Author Archive | Felix Muzungu

We all make mistakes, errors, blunders and things we really wish we hadn’t done.

Remember the last time you facepalmed?

Yeah, me too.

Let’s see if we can catch the next mistake BEFORE you make it.

And let’s also see if you’re already making one or more of these marketing mistakes.

If you are, you’re not alone.

Targeting Everyone

Who are you targeting with your online marketing campaigns? Everyone with internet access? Everyone who needs to lose weight? Every parent on the planet?

You need to narrow your target market.

If you look at the demographics of your current customers, that will tell you who to target. Don’t make assumptions about the demographics of your customer base. Women do search for sporting goods and men are interested in hair care, for example. Get to know who your customers are and you’ll do a better job of targeting.

Or if you are just starting out in a niche, it gets even easier. You get to decide exactly who you want to target and find out where those people are found.

Not Having a Blog for Your Website

Your website needs a blog, because blogs increase traffic. Businesses with blogs tend to have over 90% more inbound links, which helps you to get found by the search engines.

Blogs also help you to build a relationship with your prospects and customers, while giving you credibility and visibility. You write a post with great info, your prospects see and realize you know what you’re talking about, and they start reading more of your posts. Pretty soon they realize they like you. They trust you. And they buy from you.

Blogs are also a place where you can interact with your customers and prospects. You make a post and they get to respond. Then you get to respond to their comments. You can use your blog to get feedback on ideas and products.

And you can integrate your blog with social media, driving more traffic to your blog and website from social media, while driving visitors to your social media pages for even more interaction.

Lastly, you can share links to all of your blog posts on social media, not just your new posts. This is a great way to keep all of your pages alive.

Not Tracking Return on Investment

Do you know how much money you’re spending on your online marketing strategies and what kind of return you’re getting?

You don’t want to blindly throw money at digital marketing strategies without measuring the return on investment. And if you don’t measure your return on investment, you won’t know how successful (or unsuccessful) your strategy is. The key is to stick to what’s working and modify what’s not working. And to know this, you’ve got to track and measure.

To calculate your return on investment, you’ll first figure out what you’re measuring. Is it traffic? Leads? Click-through rates? Conversions? Once you know your campaign goal, you can calculate your ROI.

Take the financial gain and subtract the cost of your investment. Divide that number by the total cost of your investment, and that’s how you calculate return on investment.

Be diligent about tracking ROI on all of your campaigns from here on out, because it’s the only way to see if your strategies are successful.

Not Using Videos

Videos are engaging and capture attention like no other medium. And video content can be a great way to get people to go to your website.

In a recent survey, 43% of people who watched a video in the past month also checked out a website because of a video. 22% said they requested information on a product. And 15% made a purchase – because they saw a video.

Get your own YouTube channel and take advantage of the second highest trafficked website on the internet. Then post your videos on Facebook, and even make 1 minute videos for Instagram. Videos can generate new prospects for you, and ultimately lead to new customers as well.

Forgetting About Mobile Users

Depending on your niche, it’s entirely possible you’re getting more visitors from mobile devices than laptops and computers. This is exactly why your website needs to be optimized for mobile devices.

50% of people say they will use a company less often if the website isn’t mobile friendly, even if they like the brand. 48% of people think you don’t care about them if your website isn’t optimized for mobile users.

And because 90% of time on mobile is spent in apps, you may want to consider making a mobile application for your business. But even if you’re not going to create an app, you’ll want to at least make certain your site is mobile friendly. Not sure if it is? Pull out your phone and check right now.

Having a Slow Website

Slow websites drive visitors away. You work hard to get people to your website – why send them away before they even get to see it? Your visitors will abandon your site if it takes too long to load. If you need to spend more money for faster web hosting, then do it. Every second counts and you cannot afford to lose customers.

Not Offering Discounts to Your Best Customers

Frankly, I think you should offer coupons and discounts to everyone from time to time. This way people who are on the fence may jump in, order, and realize they love your products.

But you should at the very least be offering discounts to your current customers. They deserve to be rewarded for patronizing you.

When you bring out a new product, offer it to them at a discount. Ask nicely for feedback and testimonials, and you’ll likely get both. The feedback can be key to tweaking your product and making it even better. And the testimonials can earn you many more sales in the future.

Shunning Social Media

I’m surprised by the number of marketers who still avoid social media. It doesn’t cost you anything to make a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account. And it is a great way to interact with your customers at low or no cost to you.

