The Rock of Gibraltar is the symbol of TRUST.

You want to keep people on your list so you can build relationships.  When you first meet someone, you don’t expect him or her to ask you for something.  You expect them to give you their time to get to know you.  The same is true in today’s online marketing world.  You want to give your subscribers time to get to know you.

Some of the things that you want to convey to your audience include what kind of person you are, how much you care about them, and what you can do for them.  This is how you build the “know, like, and trust” factor into the relationship.

First show them what kind of person you are by giving them gifts.  Your generosity will win their interest in you.  The gifts you give them will show how you care about them.  And they will plant the seeds for what you can do for them.  In this way you develop their knowledge, likeability, and trust in you.

How your gifts build the Know, Like, and Trust factor
The first gift is what you advertise on your opt-in page. It isn’t enough for your visitors to give you their email in exchange for your newsletter.  They want more. So the best thing you can do is give them two to three gifts right away.  They can be a combination of a report, a checklist, an audio, a video, or an article.

Then, you follow-up on your new subscribers with a series of emails that you set up on your autoresponder. Here’s the best way to follow-up with your new subscribers so they will want to stay on your list:

1) The first email will be a thank-you for subscribing and link to download your freebies you promised on your opt-in page.

2) Then for the next two weeks you send out an email every 4-5 days that does not mention any of your paid products.  In each email you deliver great content. You can discuss one or more of the challenges that your particular target market has, but give no links to any products.  You can give them a video tip, an article or blog post, an audio, a webinar that you teach, and something they can download.

Use different media in the emails so they get used to interacting with you in different ways.  Each email they receive with more goodies will increase the quantity of information you give them.  This also increases their level of commitment to you. Think of it as a courtship because as you know, in a courtship, the wooer brings gifts at regular intervals to wow their recipient.

How to promote your paid services
Only now that you have established a relationship in which you make your subscribers awed at the amount of free information and gifts you have given them, are you in a position to tell them about your paid services.  I’ve heard it once described as earning your hall pass.

Remember in high school when you wanted to go do something out of the normal routine and you had to go to the principal’s office and get a hall pass, so you wouldn’t be accosted by a teacher demanding to know what you were doing?  Well, this is a similar situation in that, you have to do something special to get the reward.  And the reward is to be able to market to your audience.

The best place for that is your newsletter.  The reason why it’s the best place is because it’s not just an email sales pitch.  Your newsletter is filled with more great content, some things of interest like news in your industry, and then something about one of your products.  This way it comes across as you being helpful once again to help them through the problem your product and/or service addresses.

If you follow these steps for email/newsletter marketing you will be able to build your list faster, have higher-quality subscribers, and better lead-conversion rates from your list.  It’s a great way to build relationships and the preferred way in today’s techno-savvy market. And remember—it’s an ongoing process.

You will always have people just starting out on your list and people who have been on it for years.  To all of them you need to keep giving great information, great content, and show that you not only care about them, but also appreciate their commitment to you by being on your list.

Business (Photo credits: www.roadtrafficsigns.com)

There is one thing that every business owner needs but the majority of business owners don’t have.  If you don’t have it, your business success will be severely limited at best and not possible at worst. And yet so many business owners have little knowledge of how to acquire this item.  What is it? It’s a marketing plan.

Do you have one? If you don’t, you’ll want to attend the next IAPLC masterclass, “Marketing-Do it Your Way!” by Vicky Scrivner, Thursday, May 16, at 12-1pm EDT. Attend the class Live-Only or become a Gold IAPLC member and get the recording.

In this class you will learn how to create a marketing plan for your business, promote who you are and what you do, and consistently communicate your message.

Vicky Scrivner is the creator of the Vibrant Business Success System and she has been in small business for over twenty years. With the experience of building two companies under her belt, she now helps coach business owners to implement smart systems that attract clients.You have an opportunity to learn from someone who has had an enormous amount of experience running small businesses.

Join Vicky for an informative class on creating a marketing business plan. Topics covered include:How a yearly plan will help your marketing;why consistency is important;promoting to previous clients; and create events to pull prospects in now.

Mars rover, Curiousity’s self-portrait

Recently I went to a lecture by Elsa Jensen, the woman who was in charge of the cameras on the rover, Curiosity, which landed on Mars in August 2012. Her story was inspiring because she had always wanted to be an astronaut but grew up in Denmark where there aren’t any space programs. After moving to Nebraska, she altered her goal to be a part of a space mission and 24 years later, she realized her goal.

You may think that’s a long time to realize a goal.  But Elsa pointed out that everything she did in those 24 years prepared her for her part in the Curiosity mission.  What a great attitude to have!  No regrets, just gratitude.

I was especially moved by her story of the “7 Minutes of Terror.”  Did you know that after the landing of the rover on Mars there are 7 minutes before they knew if the landing was successful?  That’s because the signal from Mars takes 14 minutes to reach Earth, and the final descent took 7 minutes so that’s 7 more minutes to wait.

