, “what do you think about my article (or website or brochure, etc)?

Often there are all sorts of helpful nuggets in the responses. But in my experience there is also advice that is irrelevant as well as conflicting. One person says there’s not enough information on X; the other person says there’s too much information.

In an attempt to take in all the advice, business owners end up with copy that is a patchwork of all the little bits and pieces of advice they were given. There’s no consistency or coherence in these message and once again the owner end up with marketing that doesn’t get any results.

Keys to Avoiding Lame, Mushy Marketing

1. Know what action you want clients to take before you write a single word

When I say “action” I mean what’s the next thing you want people to do after they’ve read or heard your message. Common actions you can ask your audience to take include:

• Click on this link for more information
• Click on this link to subscribe to my ezine
• Call this 1 800 number to get my free report

These are all small, low commitment activities that don’t require a lot of time, trust, or money. But they give you the opportunity to get contact information so you can stay in touch and build the credibility necessary for them to become paying customers.

2. Ask for specific, actionable input

Asking people “what do you think” is not really what you want to know. What you want to know is:

After you read this or hear it, will you take the action I want you to take?

Anything else, quite honestly, is irrelevant.

Questions to ask include:

• Is there anything here that confuses you?
• Is the product or service something you see yourself using?
• Are all the questions you want answered before you take the next step answered? What other questions do you have?

You may notice I didn’t suggest you ask “Are you going to buy my product or service?” Why? Because it’s incredibly speculative to ask someone what they might do in the future.

If you must ask the question I suggest you ask it as “How likely are you to …”

3. Use your heart to evaluate feedback

What does your heart have to do with marketing that gets people to take action?

A lot actually.

I allow my heart—my intuition—if you will, to be the ultimate judge of what input to incorporate and what to discard.

Why? Because the truth about what I want people to know about my business and services almost always resides in my heart.

When I try to think things through too much and “figure things out,” my brain treats the problem like a puzzle that rationalization and compromise can solve.

My heart is a lot more direct when it comes to “is this really what I want to say?” or “is this true for me?”

After you get your feedback, before you start editing, notice anything that sounds a little or a lot off. Focus on your heart and ask yourself, “Is this really true for me?” then pay attention to what your heart tells you.

I’ve learned to listen to that quiet little voice in my heart because it’s always spot on when it comes to marketing. When I ignore it; try to “figure it all out” I end up with mushy, lifeless copy that doesn’t say anything to anyone. Much less inspire people to take the next step.

Bottom Line

Lame, ineffective marketing happens when the business owner’s voice gets lost—because they’re trying to sound like somebody or something that they’re not.

Your customers really want to hear your own voice; what’s true for you; how you see yourself serving them.

Before you pick up your red pen and start using feedback and input from others, please take a moment to make sure

1. you’re clear about what you want your audience to do;
2. you’ve asked for specific input, and
3. you’ve run the feedback past your heart to make sure it feels true.

What prompted this article was a client who was unhappy with me. I had given them some feedback and it hit a nerve and they told me.

There's a time when I would have simply responded with a very logical email explaining why I was right and suck it up and follow my instructions.

And I was wishing my clients would just be easier to work with and do what I tell them to do.

As I thought about how I could best respond, a line from Charles Dickens' book, A Christmas Carol popped in my mind: Mankind is Our Business.

Mankind is Our Business

There's a scene early in the book when Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted by the ghost of his recently deceased business partner, Jacob Marley.

Marley has come to warn Scrooge that unless Scrooge changes his ways; shifts his focus from making as much profit as possible to spending his wealth to help others, he's doomed to an afterlife in chains and remorse.

Scrooge is terrified by Marley's presence and tries to calm Marley and himself saying,

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob"

To which Marley replies, "Business… Mankind was my business … The dealings of my trade were but a water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

Coming Back to the Present

OK, so let me bring you back to how all this relates to my client situation.

I wasn't very happy that my client didn't like my advice and was telling me they weren't going to do what I suggested.

It was frustrating for me and scary because this client was a referral from someone whose esteem I valued. It things didn't work out I might lose not only a client but the trust of my referral source.

I sat and considered different ways to respond to my client's email. In the past I would have sent a very professional and business like email explaining why I was right and the consequences of not following my advice.

And that approach might work but it wouldn't work very well. What's interesting is that my client wasn't wanting my instructions and how tos even though it looked that way.

Because my client's compliance would have come at the expense of trust. And trust is what makes us coaches and consultants able to help clients make real, sustainable advancements.

Sustainable advancement is how mankind is my business.

How I Handled the Situation

I emailed back to my client saying I got that they were feeling frustrated with my suggestions and rather than continue to hack away at creating a marketing message, let's talk by phone about what they were wanting from me and how I could support them.

Is Mankind Your Business?

In most of my articles I offer some really specific steps you can apply in your own business.

In this article, the only step is to consider these two questions:

Is mankind your business? and

why did you answer the way you did?

