Get a Couple More Clients
Are you looking for a few more clients?
The easiest way to have a steady stream of leads is to set up a simple nurture marketing program designed to get referrals.
Most small businesses are built on referrals.
They are the easiest leads to close. They tend to close faster, and they usually buy more than leads that come in cold.
You can set up an inexpensive program that will reach out to people who could refer business to you on a regular basis. You can use email, you can use social media, or you can do it with regular mail.
You can do it for less than $100 a month (you can do it for free if you need to).
And if you do it consistently, you will be generating a steady stream of leads.
If you would like to have a program like that for your business, sign up for our new Nurture Marketing Workshop.
New Nurture Marketing Workshop
This is a 2-hour online workshop where we teach the basic concepts behind nurture marketing, and then go hands-on - walk you through the steps to design a nurture marketing project for your business.
At the end of the workshop you will have a project plan, ready to work on or hand off to your assistant.
You can use the workshop to design whatever kind of plan you want – you can focus on referrals or you can nurture leads, customers, the press, or whatever group you want.
You can use email, social media, SendOutCards, postcards or letters.
You’ll get a comprehensive introduction to what to do, then you’ll actually create your own project plan.
At the end of the workshop, you’ll have a list of topics for emails/mailings or an editorial calendar for social media posts. You’ll have a starter mailing list. And you’ll have a list of action items for what needs to happen next.
We will share resources – where you can get inexpensive writers (if you need that) or find a good virtual assistant (if you don’t have one yet).
Bring a friend for free
The workshop costs $197, and you can bring a friend for free.
So if you are a business owner, you can bring the virtual assistant who will be helping you with the nurture project for free.
If you are a virtual assistant you can bring a client for free. (Or get the client to pay for it and you come free.)
If you don’t have an assistant (or a client) yet, this workshop will be a good place to meet one. We’re going to have online chat throughout the workshop so you’ll have the opportunity to network with the other participants.
First Workshop
The first workshop is Sunday, November 20, from 2-4pm Eastern.
I hope you can join us.
If you can’t be there live, sign up anyway. You’ll get a link to the recording plus all the materials, templates and worksheets.
There is more information about the workshop, including the agenda and list of handouts and workshop materials that you will receive at
www.proresource.com/nurture-marketing-workshop
If you know anyone else who might be interested, please share this with them.
How to Get Marketing Freelancers Up to Speed Fast – Part 2
In the last post, I said that we use a 2-part strategy to educate marketing freelancers effectively and inexpensively.
Here’s the second part…
Whenever we can, we choose the first project a new marketing freelancer works on so they can learn while they are doing productive work.
For us, that means we look for a customer-facing project. In marketing, a good first project is very often a case study or gathering testimonials.
That lets the marketing freelancer learn how people use the product or service, what it does for them, how they use it, and where the value is. Sure, you can tell them this yourself, but the information sinks in faster and more thoroughly when they hear it directly from the customers. Plus, they hear the language customers use, which is most likely different from what you say internally.
That information then provides a powerful foundation that informs everything else they do.
If the next project is designing a brochure, writing a sales letter, doing a press release, or updating the website – the result will be better because the freelancer now has a better understanding of how customers think and where they find value.
Even the best, smartest, most experienced marketing freelancers need to do this ramping up – they’ll do it better while working, and you’ll be getting useful work while they are learning. It’s a win-win.
So think about what kinds of projects do not require a lot of knowledge to do AND will let your marketing freelancers learn more about your business while they work.
How to Get Marketing Freelancers Up to Speed Fast – Part 1
One of the most important skills to master if you want to outsource marketing effectively – or even if you simply need to educate new hires and get them productive quickly – is teaching your marketing person what they need to know about your business.
The amount they need to know varies depending on what type of work you are having done. But typically, a marketing person needs to learn about:
- Your company – core areas of expertise, goals
- Your products and services – target market, pricing, differentiators
- Your clients – who they are, how they use your products/services, what value you deliver
- Your competitors – how you are better, where they are stronger
- Your market – what are current hot issues, trends, where you fit in Read more
How to Define a Marketing Project the Right Way
Whenever you give anyone a marketing project to do, here is a simple checklist of the information you should provide.