You can use social media for brand building, interactivity, buzz building, consumer insights, enhanced marketing effectiveness and broad reach. And because your customers are on these platforms, you need to be on them as well. In fact, 81% of people in the US have a social media profile.

When you do create your profiles, don’t buy followers. If you get caught, you’ll lose your reputation. Plus, it looks darn suspicious if you have 10,000 followers and not a single one of them engages with your content.

Not Commenting on Blogs

This applies to your own blogs and other blogs, too. On your own blog, you should engage with readers by answering their comments. Your subscribers will be surprised and pleased. And in return they will begin commenting more often. Plus, blog comments help with SEO to rank higher and get found by more traffic.

Keep your comments appropriate and professional at all times. And don’t forget to comment on other people’s blogs, too. It’s a way to subtly promote your own brand.

Your comments should be natural and informative to establish your credibility and likeability. Remember to use your full name and your face avatar, as well.

Not Guest Blogging

Why would you want to go to the trouble of writing an entire post of great content, just to post it on someone else’s website?

Three reasons:

First, you get exposed to an entirely new audience who may not have even heard of you. And yes, some of them will click your link and go to your website to grab your free lead magnet, thus joining your list. And some of those folks will become your customers.

Second, you’ll create a connection with a peer in your niche. And you never know what can happen if you continue to grow this relationship – it could eventually become very fruitful.

Third, because you can link back to your website or blog, you’ll be improving your SEO by increasing your domain authority.

How many of these mistakes are you guilty of? No worries, because now you can take action, get busy and correct them. Just pick one for now to work on, and when that’s in motion, you can begin working on the second one. No need to feel overwhelmed if you have several of these to do. Remember, inch by inch it’s a cinch.

Regardless of what niche you are in, there is no doubt that building a list of prospects and customers who know you, like you and trust you is your most powerful business marketing strategy.

So what’s the second most powerful business marketing strategy? It’s up for debate, but I’d like to suggest the following:

Writing a book in your niche to give away to your prospective customers.

And no, I don’t mean a 20 page report, although that’s far better than nothing. Nor am I suggesting you write a “book” that’s nothing more than a cleverly disguised sales letter, although those can be useful as well.

Let’s stand in our prospect’s shoes for just a moment. Let’s say you live in Chicago and you’re looking to invest a substantial amount of money in marketing your brick and mortar business online. Obviously you don’t want to hand the work over to just anyone – you want someone who clearly knows exactly what they’re doing and can deliver the results you seek. Someone who will get customers streaming through the door and the cash register ringing non-stop. Bottom Line: Someone who won’t waste your time and money.

A fellow drops by out of the clear blue and offers to do your marketing. You’ve never heard of this guy and you’re cautious. You do some research, ask your fellow business people, and locate 3 more small business marketing types who all say they’re experts at marketing small businesses online. They even have references. Still, you’re cautious.

Then one day you’re at a friend’s place of business when you spot a book on his desk. The title immediately grabs your attention: Effective Online Marketing For Small Businesses In The Chicago Area.

It’s not a snappy title by any means, but you don’t care. You’re riveted. You want to know everything in the book and you especially want to know who the author is and can you hire him.

And all you’ve seen so far is a book title. So why are you so interested in hiring THIS guy? Why does he stand head and shoulders above all the other small business online marketers you’ve already spoken to?

First, he’s an author. And like it or not, author’s carry a mystique and an air of credibility virtually untouchable by any peers who haven’t authored a book.

Second, not only did he write a book on marketing your small business online – he wrote about marketing your small business online in the area in which you live.

It’s akin to having the name Abdul Anderson and finding a book titled: What Abdul Anderson Should Do Right Now to Solve His Problems. Tell me you wouldn’t pick that book up in a heartbeat if your name was Abdul Anderson!

Okay, you’ve got the point. When you write a book, you’ve got instant star attraction and a ton of perceived credibility. People are no longer asking, “Can I see 5 references?” They’re not asking, “What if you can’t do what you say you will do?” They’re not asking about your guarantee, how long you’ve been in business, and all those other questions.

Instead, they’re asking how much you charge and when can you start.

And this isn’t just for marketers working with offline businesses – this is for almost anyone offering a service or even a product.

Imagine someone comes to your website – has never heard of you before or been to your website before – and there on the home page sees the book that you’ve written. Do you think you’ve just scored some serious credibility with that new visitor? Absolutely.

Or what if you’re sending traffic to a squeeze page to capture their email address. Do you think offering them the e-version of a REAL book that is currently being sold on Amazon will increase your conversion rate? You bet!