And if you feel like sharing your response with me, I'd really love to hear what you have to say.

Bottom Line

Saying that "Mankind is Our Business" sure sounds good what what exactly does that mean to you and I in our small businesses?

If you accept it as true for your own business, it means in addition to doing our trade: helping customers solve problems and get the results they want, we are in the business of helping our customers make lasting changes so they can see more good in the world and do more good in the world.

Last week, I was talking with a colleague about information products. 

My colleague works with managers who are struggling with software development projects helps get those projects back on track.

He's great a what he does, loves his work and has tons of great ideas for creating information products.

But he hasn't made much progress around creating an information product.

Why?

In his own words, "I've created one product but no one bought it. I'm not sure why but I'm worried that what I know just doesn't translate well into something people will pay for."

It's a common issue: you love your work and the clients you work with love your work too. But you wonder whether what you do will translate well if you're not doing it in person.

Love + Market Need = $$$

If you want a product that practically sells itself and that you feel good about offering to your customers your product must meet two conditions:

#1. Your product is based on your talent, expertise, and joy

#2. Your product helps other people solve a problem that is bothering them right now

If the product doesn't meet condition #1, it doesn't matter how much people want it, you will not be able to solve their problem because you lack the expertise and passion to do so.

If the product doesn't meet condition #2, people won't buy your info product because they don't want or need it.

Finding the "Sweetspot"

The "sweetspot" is the set of problems which meet both conditions:

the problems you are good at and enjoy solving and for which there is market opportunity (problems customers really want solved).

Envision two circles whose edges overlap so that they share a common area (like the Mastercard logo). The area of overlap is the sweetspot for your product.

If you're going to create just one information product this year, you want to create one in this sweet spot.

There are 4 steps for identifying products in the sweet spot.

Step 1. List Common Problems You Help Customers With

Take a moment and think about the customers you've been working with over the last three months or so.

Once you have some specific customers in mind, jot down all of the problems you helped them with.

(Although your clients typically come with one specific problem, there are usually several others related problems or you may uncover a larger, more basic problem as you learn more).

For example, here are common problems that a project management consultant deals with:

• Project team members lack skills to complete their tasks
• Team members fail to communicate progress and/or problems with each other
• Project manager isn't available enough to give team direction
• Team lacks good tools for tracking their progress
• Upper management doesn't support project & doesn't provide enough money, right people, etc.
• Unrealistic deadlines and goals
• Project gets bogged down because of unnecessary steps

Step 2. Identify Your Favorite Problems to Solve

Looking at your list put a check mark next to the ones that evoke an "I want to do that more!" response in your heart.

Don't over-think this. The response you're looking for is a sincere "More!" not a "should want to do more."

Shoulds, woulds, and coulds lead to products that don't sell.

Now, do the same thing but this time check ones in which you feel genuinely proud of the results you helped the client achieve.

Also include those which are still works in process but you feel good about your contribution so far. Again, don't over-think this step.

Now circle all the problems you listed that have two check marks.

These are the product ideas that go into the "Love" part of the equation.

For example, our project management consultant looks at his list and realizes that some of the problems are "people problems" (right people with right skills and knowledge) and other problems are "tools and resource problems" (right software and procedures).

Because his background is in software design he decides the problems he really wants to create products around are the tools and resource problems.

Step 3. Identifying Marketplace Needs

Now that you have identified one or two problems that you enjoy helping people with and excel at providing, let's look at opportunities in the marketplace.

Some specific actions to find those opportunities include:

• What is already selling in your area of expertise:  Search Google, Bing , and Amazon.com using keywords that describe the problem area.
• What frustrates people most in your area of expertise: Monitor discussion forums (Yahoo groups and Google groups ), blogs  and social network sites (Facebook, Linked in, Twitter)
• What recurring topics show up in publications on your topic?

As you look at the marketplace, jot down the problems/questions that keep coming up.

Important: A "gap" doesn't necessarily mean there are no products or services out there providing solutions. If a  question seems to be coming up again and again it suggests there's a need for fresh insights, perspectives, and voices.

Maybe yours.

Example: Among the problems our project management consultant sees coming up:

• Whether or not a project needs project management software
• What to do when you need to "fire" someone from your project team
• What to do when team members are sabotaging your project
• What is the best project management software for a project
• How to find bottlenecks in a project
• How to create a good time estimate for completing projects
• How to convince upper level management to increase your project's  budget

Step 4. Finding Sweetspot Product Ideas

You've identified problems you're good at solving; you've identified gaps in the marketplace, now it's time to identify the "Sweet Spot" for your products.

Looking at the problems you circled in Step #2 and the problems and questions you listed in Step #3, look for any problems that satisfy both conditions:

#1. Problems you are good at solving and enjoy solving

#2. Problems that continually crop up in the marketplace

Create a new list with the problems that meet both conditions.

