When it comes to maintaining trust with your community, it’s important to keep them informed.  So, here I am informing my community of the changes that are taking place on this blog and in my business.

With the help of a mastermind group, I discovered that I have completely removed myself from my business and I have no focused “expertise” that I’m known for.  Hmmmmm….how can I be a consultant without an expertise? So I’ve spent the last 8 weeks learning what makes me (specifically me) special in my industry.  In the process I discovered that everything I do and have done in my business (I mean EVERYTHING) goes back to trust marketing.  All the processes I’ve set up for my team to follow, all the little details I focus on with my clients.  It all leads back to building trust with their potential clients.  It’s just something I automatically do.  Not something I was ever aware of.  Now that it’s been pointed out to me, I totally see how it’s what I’m all about.

So, I’m standing up and owning the expertise I’ve had all along.  I’m owning my differentiation and I’m standing on a platform that finally feels like I belong here.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to veer away from internet marketing tips for coaches.  In fact, the internet is a great way to build trust with your community.  So, I’m going to continue to give technical and strategical tips on internet marketing for coaches.  I’m just going to be adding in the piece about how to build trust with it.  As I go back and look at my past blog posts, all of them can be connected to building trust with potential clients…I just didn’t point out how.  Now I’ll be pointing out how.

So things around here are changing for the better.  I just wanted you to know so you aren’t surprised when the content of this blog has a new slant to it that it never had before.  I want to keep your trust.

I would love to hear your comments, thoughts and/or questions.

Kristen Beireis, Trust Marketing Expert for the personal transformation industry

To be perfectly honest, as a woman, I felt very alienated by the commercials this year.  Yeah, that sounds like my “stuff” coming up, but did you pay attention to the content of the commercials?  Now, I know it’s a mans game and I expect to see very masculine commercials.  That’s not a big deal!   I see them all the time during the season.  This year, I would say 75% of the commercials either made fun of women or degraded them.  Am I the only one who saw this?

From a pure marketing standpoint, I get what they were after.  The target market for the commercials is men.  So, they created masculine commercials that appealed to men.  I get that. That makes sense.  Did it go too far?  It’s a major social event each year, a lot of women DO tune in to watch the superbowl.   Many of them watch FOR the commercials even.  Then there are those women, like me, who watch their favorite team throughout the season that still enjoy the final championship game.  So, I would say the audience watching the commercials during the game could be 30-40% women. Oh, and studies have shown that women still make the majority of the buying decisions in the household.  Hmm….so, why would you alienate us?

This is where I think things got mixed up.  The commercials did a great job of appealing to their target market of men.  At the same time too many didn’t consider a large part of the audience that would be watching those commercials.  Here’s where some balance is needed.  Yes, we always want to create marketing that appeals to our target market.  In fact, those are the people we want in our business the most.  At the same time, we need to consider who is going to be stumbling upon our marketing and make sure we don’t alienate them…especially if they are part of the decision making process.  You can be considerate to one group at the same time you are being attractive to another, right?  YES!  That’s the goal.

Think about it like this.  As someone in the life changing field, you need to build a HUGE amount of trust with your audience before they buy from you.  Will they trust you if you alienate their counterpart?  Up front, maybe…but once they go to making a decision and they bring that counterpart into the decision-making process, it’s a whole new ball game.  So, be aware of who you are speaking to and who might be an integral part of the decision making.  Make sure you don’t alienate in your marketing.  Be considerate and you build trust.

What are your thoughts on this?

Point two?  LinkedIn is a professional network. It’s not a “social” social network.  It’s not about weekend trips and games with your Hubby or dinner with your friends.  In my mind that kind of chatter is actually distracting on LinkedIn.  The conversation on LinkedIn needs to be a professional one.  More like going to a networking meeting and discussing your job or business.  Anything else is distracting and annoying, to be blunt.

Here’s my philosophy on LinkedIn.

1)  I connect with people I know and people who might be a client only. If you think you can offer services to my clients, I want to know who you are first.  People know me as a marketing manager and implementer for life changers.  I get web designers/developers, social media experts etc… trying to connect with me all the time on LinkedIn.  I see my network on LinkedIn as a way to recommend people.  I don’t recommend people I don’t know.  If you want to be a potential JV partner or referral partner, connect on my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter and help me get to know you.  Once I know you and I’m confident you can help my network, then I’ll be happy to connect on LinkedIn, as well.

