We’ve been doing a  lot of work on getting blog websites up for our clients recently and I keep repeating myself on this so I’ll share my thoughts here.  Most people think if they are going to have  blog website, the blog will be the home page and there isn’t any need for a home page like you have on a regular html website.  I HUGELY disagree!  Ok, I’ll qualify that.  If you really just want to create a conversation and never want to sell anything, then have at it with the blog being the home page for the site….HOWEVER, if you intend to sell a service, product etc… on a website built on a blog platform, then I suggest you reconsider creating a separate home page.

Why am I all up in your face about this?  As usual, it’s about building trust with your potential clients.  Think about it this way.  If you do your SEO, partner with people who link back and do all the important things to drive traffic to your website, you will start attracting people to yourdomain.com who only know that you have a website with something they are interested in.  If they land on your blog first, well then that’s what they think you have to offer them…free information.  That’s great!  Um, except, hold on.  You want to sell them something eventually right?  By looking at a blog, they don’t know that.  They don’t even know why you have the blog.  They just know you’re sharing information and are building a community around your topic.

So, what will they think when all of a sudden you say something about a product or service you offer…try to sell them something?  First they will be surprised…and not in a good way.   They signed up for information, now you want to sell them something?  That’s not cool!  For some people it can feel like a bait and switch.  Hmmm….would you trust someone who pulled that kind of stunt?  Would you trust them to help you make serious life changes?  I wouldn’t.

Ok, ok, I hear you naysayers out there bringing up the “About Page”.   The about page talks about who is “behind” the company and how it functions.  Um, they didn’t even know it WAS a company.    Some people talk about the author on the About Page.  This is good, because it gives some insight into what makes you different than anyone else in your industry.  What industry are you in?  What kind of service do you offer?  Why will people benefit from these services?  Those are the kind of questions that are answered on a home page.

So, why do you need a home page?  So those who are coming from your affiliate partners, search engines and other random places know WHY your website exists, that you have something to sell, and that it’s going to change their life for the better.   Just as with a regular HTML site, you need a place for people to land and quickly determine that they need to know more.  Once they decide they need to know more, by all means, share your blog conversation with them and then lead them through your site as you typically would.  By giving context, you are being transparent about the purpose of your blog and site.  You are building trust.

Still have questions?  Still have objections?  Let’s hear them.  Leave a comment.

Kristen Beireis, Trust Marketing Expert

Coaches are extremely passionate people.  It’s the training, the life change that comes along with the choice to be a coach, and that passion for helping others is why coaches usually get into the business in the first place.  Most coaches I know love all humans and believe everyone should be happy with themselves and their lives.  I’ve heard coaches say they believe deep down everyone knows they are worthy.  I know most coaches want the world to be a happy, peaceful place.  It’s what makes them so great at what they do!

The challenge is containing that passion and those beliefs while marketing.  I know, it’s not easy but if you want your potential clients to trust you, you have to remember where they are.  Think back to your innocent days.  The days before you knew coaching existed.  Close your eyes for just a minute and remember what that was like….

Now, what would your reaction have been if someone had sent you some writing that said;  “You are a talented human being who deserves to get everything she wants.”?  Would you have believed that?  I know I wouldn’t have!

I specifically remember an instance in the first month of coaching where my coach blurted “You are so talented.”  Oh boy did I challenge that one!!  It started with “You don’t even know me, how do you know what talents I have?”.  I wasn’t ready to accept that I was talented, lovable, or worthy yet.  I hadn’t explored myself enough to know that I was.  I hadn’t worked with my coach long enough to get there.  (Thankfully, my coach was awesome and in the next few months I changed my thinking on that.)

So, can you imagine what would’ve happened, had I come across a piece of marketing where someone tried to tell me I was lovable?  Um, circular file anyone?! In fact, it’s repelling.  It’s gremlin fodder.  They eat that stuff alive and convince people to run away…FAST!

I bring this topic up because I see it all the time.  I see coaches putting marketing materials out that assume the reader can comprehend an affirmation for themselves.  Now, I’m not saying that EVERY person is going to be revolted by that kind of statement, but you need to think about where your potential client is before they have worked with you.  If your typical client goes through a process with you that brings them to loving themselves, don’t try and convince them to go there now.  They haven’t had the benefit of the process yet.  If they have, then they wouldn’t be an ideal client.  So why speak to them?

There is a difference between flat out saying “You can have anything you want” or “You are alive, therefore you are worthy” and asking someone to imagine what life would be like should they overcome challenges you help them get over.  There is a thin line, but by challenging your potential clients with powerful questions that get them to see possibility, they become attracted to you.  Now that’s marketing!

The next time you want to boost someones self-esteem or help them understand that there’s more than where they are, ask yourself if your statement might feed the gremlin of a past client before they got to you.  If the answer is yes, then rephrase to create possibility.

What kind of questions might you use to create possibility?

Kristen Beireis, Trust Marketing Expert

This has been a big question on a lot of minds this year.  I keep seeing messages on forums asking if e-mail marketing, list building and other internet marketing strategies are coming to an end.  The answer is NO!  The actual function of the marketing is not coming to an end, in fact it’s going strong for many people.  The change is coming in how we use these different mediums to market our businesses.

In fact, as a coach, you have a unique opportunity to capitalize the most on them!  It’s the conversation and message that’s changing more than anything.  The reason the question about these mediums dying out is being asked is because people are seeing their numbers dropping in response to their marketing.  Are you noticing this?