These are your "sweetspot" product ideas. Products that, with the right marketing message and support, will practically sell themselves.

Example: Looking at both lists, the project management consultant chooses the following problem as a basis for his next information product:

• Finding and dealing with bottlenecks in your project

Since his expertise and interest is in process improvement, it makes sense to create a product that will help teams find and eliminate steps causing bottlenecks.

Bottom Line

You can create products that will practically sell themselves if your products solve problems you love to solve and solve problems that your customers keep asking about.

With one or two products that meet these criteria plus a good marketing message and timely promotions to your prospective buyers you really can make a difference and grow your bottom line.

Periodic, relevant information is the main way to build the trust and credibility needed for customers and prospects to take action:

- to click the Buy Now button

- to pick up the phone to schedule an appointment

- to complete an application

- etc.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of creating trust-based relationships in business. This is what periodic emails to your list allow you to do.

If your business is relatively new to online marketing, building a subscription list can feel pretty daunting.

I've had many conversations with small business owners who love the idea of email marketing and inevitably the question, "How do you get all these subscribers anyway?"

And that is the question I'm going to answer in this article.

> Why Building Your List Can Be a Struggle

I know when I began my ezine, after the initial signups by folks in my immediate circle, adding new subscribers was a painfully slow process.

I received some glowing complements from subscribers and a couple marketing experts whose opinion I valued. And everything I read insisted that content is the most important component to succeeding in the online marketing game.

So I had good content; where was the rush of subscribers?

Simple: I was competing with thousands of other requests to subscribe.

People need a good reason to subscribe to your ezine. Why they should choose your ezine rather than the hundred other on the same topic.

One way to make your ezine the best choice is to give your subscribers something they can immediately use and get value from.

This is why a free product you give people when they subscribe to your ezine is so important.

> Providing Some Relief

A lesson I learned from my coach, Mark Silver, is the importance of providing prospects some relief from a problem they're struggling with.

After all that's why most people are at your website to begin with yes? They have some sort of question or problem and they're looking for help. Whether they found your website doing a Google search or through a link on someone's blog, they're wanting help and they're hoping you'll provide it.

Free products that they can quickly download from your website are ideal for meeting this need.

In addition, when they use your free product and get some relief there is no better way to build your credibility! People are far more likely to purchase from you when they've already gotten a demonstration of the difference you make.

> What's the Best Free Product to Offer?

The one question that comes up more than any other around the free give-away is "what should my give-away be?"

> 4 Keys to Choosing a Free Product (with Subscription)

Key #1 Easy to Get Online

Remember whatever it is you offer, you want to make it very easy for your prospect to get online.

Fortunately, it's cheap and simple to create a product that is easy to download. I recommend: 

- An article, report, or how-to guide people can download as an Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf)

- An audio recording they can listen to on the Internet (mp3 is currently the most popular format)

- A video they can watch from your website (many computers now have a built-in camera making it easy to create short videos)

Key #2 Solves a Problem Most of Your Ideal Customers Struggle With

When I was trying to decide what free product would be best to offer with my ezine, I initially chose a report on getting more referrals from customers.

How to get referrals is a hugely popular topic among small business owners for very good reasons. But there were a couple drawbacks to this product:

(1.) You need a few satisfied customers who will refer you to others. This can be difficult for many new businesses.

(2.) Referrals are largely an in-person phenomenon. Referral programs work best when you offer local, in-person services. This isn't to say that an online business can't leverage referrals but it takes a lot longer because you don't have the non-verbal cues that naturally come from live contact.

Instead I decided to offer a how-to workbook showing business owners how to create an "audio-logo"–a simple, conversational introduction they could use in situations in which they might be meeting prospective customers.

Most business owners I know struggle with introducing themselves in a way that tells the other person "this is who I help" without sounding like they're reading their "elevator" script.

Voila, this is how my free workbook came about.

Key #3. Is a first Step (Not the Entire Solution)

It's important to offer a solution that is appropriate to the level of trust and commitment your intended user has with your business.

It's meant to be an appetizer; not a meal.

One of my clients offers money management services for people working in the arts many of whom find the topic of money boring, painful, and distasteful.

Rather than immediately ask them to get into the numbers, she created a fun, easy to do Money Beliefs Assessment.

The assessment is light-hearted and empathetic AND anyone who takes the assessment will learn something important about how their money beliefs may be getting in the way of their success.

Key #4. Easy to Use So People Get Results

The reason you want to offer a first step to solving a common problem is you want to give your client an easy win.

Remember, the purpose of your product is to provide relief. If it doesn't help the person get some relief you hurt your credibility.

A product that gets used and produces results is more valuable than any claim you could make in your advertising.

When they get results what happens? They come back for more. They begin to trust you to help with their more complex problems.

They feel safe to invest more time, effort, and money to work with you.

> Bottom Line

If you are trying to build your email list, offering a free product with the subscription will help you attract subscribers faster than if you were offering the subscription alone.