2)  Automation is not recommended 100% of the time. I’ve noticed that some people have their twitter stream feeding into their LinkedIn status updates.  This seems like a great idea, doesn’t it?  Think about it.  On Twitter, you can talk about any kind of topic.  If you connect your catch all (this is all about me, my life, and my business) twitter stream with your LinkedIn account, it’s not in integrity with what the network is about.  Now, if you have a business only twitter account, then, yes, by all means connect that one up with your LinkedIn status updates.

I’ve just recently noticed that http://ping.fm allows you to create “groups”.  This makes it easy!  I have a personal group, a business group, and a few others.  I can post to all my networks at once if I want.  For business stuff I do that, including LinkedIn.

3)  Be aware of the conversation. One of the great features (that I don’t take advantage of enough yet) are the groups on LinkedIn.  There are some really great groups that are having amazing conversations.  So, check them out and sign up for a few.  At the same time, be aware of the converstiaon.  I see way too many people just throwing up promos left and right, without participating in discussion.  Remember Yahoo groups?  Same thing was/is happening there too.  Stick to the topic.  Put your promos in your signature, unless there is a specified way to send promos to the group.  Ask the administrator if you don’t know.

So, what are your thoughts on LinkedIn?  Do you agree that it should be professional conversation only?  What is your philosophy?

If you use AWeber, I think you will find the new forms features are very useful!  In fact, you may not need a survey program anymore.  That’s right, AWeber now has a way to create surveys.  Woo hoo!!  Did I mention that I’m excited about these new features?  Okay, so I’ll quit gushing and I’ll give you the low-down on what’s possible with the new features.

1)  You can create templates for forms or use pre-made templates that draw attention to the form.

2)  You can customize the templates to include your own fancy graphics, including a different submit button.

3)  The 10 field limit is gone!  There is now a 25 field limit…way better and much more usable for a survey.

4)  When you add in the US Address it’s only considered ONE field.  So, you don’t waste fields with address information anymore.

5)  You can use radio buttons, text boxes, check boxes, comment boxes, selection boxes, date boxes etc…

6)  You now have the option of a branded thank you page.  You don’t have to create your own custom thank you page anymore.  AWeber has a very nice template that adds your banner to it automatically, if you choose to use it.  It doesn’t include whitelist information, so I would still recommend doing your own, but if that’s not an option, use their branded page.

7)  You can pass information from the form to the thank you page without having to know how to play with CGI variables.  So, you can now create one generic thank you page, but for each form it will update the thank you page with specific information.  So, your thank you page can now have your subscribers name, the name of the list they signed up for, or the answers to all the questions in your survey.  So, you only design it once, but for each person who sees it, it’s customized.

8)  Aweber can host it for you.  If at all possible, your forms should live on your domain on your website.  This gives you google credit.  However, if that’s not an option for you then AWeber will now host the form for you.  No copy/paste into your website.  Just send people directly to a page on AWeber’s site and your form will be there.

All of these improvements are going to make surveys and information gathering so much easier for those of us who want to collect names and e-mail’s with it.

I do have a few changes that I’d still love to see.  My biggest is being able to put punctuation in the field names.  At this time, no question marks are allowed and when I do a survey, I REALLY want the question mark at the end of a question.

Now, I did notice that this is so new, AWeber hasn’t updated their knowledgebase with the new functions.  If you’ve ever played with a form in AWeber before, you can do it again.  Just go in and try to create a new one.  See what your options are.  It’s well laid out as you go through the process.

So, what do you think?  Do you like the new changes?  Are you ditching your survey program?  Please leave a comment and let us know what your thoughts are.

I’d like to propose a way of looking at your marketing that you may not have considered before. Get your journal, a notebook or a few pieces of paper out and get ready to write (don’t Ugh me!!  You want to be as successful or more successful next year, right?  Then write this stuff down!).

Start with a big picture view of your business from this year.

What was your big accomplishment this year?

What was your favorite part about working in your business this year?

Write any thoughts that come to your head down…no need to sensor, everything you write is RIGHT!

Now, break it down into smaller parts.

What goals did you reach or exceed this year?

What specific tasks, events, or projects allowed you to reach those goals?

What marketing did you do to support reaching those goals?

Which parts did you enjoy the most?

Write it down…remember, everything you write is RIGHT.

Gotta take the negative with the positive.