Back to marketing to offline businesses – if you hand a prospect a copy of your book, do you think you’ve increased the odds you’ll close them on a $5,000 marketing package? Of course.

Your book should contain tons of dynamite information and no sales pitch. Yes, it’s fine to refer them to your website, but the main focus should be on educating your reader. The more you tell, the more of an instant expert you become in your reader’s mind.

Make the book comprehensive, covering a great deal about your particular niche. Don’t be afraid of telling too much – generally when a prospect realizes how complex your service is, if they can afford you then they will hire you rather than attempt it themselves.

Include your contact information, including phone number, address and of course your website. Realize that people hang onto books, and even if they don’t need your service right now, they might refer back to it in a year or even in 5 years, so don’t change your contact information unless you absolutely have to. The book you give to someone today could result in a $20,000 sale 5 years from now, but only IF they can easily find you.

Make it easy to read. Just like a sales letter, you don’t want page after page of fat paragraphs. Use plenty of headings, bullet points and space to break it up.

And by all means edit it. Get someone else to read it over and tell you if there are any errors or places where it’s difficult to follow. You want it to read as professionally as possible because it is a direct reflection of you and your business.

If you are giving away the e-version of your book on your squeeze page or website, by all means either give them a link or a screenshot that shows your book on Amazon. Anyone can SAY they are giving away a $19.95 ebook, but when they see that you really do charge that much on Amazon, your free gift suddenly becomes much more valuable in their eyes, increasing the likelihood that they will opt into your list AND read your book.

Do encourage your readers to review your book on Amazon. The more reviews you get and the better reviews you get, the more credibility you build up. After all, if you see a book on Amazon with 1 or 2 reviews, and another with 50 reviews, which seems to be the more popular? People tend to be followers, not leaders. That’s why they look for social affirmation that others are reading and liking your book. You might even offer a free gift for every unbiased review you receive. Just be sure not to offer a free gift for every POSITIVE review you receive, or you will lose much of the credibility you’ve worked to achieve.

Is writing a book hard? Yes and no. For some people it’s extremely difficult, not because they’re not intelligent, but because their intelligence lies elsewhere. We all have particular skills we’re good at and others that we really should leave to the “experts.” So if you don’t like to write, consider hiring a ghostwriter to write your book.

If you’re going to write it yourself, set a deadline by which you’ll have it finished, and then decide to write 2 to 5 pages a day, every day. If you’re writing a 200 page book at 2 pages per day, you’ll be finished in 100 days. At 5 pages per day, you’ll be done in just 40 days. See? It doesn’t take long if you stay consistent.

The secret to writing a book? Write your table of contents first. This will become your outline, and it’ll break the book up into manageable pieces. It seems like a daunting task to write 200 pages about your subject, but 10 pages about one particular facet of your niche is a breeze.

For your book cover design, I recommend hiring a professional. People really, truly do judge your book by its cover. Sure, you can create your own, and if you’re a graphic artist then maybe that’s the way to go. For the rest of us, we put too much time and effort into our book to make do with our own amateurish cover. So do some research and find a professional book cover designer with a portfolio you like, and spend the extra money to get it done correctly.

Once you get your book finished, I believe you’ll find it’s the second most important tool in your marketing arsenal, right behind your list of customers and prospects. Your book has the potential to generate more business for you than perhaps a dozen full time sales people, and through the power of the Internet it can be working for you 24/7, making you an instant expert and the go-to person in the eyes of your prospects.

Forewarned is forearmed, and by knowing in advance what can stop you from realizing your goals, you’ll be able to do what’s necessary to overcome these obstacles and move straight through to victory.

The first obstacle is engaging in limiting beliefs. Need I say more? Well, maybe…

If we get what we think about, and we think we don’t have what it takes to accomplish something, what happens? We don’t accomplish it. If we believe that we don’t deserve success, do we get it? Not likely. And if we’re always being negative, thinking negative, speaking negative, what happens? Nothing good.

We achieve what we believe. Period. Not what we hope for, desire, wish for, etc. There used to be a computer expression – garbage in, garbage out. And it’s the same way with your beliefs – bad thoughts in, bad results out.

Whatever it takes, whatever you’ve got to do, find a way to lose the limiting beliefs and replace them with positive, boundless limitless thoughts of success.

The second obstacle to success? It’s giving up too soon. There is a quote I like…

You’ve no doubt heard the story of the man who mined for gold and gave up just inches shy of hitting the mother lode. It’s the same way in anything – every time you give up, you lose. Wayne Gretsky said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

You’ve got to keep shooting, keep moving towards your goal, because it is only through quitting that you can fail.