There’s a good reason for the drop in response rates.  It’s called desensitization.  Usually that word is used in conjunction with violence.  If you’re exposed to it long enough, you lose your fear of it and then run the risk of being violent yourself.  Yes, this is what’s happening with internet marketing.  For 15 years or so, internet users have been bombarded with e-mail marketing, pop up boxes, sales pages etc… They’ve seen it all and they’ve seen it 100 million times over.  Now they just hit the delete button, unsubscribe, click away or their eyes glaze over.  The “tactics” that we’ve been taught through the information marketing age are dying…not the mediums themselves.  People aren’t responding because everything sounds the same to them.  Nothing is standing out as new, fresh, or different.

So, what does that mean?  It means, if you are going to get business on the internet you have to provide something that internet users aren’t desensitized to.  They need content that gets their attention through emotion (click here to read Scott Stratton’s great article on this).  They need people who are selling something new, different and fresh.  They need to hear your passion.  They want transparency, honesty, and they want to be able to trust you.  Stop putting out the same old, same old content.  Differentiate, get brutally honest, and share your passion with the world.  That’s going to get you noticed on the internet over anything else.

Do you think internet marketing is dying?  Or are you joining us in the new evolution of internet marketing?

Kristen Berieis, Trust Marketing Expert

I’m a huge fan of automation because it creates consistency which is one of the 4 pillars of trust-building in marketing.  Automation can make life easy.  It allows you to set things and forget about them.  It’s particularly helpful for keeping the marketing calendar on track.  I love getting a pile of marketing materials from my client way in advance.  Then we can spread it out using automated processes over several months…sometimes a year.  It’s done and we can focus our energies elsewhere.

There is a time and place for automation.  There are also some major mistakes I’ve seen that can create distrust…which will turn people away fast.  So, it’s important to use automation wisely and where it makes the most sense.   What’s wise and where does it make the most sense?  Well, here are some guidelines to follow when setting automated marketing.

1. Think about the future - If you are setting a repeated automation (like an automated welcome e-mail for a list), then think about how it will be used today as well as how it will be used in a year.   Make sure your message isn’t date sensitive.  Make sure it applies no matter what time of day, what day of the week, what month or year it is.  Make sure there’s no reference to a particular news event that’s going on currently.  This seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many e-mails I’ve received after signing up for a freebie that are completely outdated.  It makes me wonder whether this person is on top of things and whether they are even still active in their business.  Do you want that going through your potential clients minds?  I doubt it.
2. Think about who will be seeing it - This is extremely important particularly on social networks.  You aren’t necessarily just talking to your potential client.  You could be talking to potential referral or joint venture partners as well.  So, when you set up that automated “Thank you for joining my community” message, think about who will see that.  Please, please, please…do NOT sell a service/product, get them to sign up for your freebie, or anything else like that.  That’s a huge turn off.  They don’t even know you yet…why would they buy or sign up?  Set your automation to welcome anyone and ask them to tell you more about them.  That will get them into conversation.  Later, through your public communications, you can invite them to buy or sign up for something.
3. Only automate conversation starters, not interactions - There’s a difference between a conversation starter (a topic, thought for the day, or information) and an interaction (a response to your conversation starter).   Consider which you are creating and only automate if it’s a conversation starter.  Otherwise, you are bound to not be “in conversation” and it will feel “off” to the person reading it.  That “off” feeling is the seedling for distrust, so it’s the last thing you want to do.

So, the next time you go to automate, make sure you are creating trust with your automation instead of repelling people away.

What do you think?  Is there too much automation going on?

Kristen Beireis, Trust Marketing Expert

If you have a list of people who have opted-in to receive e-mails from you? I’ve noticed many of the autoresponder, newsletter, and e-mail services are now allowing you to share those list messages with your social networks. I’m a social networking addict. I love sharing everything that’s going on with my social networks. At the same time, I don’t believe it’s always a good practice to share list messages publicly.

There are  times when it just isn’t a good fit to share. In some circumstances sharing could actually be counterproductive.  The rule of thumb is, if they opted-in for specific details, don’t share it.  Specific details being a call-in number for a tele-class, a pdf for download or a recording of something that they needed to register for.

If you want to continue building your list, you need to make sure people are still opting-in.  If you give everything away on your social networks, then opting-in isn’t necessary.  So, you never will collect names and e-mail addresses or other information that would allow you to contact them later. This is the reason you build a list.  So you can continue to connect with people who are interested in what you have to offer.

To some extent I do view social networks as an extension of my list.  That’s why I don’t totally rule out sharing with your social networks.  Sharing content like newsletters, articles and promotional e-mails that get people to opt-in are all great for sharing!  So, please do!  You’ll get great exposure doing that so it’s totally worth it.

Your list should be guarded as the place to get the secret, special information that they can’t get anywhere else.  If your special offers, call-in numbers and reports are plastered all over the internet for nothing in return, then why would anyone want to give you their name and e-mail address?

Even in this day and age of social networks, I believe the list is still a strong asset.  Share wisely, so you keep the integrity intact.  Build trust in your list by sharing information that makes people want to sign up to get it regularly.

What are your thoughts?  Do you share all your e-mails with your social networks?  Are you still building a list?

Kristen Berieis, Trust Marketing Expert