It would be nice to continue on with all the things that went right this year, but stopping to look at what went wrong can help you shape things for the next time.  So…

What didn’t go so well for you this year?

If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently?

What marketing tasks would you skip or add this time?

Now, take all of this and apply it to next year.

Success usually means whatever you did worked!  So, use it again and tweak it so that it works even better next time.  Use what you learned from the projects that didn’t go so well and use it to beef up what DID go well.  Also, focus on the successful strategies that you enjoy doing (you are most likely to follow through if you enjoy it!).

What business goals would you like to reach in 2010?

What marketing strategies from this year are going to support you in reaching those goals?  (make  a list)

What new marketing strategies do you want to add in? (add to the list above)

What do you need to do to make each marketing strategy successful?  (make a list for each strategy, including answers to the below questions)

Who do you need to help you?

What materials do you need?

What systems need to be in place?

What technology do you need?

Finally, calendar it all out.

Get a marketing calendar.  Put all your ongoing marketing tasks in first.  Put the date you need to have materials/content created, then when you expect to have the final completed.

Then add any one time projects you want to do.  Mark a “start date” and a “launch date” or “finish date”.  You may want to have several other milestones in there mapped out, depending on the project.

Now you have your year of marketing planned out and ready to go. As you go through your year, go back to your notes from this exercise and check in to make sure you are keeping in mind those things that WERE successful in 2009.  You may want to make notes about these things as you go through 2010, so you have it when you are ready to plan 2011.

Get creative if you want with sticky notes, colored highlighters or whatever you want to play with…get your crayons out if you want.  It might just make things more fun!

So, what do you think?  Are you going to do this?  Let us know how this method works for you in a comment.

Have you seen it?  The Federal Trade Commission (the FTC) has made new regulations specifically for marketing on the internet.  The new regulations take effect today, so you may want to consider paying attention if you haven’t been already.

What’s the big deal?

The BIG deal is your testimonials, claims about effectiveness, affiliate marketing and programs may not be up to snuff with the new regulations.  Now, I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t really speak to what you need to do in order to be in compliance with the new regulations.  However, I can point you in the direction of some resources that will help you get there.  You may want to contact your lawyer to be certain, but these resources will get you started.

1)  The official FTC announcement - http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

2)  Blog post by Kevin Houchin (who IS a lawyer), explaining the basics. - http://houchinlaw.com/?p=468

3)  Interview with Kevin Houchin about it. - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/askjamesholmes/2009/11/10/internet-business-blueprint-with-james-holmes

4)  FTC Toolkit, with checklists and step-by-step info. on what you need to do, created by Kevin Houchin and Joel Comm (internet marketer) - https://www.sitecompliant.com/

If you are not yet compliant, don’t panic!!

They aren’t going to go down a list alphabetically and start fining people $11,000 immediately.  They don’t have that kind of time.  There are A LOT of USA websites out there.  I read one article that predicted (not fact!) that they most likely won’t come after you unless there are certain amount of complaints against you.  So, you don’t have to fix it all right this minute!  However, I do suggest you get yourself into compliance as soon as you humanly can.  That way you aren’t at risk anymore.

I think these new regulations are a great thing for internet marketing.

They are going to hold all of us accountable for being transparent.  They will also promote honest marketing, which has been lacking in several internet arenas.  So, I’m all for these new regulations.  Like you, I need to get into compliance myself and I’ll be working on that this month.

What are your thoughts?  Are you in favor of these regulations?

I’m seeing this issue a lot lately.  Are you?  Some internet entrepreneurs have an assistant or behind the scenes person doing social networking for them.  Others swear they do it all themselves and it’s a rip off to do it any other way.  Who’s right?  I think BOTH are.

On one hand, social networks are about being social and connecting with others.  They are about getting visibility for your business and creating relationships that are profitable.  They are also a place to connect with like-minded people and have stimulating conversations about your chosen profession.

On the other hand, there is a lot of work involved with social networking.  The profile maintenance, the branding customizations and the plug-in additions.  Not to mention the actual communication that goes on.  Much of this can be handled by a skilled social networking expert who knows the technology.

So, what’s possible to outsource?  Well, that depends on how much time you have for social networking.  If you have time to communicate and run the technology without taking time away from other income-generating activities, well then have it and do it all by yourself.