If you do not quit, you cannot fail because you are not done yet.

As Winston Churchill said, “Never, never, never, never give up.”

Follow this timeless wisdom in your business and you will overcome obstacles every day.

We’ve all seen the mega launches of super expensive products that boast about how heavy the packing box is.

As marketers we suspect that bigger is better, even when it’s not. After all, more of anything seems like a better deal to the customer than less of something, right?

But thanks to a new study, we now know that “more” of a product not only sounds better – it can also be a status symbol for the customer.

Take for example the Big Gulp drink – 30 oz of sticky sweet carbonated beverage. Does anyone on the planet NEED 30 oz of sticky sweet carbonated beverage? While some might say they do, the fact is it’s a flood of empty calories with a bevy of negative health effects, yet they sell like gangbusters.

And believe it or not, they can actually make the purchasers feel BETTER about themselves.

No, I am NOT advocating you run out and buy one of these things – rather, I’m suggesting you SELL these things, in digital form.

Follow closely – This is from the Journal of Consumer Research and it concerns a series of experiments carried out by Derek Rucker of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

In the first experiment, volunteers looked at photos of people holding different sized drinks and then were asked to rate the STATUS of the people they saw in the photos. Tabulated results showed that the bigger the drink, the higher the status score each photo rated. No, I’m not kidding, and it gets weirder.

In the second experiment, half of the volunteers were asked to remember a time when they were bossed around. The other half were asked to remember a time when they were in a position to boss others around. No surprise here – the volunteers who remember being bossed around felt the least powerful. (Yet another example of how the thoughts you choose determine how you feel.)

Okay, here comes the surprise – next those same volunteers were offered a drink in 3 different sizes. There was no choice on what KIND of drink, only of what SIZE drink they could have.

Those who felt the least powerful CHOSE THE BIGGEST DRINK. In other words, even in something as ordinary as choosing a drink, the decision is not based solely on how thirsty the person is, but rather on how much power they feel they have.

And in the worldwide economy, it’s a reasonable conclusion that as people feel powerless to control what’s happening, more and more super sizing will be taking place, and not just in food.

Now then, here’s how to use this in your marketing…

First, when you can make your product appear larger, do so. For example, you might take each chapter of an ebook and separate it into a report – 12 reports look like more than one ebook. If you are shipping audios or videos, place them on 12 discs rather than 4. And so forth.

Second, offer a super size version of your product. That is, you might have your regular product and a second version that offers more information, more promises, more benefits, etc.

Third, offer them power and prestige. For example, if you’re creating a membership, don’t make it just any old membership. Give it a name like The Exclusive Gold Club for Star Class Members or something that conveys the power and prestige so many people are lacking in these uncertain times.

Fourth, don’t forget to add an OTO to your offer. OTO’s are like supersizing the fries – they’ve already decided to order, now it’s just a matter of offering them more, and many times they will jump at the chance to upgrade to that virtual Big Gulp.

One more thing… Don’t feel guilty about up-selling your customers. People want to feel they are in control, that they have power, that they do matter. And if it’s a choice between buying a few Big Gulps that are going to rot their bones and pack on the fat, or your new product that can actually HELP them, you’ve got a duty to offer them that product and let them decide for themselves.

Okay, so I spoke in an earlier article on the importance of having a list. Not that it’s good to have, but that you MUST have a list if you want to achieve long term success online.

I’ve noticed the thing that really stymies a lot of would-be marketers is how to set up this whole funnel thing that gets you the list. Because it has to be really elaborate and it takes a lot of time and work to get it all set up, right?

Wrong. Too many people are over complicating it. Here’s what you’re going to do, and hang with me so you don’t get lost…

First, you’re going to create a squeeze page.

Second, you’re going to grab your autoresponder code and add it to your squeeze page.

That’s it.

Seriously. Building your list really is this easy.

“But I don’t know what to put on the squeeze page!”

That’s easy – a great headline and 3 to five short, snappy bullet points.

“But I don’t have a free gift to give them for subscribing.”

Seriously? There are PLR products all over the Internet, any one of which you can adapt into your own product in about 30 minutes.

Or you can create your own report – simply find the burning questions people ask the most in your niche and answer them.

OR, forget giving away a freebie. Instead send them to your sales page.

“I don’t have a sales page!”

Then send them to the sales page of an affiliate product you’re promoting.

Seriously, so many marketers make this so darn difficult when it should be the easiest thing in the world.