The best product to give away with your subscription is one that:

- is easy to get online

- solves a problem that is common to most of your clients

- addresses the first step to solving that problem

- and is likely to produce a positive result

After so many years spent in marketing and frequently hearing about the "next big thing", I've come to the decision that all these technologies are simply communication tools for building trusting relationships with prospective customers.

No one tool is going to make you a gazillion dollars

But used with common sense and an understanding of where your customers hang out and what your customers are most wanting, I think social marketing technology is well worth learning to use.

Specifically, social marketing tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn extend your ability to make yourself known to prospective customers as well as people who may refer customers to you.

But it takes time and a focus on providing useful information and resources to others without any requirement for receiving in return.

I've always been a resource connector by nature (the one who is always emailing articles and snippets to you prefaced with an "fyi") so social marketing is a comfortable place for me.

If you are wanting results right now, either stay out of social marketing or hire someone who has a lighter touch. Social media requires a lower key approach. Hype and in-your-face sales tactics turn most members of Social-Marketing-Land off.

> SUCCESS STRATEGIES FOR USING SOCIAL MARKETING IN YOUR BUSINESS 

Some strategies that work for cultivating profitable connections in social media.

* Think Conversation; not Presentation

Most people hang out on blogs and social networks because they are engaging with others who have similar interests.

Social networks are informal gatherings, like going to your friend's BBQ. You might talk business but if you do it will be a casual conversation. Not climbing up on a bench and bellowing, "Hey everyone, let me tell you about this great new service I'm offering."

It is of course possible that a casual business conversation will lead to a "how about we set up a time to talk more next week?" in which case the result is a meeting in which a presentation is appropriate.

Remember the point is to share information and resources that may be helpful to others in a give and take conversation.

* Expect to Reach Out First

There's a funny T-shirt that reads "More People Have Read This Shirt than My Blog."

That about sums it up if you expect people to swarm to your blog or follow you on Twitter. Unless you're maybe Ashton Kuchner.

Actions you can take to reach out include:

– Finding others who are doing something that is useful to you and your customers and making a point to comment on their posts in a way that adds to the conversation in progress.

– If you, yourself post to your own blog, include links to articles that support or enhance the points you're making. Directing people to other blogs is not only helpful to your readers, it is very appreciated by the persons whose blogs you link to.

  They may even link back to you!

– Let people know about useful resources in all social media you participate in. I regularly post links to articles, statistics, and other bits of information my clients and colleagues may appreciate.

* Be Yourself

Remember your mom telling you to be yourself when you were worried about being liked by people you didn't know?

Your mom was right.

In addition to sharing information and resources with real, actionable value to my clients and customers, I also share observations, reviews (books, movies, electronics), and of course the occasional annecdote about my cats.

And I share in my own voice similar to how I might talk with co-workers or people I know casually at a party.

– Pick Just One and Try it Out

There are a bewildering array of social media sites out there.

Please. Be kind to yourself.

Rather than try to figure it all out, I strongly suggest you get yourself an account with Twitter or Facebook or Linked in.

Not all of them, pick just one.

Then give yourself some time to poke around and get a sense of what's going on.

– Start with People You Already Know, Trust and Like

Once you get an account, invite people you know, trust, and like to join your network. Or follow them on Twitter. Or subscribe to their blog.

This way you start in a small box with others you may already be connected with. You can feel fairly confident that you'll be interested and engaged in the conversations they're having.

As you begin to feel more comfortable you can begin to check out their contacts or look for people interested in a particular topic you love to talk about.

JOIN ME

If you're looking to find some people to hang out with in Social-Marketing-land, I invite you to connect with me.*

To join my Linkedin Network:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/judy-murdoch/0/737/913

To join me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/judy.murdoch

To follow me on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/judymurdoch

* You need to first sign up for an account. All the social media accounts listed here are free.

> BOTTOM LINE

Once I began reaching out more and focused on hanging out with like-minded people, I got used to and even began to enjoy social marketing.

The most important thing to remember is social media is about connection and conversation. If people like what they're hearing and find value in what you offer, you will begin picking up business and business-related opportunities.

But like any online strategy, it takes time and effort on your end to reach out and contribute first.

And feel free to connect with me on one of the social media tools I mentioned.

A couple weeks ago, one of my clients sent me an email with this question:

"I've been checking out a couple programs that say I can make lots of money by including affiliate links on my website. I could really use the extra cash right now. What do you think?"

The client asking this question is a coach who is creating his own information products.

He knows there will be a lag between the time he launches his program and when he starts getting substantive income. He'd like to find an alternative revenue source to tide him over.

> A Typical Affiliate Program

Amazon.com was one of the first online merchants to use an affiliate program. I've been an Amazon.com affiliate for many years.

Here's how I use Amazon.com's affiliate program.

