by Alicia on July 30, 2010
Think about some of the top people — the most successful people in your industry or niche market.
Go to their website and check out their contact process. What are your observations?
Do they let you walk right up to the boss’s door and knock? Chances are, probably not. You have to jump through hoops and over hurdles to get to them like an obstacle course, and it is not actually “them”; its probably their assistant.
What does this say to you about their business?
- They must be pretty important to not have their email directly available
- They must be so busy that they can’t reply to everyone themselves, thus having to coordinate with their assistant.
Don’t you want your audience to think the same thing about you as well?!? Even if you are not there YET, let your potential, interested clients think you are!
This is what you need to do:
- Set up an info or support email address associated with your domain
- have them contact this email address to set up a consultation
- Come up with a system for when someone contacts you for a consultation and have your Virtual Assistant check this email address for you
Another idea is a contact form that allows for them to answer some questions about their needs. You can also set this process up so that your VA receives the initial form information and can respond accordingly. This is how mine is set up and you can check it out here. This way works efficiently for me so that I can find out exactly what they have in mind when we do our consult.
People who truly want to work with you will go through the hoops and over the hurdles of your contact obstacle course.
Just think about it! I encourage you to let me know your thoughts too. VA’s – how do you handle your client’s?
by Alicia on July 26, 2010
Sound like a post about some type of baby give-a-way contest? Guess again. Pink Spoon Marketing is the latest in Internet Marketing. It’s a new approach to business whereby you build the “know/like/trust” factor to create a thriving business.
The term “pink spoon” was created by Andrea Lee and was inspired by the popular ice cream store that hands you a little pink spoon to let you sample some of the 31 available flavors. In business, the pink spoon you offer to your clients or customers might be an article, report, tip sheet, or ebook. Or maybe you want to give them one of each. That is totally up to you!
While this concept of offering a freebie has been around for several years, the “pink spoon” analogy is a good one. Giving away something free via the Internet is one of the most cost effective things you can do – yet gives you tremendous power. Who doesn’t LOVE getting things free and being the one to offer this freebie gives you an exceptional chance of winning the business.
A “pink spoon offering” has these five characteristics:
- It’s free. The person wanting the pink spoon sample simply has to provide their name and email to receive it.
- It has value that someone is willing to pay for. However, by getting it free, you create a vital bond between you and them.
- It is a true sample in that the size is small – like a single page tip sheet or a 4-6 page report.
- There is a onetime cost to create the pink spoon (e.g., to write the report) and setup the distribution…but then it runs itself.
- The relationship between the pink spoon item and your core product or service follows a natural pathway.
My pink spoon offering to my clients follows an eight-step approach for success. It includes the following:
- Ensuring you’re in the right niche market for you.
- Determining the problems your target customer/client has.
- Creating a list of solutions for the problem your customer/client faces.
- Deciding on what product to offer and how to package that product.
- Delivering highly qualified traffic to a web site or blog.
- Converting that visitor traffic from a “sampler” to a “purchaser” who returns repeatedly.
- Building your trust factor to enable your business achieve its full potential.
- Helping you to be known for the personal integrity that you apply across all areas of your business.
Through my Pink Spoon marketing service offerings, I have found that clients who were undecided about what direction to go (or flavor to select, if you will) are now able to focus on what they truly want to offer. Plus, knowing they have the backing of someone who understands this approach is just like putting the cherry on top of their hot fudge sundae!
Think about some of the top people — the most successful people in your industry or niche market.