Your highest priority right now is getting your squeeze page up and running. NOW. Later you can create your own super-duper extra special freebie to give away if you like, but in the meantime you can be collecting names.

Think about this – you decide to create the ultimate free gift. It takes you a month to create that gift. Sure, you thought it would take 3 days, but darned if the project didn’t stretch out for the entire month.

Had you set up your squeeze page right away, you might have captured 10, 20 or more names a day while you were creating that ultimate freebie. But you didn’t create the squeeze page.

Result? You lost 300 to 600 or more subscribers that should have been yours.

See what I mean? Just put up the squeeze page, and then no matter what you’re doing online, be sure you’re sending people to that page. Send out tweets, advertise it on your Twitter profile, place it in your signature file on forums and in emails, advertise it (paid and unpaid) on Facebook, etc.

And once you get started building your list, you’re going to find that it’s easy. It’s not the big deal you thought it was. And even better, it’s addictive because as you see more and more subscribers coming in, you’ll be looking for more ways to drive targeted traffic to your squeeze page just so you can watch those numbers increase daily.

The important thing – the really important thing, is to target your list. That is, if your niche is on hot rod cars, be sure that your squeeze page is geared towards people who love hot rods.

For example, if you’re sending them to a sales page after the squeeze page, then the sales page should be promoting an excellent product specifically on hot rods. You want the people who opt into your list to be heavily into your niche, whatever that might be.

And everyone always thinks they’ve got to give away the farm to get someone on their mailing list, but think about this – if you’re sending them to a sales page after they opt in, some of those people will buy. Not a huge percentage, but if it’s a good offer for a good product, you’ll get sales. And the money you’re making from those sales can actually PAY to send traffic to your squeeze page.

Now you can advertise on Facebook in solo ads or where ever you want, and the more you advertise, the more sales you make, the more you can advertise. It’s all self funded so you’ve got your list building system on autopilot, and it took you 30 minutes to set up, plus the time it takes you to set up your advertising.

What about shortcuts? You know, like co-reg lists, safe lists, harvesting, renting lists – aren’t those easier ways to build your list? And the answer is no, absolutely not, because they don’t work. Not only are they unresponsive, but in many cases you’re spamming and you just don’t want to do that.

That’s why you want to build your own list of people who get to know you and who open your emails just because they see your name and they want to know what you have to say today. Build this and you’ll have a real asset. In fact, in online marketing I don’t know if I can think of a better asset than a responsive list, because you can go to that list anytime you want and send them an offer or even ask for their help on something and they will respond.

And if you’re just starting and you don’t know where to go to get traffic to send to your squeeze page, start with the forums. Google your keyword along with the word ‘forum,’ and find all the forums in your niche that allow you to have a signature line. Don’t blast out your squeeze page info; that’s not what you want to do. Instead, enter conversations and help people and become the go-to person in that niche. If you’re on these forums every day for a week, you can become an instant authority.

Just be real, help people, don’t hype anything, and let them click on your signature line in their own time and they will. Because you’re helping, because they see you as someone who really knows something about what they want to know, they’re going to want to know more about you and they’re going to want to get your updates.

These will be some of the most responsive leads you get – they’re absolutely golden – so treat them well and they will stick with you for years to come. And then once you’re good at forum posting, add something else to your traffic driving arsenal to get even more traffic to your squeeze page, like social media or advertising.

Find what works for you, get good at it, and then add something else. Do you see how easy this is? We try to make everything so hard and it’s really not. Just get started, get going and you’ll find out for yourself just how easy it is to build a list.

We’re always trying to over complicate things, aren’t we? Making things appear more difficult than they really are. Why is that?

The other day I saw a breakdown of the 7 things you need to build your online marketing business, which was 2 more than you really need. Here’s my list: Network, List Build, Focus, Take Action, Produce. That’s right, just 5 things.

So let’s break each one down to its simplest form:

Network. Make friends with other marketers in your niche, whatever that niche might be. When you need help (such as promotion) call on them. Help them out when they need it.

Why is networking so important? 3 reasons: First, working from home can be lonely, daunting, and just plain difficult. It’s easy to procrastinate. It’s easy to get bogged down on some little obstacle. But when you’ve got others to turn to for morale support, it gets a whole lot easier.

Second, you can get quick help. Having trouble loading that widget or formatting that ebook? Contact your friend who’s a wiz at it and you’ve got the help you need. Be there to help them, too.