I work with small business owners and help them with marketing issues. Naturally, I will suggest books that I've read and think are useful for small business owners who are looking for marketing help.

I recommend these books on my website and it's very easy to include a link so someone interested in buying one of those books can go directly to Amazon.com to learn more…maybe buy the book.

As an Amazon.com affiliate, I get a special link so that if that person actually buys the book, I get a small commission.

This in a nutshell is how affiliate programs work.

> Sharing the Love

In the best sense, affiliate programs can be a win for everyone:

- you get a little extra money for making a recommendation that you would have made regardless (I was recommending these books long before I became an Amazon affiliate).

- Amazon.com gets more traffic (and building traffic is always desirable) and more sales (again, always desireable)

- The person making the purchase gets a valuable resource they otherwise wouldn't have known about

> Affiliate Mania!

Over the years, gobs of companies have been jumping into the affiliate game. It's easy to understand the attraction of offering an affiliate program.

And something else started happening: everyone and their dog started offering affiliate programs. Along with the mad proliferation of affiliate programs, websites with no other purpose than being a collection of affiliate links began popping up.

The idea behind these sites is people go to your website and see lots and lots of links to click on. If they click on a link and buy something, Voila! you get some money.

> Affiliate Sluts?

Some folks think having website that is, essentially, pages of links is a really super idea.

Myself, I think it's an example of a good idea taken to ridiculous extremes.

From a practical perspective, affiliate link farms depend on getting massive amounts of traffic. Unless you want to work your butt off getting traffic to your website (and you WILL have to work very hard because you have lots of competition) you will never generate the level of traffic you need to earn decent money.

What bugs me more than anything is the lack of added value. Putting up a web page with a bunch of links chosen based on the commission you'll get isn't bringing any value into the world.

You're not sharing your own knowledge and experience to help others. You're simply directing visitors to other businesses.

Finally, affiliate mania makes for bizarre bedfellows hence the term "affiliate sluts."

There are literally hundreds of thousands of affiliates out there. How many are selling products that you can really feel good about reselling to other people? Are these affiliate programs about making a difference or mostly about lining the sellers pockets?

> 4 Keys to Selecting Win Win Affiliates for Your Business

I'm a business owner and I like making money when it's because I helped my clients solve a problem or do something better. There's a sweetness when you make money because you add value. I can't imagine selling stuff and not caring whether or not it helps my customer.

Here are 4 keys I recommend when you consider which affiliates to participate in

#1 Good fit with your business

I help small business owners create inexpensive, results-based marketing programs. My clients typically need help doing things 

- like building websites
– creating blogs
– attracting subscribers to read articles and offers,
– and selling products and services online.

Naturally I recommend website hosts, email list management services, shopping carts, and merchant account services. The vendors I use for these services offer affiliate programs and it makes perfect sense that I participate in those programs.

I am NOT an affilate for weight loss potions, stain removers, or real estate training programs because these have nothing to do with how I help my own customers.

- Shared values

When a product or service rubs you the wrong way, chances are good that the values held by seller are in conflict with your values.

For example, I see my business as way not only to make money but to make a positive difference in the world. For this reason I don't participate in affiliates that, in my opinion, aren't adding anything substantive to the world.

- You use the products and services yourself

The only affiliates I participate in are ones whose products and services I actually use. I feel uncomfortable making money recommending something that I, myself wouldn't use.

- Decent commission

All things being equal, I would choose the affiliate program offering a more generous affiliate commision.

The key qualifier here being "all things being equal."

> Bottom Line

Affilate programs are hot, hot, hot these days for good reasons.

But affiliate programs are NOT about money for nothing.

Affilate programs are meant to enhance and supplement your core products and services…not to replace substantive products and services or to detract from them.

As long as you can be in integrity with the affiliate programs you support, they are a great source of extra revenue as well as a way to offer more value to your customers.

When this is the case, it's a very sweet way to share the love.

I hope the subject heading got your attention.

When a mentor said this to me a couple years ago he got my attention all right, in fact I was pretty darn pissed off.

Actually what he said was this: "Until you have products you what I consider a have a successful practice…nothing wrong with a successful practice…but you do not have a business."

I argued, "Look at everything I've accomplished. Look at everything I've learned. I actually made a profit last year. The IRS certainly thinks I have a business!"

"Those are all amazing accomplishments," my mentor said "but if, God forbid, you got hit by a bus and couldn't do any work for six months or longer what would happen to your business?"

"I'm the business," I replied, "If I can't work there is no business."

Exactly.

A Practice Begins and Ends with You

Even if you have an amazing assistant. Even if you have clients who love you and sing your praises: no you, no business.

One year later, two years later, there isn't even a vapor trail.

Now for a lot of people, this is completely cool. You may be reading this article and thinking "Hey its enough that I take good care of  my clients and my business pays the bills for me and my family."

You have a successful practice and that is something to be very proud of.

And the success of your practice depends entirely on your ability to show up and be present. If you can't show up, there is no business.