If you have limited time for social networking, but it’s been a huge reason that you have been successful, then it might be time to consider outsourcing it.  Okay, so what EXACTLY can you outsource on social networks?  Let me give you a list:

• Profile changes.  Especially in Facebook, where there are so many apps and customizations you can make.
• Branding changes.  When you change your brand, your networks need to be updated.
• Friend/Follow maintenance.  Once you set up a clear criteria, this can be handled by someone else.  Give them a list of all the people you just met an event and they can add them into your mix too.
• Marketing Messages.  This is great for a Fan Page where it’s all business.  Have a great writer take what you’ve written for your marketing campaign and break it down into conversation starters, then post those on your networks.
• Affiliate posts.  If you are an affiliate, have someone pre-set your affiliate postings if possible.  Have them go in on a regular basis and post updates with affiliate links.
• Customer service issues.  If you get people coming to you through social networks asking standard questions that your customer service team can answer, have them do so.

Now, the every day responses to others will be all up to you.  Your outsource company can get the conversation started, but you need to be present to keep it going when you get a response.  You also need to put your “in the moment” thoughts out there, becuase these are most attractive to potential clients.  You don’t need to be into the technology.  If you are making money from being on social networks, then you can invest in a team to allow you more time to serve the clients you get from you social networking activities.

So, the answer is yes and no.  Yes, you can outsource if you’re business is growing from social networks.  No, you can’t outsource EVERYTHING…because no one is you and your social networks want to know YOU.  You CAN get help from professionals when it pays off.  So, are you ready to outsource yet?  What are your thoughts on this topic?  Leave a comment.  I’d love to hear from you.

1)  Wednesday - Saturday if you are in the San Francisco area, you may want to consider attending the Love & Money Business Summit hosted by Katrina Sawa.  She’s going to cover huge amounts of information on how to be happy in your life and your business.  It’s a great combo!  For more information visit: http://www.theloveandmoneysummit.com.

2)  Tuesday, November 17 @ 5:00 pm EST, Scott Lewis of Focused Business Action has asked me to present the More Money Marketing Systems call.  It’s been revamped to include action steps that you will put together on the call, so you can get started right away.  This is going to be a great action-oriented call on how to earn more money with the systems you already have in place.  Oh, and it’s FREE!  Sign up at http://www.focusedbusinessaction.com/marketing-action-seminar/

3)  Thursday, November 19 @ 2:00 pm EST, I’ll personally be interviewing Milana Leshinsky about affording your dream team without breaking the bank on this months Build Your Dream Business Tele-Series call.  I’m going to pick her brain about virtual dream teams. If you are wondering how to get the right team for your business, you want to be on this call!  Register for FREE at http://www.coachesmarketingsource.com/tele-series.html.

So, what do you think?  Is posting events like this on the blog helpful to you?  Let me know.

Hey everyone!

As you may know, I was out for the last two weeks as I attended Marketing to Millionaires and did some networking on the west coast.  It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful I decided to embark on this journey.  Although, I don’t think my brain has ever been so crammed full of information to process before!

First of all, at Marketing to Millionaires I got to meet some amazing people that I had only known via the internet and had a phone call or two with.  Meeting in person really made those relationships stronger and cemented several that will be long-lasting.  Not to mention, I met a lot of new people that I am now continuing to build relationships with.

Kelly taught us a lot about marketing to the affluent.  It’s a whole different ball game from the mass marketing that we all learned when we started our businesses.  It’s a different way of thinking when communicating with this group.  It also takes a much higher level of investment in the relationship.  I am now completely rethinking how I work with my current clients and how I will attract new clients as a result of this training.  Not only that, I have new positioning for my business and I’ll be rewriting my website content soon (stay tuned for more on this!).  It’s all VERY exciting!  For once in my career, I feel like I know exactly what I need to do to achieve what I want.  It’s awesome!

After the event, I arranged some time to meet up with others who weren’t attending.  I took my Project Manager, Carrie, with me so that she could meet one of our clients that she manages and others.  It was awesome to meet all these people in person.  I think we really strengthened our relationship with the client!  As for my other friends/colleauges it was great to meet up with them in person and find out what’s up with them.  I was also introduced to some amazing new people that I will continue to keep in contact with.

Oh, and then there was the day I was able to meet with my brother.  I only get to see  him once a year usually, and this year I got to see him twice!  It was great to hike in the woods, shoot a bow and arrow, and visit with his new furry friends at the house.

