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Turn On Custom Instagram Notifications Feature To Nurture Your Sphere Of Influence Consistently

From generating new sales leads to finding the perfect recommendation for a service, your sphere of influence can be the driving force behind your success as an entrepreneur.

Your sphere of influence is the fundamental marketing force behind your business success, and just like any other business keeps its fundamentals warm, you need to keep it warm for it to keep producing benefits. 

If you’re wondering how to grow your SOI with your Instagram account, you’re so at the right place. Keep reading! 

Your Sphere of Influence (SOI) Is Not Just About Your Close Friends

They say you’re the result of your closest 5 friends. While this is accurate, when you are in growth mode, meaning, you want to bring new clients to buy your products or hire you, your circle cannot be just those 5 closest friends. This is where the SOI comes handy.

To start your SOI, build a database of people you know (250). This includes everyone. Start with your phone, then check your social media channels. You will be surprised! Then, next to each name grade them A, B or C based upon the last time you spoke to them. Someone you grade an “A” would be someone you feel absolutely sure will refer you, a “C” is your long lost elementary school buddy that you haven’t talked to in over 20yrs. 

Don’t worry is you can’t get too many A’s on that list. That’s about to change once you finish reading this article. So let’s keep going! 

WARNING! Your database might get you excited and you might want to craft a pitch and send it to every breathing human being on that list. I beg you to please DO NOT do it. That is called spam and you will be burning connections instead.  I don’t know about you, but, whenever I get a pitch from someone who I haven’t talked to in a while, I get very irritated. It makes me feel like they are all about a transaction and not the relationship.  

The Confession Letter: How To Get Back In Touch With Old Friends

If you haven’t kept in touch with many of the people you know, don’t worry about it. Life happens, you move, new schools, jobs and you simply lose contact. How do you then call them out of the blue as if nothing had happened? This is where the confession letter comes in.

You craft a letter that admits to your friends or clients that you are taking a new approach to business that puts relationships first. You confess that you haven’t been as proactive in your personal communications as you would like, and that you’ll be keeping in touch much more regularly from now on.

For your various groups, the letter would be written appropriately for each. Try to customize it as much as you can. And one thing … by letter it actually means a real letter, printed, and mailed. Email and chat can work, but if you truly want to go above and beyond to make it up to that connection, it’s better to send them a letter.

Let’s get you committed to getting as many A’s on your database as possible, and here’s how.  

Instagram Can Help You Expand Your Circles Easily

Since Instagram allows people to have public profiles, if you follow them, you will instantly get access to all their content. Note that this does not happen with Facebook or LinkedIn. So, there is no protective wall between you and your future best connection.  Interesting …

So how can Instagram help you grow your SOI with individuals?  

You will want to start with your database. Start with those A’s and B’s. Connect with them on Instagram.  Then, navigate to the suggested connections.

One of the very common questions asked by Instagrammers is how actually Instagram determines suggested profiles? The people you see on your suggested list are sometimes familiar but most of the time they can be random people you do not know. There surely is an algorithm behind how Instagram determines suggested profiles to you.  

Say, for example, you want to connect with people with high net worth. Start by being intentional about the connections you add. Don’t connect with random people, or profiles that don’t show high activity. 

Monitor your follower count and quality. Once you have a good amount of the kind of audience you want to build, say, about 250 great connections, engage with them consistently. A great way to keep up with your connections is by adding them as close friends. In this way you will see notifications of your updates and it will be easier for you to stay in touch with your Instagram followers. 

Follow this strategy, consistently, for about 2-4 weeks and Instagram will send you potential connections who have the same qualities of your current SOI. 

But … Why Do People Unfollow You On Instagram?

In the early days of Instagram Marketing, everyone wanted ways to get more Instagram followers. 

One of the ways to get those most wanted numbers was simply to follow people and then unfollow them so you could look like a celebrity. 

Make no mistake, most micro celebrities earned that status following this method. 

Have you ever received a message from a random person offering you followers for sale? I must admit, I tried that method and realized that it made no sense. Why would you want to add robots? Even when they tell you that you could get people to “follow” you for real, they will unfollow you.

The follow and unfollow game is part of the Instagram Marketing strategy. But for different reasons that, sadly, most business owners still can’t comprehend, due to the excessive misinformation out there. 

It’s Ok To Unfollow Connections 

  1. If you put some effort in engaging with them and they never reciprocate. 
  2. If they are inactive. 
  3. If they don’t have real pictures, especially their profile picture.
  4. If they share content that’s gross, repetitive, boring, and you sincerely dislike them.
  5. Those who are fishing for compliments.

Tips To Avoid The Unwanted Unfollow

  1. Share Instagram-worthy content. This is serious. Instagram is like a magazine. Your audience is not expecting to see your pictures of your scrapbook. 
  2.  
  1. Claim your authority and expertise, starting with your BIO. 
  2. Be strategic with your content.  
  3. Use hashtags to expand your reach.
  4. Engage in comments with like-minded individuals

A Pro Tip To Grow Your Sphere Of Influence And Nurture Those Connections (And Generate Leads On Instagram)

As a social media marketer with over 10 years of experience, I consider myself a master! When I hear tips and secrets, very often, they are not Instagram-only secrets. They apply to social media marketing in general.

One of the rules to generate leads is to engage in conversations just like in real life. Have a system to track the connections to follow up and get conversions.

Facebook allows you to edit your friends list so you can customize your notifications and feed. So does Instagram.

How do I turn notifications on or off for someone I follow on Instagram?

When you turn on notifications for someone you follow, you’ll get a notification every time that they share a photo or video. To turn notifications on or off:

  1. Go to their profile.
  2. Tap Following > Notifications.
  3. Tap next to one of the following to turn notifications on or off:
    • Posts
    • Stories
    • IGTV
    • Live Videos

If you’d like to turn notifications on or off for multiple people, you’ll have to visit each profile and turn them on or off individually. Keep in mind that you may get a push notification when someone you follow shares something for the first time in a while, whether or not you have notifications turned on for that person.

People aren’t notified when you turn notifications on or off for them.

Learn more about managing your notification settings. 

I wrote the Six Golden Rules of Social Media and shared the system I engineered and followed to generate multiple 7 figures in sales using social media marketing.

You might want to watch the recap of my 6 golden rules video!

https://youtu.be/4fBK0xsHeW0

Building your SOI using Instagram marketing will catapult your success. Especially because you can do it without leaving your home. 

Don’t forget that consistency is key to seeing real engagement. You certainly want to have a long term vision for your Instagram marketing strategy, just like any other digital marketing activity.

Strategy Yes, Tactics No!

Gone are the days where marketers promise get-rich-quick tactics. And if you have been following those, I suggest you take the time to craft your Instagram Marketing Strategy.

If you want, let’s keep this conversation on social media. 

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Social Media Marketing Plan For Life Coaches

It’s hard to know where to start when it comes to social media marketing.

You could spend hours reading blog posts and watching tutorials, or you could simply get a social media marketing plan for life coaches that considers the needs of your practice.

And that’s what this article is all about. You’re about to get a well-oiled social media marketing plan that will end with the struggle of what to post on social media to grow your coaching business accounts.

Let’s roll!

There’s one thing that separates a life coaching business from other businesses: your clients won’t hire you unless they can trust you. They don’t buy from you because you are the cheapest. Hence the reason why promotions are not really effective for life coaching businesses. You want people to hire you because you are the best and you can help them solve a problem.

For this reason, when we outline content for a life coach, we need to consider first their future buyers and their journey.

Since your clients need to like you, trust you, and believe in you, before they even consider working with you, your social media content needs to have a balance between those goals.

Our process to find content for social media for life coaches:

1. Figure out which social media platform(s) your target audience is using the most. If your website has traffic, check your analytics and find out where are they coming from the most. We’re finding that Facebook and Instagram are still at the top of the platforms for life coaches. For example, you can use Instagram Reels to drive new people to your channel, then, via Instagram Stories, offer them to download a guide, so you can follow up with them via email.

Pro tip: always pick the shortest journey. For example: sharing a video, then asking them to click so you can grab their email versus sharing a video, inviting them to a Facebook Group, and expecting the group to help you generate leads and sales.  Pick the shortest route!

2. Research. Once we define our journey to connect with the ideal client, we research for topics so we can see how the audience has responded. In that way, we don’t need to invent the wheel. Seasonality plays a big role here. Let’s say that you want to help women who are going through life transitions. If the holidays are approaching, create content that considers their struggles during that season.

3. Create long-form content. We love using social media to identify conversations. Then we create long-form articles using SEO tools that give us content ideas that are relevant to the topics. Having a well-oiled content writing system is key. In our social media marketing agency, our life coaching clients get 4 articles per month, plus 15 posts for their social media. This allows us to build a fresh calendar each month, so they never run out of content.

4. Build your editorial calendar. If you haven’t built a social media calendar, having a done-for-you social media planner will help you tremendously. Here’s our social media planner.

If you have a chance, watch this video series where I discuss the process to building a monthly calendar for your social media.


I have a 3-step process that simplifies your content creation process. I cover it all in Social Greatness- a FREE series where you’ll get a year of content, written for you.  This social media tool will save you dozens of hours!

5. Ordering graphics. Your main role in your marketing is to build your network. You’re not a graphic designer. Therefore, delegating this process is crucial to take your business to the next level. I could make graphics; but I won’t. Since you will be ordering graphics after having your editorial calendar ready, your process will flow effortlessly.

Your social media graphic order should look like this:

  • Inspiration: add a link to a style you likes
  • Text to include: clearly write what the text will say
  • Sizes: ask for the graphic in multiple sizes so you can use it for your feed and stories

6. Writing captions for your social media posts. Once your graphics are ready, it’s time to write captions. But, you won’t write them! For this phase, you can use AI to get social media captions. We’ve been using Jarvis (a software that writes professional content for you) and it has saved us hundreds of hours! Click here to check them out.

7. Use a scheduling platform. Facebook has enhanced their scheduling platform and it’s free! Use it!

Should I hire a social media marketing agency?

The short answer is NO.

As a life coach, you need more than a social media marketing agency. You need to grow your online presence, build authority, create content to monetize it, and attract clients. And all of this, while serving your clients. That’s a lot!

Your best hire will be a digital marketing team of experts that can be efficient and give your business what it needs so you can take it to the next level ASAP.

And if that team has a one-stop-shop where you can also create and produce content, even better! For those of you in Austin, Texas, MFG Agency is that one-stop-shop. We offer packages for life coaches, content creators, brands, and e-commerce businesses. Click here to chat about your business.

I know that sometimes it’s not easy to “brag” about yourself.

But… if you don’t share how amazing you are, who will?

Pay attention to conversations and find opportunities to get featured.

Get on the spotlight as much as possible!

  1. Get featured in publications
  2. Get interviewed
  3. Win an award
  4. Join a conference
  5. Play team with other industry leaders
  6. Join networking associations so you can expand your sphere of influence

Pro tip: Use your offline marketing to create content for your online marketing.

Your users are watching you. They want to see that “you are the real deal”.  And this is the kind of influence that will inspire them to work with you.