My dad was a dentist for over 40 years. He was a very good at his work and his patients adored him. When he retired he sold his practice to another dentist.

When my dad is at the grocery store or running errands people still come up to him and tell him how much they appreciated him and that they miss having him as their dentist.

I'm always impressed by the warm feelings my dad's former patients still express to him. You can't buy that kind of good will.

But the practice itself winked out of existence when my dad took his name off the door. Any special processes my dad knew, the things he said to calm nervous patients, the skills and knowledge he honed over the years; that's all gone.

It's About Influence and Making a Difference

This is not to belittle my dad's accomplishments. He taught me a lot about working hard and with integrity. I'm proud of my dad.

At the same time, when I close shop for my business, in addition to having contributed to my clients success, I want to have products: books, classes, software, and tools that hundreds of thousands of  people can use and benefit from my skills and knowledge.

When you create products, your business no longer depends on you because in a sense, you have replicated yourself. You've duplicated what made your business yours. The reason you got customers to begin with.

With products you can influence thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people. That's a LOT bigger than what any practice can do.

Not that the Money isn't Nice too

Most small business owners are attracted to creating information products because they love the idea of earning passive income from multiple sources.

It's a great reason to sell products. Not such a great reason for creating products.

Seriously. If you're into products primarily because you want multiple streams of  revenue, I've got one word for you: Affiliates.

Sell other people's products and make commission.

It's easy. Most of the e-commerce products I use: my web host, my email and list management, and my shopping cart all pay me a percentage when people find them through me.

And I'm an affiliate for several businesses whose programs I've used and gotten good results from including Amazon.com.

Again, remember, your own products will outlive you, affiliate products will not.

Bottom Line

Having a successful practice is huge accomplishment and you can make huge difference—as long as you're around.

If you want a profitable business whose influence goes well beyond the clients and customers you serve: then you want to create and sell information products.

It's the best way I know to take what you know and make money making a difference in the world.

One of my clients recently asked me whether she should charge for a series of tip sheets she created for families traveling with young children. Great question.

There's quite a bit of confusion around whether you should sell or give away your information products. About half the advice I hear favors giving information away for free. The other half favors charging.

The truth is, sometimes you should give information and resources away and sometimes you should sell them. The real question is when to charge and when not to.

In this article, I'll give you some guidelines around when to charge and when to give information away.

Start with What Your Business Needs Now

Asking where your business is at and what you need to be successful is a great place to begin.

Every business needs customers, right? So let's look at how strangers become customers. They go through three stages:

Stage One: Visibility (V)

To become a customer a person first needs to know your product exists. You become visible by getting your product and marketing message in front of people who fit your ideal customer description.

Stage Two: Credibility (C)

Knowing that your product exists is usually not enough to get someone to pay cold hard cash for it. Nope, they're thinking "well, that sounds good but how do I know it will really work?"

During the Credibility stage you need to give them information that demonstrates your product will deliver as promised.

Stage Three: Profitability (P)

Once your prospect is convinced that your product will, indeed, deliver the promised value, they will pay you and become a customer.

V to C to P = Marketing Funnel

Picture a funnel with lots of people coming in the widest part (visibility), a percentage sticking around to learn more (credibility), and a percentage of those who stick around becoming customers (profitability).

At any given time in the life of your business, there are people at different stages of becoming customers. Some are learning about you for the first time, some are  checking you out to decide whether they will buy, and some are deciding to buy and paying you.

Ideally, you have a steady stream of people constantly entering and moving through the funnel. If they don't enter or don't continue through, you have a problem and it shows up in your bottom line: You don't have enough paying customers.

When to Give Away and When to Charge

To decide whether or not to charge for an information product, I suggest you take a look at how many people are at each of the three stages.

Your goal is to use information products to help your prospects and customers to take the next step.

When You Need More Visibility

If you're just starting your business or you want to enter a new market, you probably need more visibility. You need people to know your product exists.

When visibility is your goal, I recommend you give something away that provides value and introduces people to your product or service.

Why? The goal for visibility is to answer the following questions:

1. What is it ("it" being your product or service)
2. Does it help someone like me?

You want to give something away that will answer these questions while asking for something minimal from the prospect.

A common example is offering a free Ezine subscription or a free report your prospects can download in exchange for their E-mail address or phone number.

When You Need More Credibility

Credibility is an issue when you're getting a lot of first time visitors and inquiries but not enough are coming back. 

For most products and services, people need repeated demonstrations of what you can do for them. They need to trust you.

When you are building credibility, I suggest you have two information products: one that is free and one that you sell.

1. A free product that allows you to build a relationship with your prospects. Products like Ezines are great because you get a chance to connect with customers once a month or more.
2. Product you charge for which offers a higher level of customer value. Ideally, this is a "no brainer" purchase. Something for which the value is so obvious for what you're charging that most people don't need to think too long or hard about whether to buy.