It doesn’t have to be complicated – you can get everything in one short email. But make sure you cover all these bases and you’ll find that you will consistently get better results.
1. What is the project? Why are you asking them to do this?
Describe the project briefly, so they have the big picture. Then explain why you are having them do this. What do you want to happen as a result of doing this project? How will it impact your business?
The “Why” is important. A lot of people skip this, thinking the answer is obvious. But when you clarify the purpose of a project for the person who is doing it, both of you benefit.
Perhaps you want them to call 100 people and get 10 appointments. Or have 50 sign up to receive a free offer. Maybe you want to have a website that is free of typos. You want to have a standard that you can measure results against so you know if they did a good job. What would a good job look like?
People will do a better job if they understand why you are having this project done. Perhaps getting those 10 appointments will lead to 2 sales, which will allow you to afford to have this person work for you on a regular basis.
Or maybe you have had people complain about the grammar and mistakes on your website and you think you’re losing business as a result. You want to increase the conversion rate from your site. Or your goal is x increase in revenue…
The more clearly you articulate what you want, the more likely you are to get it. (There is a truism that you get what you measure – you also are more likely to get what you ask for.)
And if they understand what your goals are, they can contribute their knowledge and experience to give you advice on how to achieve that goal. There might be better ways to do things that they know about and can share with you.
2. What are the steps?
List the steps you want them to follow.
If there is anything they need to learn (like how to use a certain type of software), tell them how you want them to learn. Should they look for videos on YouTube? Are you going to teach them?
3. What else is needed?
Provide whatever materials they are going to need to do the work. This might include a contact database or some files or a list of websites to visit. Whatever it is, list what you are providing them and where to find it or how you are getting it to them.
4. What is your deadline?
When should the project be finished? If it is a bigger project and there are sub-deadlines, such as you want to see a first draft by a certain date or you want a status report by a certain date, include those.
Don’t assume that you have the same understanding of what “I need it as soon as possible” means, particularly not when you are just starting to work with someone. For some people that means “drop everything and do it immediately.” For others it means “do it within the next couple days or as soon as you can reasonably get around to it.”
5. What is your budget (time/money)?
How much time are you willing to have them spend on this project?
If you have a pretty good idea of how long it should take, this will be easy. (Remember that no one can do the work as quickly as you can. Double or triple the time it would take you.)
If you are not certain, you might tell them to spend 5 hours on it, then stop and check in with you. You can see where they are and decide if more time is needed.
How much do you want to spend? If there are other expenses involved, list what you think is reasonable. Or if they are doing research about a purchase for you, say how much you are willing to spend.
6. What do you want the results to look like?
What kind of output do you want (Word, Excel, email)?
If you think it doesn’t matter, think a step further… Are you going to want to be able to search in the results easily? Maybe it should go in an email message. Copy and paste out of it? Maybe a text file or Word. Do further manipulation? Maybe Excel.
Include information about the quality too. If you expect it to be error-free, say so. If neatness or proper spelling/grammar matters (and it should), say that too. You would think this goes without saying, but particularly if this person is new to working for you, you want to let them know that quality matters.
More on Learning Styles: Why, What, How, What If?
The other issue to keep in mind when looking at the best ways to get your marketing people ramped up quickly is whether they are a “why,” “what,” “how does it work,” or “what if” learner.
There’s a whole chapter devoted to this in Teach What You Know, by Steve Trautman, which is a wonderful book all about teaching peers and people you are mentoring what they need to know to do a good job.
The entire book is full of gems – my copy currently has about 20 pages bookmarked. If you ever do mentoring or any kind of informal training, I recommend it highly. He’s also got an excellent website at www.practicalleader.com.
Here’s the short version of the chapter on learning styles…
“Why” learners
“Why” learners want to know why they should care – why they should be learning this, why it is important, why focus on it now. So start your explanation with this. Read more
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