Coaches grow by growing their reputation. Your reputation, meaning reviews, is currency these days.

Take some time to ask your amazing clients to leave you a review on Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Then, use those reviews to create content and share it on Instagram. Not only you will gain followers but you will be able to turn them into clients.

Again, just because you don’t have a fancy social media presence today doesn’t mean you can’t change it. And the best part, you can do it today.

Bottom Line

Follow the tips mentioned above to get your life coaching business going. Focus on being genuine and organic on avoiding roadblocks in your coaching journey. Becoming successful in this field is not an overnight thing. It requires patience, passion, and perseverance. Keep on trying, and after some time, you will have more customers than you could possibly handle.

Who is Jessica Campos

My short bio: ⁣⁣⁣
Jessica Campos, JD, BBA⁣⁣⁣
Forensic Digital Marketing Mentor & MFG Agency Founder with over 15 years of experience. I found my way to escape from my law firm to start my beach life, over a decade ago. I’m a living testimonial that you can truly live from your mastery and talents and work from anywhere in the world while having a life. I have 4 children, a loving husband, and 2 amazing dogs. The word busy is not included in my vocabulary 😁I replaced it with “I am intentionally living a purpose-driven life and business.

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Start This Easy Social Selling Strategy Today For Immediate Results

Everyone wants to sell more, but not everyone seems to have the secret to more sales. Marketing is supposed to drive more sales, but, with so much information flooding our eyes, entrepreneurs struggle to distinguish the genuinely helpful marketing and sales strategies from the borderline useless.

Nobody has unlimited time and money to test every tool to determine which ones work best.  

Instead of following the process of elimination, which practically seems like throwing spaghetti against the walls, and see what sticks, entrepreneurs should focus on designing and optimizing a sales process. 

Simply put, stop trying the new marketing tactic on the block, and, instead, design a sales process that allows you to correlate your revenue-generating activities with your growth.

If the word sales process is making you cringe and your skin gets itchy, do not worry. I am going to debunk a sales process that will make you fall in love with sales. Pinky promise! 

What Is Social Selling? 

Buying and selling have always been social activities.  If I ask you to think about your first sale ever, perhaps you were 7 years old or so. 

Mine was in first grade and I had to knock on doors asking for donations for the Red Cross. I still remember the sound of the soda can where we had all the coins. My pitch was “Mrs. ____, would you like to cooperate with the Red Cross?”. 

Actually it was a regular campaign that our school had, so, by age 11 I won the top producer award! I created a bake sale, in addition to knocking on doors and asking for a favor! I guess we can say, I was born for marketing and sales.   

I’m pretty sure you have some memories too!

But what is social selling? Is it about being social and selling to people? The answer is NO. Social selling is a buzzword and there is a lot of misconception about the term.

Some people associate social selling with generating sales directly from social media channels, which is NOT accurate.

A social selling method is predicated on the fact that consumers “socialize” with others as part of their decision-making process.  This means, instead of selling directly to a consumer, convincing them about their needs and featuring the benefits of your products or services, you ignite those social conversations so consumers can make their decisions.

Social selling wasn’t born because of social media.

Before our lives were lit by a thousand screens full of stories and boomerang videos, and every other glowing corner of the internet, people asked others they knew for buying advice.  Social media happens to empower social selling which is why generating revenue through social media should be one of your goals.

The State of Social Selling

  • 93% of sales executives have not received any formal training on social selling (source)
  • 80% believe their salesforce would be more productive with greater social media presence but, 2/3 of companies have no social media strategy for their sales organization (source)
  • 50.1% of social salespeople spend 5-10% of their time on social media (source)
  • 53% of salespeople want help in understanding social selling better (source)
  • Marketers spend an average of 4-6 hours a week on social media (source)
  • 61% of US marketers use social media for lead generation (source)

Ingredients Of A Successful Social Selling Strategy

When I teach social selling on my workshops, in particular, LinkedIn Workshops, I explain my Hamburger Method. It’s a multi-ingredients formula that needs to be applied as a whole. Just like when you eat a burger (or vegan burger!). You can’t just eat cheese and say it’s a burger. Y

A social selling strategy is effective once all the ingredients are together.

6 C’s To Design Your Social Selling Strategy

1)   Consultative selling approach

2)   Content

3)   Culture

4)   Connections

5)   Conversations

6)   Conversions

Let’s cover each in detail.

1) Consultative Selling Approach

Consultative selling is an approach that focuses on creating value and trust with the prospect and exploring their needs before offering a solution. The salesperson’s first objective is building a relationship; their second is providing the right product.

Don’t make the mistake that plenty of sellers make: approach people, request them as a connection, and pitch them. That’s not what relationship marketing is about.

Being consultative helps sellers accomplish two important things:

1.By maintaining their focus on building relationships and connection with the client, respecting where they are, and genuine caring about them, they create a positive buying experience for the client that fosters an ongoing relationship and trust.

Relationships = trust.

2. Because they build trust, they gain needed information to deeply understand client needs, identify the right solution, and tailor what they say about products to ensure relevance and impact.

Research shows that 62% of customers say they share bad customer experiences with others. If you want to increase your customer experience, make no mistake, social selling will help you reach your goal.

2) Content That Can Lead Decision Makers Considering Your Solution

Notice that I wrote content and not content marketing. Content marketing is also a buzzword. This puts entrepreneurs at risk of receiving wrong advice and, therefore, getting wrong results.

Your content is a derivative of your communication. Your communication gets shared via your message. A clear message is needed, before putting a content marketing plan in place. This is an ingredient that, in my opinion, many entrepreneurs miss.

Perhaps you heard that you need a blog and share information so you can get people to find you on Google. While that can be true, blogging will be considered a key factor of your social selling strategy if the content is relevant to your target audience. In particular, decision-makers.

According to the statistics collected from Kapost, website conversion rate is 6 times higher for those who’ve adopted content marketing strategy than those who haven’t & there is a whopping 75% increase in marketing qualified leads through content only.

Content is not just about writing a blog post. To activate social selling, consider sharing content that ignites social interactions. Some examples:

  • Give people a story to tell.
  • A fact that they didn’t know.
  • Ignite hope that they can solve their biggest problem today.
  • Show them how much you care about them.

Recent stats reveal that 84% of conversations about your brand happen offline. This is why I insist that you can’t measure the impact of your social media channels by your likes and shares anymore.  That’s in the past.

Next time you go to an event, pay attention to how many conversations are happening and people are using their mobile devices to show something.

So, yes, social media can ignite your social selling, but it’s not the only way.

3) Culture

Culture is an unmissable ingredient of our recipe for success, especially if you are building a sales team. But what exactly is culture?

Culture is essentially a combination of the values and behaviors instilled in a company’s workplace. Some people call it corporate culture or organizational culture.

While it’s being referred to as an element needed to attract good talent, it also helps to attract great customers.

At the end of the day, I believe that when we align ourselves with people that share the same values, magic happens.

No matter the size of your sales team, in order to attain success using a social selling / consultative selling approach, everyone needs to be on board with the following behaviors that are a reflection of your values:

  • Lead with education
  • Represent a culture of respect
  • Being a positive influence in their community

But why all of this is relevant to sales? Because sales happen when people have positive conversations about your services or your products.  And when we say people, we refer to conversations that happen both offline, and online, mainly in social media.

Using social media marketing to showcase your company culture can not only boost staff morale, but can show potential clients and customers yet another reason why your organization is great to do business with. Here are 6 strategies you can use to embrace your company culture through social media.

4) Connections

So, your new sales approach has so far 1) Consultative selling approach, 2) Content, and 3) Culture.  With these 3, it’s time to put the theory in practice. Connecting with your audience.

Connecting with individuals can seem like a “common sense”. However, you will be surprised by how many sales efforts fail at this level.

When we say you need to have connections as part of your new social selling approach, we don’t give you the go-ahead and spam 50 people a day.  Believe it or not, this is what plenty of professionals do on LinkedIn as their “LinkedIn marketing”.

If your only usage of LinkedIn account has to do with sending 50 connection requests per day, chances that those “new connections” will turn into a sales opportunity are smaller than you climbing Mount Everest.

LinkedIn is a great platform to expand your network and get rich connections. But they won’t happen at the “connecting button level”. Your goal is to showcase your expertise and ignite engagement. This will happen, for instance, via LinkedIn groups and hashtag walls. 

You might want to check my guide on LinkedIn hashtags here.

5) Conversations

Imagine you and I just met at a doctor’s office and you ask me “would you like to lose 10 pounds”. Would that be appropriate? Absolutely not. 

The same rule goes for online conversations. This is common sense, right? It doesn’t seem to be a common practice for some social media users. 

Now that you are turning your social sales game on, you need to get used to some “data waste management”.

You commit to only engage in sound conversations and, at the same time, you become more selective with the data that comes to you. Don’t be afraid to delete people, remove them from your connections, or even block them.

Did you know that LinkedIn takes in consideration the quality of your connections? Yes. It’s not fair but it’s the truth. The more quality connections you have, the more visibility your profile will get.

You might be wondering, but how much time do I need to do all of this?  To prepare content, connect with people with authenticity, and ignite real conversations. 

I’m not gonna lie here. A social sales strategy is commonly rejected by sales teams because of the amount of time it takes. The best practice is to outsource parts of the implementation of this strategy, such as:

  • Content research
  • Content writing
  • Content distribution
  • Preliminary connections

Outsourcing these tasks will give you more time to practice social selling offline. 

  • Networking events
  • Speaking and workshops
  • Attend to conventions 

Now that you have a social selling mindset, your activities will be more strategically.   Don’t just go out to socialize. Apply social selling instead.

6) Conversions

The last C of our 6 C’s of social selling is conversions.  See the graphic below! Social selling is effective.

So many people want a high conversion rate without researching, defining what is a conversion, and testing their conversion sources. Don’t be one of those people.

Like any marketing activity, if you can’t measure it, you can’t predict it.

Some of the metrics you should watch to make sure your strategy is in good health:

  • Monitor web traffic with Google Analytics. 
  • Monitor the organic search appearances with Google Search Console. 
  • Add a clear call to actions on your website, including your blogs

Typically, until you reach about 5,000-6,000 web visitors per month, consistently, your main focus should be increasing web traffic. After you hit the benchmark (5,000) then you can focus on increasing conversion rates.   

For now, implement your social selling strategy and define clearly your conversion points and strategies.

What Results Should You Expect Immediately?

As soon as you establish your sales strategy and have real social conversations, you should experience an increase in engagement on social media, an increase in the number of people reached, and new connection requests from new people. This should happen within your first 48 hours. Yes, it’s that effective.

I can’t wait to read your feedback!

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Lead Generation Strategies: Your Master Guide for Finding Ideal Prospects (PDF 100 Ways To Generate Leads)

Fact: Leads are the heart of any business. 

But why? 

Because you’re in business to make a profit, and you can only make a profit if you provide the products and services that your customers demand. 

Wait a second! Shouldn’t advertising bring you clients? This seems like a legit question, right? The inconvenient truth is: marketing and sales are two separate activities that are intended to bring you profits. 