You can see the video, “7 Minutes of Terror” which is a graphic simulation of how the rover was supposed to land here (it actually landed perfectly): http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.php?id=1090

What struck me after her talk was how similar her story about the landing was to people who start a business.  In the case of the Mars landing, a goal was set, the actions were performed to attain the goal, and then there was a time lapse before the achievement was known.

When Elsa set her goal to be part of a space mission, she had several positions, which were only distantly related to space.  But those positions taught here skills she needed to have in order to get the position, which helped her achieve her goal.  Again there was a time lapse, before she knew she was going to achieve it.

With an entrepreneur, you perform certain business activities every day, not knowing for sure whether they will pay off, and make you money.  But you still have to keep doing them just to see.  And there’s going to be a time lapse before you know if what you did, worked.

Being an entrepreneur can be as scary as landing on Mars.  Picking up that 500-pound telephone can be quite a feat! Showing up with business cards and a smile to a networking meeting can make the strongest of us weak with butterflies inside.  Designing a program and not knowing how many sign-ups you will get is daunting.  But we do it.  Why? Because as an entrepreneur, you believe in yourself.

That’s all it really takes—belief in yourself so you can withstand that “_____ minutes of terror” time lapse, when you don’t know if what you did, worked.  So, in summary, to quote the NASA video, “Dare Mighty Things!”

My before and after

This week’s IAPLC masterclass will be “Discover Your Energy Type: To Boost Your Self-confidence and Self-esteem” by Jeannette Koczela, Thursday, May 2nd, 12-1pm EDT.  We are changing the masterclass time to Thursdays at the earlier time so all of our new Bronze members around the world can attend the classes live.

In this week’s class we will explore the fascinating field of Energy-Profiling. My experience with it literally changed my life.  It boosted my self-confidence, my self-image, and helped me be more understanding of others so I could improve my relationships.

My husband and I came to a greater understanding of why we do the things the way we do them.  That knowledge helped us go more with each other’s flow and have more patience with each other.

When this information of Energy-Profiling is applied to fashion and beauty, I found it so much easier to know what to wear, what to buy, and what look was best for me.  The result was a whole new look that I constantly get compliments on from friends and strangers alike.

When you go from being a bottle blonde to a light brunette, your friends notice. But when people who have never seen you before compliment your outfit, hairstyle, and/or make-up, you know that something is happening. In this way by discovering your true nature, you learn what makes you beautiful—both inside and out.

Join me for this masterclass where you will learn…

• How to understand you own true nature and why you do things the way you do things
• How to increase your rapport with others by understanding their nature
• How understanding your type can boost your business
• Discover how personal traits you once perceived as flaws are your greatest qualities

You must attend live because only Gold Members of the IAPLC get access to the recordings, so mark your calendar. For call-in details visit:

http://iaplifecoaches.org/Events/masterclass5-2-13.html

youtube-logo (Photo credit: www_ukberri_net)

Make a two-minute video tip about your services and load it to YouTube.  Talk about the same tip in a blog post and post it with the YouTube link in it. Then immediately after you have posted the video and blog, send out an email to your list with the link to the blog so they will read the blog and click on the video link.

Because you’ve sent this to your list all at once, you should get a larger number of  views within the first 24 hours of posting.

This will get you higher rankings on YouTube (now the #3 most used search engine). This is because YouTube likes it when a new video gets lots of views right after it’s been posted.

Why is that?  Well, if you had to choose between a video that got 200 views in the first day or two of posting and one that had 50 views over the last 6 months, which one would you be more inclined to give a higher ranking to?  The first one, right? Now you’re thinking like YouTube!

Crowther suggests making a 2 minute tip video every week and following this procedure. And that’s one way to get higher ranking videos on YouTube. The higher the rankings the more traffic you will get to your website, which will in turn build your list.

The coaches that are the most successful are the ones that have super systems in place.  And one system you can put into place is with social media.

One of the newest social media sites can be used to automate most of your social media tasks, and that’s Pinterest, boasting more than 28 million visitors each month.

Did you know that more money is being made through Pinterest than through Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn combined?
Are you using Pinterest in your social media platform?
Would you like to learn how to use it to automate your social media?

You can integrate Pinterest to your website, blog, Facebook fan page, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter account and expand your reach. You can allow your visitors to share visual content and get more engagement. You can even add price tags to your products and services and link them to your ecommerce portal.  Pinterest can be used as an effective tool for lead generation and increased traffic to your website because it is a place to expand your online presence and continue to build your brand.

Pinterest is the newest social media site to skyrocket in usage but it’s not the only one you can use to automate your social media platform.

The next IAPLC masterclass, “Going Green: Recycling Your Content for a Better World,” is on how to use the top 3 social media sites to drive more traffic to your site and become more visible online. Deborah Jane Wells will show you how to overcome your resistance to writing and get a greater return on your investment by leveraging your content.