Although you will be making some money, the real purpose is to demonstrate credibility and build trust.

Warning: The biggest complaint I hear is when someone offers a free report or  one-hour teleclass that turns out to be little more than a sales pitch.

Again, you are creating value and building trust. Doing both will enable you to convert more prospects to paying customers when the opportunity presents itself.

A sneaky sales pitch will undermine the trust you are trying to build.

If You Need More Profitability

If you have a large, loyal base of readers, subscribers, or members who have been hanging out with you for several months and like what they're getting, some of them will want to invest some serious time and money for your focused time and attention.

For example, a consultant I know sends out a free monthly Ezine to her mailing list and sells low cost Tip Sheets, Checklists, and so on.

Each month 3-5 of her subscribers contact her to learn more about her workshops and seminars costing $500+. She usually books 6 to 8 engagements this way each year.

She explained it to me like this, "I try to provide something useful that my readers can apply right away. For example, I sell a $5.00 meeting organizer they can use to have more productive meetings. Sometimes this is all they need."

"But sometimes they're in a situation that goes way beyond the DIY stage. They need someone from outside the company to step in and help them set up a new system or to help them hire a new executive."

Allowing your prospects to upgrade (or escalate) and get a higher level of support is not only profitable, it's how you can really serve your clients.

Bottom Line

Whether or not to charge for your information products depends on what your business needs in terms of developing customer relationships.

The less known you are to people fitting your ideal customer profile, the more important it is to offer free or low cost information products which provide something of value.

As you build trust and as your prospects learn how you can help them, you can offer more expensive, higher commitment products for those who want (and can afford) them.

Imagine this scenario: You plant sunflower seeds in two different pots. Everything–the seeds, the pots, the soil, the temperature and amount of sunlight are the same.

The only difference is this:

• You water the seeds in one pot two times over a period of three months
• You water the seeds in the other pot once a week over the same period

Question: which seeds are most likely to sprout and turn into healthy sunflowers? The ones you watered a couple times or the ones you watered regularly?

Even if you're not an avid gardener I'm guessing you said "the one you watered regularly."

So what the heck does this have to do with marketing products and services? Quite a bit actually.

How Offers that Get Results are Like Growing Sunflowers

To turn sunflower seeds into beautiful, healthy sunflowers, you need to plant the seeds in good soil and you need to make sure your seeds get plenty of sunshine and water over a period of weeks.

If your seeds don't get enough water and sun they may never sprout and even if they do, the fragile little seedling will wither and die.

To make sure customers say "yes" to your product offers, you need to support your offers properly otherwise you will end up with marketing that seems to go nowhere in terms of customer response.

How to Care for Offers So They Produce Results

To make sure the offers you promote lead to prospects and customers saying "yes" and taking the next step, you need to make sure your offers are getting the sunflower equivalent of water and sunshine.

Offers need:

1. to be repeated to the same audience at least six to seven times over a period of at least two months
2. to be the one, primary offer you make to that audience

If this seems simple to you—it is. However I also know we entrepreneur have a bad habit of ignoring this seemingly simple advice.

How Entrepreneurs Set Their Marketing Up for Failure

I'm an entrepreneur and most of my clients are entrepreneurs.It's lots of fun being an entrepreneur and working with entrepreneurs.

Why? Because we're always excited about some cool new thing we're doing and it's fun being with people who are doing cool, interesting things. BUT the quality that makes it so fun to be an entrepreneur: an attraction to cool, new things, is the very quality that dooms our marketing efforts to failure.

Here's a typical situation when I'm working with an entrepreneurial client and they've just completed a terrific new information product and we've created a strong sales page for their website and have the first couple promotional emails ready to go.

So far so good.

And my entrepreneur client says, "Hey, I've got another great new product idea, I'd like you to help me with!"

They then turn their attention to the cool, new thing they want to work on and ignore marketing for the already completed product which is barely a little seedling peeping out above the soil.

Typically then two things happen, both of which, are deadly to the success of the first offer:

1. They stop promoting the first product altogether so that prospects who were interested but not quite ready to buy that product will forget their intention to purchase
2. They'll add the second offer on top of the first and effectively "bury" the first product offer. Prospects and customers end up seeing a mish-mosh of offers and may be so confused they don't do anything.

The result for our business is the equivalent of having pots full of dirt and no sunflowers: we work really hard on developing products and offers but aren't getting much back in the way of new customers and cash flow.

How to Set Your Offers Up for Success (and Still Have Fun)

So how do we entrepreneurial-types who are constantly inspired to start new promotions make sure we give our current offers every opportunity to succeed?

Here are five strategies I highly recommend.

1. Acknowledge that you're an entrepreneur and that wanting to try new things is in your DNA.

2. Label a file or binder (I'm uber geeky and use a spreadsheet) "product ideas" and when you get a great product idea or promotion idea, jot it down on a piece of paper and put it in your idea binder.