Third, promotion. Do you think it’s just coincidence when you get 5 or 10 emails promoting the same product? No. Those are friends of the person launching the product. It can make all the difference in the world to have a list of people to turn to when it comes to promoting your products. Without networking, your list is going to be a whole lot smaller.

Build a list. No need to spell this one out – if you’ve got a list then you’ve got people to promote to. The better and bigger the list, the more prosperous your business can be. If you’re not list building, begin now – as in TODAY.

Focus. I know I’ve hit on this before, but here goes – STAY FOCUSED! I wanted to add a swear word after that for emphasis, but in the interest of keeping this PG I won’t.

So many times I see people jump from this to that to the thing over there and around and around and they never stay focused on one thing for more than a day or two and then they wonder WHY they aren’t successful.

Pick something. ONE thing. Then FOCUS on that one thing until you’ve got it done. Eliminate distractions. If need be, REMOVE distractions from your immediate vicinity. Set a work schedule and STICK to the work schedule.

Here’s something to make it simple:

The more focused you are,
the more money you will earn.

Period.

Take Action. Don’t just plan and daydream, DO. Move forward every single day by taking a real action that gets you closer to your goals.

Produce products. LOTS of products. There are those who buy lots of products and those who PRODUCE lots of products. Who do you think is more successful?

Let’s put it another way – what are your odds of success if you produce one product versus 10 products? 100 products? Not all of your products will be grand slams, but when you produce enough of them then some of them will be hits. Also, by producing your own products you’re also building your own reputation online, which furthers your success. So take the plunge and begin producing products to sell in your business – in fact, make a HABIT out of product production.

That’s it. Do these 5 things day in and day out starting today and continuing as long as you’re an online marketer, and success will almost undoubtedly be yours.

How do you influence others over the Internet? Whether you want to change a mind or make a sale, the better you are at influencing, the more you’ll get what it is that you want.

With that in mind here are 27 tips in no particular order to strengthen your own online influence and get more of what you seek.

Pick one niche and become the master of that niche. The thinner you spread yourself, the less influence you have. That’s why you want to thoroughly cover one niche rather than haphazardly trying to cover several of them.

Get out of your own online world and into new communities. We tend to get stuck in a rut of our own making, and we view the world from that one perspective that we’ve chosen. But if you’re going to influence others, you need to hang out with them, experience their world and see what makes them tick.

Build long term relationships. The longer and better you know someone, the more influence you have in that relationship. Work on making your customers stick to you for years, until they’re sure you’re a friend and there’s no hesitation on their part when you recommend something. The oldest customers are almost always the least skeptical and most trusting because you’ve taken the time to really get to know them.

Be authentic and consistent. If you are being your true authentic self, it will show. And in being authentic, you never have to worry about being consistent. You know how a liar has trouble keeping his stories straight? As the real, honest authentic you, you’ll only have one story – yours.

Know who your target prospects are and then find other people who already have your prospects on their lists. Now co-create products with those people to put yourself in front of your prospects. Instant influence!

Speak for those who are afraid to speak. Sometimes it takes guts to say what needs to be said. Become the person in the theater who asks the noisy patron to be silent, and the rest of the theater will love you. It works the same way online – be the one to speak up for others and you will have influence over those you speak for.

Give. Lots. Often. Too often we are focused on our goals, our business, and on ourselves. Try giving as much as you can and as often as you can without thought of what you might get in return.

Be passionate. No one follows a mediocre, middle of the road person. People follow others who are passionate in their beliefs. An ounce of passion will out sway and out influence a pound of reasoning and logic nearly every time.

Share the internal stuff. Having a nightmare moving your website? Confounded by the speaker in the conference you’re sitting in? Thrilled that you just got a great big order? We’re taught to always keep it professional, but it’s through sharing both the good and bad that people feel they know you and your business.

Create video content for your niche. In your videos, be bold, be passionate, be exciting. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, just correct them and keep going. Be human. Be fun. And distribute your videos like crazy.

Share good content today. Tomorrow. Every day.

Tell stories. Who doesn’t love stories? And who can’t be influenced by the right story? Learn to become a master at storytelling and you can persuade even the most ardent enemy into joining your side.

Focus on a smaller niche. It’s hard to exert influence when you are one of 10,000 bloggers writing about weight loss – it’s easy to be influential when you are writing about weight loss for new moms in the Phoenix area.

Choose 5 to 10 people you admire in your niche and gradually get to know them. Share their stuff with your readers, ‘like’ their posts, ask them questions and pull them into your circle of influence. And don’t forget to thank them for what they have done for you, how they have influenced you, for the insights they’ve given you along the way.