If you’re a solopreneur, you probably learned this lesson the hard way. You realize that there are only 24 hours in a day and you need to work on your lead generation activities, work with clients, plus find creative juices to market your business. 

It’s exhausting! And when the cash flow is not at the level that you expected, your business starts to bring more stress than joy.

Joy is coming your way, no worries! 

Let’s discuss my favorite talk! It’s called 100 Ways To Generate Leads. 

I’ve been doing this talk in person and the response has been so amazing that I decided to share my talk with our blog readers– just because you’re wonderful.

And… if you’re reading this during the month of August, you’re primed to sprint over the last 90 productive days we have left before 2020 comes. 

You read it right. We have about 13 days before we start thinking about turkey. Once this happens, 2020 is right around the corner. For most professionals and entrepreneurs, the holidays slow down their prospecting activities. 

So let’s hook you up with my 100 Ways To Generate Leads. Get ready to implement proven strategies to grow your business!

Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Generating Leads

A common mistake that many entrepreneurs make when it comes to generating sales leads is to try and use only mass communication techniques. 

Some start collecting contacts and add them to their newsletters. Others add their contacts to their social media channels and start prospecting right away. 


What is the problem with mass communication techniques?  

Your contacts are not leads!  Just because I accepted you as a friend on Facebook doesn’t mean I’m interested in buying from you or hire your services. Prospecting on social media is possible. But it’s not about spamming people.

Or … another example, with networking events. People show up to networking events full of business cards. They approach new connections and hand out their business cards, simply saying “Hello, nice meeting you, here is my business card, can I have yours?”  Then… they add the contact to their email list. 

If your email list has contacts that never showed any intention to work with you and you added them just because you thought they should read your content, those are not leads. 

During my workshop, I formed a debate with the audience, asking them how they define what a lead is. I got many different answers! 

A lead is a sales lead when they have expressed interest in your products or services. For example: they requested an appointment and you have clarified that the appointment is to talk about your products or services (not theirs). Trust me here. I’ve seen this over and over. Especially those coffee invites.  This is another common mistake.

I know why entrepreneurs do it. They want to put their name out there.

While getting your message out to as many people as possible can be beneficial in many respects, personal contact is just as important if you are hoping to develop a long-term relationship with your customers and clients.

You need a lead generation system. 

First Steps To Build Your Lead Generation System

I wrote an article on prospecting explaining my eight “tags” I use to classify the contacts, with each definition, in case you need more clarification on what is a lead. 

For now, let’s get you to review your revenue goals and try to calculate your conversion rates:

  • From connections (suspects) to prospects, what is your ratio?
  • From prospects to leads?
  • From leads to sales opportunities?

About a year ago I hired a sales team so they could help me work with my list of “qualified leads.”  While the sales team did an amazing job at following up with the list, we realized that these leads had the wrong classification. 

This helped us changing our lead generation system completely.

We decided to clean up our email marketing system, and deleted the leads that came from free tools we offered on landing pages- free book, free PDF, free webinar and only tagged leads when they requested a discovery session or completed a marketing assessment.   

Who Is A Lead For Your Business, Anyway?

Don’t just tell me “anyone with a face” if you sell skincare products. Those are not leads! They are not even prospective customers.  Come up with a clear activity that will help you filter or “funnel” those contacts further into your pipeline, so you can generate more leads and track your real conversion rate.

100 Ways To Generate Leads

So let me tell you about this list. It has both digital marketing ways and offline marketing strategies. I called them “ways” but there is a strategy for each.

For example, business cards. You can say “oh I have business cards” and check that item on the list!  But, are your business cards strategized to turn someone from contact into a prospect? If your business cards just have your contact information, then you are missing a GREAT opportunity to generate leads. 

Your 30 second commercial or elevator pitch is another big one. Learning how to communicate in a way that you can promote your business with ease and grace might take some practice, but with some strategies, you can master this skill. I teach a very simple template to craft the elevator pitch: I do ____________ so that ____________.

When you’re describing your services, always keep in mind WITFM = What Is In There For Me, Don’t just say what you do. Features tell what you can do. Benefits sell by relating how the product or service features help the buyer. 

The list also includes places where you can have a listing. This is HUGE for small business owners. You want to take the time to explore where can you add your name and listing, to add more opportunities to connect with prospects. 

I’m sure you will be able to gather a lot of strategies, just from this list. Let’s get you the full version!

How To Select Your Best Ways To Get Leads

With the list, take an inventory of what you have done to generate leads and which strategies you would like to add. 

✔ Those that you have already mastered and have generated results, will stay. Then, add:

✔Those lead generation activities that fit your talent and skills zone. You have no time to lose! 

✔Add those lead generation activities that someone else will do on your behalf. Outsource!

You should have at least 15 lead generation strategies to incorporate to your prospecting activities.  Take a moment and work on the list! 

1) I’ve mastered these 5 Lead Generation Ways: (Networking, Social Media, Nextdoor App)

______________________.

 

2) I would like to learn how to master these 5 Lead Generation Ways: (Social media, podcasting, LinkedIn)

______________________.

 

3) I would love to outsource these 5 Lead Generation Ways: (Content Marketing, SEO, Webinars)

______________________.

 

A Forensic Marketing Expert Makes A Difference

Jessica Campos, JD, BBA is an educator, author, forensic digital marketing expert & strategist.  She traded in her law career in order to pursue her passion: helping entrepreneurs build wealth by taking advantage of the thriving content economy. 

Jessica‘s 15+ years of experience in entrepreneurship, background in law and business, tracked online sales record, and her network, represent a wealth of resources for professionals and entrepreneurs that want to attain success.

Get instant access to her latest book, The 6 Golden Rules of Social Media at www.marketingforgreatness.com. And while you’re there, make sure to check The Greatness Blog and The Greatness Marketing Podcast. 

Book a Free Forensic Marketing Session and let’s get ready to know what I know www.marketingforgreatness.com/assessment 

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Business Model Canvas: It’s Time To Bulletproof Your Business

The Business Model Canvas was created by Alexander Osterwalder, of Strategyzer. This fascinating tool has been featured in multiple publications, including Forbes, where they describe it “as simple enough to sketch on a whiteboard — and powerful enough to refocus the way you view your business”.

If you’re looking to grow your business and don’t know where to start, running your ideas through a Business Model Canvas will allow you to identify potential areas where you can improve.

VIP Strategy Day

In case this is your first time at The Greatness Blog, let me get you acquainted with the context of this information.

I’m a forensic marketer, attorney, educator, and CEO of a successful media company in Austin. I’m Caribbean and my DNA boils when I connect with amazing people! I guess you can call me an extrovert. When it comes to working as a forensic marketer, there’s something to be said when I call an event where all my clients get together. They are AMAZING (both, my clients and the events).

VIP Strategy day is a day where my clients come and spend a day together. We are actually planning a 2-day VIP Day, since we always feel like time goes way too fast and we want more.

The Power of In-Person Interactions

Unlike attending to a video call or a webinar, when my clients come to an event, I get a face-to-face experience that takes the mentorship and coaching process to another level. I can see and feel their breakthroughs. Because of the “content overload” problem we have, face-to-face communication creates a much greater impact.

Our VIP Day allows participants to build more meaningful relationships with other entrepreneurs. I have seen collaborative projects, introductions, and ideas being born during our VIP Days. And if you think about it, it makes sense to cut the noise have intentional conversations with like-minded individuals. It builds a level of trust that cannot be built through a computer screen.

Entrepreneurs over produce ideas

Nearly a quarter of adults around the world are chronic procrastinators, according to research conducted by Joseph Ferrari, professor of psychology at DePaul University and author of the book Still Procrastinating: The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done.

In my opinion, after being an entrepreneur for about 6,500 days (and still counting) and mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs over the last decade, the main reason why entrepreneurs have lots of unfinished projects is due to the fact that they overproduce ideas. Their mind won’t stop thinking. They are in a constant search for solutions, systems, and resources. Even the most successful ones, can’t stop thinking about ways to live a fulfilled life.

Accountability accelerates your performance

The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) did a study on accountability and found that you have a 65% of completing a goal if you commit to someone. And if you have a specific accountability appointment with a person you’ve committed, you will increase your chance of success by up to 95%.

During our VIP Days, we discuss big-picture strategy, find the areas of opportunity for growth, and set up goals around them. Having access to a community who provides encouragement and support makes a difference.

For this particular event, I added the Business Model Canvas as a tool to map a successful business model and develop a clear plan of action, focusing on revenue generating activities.

The Business Model Canvas

Please note, there is no particular order to complete this Canvas. But in my experience, to bulletproof a business, you must start with the fundamentals.

So today we will cover exactly that!

Customer Segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, and revenue streams.

Fundamental Step 1: Identify your Customer Segments

Customers are the heart of your business model. Without (profitable) customers, your company can not survive for long. In order to better satisfy your customers, you may group them into distinct segments with common needs, jobs-to-get-done, common behaviors, or other attributes. Your business model may have one or several large or small Customer Segments.

If you have been serving a group of customers that are no longer bringing profits to your business, you must make a conscious decision about which segments to serve and which segments to ignore. Once this decision is made, your business model can be carefully designed around a strong understanding of specific customer needs and jobs-to-be-done.

 

Don’t confuse customer segments with future buyer personas or avatars that you could have identified during your marketing campaigns. This Business Model Canvas serves to take a look at your business taking the big picture approach.

 

Customer groups represent separate segments if:

– Their needs require and justify a distinct Value Proposition

– They are reached through different Distribution Channels

– They require different types of relationships

– They have a substantially different profitability

– They are willing to pay for different aspects of the Value Proposition

See for example Amazon Business Model and note that they added Content Creators as part of their customer segments.

Example: Customer Segments For Our Media Company

1) Service providers | Local business owners | E-commerce

2) Marketing agencies and enterprises

Fundamental Step 2: Identify your value proposition for each customer segment

 

Image result for value proposition business model canvas

Also known as a unique selling proposition (USP), your UVP is a clear statement that describes the benefit of your offer, how you solve your customer’s needs and what distinguishes you from the competition. Your unique value proposition should appear prominently on your landing page and in every marketing campaign.

How do you find your best value proposition?

At a simplistic level, think about the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?).

Every marketer understands the WIIFM concept. You have an idea of how to address your customers, understand their needs, and speak in their language. That’s the entry price to understanding marketing.

The WIIFM are all the features and benefits your prospects could get from your products and services. But you can’t communicate with them all at once. If you try to emphasize everything, you’ll say nothing.

So, how do you know which features are most important to your customers?

Don’t forget to match your customer segments with the WIIFM by using the same color!

For our media company, here is how it looks:

Customer segment 1: Service providers | Local business owners | E-commerce. The UVP (unique value proposition) is:  consulting, e-learning,  Entrepreneurs’ Inner Circle for rapid growth.

Customer segment 2: Marketing agencies and enterprises. The UVP is: outsourced social media marketing, content marketing, and search engine marketing.

