If you, like me, believe in “givers gain” you follow that mentality in your social media marketing strategy. One challenge of social media is it’s INBOUND marketing- they OPT-IN- and based on that strategy, facebook terms of service does not allow you to collect “data” without clear and explicit consent. That means you cannot go get their email off their profile and load it in your newsletter, or use an app (which many unethical people will build you one) to capture their email when they “LIKE” your page without telling them. This has always been a challenge for me, because I KNOW people are interested.
So I have worked to find a way to ASK for people to OPT-IN to my newsletter thru facebook and offer a gift in the true “givers gain” mindset. The results have been fabulous! Watch this video for more:
This is exciting news because all research points to the fact that your newsletter is an outstanding way to convert customers more quickly. I believe it’s important to offer value, be transparent, and to be HONEST. Michael can easily create a branded app for you as well. He is great to work with and created a fabulous price point based on my relationship with him! (Rockstar!) I am thrilled with our partnership to offer those I know his services.
I think the key of people opting in to your newsletter form your app is to:
give something that is packed full of info,
make sure it is relative to your potential customers needs,
and is EXCLUSIVE (not already in your newsletter or on youtube).
Have questions about what you might “GIVE” that would be of value in your app? Ask me here. Happy to help!
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
I have been writing a series on knowing your value and owning your worth. Honestly, this was the BEST piece of advice ever given to me, but the road to doing it was not easy. I can, if interested, talk about the market, your product or service, your target market and pricing based on those things, but I think many of us have heard that before. Here are three things I had to really work on to know and charge my worth.
1-my self esteem. Self-esteem, simply put, is the relationship you have with YOURSELF. It is how you think and FEEL about the things you say and do. What you charge is based on this. What I realized early on was I did not have SELF-esteem and had OTHER esteem. I depended on others to tell me if what I was doing was good; I needed their opinions, and most devastating to knowing my worth, I needed their approval.
2-my values: Looking at my values was incredibly important to knowing my worth. Without critically looking at my values about relationships, helping others, being in business, service, etc. I really struggled with what I charged. We often think we know what we value, but without a clear VISION of our lives and success it is difficult to measure if your values align or need to change.
3-the stories of my past that impacted my present: I realized that I grew up trained to “love a sale”, that “everything goes on sale”, that if it’s “meant to be it will be discounted”, or “it’s just too expensive”. Changing that story was critical. I had to literally take the time to rewrite it.
Now I still believe as a business woman that there are ways and price points to introduce people to what you have to offer, BUT (and yes this is a big BUT!) you have to be strategic about HOW you are doing that, and have a plan for the increases/special offers/discounts/sales. If you are just starting at a lower price point because you told yourself you are “new in the market” you probably need to work on the three things above. If you constantly set a price and did not plan to discount or sale in the price setting session you planned, then you also probably need to work on the three things above.
Ok, I could go on and on! Work on knowing your worth. You are worth it.
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
So I wanted to do a little video on the Google cluckerfck (yes it is) that has been created with recent changes. This video only covers part of the issues, the rest I share below.
Wow- WHAT a MESS. Several other issues with this new system:
There are many of us that help manage our clients’ YouTube accounts and more Google related products, I should NEVER have access to the gmail.
If I use the multiple user option, I could not get important email or calendar events for MY COMPANY.
If I want to be a part of Google + I have to use my gmail account (because for SOME reason my PAID company gmail account cannot have a profile), which logs me out of my business account so I cannot see my calendar, get reminders etc.
Really Google, you did not think this through. If someone knows the magical work around I’d be THRILLED to know.
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
Last year I had the honor of speaking on stage at Rick Frishman’s Author 101 University with the likes of: Dr. Barbara De Angelis, Tom Antion, Craig Duswalt, and Loral Langemeier. I watched 200 published and desired to be published people FLOCK to the stage time and stage to buy their $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 even $10,000 and $20,000 packages. I sat with many of these authors/inspired authors during the event, at breaks at the bar. Many of them (easily about 70%) spoke about how broke they were. But of those 70% over 90% of them invested in one of the speakers packages. Packages that were SEVERAL THOUSAND DOLLARS.
Two things struck me:
1-When someone sees VALUE in what you offer, they figure out the money. Let me say that again, because some of you right now, have some self talk that is getting in the way: When someone sees VALUE in what you offer, they figure out the money. Stop telling yourself they were “caught in the moment” or they were somehow brainwashed to buy. No, they made a grown up decision about what would help them achieve their goals.
2-None of those speakers question their value. They know their worth, they stand in confidence. and people buy. I know what some of you are saying right now too! “But I’m not Barbara De Angelis, Ann!” Guess what? Once, neither was she. (lol, yes she was but you get my point) She made up her mind at one point that she was WORTH what she had to offer.
See, it starts with us, not them. You can help people that cannot “afford” you (although sales people will argue that when someone gives that objection, they still don’t understand the value of the purchase yet), in many ways, your blog, your newsletter, your facebook and twitter pages.
Next I am going to write about where my struggles came from in knowing my value!
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
In a recent interview I was asked a great question: What was the best advice that you’ve ever been given that you’ve taken to heart? I knew my answer immediately: Know your value.
Stop devaluing yourself. Stop charging less than you’re worth. Stop taking less pay, fewer benefits and bad leadership. OWN your worth. I think that is the biggest lesson, the biggest. And I think it’s a big lesson for a lot of people. And once that finally clicked for me, which trust me, it took me a long time! When I was finally able to say no, it is worth this much money and that is my fee, new, different clients stepped into my world. I am often questioned about me fee, it was interesting because I just went through it. You might have heard I closed BMW as a client here a couple of weeks ago.
BMW approached me to work with their team over a year. I actually had discounted it because they were agreeing to a year because if I can get a client to commit to a year of business, that’s very different than a client that just commits to a month, or one day right? And at one point, the decision maker said to me, “Would you be willing to come down on this price? You’re pretty pricey based on what we’ve looked at out there.” And I said, “I’m the BMW of what I do. Are you willing to sell me a $70,000 BMW for $50,000?” Then he laughed. He said “no”. I said, “There you go.” The next day, he accepted the contract.
Knowing your value and the value of what you offer is one of the biggest and best pieces of advice I have ever been given. I will write more on this topic and HOW to determine it and get over the mental crap that might be stopping you as it did me.
Do you know your value?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