Needless to say, I truly enjoyed my trip. Now, I’m beginning to implement the strategies I learned from Kelly and I’m following up with the amazing contacts I made.  I now know that these kinds of events are totally worth it from a learning and networking standpoint.  I’ve grown HUGELY over the last two weeks and I have a commitment to my business that I’ve never had before.  If for no other reason, this was worth it!

Have you been to an event like this?  How has it changed your relationships and/or business?

It is kind of uncomfortable to take that much time away.  Just like so many solopreneurs, I wonder what my team will do if something they’ve never tackled before comes up.  I worry that I forgot to give them something.  This is all par for the course before I leave, but I DO leave and I DO forget about what’s going on while I’m away.  I have to trust that my team can handle whatever comes in while I’m away.  Otherwise, I’d never enjoy it!

That doesn’t mean that I just throw my hands up in the air and say “I’m outta here!”.  In order to ease my mind as much as I can, I have a lot to do in preparation for leaving.  I spent the majority of last month preparing to be out of the office all but 6 business days in October.  So, I know what it takes to get there.  I’m hoping it will help you as well.  So, I thought I’d share with you my vacation preparation strategies.

1)  Do your writing and marketing in advance - Okay, I’m going to admit that I wrote this newsletter in the middle of September (but I did reread it before it went out and edited just a little bit).  This keeps my marketing going even though I have no time to do it this month.  I always tell my clients that consistency is the key to successful marketing.  So, writing out your marketing in advance and scheduling it to go out while you’re gone can keep that consistency for you.

If you have someone helping you with your marketing, make sure you get it to them early and let them know it’s coming early.  That way they know it’s supposed to wait until the time you are away and it’s not in addition to your usual marketing.

If you don’t write it out in advance, at least let peopel know what’s up. As you see, my previous post  on this blog tells you that I may or may not be posting for the month.  It’s kind of a heads up.  That lets people know where you are, so they don’t wonder and leave really quick.

2) Have a team member in place - My Project Manager, Carrie, works very closely with me on a regular basis.  She knows what needs to get done when it comes to helping my clients with their work.  My clients are already familiar with her and have had communication with her fairly regularly.  This  makes Carrie the obvious choice to take over in my absence.

Now, as a coach, I understand you may not have someone like this in place.  I think it’s important to have someone who can handle your administrative duties though.  Someone who schedules appointments, handles follow-up with potential clients when they need more information and can handle the intake process for you once a client decides to work with you.  This team member will have already had a connection with your clients.  So when you are away, they can easily answer e-mails or phone calls as they come in for you.

3)  Schedule a meeting with your helper - Whoever you decide to have help you, make sure you speak to them before you leave.  Cover all the reasons someone would contact you and give them a process for responding.  Give them all the resources they would need to get someone started working with you, in case someone wants to move forward.  Give them any numbers for people that help you with your business in case they need it.  Give them permission to use their best judgment and allow them to make decisions if necessary.  This way you don’t come back to a line of people waiting to hear from you.  Some of them can be taken care of and on their way.

4)  Technology and e-mail - Give your helper access to the back side of your e-mail.  Either through the cpanel or a login to webmail.  Allow your helper to delete junk mail in that back end.  Give them permission to delete newsletters, advertisements, and announcements from online communities etc….  That way it never touches your inbox.  That way you come back ONLY to e-mails that are important.  This will keep you from inbox overload. You will quickly be able to jump back in and respond to people in the first day.

5)  Plan some time to get back in the groove - When you go away, you need to give yourself some time to catch up once you return.  I’m going to be away for most of October, so I’m taking the week after I return to catch up.  I have no calls scheduled.  I made sure I didn’t promise anyone I’d get them something that week.  I have absolutely nothing going on that week by design.  This will not only allow me to get caught up, but it also gives me time to start implementing all that I learn from the event I’m attending.  So, think about what you will want and need to do once you return and schedule accordingly.  Don’t get back and jump right in or you’ll be in overload so fast your head will spin.

I do these 5 things every time I step away from my business.  I have saved myself a lot of headaches by doing so.  When I come back, I know that I will be able to handle catching up.  While I’m away, I know my business is in good hands and that things are getting done.  This helps me get over any doubts I have about whether I can take time away from my business.  I hope it will also help you.

Are there other preparations you make?  What helps you know you can safely step away from your business?  What challenges do you have?