Fundamental Step 3: Identify your channels

Your communication, distribution, and sales Channels comprise your company’s interface with customers. Your Channels are customer touch points that play an important role in the customer experience. Your Channels serve several functions, including:

  • Raising awareness among customers about a company’s products and services
  • Helping customers evaluate a company’s Value Proposition
  • Allowing customers to purchase specific products and services
  • Delivering a Value Proposition to customers
  • Providing post-purchase customer support

 

Image result for business model canvas channels example

Your channels can be own by you or by someone else. For example, if your business is e-commerce, you might have Amazon as a channel versus creating your own e-commerce website.

Related image

In order to identify which channels are key to drive revenue to your business, take a look at your best customers and recreate their journey.  I’m a big believer of McKinsey Model and The Loyalty Loop.

The decision-making process is a more circular journey, with four primary phases representing potential battlegrounds where marketers can win or lose: initial consideration; active evaluation, or the process of researching potential purchases; closure, when consumers buy brands; and postpurchase, when consumers experience them.

In our media company, the best channels are:

  • Events for brand awareness
  • Direct marketing using social media
  • Webinars and videos consideration
  • Our website with a robust content marketing calendar and points of conversions

Note that the channels can overlap amongst your different customer segments.

Fundamental Step 4: Identify your customer relationships. Questions to ask.

Image result for customer relationships business model canvasWhen it comes to owning your own business, word of mouth referrals are gold. And, when you focus on building your business’s people-to-people connection, you create that “WOW” factor that gets your customer’s talking.

Customers want to feel special and important because they don’t often get to feel that way in other areas of life. This is key to remember because customers rarely purchase products or services solely based on the products intended result. Deep down, they are also asking themselves, “What will this do for me, or provide for me?”

The answer isn’t just the product results. The answer includes all of the feelings and desires that come with that product and the results. It’s all about the experience.

For each customer segment, think about their journey and the experience you want them to have.

  • What type of relationship does each of our Customer Segments expect us to establish and maintain with them?
  • Which ones have we established?
  • How costly are they?
  • How are they integrated with the rest of our business model?
  • How can I retain my clients?
  • Can I get repeated transactions with my clients?
  • What truly matters for them?

Customer loyalty and retention must be evaluated as part of your strategy.

According to research from Harvard Business School, increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent increases profits by 25 percent to 95 percent. 

Let’s take a look at some ideas.

  1. Create perks in the customer experience
  2. Continuously test email strategies
  3. Tailor your loyalty program to your business goals
  4. Be where your customers are
  5. Be passionate and engaged
  6. Offer time-limited promotions
  7. Be transparent and honest with your customers
  8. Don’t over-promise
  9. Create a customer community around your brand
  10. Incentivize social shares
  11. Stand for something
  12. Use positive social proof
  13. Invoke the inner ego
  14. Position around the before and after
  15. Use the words they love to hear
  16. Reduce pain points and friction
  17. Capture your product’s momentum
  18. Don’t just sell — educate
  19. Don’t overspend to delight
  20. Make use of surprise reciprocity
  21. Don’t underestimate the power of ‘thank you’
  22. Make it personal
  23. Reduce effort before delivering delight
  24. Accept that speed is secondary to quality
  25. Know your customers
  26. Choose the right platform
  27. Solve cause and effect
  28. Give loyal customers a head start
  29. Make ideal customers VIPs
  30. Reward your loyal advocates

Research from the Corporate Executive Board that included 7,000 consumers from across the U.S. found that of those consumers who said they had a strong relationship with a brand, 64 percent cited shared values as the primary reason. If you want loyal customers, you need to create real connections with them. What do you stand for?

If you have the steps 1-4 covered, you have a proof of concept, congratulations! Now the next step is to make sure you’re not leaving money on the table.

Fundamental Step 5: Revenue streams

Designing your revenue model is, perhaps, the biggest challenge.  You might have trouble assigning a real valuation to your services, or calculating your profit so you can create a stable financial model.

Business-model-canvas- revenue streams

You must ask yourself, for what value is each Customer Segment truly willing to pay? 

The Ecommerce Revolution

Companies like Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Amazon, and Uber have altered consumer’s perceived value and reasons to buy. From the revenue model perspective, ecommerce has created a revolution.  There are $4.8 trillion in retail ecommerce sales projected worldwide for 2021. Companies embracing ecommerce marketing strategies are experiencing rapid growth. In 2017, there were 1.66 billion online buyers. This number is expected to skyrocket to 2.14 billion by 2021.

Retail shops are suffering a big hit. These chains are closing stores in 2019 (Target is included).

Uber Revenue Model

Have you noticed that Uber generates revenues without having to own physical products, hire direct labor, or get inventory?Uber’s primary business model merges mobile technology and data to create an uncommon customer experience built on convenience, fair pricing and the novelty of it all. Layered on top of its business model is a very basic marketing strategy: Make customers happy and make it easy for them to tell the world.

First Build A Brand. Then You’re In Business.

Starbucks started as a small, independently owned coffee joint in Seattle. The owner at the time was just selling coffee. The minute Starbucks evolved to create an experience of connection, community and collaboration, it became a place where people feel like they belong — where they could meet like-minded friends and exchange thoughts. Businesses that do this from the get-go carve a following of brand ambassadors who are loyal and loud.

When you think of businesses that have a huge impact, you’re really thinking about the brand. Any business that sells things can do well, but those that create feelings and emotions become imprinted in people’s minds. They also gain more visibility and sales that way than through traditional means of growing a business. What can you learn from Uber, Amazon, and Starbucks?

  • Are you considering the e-commerce revolution as part of your revenue model?
  • Are you factoring your personal brand into your revenue model?
  • If you are selling services, are you charging by the hour? Can you offer other services digitally so that people can get more value from you, from the convenience of their cellphone?

In Closing

There is a huge opportunity for CEOs/Owners to excel in performance with a well-crafted strategy. Bottom line, execution without strategy is aimless.

Let me know what you think of the Business Model Canvas and share some of your own experiences. I would love to hear from you. Stay tuned for more steps from the Business Model Canvas.

Book a Forensic Marketing Demo. I would love to hear all about your business model. 

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Strategies To Boost Your LinkedIn Profile

If you’re wondering how to create a LinkedIn profile that helps you stand out from the crowd, you’re so at the right place.  This article is packed with LinkedIn profile tips that will give you more visibility, more connections, and more opportunities to grow your revenue.

Before I get into the strategies on how to market on LinkedIn, let’s cover first why you want to be active on LinkedIn and why this social media platform will produce the best ROI is your objective is to generate leads.

Ignoring LinkedIn is like opening a restaurant and don’t tell anyone

According to LinkedIn, the site has 500 million members, 61 million senior-level influencers, and 40 million decision-makers using the website. The network does not just boast large amounts of users, but the users are influential, high-level executives that most businesses are targeting in their B2B marketing campaigns. LinkedIn, therefore, is a clear place to reach these decision-makers when trying to promote a product or service.

LinkedIn users are educated and earn high incomes. 49% of U.S. adults using LinkedIn are college graduates, and 45% of them earn over $75,000 a year, which is more per year than Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram users (Pew Research Center).

Furthermore, according to the site itself, LinkedIn is the most-used social media platform amongst Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn is a serious website to use for business, unlike other social networks which have a familial element to them as well.

Though a vanity metric, it’s worth noting that LinkedIn makes up more than 50% of all social traffic to B2B websites and blogs (LinkedIn study). While this statistic does not necessarily mean that the traffic is relevant traffic, LinkedIn does bring users to the company website hopefully to be nurtured in the sales funnel.

B2B Marketers not only use LinkedIn to network but also to share content. There are nine billion content impressions in the LinkedIn feed every week (LinkedIn study). About 45% of LinkedIn article readers are in upper-level positions, including managers, VPs, Directors, and C-level positions (LinkedIn study). Content published or posted on LinkedIn has a good chance of getting in front of the target audience or a decision-maker, which means it must be high-quality and well-written.

What really matters from these LinkedIn Stats?

  • ✔️LinkedIn users are highly educated. Actually, almost 50% of users have a college degree.
  • ✔️B2B websites get more than 50% of their traffic via LinkedIn. This is huge!
  • ✔️LinkedIn users consume content (finally you will have readers!) and almost 50% of those readers are decision makers. (You should be jumping by now).

LinkedIn Won’t Work Unless You Have A great LinkedIn Profile

I am assuming you know this already and that’s why you found me. So what exactly is required to have a great LinkedIn Profile and why I say LinkedIn won’t work otherwise? Since I don’t take gurus for granted and you should not do it either, let’s cover here the mechanics behind the algorithm so you can see where does your profile stand.

You Gotta Hack The Algorithm

Recently, LinkedIn released this helpful graphic that visually explains how their algorithm works:

In addition to what’s included in this flowchart, content is ranked and displayed based on your account’s reputation, how users have engaged with your content before, and what else is being posted.

There are also a lot more unknown factors affecting your visibility in the main feed. But let’s focus on what we do know, starting with this chart.

Filter #1

The first step in the flow is pretty simple: every time you post something, the LinkedIn feed algorithm determines whether it’s spam, low quality, or good to go. Obviously, you want to be in the “good to go” category.

Filter #2

If you passed go, your content appears in the feed temporarily.

During this stage, LinkedIn’s algorithm bots look at how your audience engages with the content.

If they’re liking it, commenting on it, or sharing it, that’s a good sign you’ll make it through to the next filter.

If people mark it as spam or hide it from their feed, LinkedIn is going to take that into account—and not in a good way.

Filter #3

At this step, the LinkedIn algorithm will look beyond the content of your post to determine if it should keep showing up in users’ feeds.

They’ll look at you and your network to determine whether or not this is a spam post and whether your network will enjoy it. This is because LinkedIn wants to avoid rewarding spam accounts and content with viral visibility.

Based on this stage, LinkedIn can remove your content from the feed or display it less often.

In either scenario, it’s up to your network to engage with your post and keep it around for another review.

Filter #4

Finally, humans enter the process. At this point, editors review your post to determine whether it should keep showing, whether they might include it somewhere else like a channel, or whether they can derive any takeaways from it for future algorithm tweaks and product development.

Is your mind about to explode by now? I don’t blame you.

Let me cover a basic list of things you need to remember about the Algorithm:

  • ✔️Your network matters and your content matters. That is all. All you need to do is focus on getting access to a trusted network and this can only happen by having a trusted LinkedIn presence, a.k.a. LinkedIn profile.
  • ✔️Believe it or not, LinkedIn reviews the relevance of your behavior by looking at your audience’s careers. Have you noticed a pattern in the recommendations they send your way?
  • ✔️A common mistake I see when I manage LinkedIn for my clients is their lack of strategic connections. They simply accept requests but never pay attention to the strategy behind their networking activities. Typically they have co-workers and people from their same industry, which will never turn into leads and real sales opportunities.
  • ✔️While you can’t control everyone who follows you, you can game the system somewhat to work in your favor.

I created a LinkedIn training that covers a step by step, video tutorials, on how to get leads and sales using LinkedIn, but let’s cover here the very first transformational move: create a powerful LinkedIn profile.