Also on this call you will learn
•    How Deborah uses Pinterest, WordPress, and YouTube to automate her social media and save hours of time daily
•    How to turn your newsletter into a content machine and PowerPoint into a video creator
•    And how to leverage free and fee-based content to increase your visibility and credibility

Call-in details are at: http://iaplifecoaches.org/Events/masterclass4-17-13.html

(More about how to use Pinterest here: http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-use-pinterest)

Here are the steps:

These emails are structured in language that will entice visitors to your site to become subscribers.

When you vary your approach toward marketing your incentive for joining your list, you will create new interest on a regular basis. That’s a strategy for building your list and keeping it fresh and full of new subscribers.  Try it out and see for yourself how it can create a wave of new interest and subscribers.

Leave me a comment on how it worked for you. I’ll be giving you more strategies for building your list in future blogs.

IAPLC presents Masterclass, “How To Create Your Brilliant Authentic Brand and Attract More Of Your Ideal Clients” by Kimberley Lovell, April 3rd, 2013, 4pm EST. Attend the Class Live!

Join Kimberley Lovell—Spiritual Intuitive Healer & Holistic Business Mentor—for an informative class on the important subject of branding. In this transformational presentation you will learn:

• The top 3 myths & mistakes about branding
• How to develop a rich and compelling brand that attracts more of your ideal clients
• How to communicate instantly with your clients unconscious mind so they get who you are and want to work with you

Learn just what a brand is and isn’t and how you can create a rich and compelling brand to stand out in the crowded marketplace. Find out more about Kimberley’s powerful work with Archetypes and how these apply to your business brand and call-in details here: http://iaplifecoaches.org/Events/masterclass4-3-13.html

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Always dreamed of becoming a published author?
Published previous books, but just can’t seem to get the next one on the page? Telling yourself it’s too hard and you don’t have the time?
What could you possibly share that would offer real value to the mountain of books already on the market?
And how would you ever manage to navigate the confusing and complex world of publishing and publicity?

If any or all of these questions resonate, have we got the Masterclass for you!

Some of the world’s most successful coaches say, if they could do one thing differently, they’d have become a published author much sooner. It’s a sure fire way to increase your visibility while touching a broad segment of the world’s population through an affordable medium.

Join Deborah Jane Wells—Life Coach, Organization Transformation Consultant, Artist, Author and Broadcast Personality—for an insightful and delightful look at the world of book writing and publishing that includes:

1. What being a published author can mean to you
2. Writing a book made easy
3. Repurposing your book material
4. Get started with a group book

It’s a know fact that published authors get more business than those who haven’t published.  That’s because being published gives you credibility.  But writing a book or even a chapter in a compilation book is a tough obstacle for many.

BUT… What if it’s much easier than you think? What if it could actually be fun? There are readers out there waiting for your unique message of hope, possibilities and empowerment. Join us and step even further into your greatness. You’ve got nothing to lose except your fears and limiting beliefs.

Come and learn how to write and publish, repurpose your writings, and the power of contributing to a group book.  Call-in details are here:
http://iaplifecoaches.org/Events/masterclass3-27-13.html

Learn how to write more authentic copy in the next live-only IAPLC masterclass: “Compelling Copywriting That Leaves Them Wanting More,” by Debra Gilroy. March 20th, 2013, 4pm EST.  Call-in details here:
http://iaplifecoaches.org/Events/masterclass3-20-13.html

Deb’s in-demand, content packed presentation includes:
•    Marketing copy as a Visibility tool
•    10 tips on writing copy
•    5 ways to overcome writer’s block
•    Resources to help with marketing copy

Words of marketing  messages can be cheap, they can be misused, misunderstood, meaningless, jumbled, dull and lack clarity. We are saturated with them every single day in the media, in our e-mails, smart phones, ipods, the internet, not to mention everyone we meet. Which messages stand out for you in this mountain of mayhem? It is the message that has a true voice behind it, that is real, heartfelt, well thought out, and touching in an authentic way.

If you talk, you can write. If you can sell, you can write marketing copy. If can’t sell, writing marketing copy will help you sell, because it gives you the words you need to say.

Visibility Marketing Coach Deb Gilroy shares her top 10 tips on writing your marketing copy that stands out for maximum effectiveness.  Her approach to authentic, effective, strategic and STAND OUT marketing is evident in her copywriting tips that can help you to get better results for your business services and draw more ideal potential clients to your list.

You’ll learn just how to be authentic in your writing, what to include and what not to include, the best way to write if writing isn’t your major strength, how to get your voice heard in a big world, and more.  Deb plans to share not only the tips, but how to translate them into action in your copywriting!

Details at: http://iaplifecoaches.org/Events/masterclass3-20-13.html

Deb Can be contacted at http://debragilroy.com

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