When my ideas have a home, I'm less likely to feel compelled to start working on them because I know I can return to the ones I saved.

3. Commit to supporting no more than two offers at any given time. This means the marketing and promotions you create to support these offers get my full time and focus.

4. Run promotions for your current offer for at least seven weeks. This gives people who are interested in the offers but not yet ready to take the next step several opportunities to take action.

5. Only promote products that clearly fit your brand and fit within the products and services you offer. Customers need context to understand how your offer fits what they already know how your business helps them.

Bottom Line

Sunflowers are so much nicer than pots full of dirt.

If you're feeling frustrated because your offers aren't getting much response, take a look at how well your marketing supports those offers.

If you're promoting something new every month and piling multiple offers on a single email or advertisement, you may be setting your offers up for failure.

You need to focus on one or two offers at a time, provide consistent marketing over time, and make sure your offers make sense within your brand and business in order to start getting real results.

An unfortunate side effect of an economic slowdown like the one we're in currently, is spending slows down. If you're a small business owner the slowdown in spending shows up in two ways:

1. Some prospects and customers who might have said "yes" in the past are now saying no because they simply don't have the resources to pay you
2. Those who DO have the resources are take longer to say yes

This means less revenue coming in and if you own a small business, that's a big "ouch" for your bottom line.

Oh, the Irony of It All!

What's funny about this situation in a not-so-funny way is that during economic downturns, your clients and customers need what you offer More Than Ever!

Why? Because we're all in business to solve problems people have, right? Recessions typically multiply problems and amplify the pain we feel from those problems.

But we also become hyper-aware of the downside of our actions and we feel there's no wiggle room for error. We become extremely Risk Averse.

Whether or not their fear is founded in reality, customers step back and become less willing to do anything that is new or risky because they don't feel safe.

If you're having doubts whether you are offering something customers really need because your sales have slowed down, I'm suggesting it isn't that they don't need what you're selling—it's because these scary times are making them unusually risk averse and less willing to take chances.

Reducing Perceived Risk Using Information Products

To help your prospects and customers feel safer to spend, you need to reduce their perceived risk of working with you. There are many ways to do this including lowering your prices, doing one-day sales, etc. But I'm partial to creating information products because the benefits extend far beyond the immediate revenue streams they provide.

Information products reduce perceived risk for prospects and customers in two important ways:

1. It's easier to say "yes" to buying a $19 how-to guide than a six-month $4,000 consulting engagement.
2. When customers get results using your information products they develop confidence in your ability to deliver what you promise.

This makes it easy for your customers to feel good about buying your more expensive products and services.

Two Easy Information Products Small Business Owners Can Create and Sell

How-to guides and tip sheets are my favorite low cost information products to offer because it's easy for your prospects to see the value they'll get.

• How-to guides teach them how to do something they've always wanted to do; step by step
• Tips sheets tell them how to do something better and get better results

The other thing I love about how to guides and tip sheets is they're easy to create because all you're really doing is answering common questions you get from customers.

Example: Using a How-to Guide as a Low Cost Information Product

Amy is a coach who works with what she called the "walking wounded"; typically high level managers who have successful corporate careers but are tired of the cost to their personal lives.

Amy's core service is one on one coaching; typically clients work with her for six month intervals at $600 per month.

Amy has noticed that even though stress levels are higher than ever, people who once would have said "yes" to becoming one-on-one clients are now saying things like,

"I'm just happy to have a job."

"What if I get laid off, I'll need that $600"

"What if I work with you and you don't help me?"

And they're putting off the possibility of working with her.

Amy asked herself "If there were just one thing I could do to help these folks what would that thing be?"

She realized that for busy, stressed out professionals, taking on something new would require very small, simple steps. Small to the point of being ridiculous. Anything feeling too big would create overwhelm and the client wouldn't take action and get the help they need.

So she did some brainstorming around small but significant changes her clients made and came up with over 100 small actions. She edited the steps down to 101 and created a booklet: 101 Ways to Have More Fun and Less Stress at Work.

She sells it on her website and brings a dozen hard copies to sell at networking events.

Amy is very clear that this booklet is not a substitute for her coaching services. However people who buy the booklet get some substantive help and a percentage of those who buy the booklet like what Amy has to say enough to eventually become one-on-one clients.

The results:

• Amy reduced the perceived risk of her services and has helped 50 prospective customers who otherwise would have put off working with her
• In addition, two prospects who otherwise may not have hired her, felt confident enough about what she had to offer that they signed up and became one-on-one coaching clients.

Bottom Line

During challenging times such as our current economic uncertainty, your customers become very sensitive to perceived risk and less willing to to commit their time and money—especially when it comes to buying new products and services.

If you aren't currently selling information products that enable prospects to get a small but significant taste of what you can do for them, you are missing an opportunity to bring more revenue to your business and to help more customers sooner than later.