Your Profile Strength Meter

The Profile Strength meter gauges how robust your profile is. The strength of your profile will increase as you add more relevant content to it. The feature recommends which profile sections you could add to in order to improve the discoverability of your profile in search results, and to increase profile search appearances. The meter is displayed on both desktop and the LinkedIn mobile app.

To view the Profile Strength meter:

  1. Click the  Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
  2. Select View profile.
  3. Below your top card information, move your cursor over the meter to see which steps you’ve completed.
  4. Click the  Dropdown icon in the upper right corner of the meter to discover more information about the next profile strength completion step.
  5. Follow the prompts to complete any of the steps listed.

Once the meter is full and all prompts are complete, you’ll receive an All-Star profile rating.

If you’re an All-Star user, then we will focus on getting your profile optimized for views and optimized for leads. These are tactics very similar to the tactics used in Google, to get you more views and more users.

Important best practices you should follow

1) Photo. No logo. Not your team. Not your office. A photo, professional, showing you approachable and trusted. Not sure if your photo makes the cut? Try this software! Photofeeler.

2) Your specialty. What do you do? Speak directly to your potential leads. Assume they search for you. Use common and clear words.

3) Your “summary” should be creative. Please, don’t be boring here! If you make it the exact same way as your competitors are writing their summary, nobody will be compelled to read it. Use emojis and bullet points.

4) Video! This is a great way to show your authority. Especially if you’re looking for speaking engagements.

5) Contact info. Most people forget to add their contact info or they hide it.

Follow these tips and you can ensure that you have a killer LinkedIn profile that will stand out to recruiters, hiring managers, and potential customers.

If you need a killer LinkedIn Bio, our content experts can totally get that done for you. Complete the contact form and we will reach out.

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4 Lessons Disney Can Teach Business Owners/Entrepreneurs for Marketing Magic

My family and I recently made a new tradition – to skip Christmas and go on a family trip to make memories instead.

This year, we went to Disney – the ultimate magical family vacation.

Let me say this: The Disney magic is strong. While we wandered around the park, I was intrigued and impressed with their ability to make every level of their operations feel magical.

How do they do it? When you look at their history – past and present – you start to get an idea:

  • Walt Disney was creative, innovative, and relentless. His personal story is inspiring. (Think about the lack of technology when he started animating in the early 20th century.)
  • Disney’s inventiveness carried on, resulting in dozens of beloved movies like Cinderella, The Lion King, Frozen, and Beauty and the Beast.
  • Disney’s growth during the last decade has been impressive. This was my 4th visit and I was shocked! No wonder. Check their growth.

4 Lessons Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Can Learn from Disney

Disney has been one of the world’s biggest brands for over 90 years. The parks are a wonderful picture of how that’s possible.

So, what can we learn from them?

1. Have a Long-Term Vision

When Walt Disney created Disneyland, he bought 160 acres of land to build it. But, that wasn’t big enough to create the theme park he originally imagined. Disneyland was soon surrounded by fast food restaurants, cheap hotels, and billboards.

Disney didn’t want to make that mistake twice. He knew Walt Disney World would be a success, so he went all-in. He purchased 47 square miles of land in Florida – over 30,000 acres. Only about one-quarter of that land is developed today. (For scope, Walt Disney World is the same size as San Francisco!)

Why did Disney buy so much land when there was no certainty it would pay off? He had a vision and he bet on his success.

2. Hire for Character/People Matter

Disney employees aren’t just employees – they’re hired for their promise to create magic in the lives of park guests. (This might be why they’re called “cast members” whether they wear a costume or not.)

Disney calls their cast members “the most valuable part of our organization.”

3. Premium Sells

Going to Disney isn’t cheap. But, for the price, the experience you get in return is worth it.

Like Apple, Disney uses a premium model for differentiation. This means:

  • There are fewer experiences available (there are Disney parks all over the world, but most people have to travel to visit them).
  • The experiences are higher-end (most guests stay at the Walt Disney World Resort when visiting the park and enjoy the complete Disney experience).

4. Leverage the Power of Storytelling

Disney gives guests the power to create a story. In their parks, they offer photogenic corners and hire professional photographers to capture guest moments. And, the photographers aren’t just there to take a boring pic – they’re creative!

Truly, the focus on their guests is Disney’s secret to the magic.

Want More Tips for Marketing Magic?

There’s more marketing magic where that came from. Join our Free Marketing Tips Facebook group for more insights. Plus, new members get a link to book a coffee connect call with me!

 

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Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing

Incorporating word of mouth marketing (WOMM) into social media is key for increasing leads by 50% or more.

In fact, studies show that 92% of people take family and friends’ recommendations and word-of-mouth over traditional marketing — that’s powerful!

So, how can you leverage this strategy for your brand? This article will give you some quick, useful ways to bolster your WOMM strategy right now.

Proven Marketing Strategies to Skyrocket Your Word of Mouth Marketing

There are multiple ways to activate inbound traffic, and each depends on the industry, revenue goals, target audience, and marketing budget.

However, WOMM is a crucial and dynamic tool all digital marketers should include in their overall marketing strategy. Here are a few ways to incorporate it into yours.

1. Tap into the Power of Social Media

Social media is all about word of mouth, and you can expect outstanding results from tapping into it. For example, Instagram reported that one in five Instagram stories leads to a direct message.

In other words, when you create content on Instagram, 20% of the time it will lead to an opportunity to start a conversation with a potential customer.

You don’t even have to do any selling.

For a business owner or marketer, that opportunity for dialogue is a huge win. It certainly was for Tyler McCall, who’s mastered the art of the Instagram story arc to take his business viral.

To further expand your reach on social media, use mentions. Target your clients via shout-outs and ignite their conversations — and your influence!

2. Conduct Events to Boost Connections

You can expand WOMM reach by co-opting the influence of others through events. These can be local and in-person, or online.

Whether you choose to network virtually or in real life, be strategic. Define goals ahead of the event and work towards them.

Then, after each event invite participants to participate further in a social media private group. I host monthly events in which I encourage participation in our Facebook community afterwards.

To underscore the power of this simple technique, my audience has grown organically by 85% over last year using this strategy.

3. Bundle User-Generated Content and Personal Response

Everyone loves to be valued and heard.

That’s why user-generated content (UGC) is so powerful. In fact, when people share their experience with a brand, it garners a higher engagement level when compared with the brand’s own posts.

And big brands like Tesla and Netflix are jumping on the bandwagon, giving fast, personal responses to customer’s social media queries and featuring customer-created images in their marketing.

4. Analyze Your ROI with Location Data

A successful inbound social media strategy should result in conversations and conversions.

Social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook allow users to share location data, which can be analyzed to determine your return-on-investment (ROI).

Join Us for Some Real-Time WOMM Skill-Building

The best part of WOMM is that it’s relatable. Even someone with few marketing skills can learn to leverage word-of-mouth for their brand. You can do this!

Want to see word-of-mouth marketing in action and discover how to make your next product launch an extraordinary success? Join our Inner Circle today and get your next launch (or your current endeavor) off to a flying start! 

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Network Event Marketing — Translating Offline Leads into Online Revenue

How many networking events have you attended in the last 12 months? And how many leads have you gotten from this assortment of coffees, meet-ups, conventions, and luncheons?

If you haven’t been developing new connections at these events, you might be missing the boat. And let’s face it — for small businesses, time is money.

If you’re spending a significant chunk of your day at a networking event and not actually building your network, then your return on investment (ROI) is going down the tubes.

Don’t worry, I’ve got the solution to the networking event marketing problem — and you can implement it before your next meetup!

How Networking Event Marketing and My Golden Rules Go Hand-in-Hand

Have you read my book, The Six Golden Rules of Social Media Marketing? If not, pick up a copy here. In the meantime, here’s a quick recap of the rules themselves:

  • Golden Rule 1: Make real connections
  • Golden Rule 2: It’s not about you!
  • Golden Rule 3: Be personal but not private
  • Golden Rule 4: Offer value, not a sale
  • Golden Rule 5: Be a storyteller
  • Golden Rule 6: Engage and follow up to get your ROI

These rules, when applied correctly, help boost your social media presence and help you become the thought leader you were meant to be. Additionally, they may help you with your next networking event.

For example, the next time you attend a network event, be sure you’re presenting a polished professional image to be able to engage with other professionals and make real connections.

Besides dressing appropriately, this includes ensuring your website is up to snuff, you’ve got professional business cards with you, and you have an idea of what you’ll say to the usual “So, what do you do?” kind of questions.

At the event, offer relatable, personal anecdotes that can help you tell a story about the kind of value you can offer as a connection.

Remember, though, don’t monopolize the conversation — it’s not about you. It’s about letting your peers know that a connection with you can add value to their overall strategy.

Finally, don’t forget to follow up with new connections after the event to cement your relationship and begin moving forward.

Add a Dash of Forensics and You’re Golden!

Forensics at a networking event? Yes! You can use forensic marketing after your event to analyze outcomes for better results next time.

Forensic marketing refers to breaking down metrics to discover that “sweet spot” that gets your audience — in this case, your networking peers — primed and ready to do what you need them to.

After each event, organize business cards, making personal notes on each to help you remember the person later. Think about which interactions went well — and why — to help you perfect your “elevator pitch” for next time.

Finally, connect further by sending follow-up emails and engaging on social media platforms.

Are you ready to launch something new this year and want the professional support you need for success? Join our powerful Inner Circle network and learn how to get your new project off the ground —and producing revenue — in no time!

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Instagram Influencer: The Ultimate Guide To Do It The Right Way

There’s no doubt about it: influencer marketing is one of the hottest ways to reach new and potential customers in today’s digital world – especially if those customers are Millennials.

But is this buzzword-laden tactic actually worth your time and energy?

According to a recent study comprised of marketers from a variety of industries, 94% said influencer marketing was an effective campaign strategy. That’s great news for marketers — right?

Not so fast.

Even though a majority of marketers believe influencer marketing is a viable tactic, it’s still incredibly challenging to report accurately on influencer campaign return on investment (ROI). In fact, 78% of marketers said that determining the success of influencer marketing campaigns would be a top challenge this year, which is why today we will cover our Instagram Influencer Ultimate Guide- Our Best Practices To Boost Your Revenue Using Influencer Marketing. 

When you first think of social media influencers, you likely picture individuals with flawless Instagram aesthetics, and follower counts in the millions.

But those are not the individuals we’re discussing in this article – here, I want to provide some insights into the power of micro-influencers, individuals with average follower counts, but with strong levels of influence over said groups within niche geographic or virtual communities.

That influence is due to their authentic connection with their audiences, developed by being a leader or expert in a particular field, and directly engaging with their communities.  At the end of the day, you should be able to reach your ideal client, just like in every other marketing outlet.

Who Is An Influencer In Front Of Your Ideal Client

Did you know a sponsored post from Kim Kardashian can range anywhere from $173,000 to $289,000? Could you imagine how many non-celebrity individuals you could get to post for you for a fraction of that fee – or for that matter no fee at all? And… even more important, how many conversations do you think the audience can have with Kim Kardashian? I mean, really? 