Share yourself. Share your ideas, your thoughts, your ambitions – share what you’re doing today or what you did today. Not the, “I ate oatmeal” stuff, but rather the, “I thought about my grandad today and wondered what he would do if faced with this decision.” People listen when you share what’s close to your heart.

Align yourself with the best people in your niche. Not necessarily those who are making the most money, but rather those who are doing the best work and helping the most people. Those are the people you want as partners.

Don’t worry about how you’re going to get attention. Instead, make or do something worthwhile, something worth talking about.

Be different. Defy convention and do what others aren’t doing and say what others aren’t saying. People notice those who dare to be different.

Do interviews. Even if you have to get a friend to interview you, just do it. Get it online and make sure it’s seen by your people.

Become an advocate. Identify people on their way up in your niche and help them to succeed. By becoming their advocate, they in turn become yours.

Get people talking. People want to express themselves and they want to be heard. But start simple. Ask if they prefer smooth or crunchy peanut butter, or what their favorite food is. Work up to the bigger stuff. There may be no greater source of influence than simply listening – REALLY listening – to your people.

Choose who to influence by micro-targeting to find just the right people for your blog – product – niche – service. Only want women in their 30’s who work in Albuquerque New Mexico? Use Facebook advertising to find those people.

Make connections online, and then every chance you get, meet them in the real world. This might be at a conference, or it might be locally. Nothing beats meeting face to face.

Put your business ahead of your own fame. Sure you can become the top dog on a forum, but is it enhancing your business? If not, why are you doing it – for the fame? Keep your eye on your business goals, and if what you’re doing doesn’t further those goals, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

Stop talking about your products and services and start talking about your customer. No matter what you write or say, always keep in mind, “Is this what the customer wants to know? Am I communicating with them, or just tooting my own horn?” They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care is as true today as it was before the Internet.

Be the go-to person of your niche for content. Filter and aggregate your niche content so that your website is a one-stop-shop for the latest news.

Have a point of view. Sure, not everyone will share it – but that’s a good thing. Those who do share it will follow you anywhere.

Leverage some or all of these tips, and you’ll become a better influencer in all you do.

There is so much disinformation on this that I just have to weigh in. No doubt you’ve been told or read that you should create a fancy autoresponder sequence where each email builds upon the previous email. And that if you make it fancy enough, and complicated enough, you can get prospects to take any action you like, blah blah blah…

But guess what? You don’t know how people are going to respond to it. You can make a prediction, but your guess might be 180 degrees off. So now you’ve come up with an elaborate system that accomplishes nothing.

More importantly, building a sequential series like sections of a story might have worked 10 years ago, but these days I guarantee that even your best customers will not read and digest every one of your emails. Some of your emails won’t even get through, and many will be lost in a sea of OTHER emails from other marketers.

No matter who you are or how famous you might be, not every message of yours will get read. Remember that. Thus each email needs to stand on its own and not rely on the reader having read and remembered something in a previous email.

So what should you place in your autoresponder sequences? Here are some ideas that flat out work at getting a response…

1. Send people to your blog. If you’ve got a blog with great posts full of good information, write up an email for each blog post and place it in your autoresponder. This only works for evergreen information and blog posts that don’t display a date.

2. You can even tie each blog post to a product you’re promoting. For example, “Here’s a great product that teaches you exactly how to get traffic. And before you get that traffic pouring into your website, you’ll want to make sure your page is optimized for the highest conversion possible. Here’s a post on how to do that.”

3. Don’t send your readers to your blog every day – break those messages up with other messages.

4. Emails that convert well. You send a broadcast email to your list and the response is phenomenal, or just plain good. So what do you do? Most marketers forget about it. But the smart money says to copy and paste that email into your autoresponder series. And yes, it’s okay to send out repeat information. Some of your readers will never see it the first time, and others who did see it will appreciate the reminder.

5. Send them a question. Yes, in the autoresponder series, send them an email that asks an either/or type of question. For example, “Which do you value more – exciting new diet news or easier fat-burning exercise techniques? Reply back with one or the other in the subject line.”

6. Then follow up with both. “Are you one of those who wants the latest new diet news? Well check this out!” “Are you one of those who said you want exercise techniques that burn fat? Look at this!” You’re hitting both (in two separate emails) regardless of which they answered.

7. Personal stories. You’ve got a ton of stories to share with others, you just don’t realize it. And so long as you can relate those stories to the interests of your readers, by all means share those. Anytime you can show that you are a real person with a real life and real challenges, you’re that much closer to forging a bond with your customers. After all, just like you, they want to do business with people they KNOW, like and trust.

