How many online friends have you made a real life connection with? This weekend I attended an event where I finally met face-to-face with a friend, Julie, who I met a couple of years ago through an online community. We both had a lot in common and though we hadn’t met yet, connected online and eventually offline, building a relationship that crossed the boundaries of screens and logins.

Neither of us knew the other was attending the event this weekend, but when if you’d seen us greet each other you would have thought that we were old childhood friends. Our friendship had a strong bond because we activated old and new modes of connection. It’s something we did naturally, for personal reasons, but a routine that works very effectively in business as well. Especially in the current cluttered online climate.

Whether it’s attracting new clients, doing field research or promoting new products if you don’t pick up the phone you will have a hard time achieving your results. Smart phones, tablets and technology have become so commonplace that it’s hard for your message to get through effectively.

Increasingly business owners are seeing the numbers of client conversions, event registrations and product sales decline because there are more options and less connections than before. If you business model was built on a marketing model that hasn’t been updated in the past year, chances are you’re finding it more difficult to achieve the results you once did. Here are some tips to push get you over the hump:

1) Take a look at your engagement. Who’s opening and clicking through your email? These community members are your best targets and your first stop for developing a follow up plan. 

2) Aggregate all of your client data in one place. Do you have names, email addresses and telephone numbers? You should. If you don’t, reach out to your warmest leads and request that they update (add to) their contact profiles.

3) Start making phone calls. Whenever you add a new type of connection to someone you deepen the relationship and extend it. Julie and I had two points of connection, online and voice. Now that we’ve met we have a added a third layer. We now have a stronger bond and inner circle between ourselves.

4) Extend your offer, or a referral, in a spirit of service. When you’re able to have a real conversation with someone and vet their needs the best “next step”  is to give them a solution that you truly know will solve a need. If it’s you, great, but if it’s not, and you have a resource, extend it to them in the spirit of service.

To cut through the clutter these days you need to build real connection, and step forward from your brand with a focus on your core values. It will endear others to you and increase your results exponentially. To get strategy, analysis and management for your brand, set up a brand strategy session. If you have a solid system in place, share  some of your best tips, or recent results, below.

Thanks,

Beatrice

How many online friends have you made a real life connection with? This weekend I attended an event where I finally met face-to-face with a friend, Julie, who I met a couple of years ago through an online community. We both had a lot in common and though we hadn’t met yet, connected online and eventually offline, building a relationship that crossed the boundaries of screens and logins.

Neither of us knew the other was attending the event this weekend, but when if you’d seen us greet each other you would have thought that we were old childhood friends. Our friendship had a strong bond because we activated old and new modes of connection. It’s something we did naturally, for personal reasons, but a routine that works very effectively in business as well. Especially in the current cluttered online climate.

Whether it’s attracting new clients, doing field research or promoting new products if you don’t pick up the phone you will have a hard time achieving your results. Smart phones, tablets and technology have become so commonplace that it’s hard for your message to get through effectively.

Increasingly business owners are seeing the numbers of client conversions, event registrations and product sales decline because there are more options and less connections than before. If you business model was built on a marketing model that hasn’t been updated in the past year, chances are you’re finding it more difficult to achieve the results you once did. Here are some tips to push get you over the hump:

1) Take a look at your engagement. Who’s opening and clicking through your email? These community members are your best targets and your first stop for developing a follow up plan. 

2) Aggregate all of your client data in one place. Do you have names, email addresses and telephone numbers? You should. If you don’t, reach out to your warmest leads and request that they update (add to) their contact profiles.

3) Start making phone calls. Whenever you add a new type of connection to someone you deepen the relationship and extend it. Julie and I had two points of connection, online and voice. Now that we’ve met we have a added a third layer. We now have a stronger bond and inner circle between ourselves.

4) Extend your offer, or a referral, in a spirit of service. When you’re able to have a real conversation with someone and vet their needs the best “next step”  is to give them a solution that you truly know will solve a need. If it’s you, great, but if it’s not, and you have a resource, extend it to them in the spirit of service.

To cut through the clutter these days you need to build real connection, and step forward from your brand with a focus on your core values. It will endear others to you and increase your results exponentially. To get strategy, analysis and management for your brand, set up a brand strategy session. If you have a solid system in place, share  some of your best tips, or recent results, below.

Thanks,

Beatrice

With all the talk of automation and systems it’s easy to forget that you have to stay plugged in when it comes to building your brand. I received a great (and humbling) reminder of this in an email recently. The results of falling off the wagon will remind you in many ways (your people really are your brand) and it can go a little something like this:

• “I know you have a lot of automation in place, but …. the last time we spoke you promised to…”
• “Did you see the tag or post I did on your Facebook wall”
• “I’m surprised you didn’t [comment, respond, reply, chime in] after you ….”

You get the idea. We sometimes get so much automation in place (which is still necessary, because it makes our life easier) that we forget we still need to show up live and in person, online and offline.

Be sure to keep your brand alive by having systems in place “in support” of the things you’re also doing as you’re fully invested in your brand. You’ll love it more, your brand ambassadors will love it more and the drive will help you soar!

Do you have a phrase, system or mindset that helps keep you plugged in? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Share them below.

I’ve been compelled for quite a few months now to share more than just my business tips on this blog. I feel that one way to truly benefit from our joint experiences and insight as a community is to share what becomes “top of mind” for us, and today, I want to share my thoughts about copycat marketing.

Copycat – the dictionary defines it as one who copies, imitates or mimic another. There are a lot of copycat brands out there. There are a lot of copycat people out there. When I was young, I was quite unique, quite shy. I wanted to pave my own way in the world and the reward for that was a lot of scrutiny and being labeled as an outcast. I wasn’t the popular one by any means. I’m glad I learned that lesson early.

What I see in business these days is that there is no innovation anymore. Everyone is teaching you how to “attract clients… magnify your mojo… mastermind your way to riches” but really, aren’t they all talking about the same things over and over. Everyone is doing the video series to launch a new teleclass or program. Everyone is giving away the chance to win a free hour with their favorite celebrity coach. Everyone is doing what everyone else is doing.

For some, they get successful  results, for others, they keep spinning the wheels. No one is teaching you how to build a business on your own terms. Now, I agree, guidelines are good, tried and proven methods are good. Networking is good. Buy when do you turn off all the noise in your head and on your screen, shut down the email and take a moment to think of something that really moves  you?

If you’ve never done that, my challenge for you today is to find an hour where you can shut down everything. No ipod, no ipad, no eyes on you. Just you, and four walls, or a big body of water, or the porcelain thrown if that’s where you do your best thinking. Your client is looking for solutions, but they’re tired of the cookie cutter formula being fed to them the world over. Are you ready to make a change? Does what I’m saying ring true to you? I wanna hear your thoughts below.