When a client requests that we create an influencer marketing strategy, the first step is to define who we want to influence. For example, if you sell nutritional supplements, you want to target individuals who are looking to improve their weight, performance, energy, and endurance. If your products cater to a narrower audience, like the vegan community, for example, then your influencer must have the power to affect the vegan community.

By the way, if we are not Instagram partners, follow me here.

Traits of Successful Influencers

Here is a list of the traits we look for in order to consider an individual an influencer:

  1. They have reached a level of mastery in the targeted industry.
  2. They have a clean online presence (check them on Google, Youtube, LinkedIn, and website). If they have third-party validation, even better!
  3. Their values are consistent with the brand we want to promote. Ideally, they have a blog where you can read their content and get a good sense of their opinion.
  4. They have an active audience both, online and offline. We want to see them active!
  5. They are comfortable on camera!  A big plus!

Engagement Rates

What separates a good post from a great post is how much your followers like, comment, or share it. Typically, micro-influencers are often able to maintain active relationships by replying to most comments or inquiries on their posts, and quickly. This constant connection can make followers feel like they actually have a relationship with the influencer, and they, therefore, tend to make a habit of engaging with more of that users’ posts.

Consider reading 3 Easy Ways to Create Engaging Content: My Secrets Revealed.

When it comes to selecting your influencers, follow them closely and look for their engagement. Are they mostly engaging with the same friends or they seem to be in a growth mode. This is a crucial factor. You want your brand to be represented by people who are constantly connecting with people. This increases your ROI since your message won’t be limited to just a post via social media.

For Instagram, if they have reached 10,000 followers or have a verified status is a big plus, since their account has options to add links.  Read more about verified badges here.

From Influencer Marketing to Empower Relationship Marketing

Part of our successful influencer marketing model is our ability to impact our local community in a scalable and consistent way. We host two strategic monthly events to attract professionals and business owners that have a growth mindset and want to build relationships. We educate our attendees on the importance of building relationships so that they can see the real return on their investment.

When you’re selecting influencers, have a clear vision about the impact you can create in your target market, not limited to social media.

Brand Ambassadors

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) is a powerful asset in our line of work. It not only piques people’s interest, but as the name implies, it gets people talking.

About 62% of consumers search online for reviews and information before purchasing a product and a whopping 90% believe brand recommendations from friends.

With game-changing numbers like those, it’s important not to neglect the importance of reviews, ratings, and recommendations when it comes to planning your organization’s marketing strategy. With that being said, there’s only so much one person can do; especially when they are launching a company with limited resources.

This is where brand ambassador programs become a part of the game plan!

Having an online community of brand ambassadors who are just as excited about your company and vision as you are can work wonders. You don’t have to do all of the sharing—because they will. When your company posts a new update or launches a new campaign, your brand ambassadors will be thrilled to pass it along to their networks, too—helping spread the word about what you’re doing to many more people than you could reach on your own.

Don’t assume that brand ambassadors will do it for free. You need to provide clear compensation and marketing resources so they can succeed. If there is one thing that direct sales companies do great is in this area.  I am a living testimonial of how- using word of mouth and social media (and nothing else), you can generate millions of dollars in revenue! I did it with P90x brand!

What’s Next? 

With the Instagram boom, not having your influencer marketing strategy in place is costing you a lot of opportunities as we speak.

I hope this article serves as a Guideline for your to craft a good influencer marketing plan that allows you to find followers, qualified leads, and sales opportunities. Remember to start by defining who is a real influencer. I have a memory jogger I use with my clients that allows them to build their list. You will love it!

If you don’t have a branding and marketing coach that is able to talk to you and create a plan, I would love to invite you to be part of my Inner Circle. Click the image below or just here. 

To your success and beyond, we go!

Jess

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How To Grow A Facebook Group For Business (2020 Edition)

Are you a Facebook Group Admin? Trying to see how to turn your group into some of your most powerful customer acquisition channels? 

This article will discuss the best practices to build a Facebook Business group that actually brings you revenue.

Before we begin, let’s affirm your decision to create a Facebook group! Chances are that you started out with a page for your business or service and have discovered that a Facebook group will offer you better opportunities to connect with your audience. You then opened your group and you can see some metrics but you’re open to get some guidance on what do they mean.

Facebook’s Latest Efforts Empower Private Conversations

After widespread scandal over mishandling user data and other calamities, Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has announced a major priority shift and details his new vision for Facebook.  Private conversations is the platform’s main focus, moving forward. 

Essentially, privacy, security and meaningful interactions are part of the platform’s new, main focus and act as a complement to existing, more public spaces within Facebook. Facebook communities which value security, authenticity and foster personal connections will reap the greatest rewards.

If you’ve been a Facebook group admin for a while, you have noticed the changes they have recently rolled. The new metrics give group admins a greater insight about their community.  

If I have to guess, group admins should expect more features coming up in 2020.

Facebook has switched up its algorithms to make maintaining both a page and a group essential to reaching your desired audience. However, the two have very different functions.

Let’s Briefly Examine The Difference Between Pages And Groups And How They Can Work In Tandem

I like the analogy that Zuckerberg has used, asking us to think of a page like a bustling town square. Most importantly, a page is public and meant to attract a broad (but not necessarily exclusive) audience. 

A Facebook page is a great place to showcase content, because it can be accessed by anyone. But that feature cuts both ways. Users can arrive by way of search, they needn’t have liked nor followed the page. And, even if they have taken those steps, Facebook’s algorithms mean that even engaged users may not see new posts from the page.

In contrast, a Facebook group is the digital equivalent of the living room.  

That’s where you have private and more in-depth conversations with your audience. 

It’s an exclusive space where the moderators decide who can be admitted and what rules members must follow. 

Once your carefully selected audience is assembled, group members will interact with each other and even begin creating their own related content. This is what ignites brand awareness and leads to ultimately, business growth. 

And that’s why you’re here today! Learning strategies to build a community in the right way.

Ingredients To Grow Your Facebook Business Group

1- Build Trust Within Your Members

If there’s something you need in order to grow your group is trust. Once you earn trust from a community, it will grow organically, from word of mouth. 

Raise awareness about your mission. Make sure to be transparent. If you’re building a group with a hidden agenda, it won’t get you too far.

One of the fastest ways to build trust is via collaboration. Make sure that every new group member feels welcomed, accepted, and supported. They will find value and you will start seeing new members, invited by members who trust in the value of your community.

2- Be Consistent

Consistency is key for business owners seeing the ROI from a Facebook Group. If you’re struggling with coming to your group consistently, program campaigns that you can host within the group.

Some of the campaigns you can host:

  1. Giveaways
  2. Facebook live- interview other members
  3. Launch a challenge!

3- Promote Your Facebook Group 

Promoting your group is key to get new members. You can promote your group online and offline. 

Wait, did we say offline? Yes. You can invite people to join your group when you’re networking! That’s one of the easiest ways to get targeted members joining your community. Don’t be shy to ask! 

Online, you can promote your group using your Facebook Busines Page, your personal profile, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. But don’t stop there. Consider sharing your invite in your blog, email signature, and even via SMS. 

A pro tip: offer something valuable for those who join! 

4- Create A Specific Content Marketing Plan For Facebook Groups

Creating a group that people look forward to engaging takes just one thing: great content. When you give users the kind of content they expect, they keep coming for more. 

To succeed, your content needs to be:

  1. Relevant to your audience
  2. All about them, not about you
  3. Content that activates conversations
  4. New, fresh, never boring
  5. Pro tip: encourage members to share content (not promotions)

5- Group Rules

Having rules will help you moderate the discussion. If a group member violates the rules, you can remove a post and send them a notification (optional).

  1. Go to Moderate Group
  2. Create Rules
  3. Press “create rule”
  4. Customize them to fit your audience and promote a respectful environment

6- Assign Badges To Your Group Members

Nobody joins a group to feel excluded. Facebook allows you to recognize your members with badges. Make sure you have this feature on.

To find badges:

  1. Edit group settings
  2. Manage badges

7- Group Metrics

Group insights are a great tool to measure the effects of your marketing activities. A very important rule: check the metrics quickly and watch for trends. If you see a post that generated great engagement, do more of that!

Insights are also great to find sponsors and influencers. They can allow you to show the real reach and power of your community. Use them!

Read my article on Social Media Examiner on How To Understand Metrics

8- Ask Pending Member Questions

When you go to group settings, you will see Member Request Settings. The rule here is simple: don’t overuse this feature. Nobody wants to spend minutes completing a long questionnaire. 

Limit to 3 questions with short answers. If you have a paid group, this is where you will ask them to validate their purchase or enter a code.

Pro tip: Groups don’t have a report with email addresses, so if you ask for emails, make sure you enter the information.

Hacker tip: A Growth Hacker Extractor extension to extract Facebook and LinkedIn for the sole purpose of generating leads. Leads Extractor is a powerful scraping tool to boost your company or product. The tool extracts first name, last name, company name, company position and profile url from LinkedIn, Facebook groups, Facebook page likes or followers.

9- Welcome New Members 

One of the top posts of our group is welcome to new members. I always add a link that helps us promote either a high-value content or an invitation to our event.

I recommend to do a welcome post once a week, so you can accumulate over 25 members or so. The maximum tags allowed on this post is 50, so don’t go over.

10- Your Group Description

Keep it clear and feel free to add your freebies! This is what everyone who wants to join the group will read.

Here’s a template for your group description:

  1. Welcome
  2. Who is a great fit for the group
  3. What’s in there for members
  4. What do they do once they join
  5. Important details

Here is the description of my group:

Hi there! Welcome to Professionals & Entrepreneurs of Austin Group. If you are here is because you have a MISSION to expand a purpose-driven business.

If you are a professional, entrepreneur, or owner of a local business in the Austin area, this is a group that you want to have as a favorite.

Please check the announcements! https://www.facebook.com/groups/keepnetworkingweird/announcements/

Save this link – www.NetworkingEventsAustin.com

This is where we post all our events

Housekeeping stuff:

✔️Add the group in your favorites so you don’t miss the chance to connect with someone.

✔️Everyone matters.

✔️Everything matters.

✔️ The more you give, the more you get.

✔️ We have regular meetings: Happy Hour at Hotel Granduca, Strategic Luncheons, and plenty of opportunities to connect and expand your network here!

Will sales happen here? Of course yes. Will they happen by you coming to the group and “paste” your links? Probably not.

People buy you. So they need to like you, trust you and believe in you.

Who am I? I’m Jessica Campos, co-founder of Marketing For Greatness, a recovered attorney, now forensic marketer, passionate about building conversion funnels.  www.marketingforgreatness.com

We want to hear how you help others and deliver value to the world. Let’s help each other expand our networks, businesses and make the world a better place along the way:-)

-> My police alert (this post is pinned at the top and every new member must read before posting) 

📺📺📺

Before posting, please read

📺📺📺

We get it, you want 📞📸💽🎥🔋💵💡⚖️💎💴 -> all of that! Fame, name, leads, referrals, and more business.

Guess what? The 2,000 individuals here want that too!

How can you succeed?