As you can see, building an autoresponder series isn’t a cookie-cutter science. Best developed, it’s an authentic and organically developed series of follow up messages that help you create deeper connections with your subscribers so that you can build meaningful business relationships through building trust and connecting the value that your products offer with the needs and aspirations that your subscribers actually have.

Are you up to the task of building a great autoresponder series? I hope so because once developed and refined, your autoresponder follow up emails can work on autopilot for years to come helping to tirelessly deliver more sales and profits for your online business.

Notice the headline doesn’t say, “How to Create a Product and Sell It.” Frankly, that’s exactly what most marketers do – they create a product without any thought to what the market wants, and then they try to figure out a way to sell it. Result? Most times: failure.

To create a product that sells, you want to first identify a niche that’s hungry, and then offer them whatever it is that they are hungry for. The hard work is in finding that target audience that is ready and eager to buy.

Once you’ve done that, creating the product is the easy part, as well as the fun part because you know in advance that you are about to make money.

So how do you identify a hungry niche?

Here are keys to look for when investigating a possible market:

Are they in pain? Are they seeking relief from that pain, and are they willing to pay for that relief?

Do they have a problem? If so, are they willing to pay to get the solution to that problem?

Are they seeking a specific pleasure? Are they willing to pay to receive that pleasure?

My advice is to focus as much as possible on the first two. While people are certainly willing to pay for pleasure, they will part with their money far faster to relieve pain or solve a pressing problem.

If you find competition in your prospective niche, it’s a good sign that there is money to be made, so don’t think you’ve got to find some great undiscovered niche – it’s not likely to happen. If there is no competition, realize that it’s probably because no one is buying.

Now then, you are going to allow your market niche to define your product. In other words, rather than creating the product and finding the market, you’ve now found your market and you’re going to create your product to satisfy the specific needs of that market.

Let’s say you’re targeting retirees who want to make extra income online. What do you know about your niche? You know that generally they’re not as computer savvy as teens and twenty-somethings, that they’re going to be more receptive to building long term income rather than something that’s supposed to make them rich overnight, that they’re likely to be more skeptical when it comes to making money from home, and so forth.

Thus you are going to target all of your marketing and your products using the information you gather from your research on this niche, and you’re going to always have your prospects in mind when you’re working on your business. You might even imagine a couple of your best prospects right there in the room with you as you’re creating your product and your marketing materials.

Let me give you a head start on finding a niche that’s just dying to purchase your product.

The three biggest, hottest and hungriest mega niches are…

1. Health, fitness and weight loss
2. Making money
3. Relationships, dating and personal development

These are excellent starting points, but of course you’re not going to target the ENTIRE health, fitness and weight loss market. If you’re trying to market to everyone, you are marketing to NO ONE.

Thus you’re going to drill down to find the specific group within these niches that you want to market to.

Examples: College women wanting to lose weight. Stay at home moms wanting to earn money. People married over 10 years wanting to put the spark back in their marriage.

And you could narrow it down from there. The point is, once you have a hungry niche, you extensively research and even interview that niche until you know exactly what they want, and then offer it to them.

Do you see the difference between guessing what people might want, and KNOWING in advance what they will pay for? It will save you time and frustration while growing your bank account 10 times faster than guessing ever would.

When someone asks what you do for a living – what do you tell them?

That you own a business? That you write a blog? That you create products or build websites, or that you’re a doctor or a lawyer or a plumber or a race car driver?

I hope not, because while all those things are professions – they’re still NOT what pays your bills.

The only real answer to the question of what you do, regardless of what your profession is, is that you are a marketer!

Your specialty is attracting new customers or clients, persuading existing customers to make larger and more frequent purchases, and ensuring that they continue to buy from you – forever.

Your answer to “What do you do?” says a great deal about how YOU think about your business or job. If you’re defining yourself by the service you provide or the products you sell, you’re setting yourself up to lose business that otherwise could have been yours simply because your head is in the wrong place.

Every business is first and foremost a marketing enterprise, even if it’s a non-profit. After all, without customers, you have no business. Getting those customers and then getting those customers to spend their money with you is how you stay in business, stay profitable and grow.

When your mindset is on marketing first, you will base your decisions on what creates business, thus eliminating many of the wrong turns and mistakes that the “business owners” make.

You are a marketer. Say it loudly, state it proudly, act accordingly and you cannot help but be successful.