🚧🚧🚧 Imagine you’re invited to a party. You’re walking in. You start smiling and making some eye contact. Then, silently, you interact with some people.

Do you open the door and scream “Please BUY FROM ME!!!!!”??? 🤯🤯🤯No!

Same here! We are a family. One thing that you should know is that we have been doing events for over a year and we have invited our friends to join the group.

This group wasn’t created to make leads.

This group was the result of a successful series of events and we offered this platform as a directory to follow up and keep the conversations.

By doing that, meaning, meeting people here, we can “speed date” during our live events.

You get it now?

If I were you, here’s how you will do it as a new member!!

💡💡💡💡

Talk to us “hello Tribe” my friend _____ invited me and I’m thankful to be here.”

💡💡💡💡

Use a video – make a difference! Tell us about you- a Hello Post!

💡💡💡💡

Before asking, give. Read what others post.

💡💡💡💡

Maybe you want to promote your awesome event. Of course it would make sense to share it with another networking group. But guess what?

This is a community that protects their identity. It’s like you going to the party and then inviting your friend’s friends to do something else with you.

Would you do that???? Probably not! So, talk to us and see if it’s a fit. This is more from the common sense aspect.

For example- if your event is at the same time and date that our event, why would we promote you if we are promoting our event? You get it?

Believe it or not, I’ve seen it here. People have actually organized separated events overlapping our event- at the SAME location. Is that cool? Boooooo! No. 👎

Common sense I guess isn’t enough and that’s why we are writing this!

💡💡💡💡

We have police 👮‍♀️ so your links won’t get through. Save your time and effort and don’t share massive posts here. I’M SERIOUS. 👮

💡💡💡💡

Make time to connect. Again we are humans.

💡💡💡💡

Do you know how can you accelerate the most and earn trust? 💞Add value to the group! 💞 Invite your business connections here. 💞 Come to our events. 💞Add this group as favorites and once a day come and catch up.

Who the heck am I?

You can find plenty if you google. However, send me a friend request! I’m here! I love connecting for real!

I can’t wait to help you succeeding in any way I can!

Welcome again!

Let’s consider this a restart!!!

Cool?

(Like and comment)

—-

I totally recommend that you establish clear rules, or else your group will turn into a garage sales group.

Facebook is adding more features to Facebook Groups (like adding your Pixel and ads).  Expect another updated post in a few months!

I know this seems like a lot of work. I can simplify a strategy for you (and give you even more hacks)!

If you’re looking for an online marketing strategist who can help you build a strategy to attract ideal clients and grow your business (for real) let’s talk!

Schedule your complimentary forensic marketing session today! 

 

Here’s More Amazing Content Curated Just For You

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3 Weird Sales Strategies That Produce Guaranteed Clients

Finding new people to buy your product or service is an important part of the entire sales process. Do you have a great product but aren’t gaining the right customers to buy it? Do you offer amazing services but you’re having a hard time getting people to say yes to your offer?

Are you not sure how to approach your customers or have a confusing sales message?

Use these 3 strategies to get people buying your products or services:

Charge for normally free advice

Pricing your products or services can be a difficult task. Luckily, research will save you a lot of time and efforts. If you have been offering your prospects free consultations, free templates, free strategies, and unlimited time to chat with you, chances are that your sales are not at the level that you expected. The solution: prestige pricing.

Prestige pricing occurs when a higher price is utilized to give an offering a high-quality image. Some stores have a quality image, and people perceive that perhaps the products from those stores are of higher quality.  I am sure that you have plenty of examples in your mind.  Starbucks, Apple, Victorias’ Secret, just to name a few.

People have certain prices they are willing to pay. Especially if your marketing materials show them clearly how much time they will save, how quickly they will experience results, and how satisfied your customers are. Testimonials are great for this!

Price Anchoring is another winning pricing strategy.

What’s the best way to sell a $2,000 watch? Right next to a $10,000 watch!

Why?

A common cognitive bias called anchoring is the culprit here. Anchoring refers to the “human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered when making decisions.”

This bias is why a $2,000 watch almost seems like a bargain next to a more expensive watch but would seem like a super-premium purchase when placed next to a $49 Timex.

By placing premium products and services near standard options you can create a clear sense of value for potential customers, who will then view your less expensive options as a bargain in comparison.

The exclusive deal

You will be surprised here. Deals are associated with happiness.

In 2012, Coupons.com commissioned a study led by Dr. Paul J. Zak, professor of Neuroeconomics at Claremont Graduate University, to learn how coupons impact people’s happiness, health and stress. Together, they discovered that coupon recipients who got a $10 voucher experienced a 38 percent rise in oxytocin levels and were 11 percent happier than those who did not receive a coupon. Furthermore, their respiration rates dropped 32 percent, heart rates decreased by 5 percent and sweat levels were reportedly 20 times lower than their peers. Consequently, they felt more relaxed and less stressed.

Instead of creating a $0 Freebie, giveaway a BONUS with the purchase. Incentivize those who take action!

In 2012, The Economist published a post titled, “Something Doesn’t Add Up.” In it, the author explained that researchers from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota conducted an experiment to learn more about how consumers reacted to discounts and freebies. The conclusion was, “Shoppers… much prefer getting something extra free to getting something cheaper.” Sadly, the explanation for the behavior is less than flattering. “The main reason is that most people are useless at fractions.”

As emotional creatures, people are more inclined to accept free offers than discounted ones. The results speak for themselves. “The researchers sold 73 percent more hand lotion when it was offered in a bonus pack than when it carried an equivalent discount.” Whether they are right or not, shoppers believe they get a better deal when they walk away with something for free instead of spending less on their overall purchase.

During your sales call, take the time to go through your proposal, discussing pain, solutions, pricing, and bonuses for those who take quick action.

The “I am closing your file” email

If you have heard any of these statements from your prospect:

  • “I need to confer with other managers here.”
  • “I need more time to decide.”
  • “Call me in about a month.”

Then this strategy will flip your prospects into clients immediately. You just need to be corageous because it will sound a bit rude.

If you’re selling, you’ve likely heard these and other variations of the put off and the postpone. You’ve turned yourself into a wolfhound that pursues and pursues until you get your teeth into the meat. Come what may, you’ve been determined to close the sale no matter what. Nice intention. Poor approach.

Why is this a poor approach? Because these responses are just another way of saying, “No.” And “no” 30 days from now is still the same as “no” today. If you settle for these responses, you’re letting your pursuit instinct take the lead from your thinking mind.

Your prospects need to see you as the expert. You need to show them that you don’t have time to waste, as there are many people that can benefit from your services or your products. Writing a clear email asking “should I close the file?” will allow you to get a response that will end the “I need more time” phase. Try this and let me know!

To your success and beyond, we go!

 Jessica Campos, JD, BBA

Forensic Marketing Expert | Influencer | Conversion Strategist for Marketing Agencies & Business Owners

#marketingforgreatness #moresales #marketingforresults

 

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3 Reasons Why Service-Based Entrepreneurs Should Focus on LinkedIn

Generating leads and sales opportunities using social media seems like the promised land. Everyone talks about it. Where is the gold?

Many professionals and entrepreneurs are scrambling to find time to market their business on a multitude of social media networks with little or no results to show for their time and effort. While networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest each offer a unique set of benefits, engaging your audience across multiple platforms won’t necessarily drive results for your business.

LinkedIn is the hub for consultative selling

Most professionals that we help, get confused when we classify them as B2B. When we explain the concept of consultative selling, it’s typically the biggest “aha moment”.

So what is consultative selling?

This approach focuses on using strategic questioning skills to engage in a sales dialogue with a customer about their most pressing business issues. A consultative approach to sales requires the salesperson to consistency elicit feedback and use that information to ask the right questions at the right times. This ensures both parties are communicating and understanding each-other effectively.

Modern buyers are more informed and more prepared; they face an overabundance of information and options, come to the table with increased skepticism. As a result, the sales cycle has elongated, or in some cases stopped.

For professionals and entrepreneurs who offer a service, a consultative selling approach results better than the product-oriented approach.

How do you market professional services in the information-overload economy?

Entrepreneurs focus too much on how great their product or service is. They assume that we will be engaged, just because they are in front of us. The truth is, you must earn our attention.  I think most Sharks will agree with me on this one.

Robert Herjavec 

Fish where fish are

Your marketing plan should include social media marketing. You want to select the platform that takes you closer to your ideal buyer. Let’s take a look at the platform’s usage for B2B.

LinkedIn is great for SEO

If you haven’t already done so, apply some time-honored SEO principles to your LinkedIn profile so that you’re more likely to get noticed. Content optimization is one super simple way to land on the newsfeeds.

SEO or search engine optimization is a complex science among all other dominant Google algorithm’s 200 or more factors. SEO is mainly the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website. It’s a practice of optimizing web content for better ranking. By following the SEO best practices, an online marketer can place content on top of other similar topics.

According to this approach, people who are actively searching for particular information will be able to view your web content the moment they enter a query.

But it’s to keep in mind that search engines are continuously refining their algorithms. Each year, Google changes its search algorithm for several times. Although, many changes are minor, yet there are specific algorithmic updates that might affect the search results in significant ways.

Nowadays, SERP or a search engine results page takes in consideration images, social media information, videos links, article listings, ads and several widgets. Although keyword and critical phrase optimization are still relevant, yet according to the present Google algorithm change, now a digital marketer has to give importance to several other off-site elements also.

If you’re not taking advantage of LinkedIn Articles, it’s time to start!

LinkedIn Algorithm is unique

Content is reviewed by human editors

Part of the LinkedIn algorithm’s uniqueness is that it uses real humans to filter through user-generated content, and to learn more about what makes a post noteworthy (or not).

This is the stage where those humans determine whether your post is valuable enough to continue displaying in the LinkedIn feed. If your post continues to get engagement, the cycle continues, and it keeps getting shown.

There’s a lot of speculation that, at this stage, if your content is amazing, it may get a boost and reach more people.

Closing thoughts

LinkedIn is a trend that you don’t want to miss. Our flagship course, LinkedIn Ninja, will take your business to the next level. Learn more.

 

 

 

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How To Use Google My Business Listing for SEO

If your list of “things to learn” to market your business has SEO (search engine optimization) on it, you are at the right place. I’m going to give you the most current SEO bites that you need to have a clear idea of how you can grow your business using this fascinating tool named SEO.

A decade ago, SEO was about keywords and content. For example, if you are a doctor and want to get more patients, all you needed was a website with a couple of pages that claimed your location.  Your SEO expert would edit your pages URL to do something called “site structure” so your website pages would look like:

www.smithdental.com

www.smithdental.com/best-dentist-houston

www.smithdental.com/family-dentist-houston

www.smithdental.com/implants-dentist-houston

www.smithdental.com/crowns-dentist-houston

www.smithdental.com/emergency-dentist-houston

In theory, if your URL has the keywords that most people use to find the services that you provide, then Google would find your website and get you traffic. Like I said, SEO was done this way, a decade ago.

Google My Business Listing Has Changed The Game Plan

Getting a local business listed on Google My Business (GMB) and other online directories is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get a local business to start showing up for local search results on Google. Google My Business connects businesses directly with their customers — whether they’re searching on Google Search or Maps.

Most SEOs who work with local clients consider claiming their GMB listing the first step in their SEO strategy. Surprisingly, 56% of local businesses haven’t claimed their Google My Business listing, according to Local Business Institute.

I know you want to optimize your website and landing pages with SEO, but you might just need to focus on GMB first.

How To Get Started With Google My Business? Is This Free?

Yes, it’s a free service, which is the irony of this amazing tool. It costs nothing for you to list your business. Now, to be transparent with you, the listing alone won’t just do magic and take your business to rank on the first page of Google maps or the Google search. It will take work, just as traditional SEO. We will work with content and distribution, but the good news is… the results come much faster.

If you haven’t claimed and verified your Google My Business Listing yet, that’s the first step. To get started, visit https://www.google.com/business.

How to optimize your Google My Business listing

Google will ask you several questions about your business just to make sure that you are legit. Please note, if you want to market nationally, I recommend to start your SEO plan here at GMB (Google My Business). You will be surprised by the results, I promise!

Updating Your Information Is A Key

Also, it’s important to realize that Google encourages people who are familiar with your business to answer questions, so that Google can learn more information about your company. To do this they simply click on the “Know this place? Answer quick questions” link.

Once you get your listing verified, your next step is to work is to optimize it. This is where most business owners miss their chance to claim their spot!

Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

I can’t mention enough how important it is to log in to your Google My Business listing account frequently since Google might require you to answer some questions that they need, to complete your listing. How cool is that!

Here is a list of actionable items that will help you advance in your optimization process:

  1. Review all the options from the menu. Your listing gives you options to add information, such as “call to action”, “hours of operations”, “services”. Make sure to complete all of them.
  2. Micro-site feature. This feature is ignored most of the times. Instead of using your website, Goole gives you the option to use a template so you can add your basic information. I recommend using it, since the speed and size will help you in accelerating the optimization process. This is what our micro -site looks like.
  3. Add high-quality images to your text.

Google My Business Updates or Google Posts

If you have used LinkedIn articles, then this feature will be familiar. If you haven’t used LinkedIn articles, then you might want to visit this link. LinkedIn articles are just as effective as blog posts, but they get you in front of your network much faster. Google updates / Google posts have a huge advantage:

Google Posts show up in Google search in your Google My Business listing (in the Knowledge Panel and on Google Maps). This is huge!!!!!

You can have fun with your Google My Business Posts by adding an image, a call-to-action (CTA), and even including a link to another page or website.

Not sure what type of Post you should make? Here are just a few Post ideas:

  • Memorial Day sale is a good reason to post an update.
  • Hiring new staff.
  • Announcing a promotion.
  • Hosting an event.
  • New service.
  • Featuring a new product.
  • Post a contest.
  • Sharing your latest blog post!
  • And many other ideas (here is how my help comes handy!)

Messaging

Did you know that your customers — and potential customers — can send you text messages? This is a great way to connect directly with people interested in what you have to offer, and a great way to engage with people looking at your GMB listing (and you know that Google is always watching engagement.)

To get started with Messaging, log in to your GMB dashboard and click on “Messaging”:

How to optimize your Google My Business listing

You can then set up the message people will receive after they send you a message and your mobile phone number.

 

If you don’t want text messages sent to your personal phone number, you can download Google’s Allo app. When you set up your Allo account, use the same phone number connected to your Google My Business account. Now when someone messages you, the message will be sent to the Allo app instead of appearing alongside your personal text messages.

Reviews

Transparency is the new currency. In other words, your reviews are money! I know that most business owners hire Yelp for reviews. However, they miss out Google which is detrimental to their SEO. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Yelp. However, I recommend Google My Business listing more than Yelp, in my opinion.

Since we are covering this topic, by the way, reviews matter so much that you might want to take some time to strategize around this topic. Your marketing team should get you solutions to get reviews on Facebook, Google, and other local platforms.

Alignable is a great platform to build your network. It’s also connected with your Google My Business listing. If you don’t have an account, let’s get you here!

My Ask!

I’m assuming that you want to increase your business. Visibility is what you need and that’s my specialty.

I have a recipe called Forensic Marketing that works deliciously for business owners who have been hiring freelancers for all kinds of digital marketing services and nothing seems to make sense. My ask is that, if you feel that something is off with your marketing, I can take a look and give you a complimentary assessment. Our budget isn’t like agencies. We have budgets for all kinds of sizes.

If this makes sense to you, my offer is on the table! Book a complimentary Forensic Marketing assessment here.

To your success, greatness, and beyond we go!

Jessica

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A lead? A suspect? A prospect? What is the difference?

Your Network is Your Net-Worth

We just migrated our contacts to a new CRM system and my assistant asked me which tags to add to the contacts. Do we add them as leads? I said no. They could be suspects unless they have solicited an Assessment. The more tags she added, the more questions she had.  So, I sent her a Whastapp note to explain the different kinds of contacts.

If you are confused about tags for your contacts, you are so at the right place right now. I hope you can get some clarification after reading this post.

These 8 “Tags” Will Make Your Prospecting Really Simple

If you’re not sure what “tag” I’m talking about, it’s basically a way to classify a connection. Most CRM programs give you the option to “tag” the contacts. If you don’t have a CRM yet, just use a spreadsheet and add a color instead of a tag.

Tag 1: Suspect

Let’s pretend that you are a dentist and your primary focus is in families with children. Technically, the entire list of families who attend schools near you, are suspects. The person in charge of doing business development should work with your marketing team to get you access to those lists. If you just get names and emails, but you have no idea if those contacts will be interested in considering your services, use “suspects” as a tag and create a plan to move them further into your pipeline.

What are referrals?

A referral, by definition, is a suspect, unless is coming at a point where they have a budget in mind, they have explored other solutions, and your name was referred to them as a “second opinion”. In that particular case, you got a lead.

Tag 2: Lead

In simple terms, a lead is an individual or organization with an interest in what you are selling. The interest is expressed by sharing contact information, like an email ID, a phone number, or even a social media handle. The definition seems so simple, that “what is a lead” doesn’t seem like a question worth answering. But, that’s not true.

If your pipeline counts “leads” using this definition, you will find plenty of contacts who won’t respond your calls, emails, or consider your offer. Very often, individuals subscribe just to check your information, but they have no intention to buy. For this reason, if we want to build an accurate pipeline, then we will need to polish this classification.

So, what is a lead?

Someone fills up a form on your website, calls your company landline requesting info, initiates a chat on your website, or interacts with you on social media.

Is it a lead?

By a marketer’s definition..

This would be a lead. Because, for a marketer, lead is someone they can trail. You have captured their contact information – like a phone number, email or a social media account. If marketing can nurture them, and get them interested in a sales conversation later, it’s a lead.

By a salesperson’s definition..

They have just expressed a vague interest, and it can turn out to be the best deal of the quarter or just flat out junk. These leads are not qualified. So, sales would not consider this inquiry a “lead” yet.

What is a qualified lead?

Leads are considered qualified when they take a further action after their initial inquiry. For instance, if they specifically ask for a demo of your product, or take a free trial, they are sales-ready. Someone who downloads your free book won’t be as qualified as someone who attends to a 60-min live webinar, for example.

Tag 3: Prospect

‘Lead ‘ and ‘prospect ‘ are two terms that everyone comes across in a business scenario. Surprisingly, many assume various definitions and have different understandings of the two words although the terms are used on a regular basis.

Basically, a Prospect is a person or company that has the kind of problems or challenges around which you can create value. Also, You have to disqualify them if you cannot create value for them, or if they will never perceive the value you create.

In a nutshell, a Prospect:

  • Must fit your target market.
  • Must have either approach you or respond to your approach.
  • Should have the means of money to buy.
  • They should have the authorization to make the buying decisions.

I am sure that you have experienced a situation where someone approaches you about your services, you then reach out, schedule a presentation and provide all the information. In the end, the person tells you “this sounds great, let me talk to ______”. To avoid this uncomfortable scenario, make sure that you filter those leads, by adding extra layers before you can consider them “prospects”.

The figure below shows you an example where you have 1,000 leads, and 100 of them were filtered into prospects. From 100 prospects, 10 turned into customers. Your marketing system should provide you predictable outcomes so that you know exactly how many qualified leads you need to reach your revenue goals.

Tag 4: Sales Opportunity

Once you have filtered your leads and have a list of prospects, then your sales pipeline moves to Stage 2. This is the phase where you qualify your prospects, discover what are their needs, budget, and what questions do they need to answer before making the decision to working with you. A professional salesperson invests plenty of time and efforts developing sales opportunities and qualifying them, doing things like drafting customized emails, proposals, 3-way calls, demos, webinars, etc.

Tag 5: Verbal Commitment

Did the prospect say “yes I’m in”? Did they pay? If your answer is NO, then you don’t have a closed deal, yet. This tag is one of the most important ones. You need to have a plan to manage those who gave you a verbal commitment. At this level, your prospect considered your proposal and they are just waiting to fund it. Don’t celebrate yet! Things can turn in the opposite direction!

Tag 6: Client – Active

You closed the client, yes! This will be your favorite tag! You are on Stage 3. Your banking account is happy now that you got some money. Your pipeline should move the sales opportunity tag into an active client tag. It’s important to keep in mind that your business should measure the lifetime value of your clients. The more specific data you can build, the better.

Tag 7: Client – Passive

You provided the services to your client, they are happy. Make sure that they leave you a testimonial so that you can consider them advocators! There are plenty of strategies that you can implement so that your past clients become passive income for you. This will be a topic for another article, but in the meantime, just be mindful of this tag.

Tag 8: Client – DNC

What if the relationship with that client went sour and you don’t want to ever contact them! That’s where you use the tag DNC (do not contact). Your CRM should have this tag so that you don’t make the mistake of calling people on the DNC list.

Do you analyze sales funnels as part of your Forensic Marketing services?

I certainly do! In my opinion, there is no point in having names and emails if you can’t track activities that enable predictable outcomes. For this particular reason, we only use marketing strategies that are quantifiable and predictable. Visit our services page for a full explanation of who do we help.

To your success and beyond we go,

Jessica Campos

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3 Steps To Build A 21st Century Sales Process

Your Business Will Not Grow Unless You Have A 21st Century Sales Process

“It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; its the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.” – David Allan Coe

Imagine that you are building a house, where would you go to have it built? Would you go and buy a piece of land and then head straight to Home Depot? Would you and your friends who have no background in carpentry or real estate development get down and dirty with hammers and nails? My guess is that you would likely go to a builder. One who can show to you different model homes and provide to you many specifications on master bathrooms and window bays. So why do we have so many business owners trying to create consistent sales on their own? B2B sales often means a complex sale. A complex sale is a process that demands a lot of time, deliverables, decision makers, and conflicting interests. Why is it so common for a business owner who has put so much time into building her product or service to feel the need to also be in charge of the sales department when they have no to little sales background? Continue reading “3 Steps To Build A 21st Century Sales Process”