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marketing

Fear + Marketing {PODCAST}

What's keeping you from sharing your work with the people who will love it?

Fear that:

It takes too much time?
It might not work?
You'll look bad?
Everyone will hate it (you?!)?

In this week's episode of Explore Your Enthusiasm, I share my own fear around marketing (it ain't pretty) and share three tools for getting past the fear and communicating with the people who will love your work.

Links I mention:

My new class (closes Friday!)
Leonie's Acadamy (the only way to get her Double Your Biz Intensive)

How to listen

You can listen to it using the player above or download it.
You can subscribe to it on iTunes or via Stitcher (or subscribe in whatever you use for podcasts – just search “Explore Your Enthusiasm” and it should pop up!).

Find all the podcast episodes here.

What have you been avoiding? What wonderful things could it bring into your life?

The secret to turning readers into buyers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

How customers find you, fall in love, and choose to buy = your Customer Path.

In today's podcast episode, we talk about what it is, what you already have and how to start improving it.

A “Customer Path” is a framework to think about your marketing. Once you think through your message and your goals from your own point of view (like we do in the book), you need to shift and think about how this all fits together for your ideal customer. What do they come in contact with first? Where do they go next?

This is how you turn a casual reader (or random googler) into a customer, and then a raving fan.

This framework will help you know:

What to do with your marketing
What to say in your content (blog, emails, social media)
Make more sales

The good news: you already have a Customer Path! Your job, your responsibility is to make it as easy and effective as possible, both to boost your own sales AND to provide service to your customers (they want to know how to find out more!)

In the podcast I share some questions to get you started in your own Customer Path building and a list of 5 things to remember as you map out your own Customer Path.

If you'd like to build your Customer Path, increase it's effectiveness, and get clear on how you make sales, join the brand new class: From Hi to Buy: Craft a Customer Path.

Links I mention:

Paradox of Choice
My weekly email notes (where I go deeper than I do on the blog)
Social Media Primer
The Customer Path Class

How to listen

You can listen to it using the player above or download it.
You can subscribe to it on iTunes or via Stitcher (or subscribe in whatever you use for podcasts – just search “Explore Your Enthusiasm” and it should pop up!).

Your Turn!

What does your Customer Path look like right now? Are there gaps? Cliffs? Too many options?

What are you going to do this week to make it clearer (and thus, more efficient)?

If you don't know the answer to that question, sign up for my FREE marketing e-course:

How to use scarcity without being slimy

Max is terrified of seeming like a slimy salesperson

One of my regular refrains when a Captain asks me to review a sales page is “Why would I buy this now?”
In every page or description, you need to give the person who has stumbled upon it a compelling reason to buy now. That might be the complete and total falling-in-love-must-buy-it-now moment. This works for things we don't need, but love, like gorgeous yarn, wonderful art, or anything really beautiful, moving or hilarious.

But what about if you sells something useful or practical? It's unlikely that anyone is going to become smitten with your class or editing service, the same way they do with a gorgeous object.

This is when marketing people start talking about scarcity: limit the availability or limit the time in which it's available. That gives customers a reason to buy now, and not wait until later.

And scarcity works. Sometimes. But it also has the tendency to feel icky or gross. I see a lot of makers creating scarcity through limited-time discounts (today only, 50% off!). The problem with this is that it can undermine the value of your product, and teach your customers to wait for another coupon or sale. Discounts definitely have their place, but they're not the only way.

So how can you help customers decide to buy now, without feeling like a slimebag?

Let's look at same ways that you can create that compelling page, no matter how scarce your item is.

When the scarcity is real.

Some things are truly scarce. My handspun yarn is one of a kind. I literally can NOT make the same skein twice. If you can only make so many items before you run out of a specific fabric, that's real scarcity.

Your time is also scarce. If you do custom sewing or one-on-one work, or anything where only one client can have your focus at a time, then you have real scarcity. (That pesky space-time continuum!)

Your job, then, is to communicate this clearly and with love to potential buyers. Without being apologetic (and that's tricky!) be sure to state the number of spots or items you have available, with a short explanation of why that's true (your explanation can be a single sentence, as mine about the yarn was.) There's nothing gross about this, in fact, it's the just the opposite. When you inform buyers about the limited nature, you are serving them – you are giving them all the information they need to make a wise buying decision.

When there's not scarcity.

Before we go farther, let's double-check – is this thing truly unlimited? Is the time each sale takes you unlimited?

For example, I used to have the Starship open all the time. People would trickle in, sometimes right in the middle of a class, or during a time I was busy with a client project. I realized I wasn't serving anyone with this scattered approach, so I limited registration to once a month. After a few months, I learned that this was still too scattered. I was spending so much time opening and closing the Starship that I couldn't spend as much time creating value for the members.
So I narrowed it down even further. The Starship is only open once a quarter. This ensures that I can welcome in each new cadet personally, and take the time to click through to their site and read up on where there business is right now. They get more of my attention right from the beginning, because this Open Boarding Party is a time I set aside to do only this – no other classes or client projects.
And then, once the Starship closes, I have 3 full months to focus on creating amazing classes and experiences for the members. It also allowed me to start offering solo-sessions to every single Captain!

So you see, I took something that is, in theory, unlimited (if I didn't have one-on-ones with every member, The Starship could have a zillion members) and I looked what the best way to serve the buyer is. That required adding in some “scarcity” (in the limited time frame) that is both honest and valuable to both parties.

When your product really is unlimited

But perhaps you sell something that is truly unlimited. Your online class is open forever. Your book is available to anyone.

In these instances, your job is to explain the benefits of buying your item now. How does it change their life/business/home immediately? How soon can they expect to experience these benefits? What problem do they desperately want solved right now? (This might be something as dire as bankruptcy or as pressing as needing a dress to your sister's wedding.)

The key to staying non-icky in all of these situations is to stay honest and communicate clearly. If your item is limited, share that without hesitation. If it isn't, share the real benefits without hedging. Things get gross when you get desperate, and keeping your descriptions and site clear and honest will help you develop a business that avoids desperation.

What do you think? How does “scarcity” fit into your marketing?

PS. This is one of those Open Boarding Parties! The Starship is open for the quarter, and will close again on July 5th! Join here.

Your brain on words

I know it's hard to talk about your work.
But I also know (and I bet you do too) that the thing that makes it hardest is…you.
You worry about how you sound. You worry that you're talking too much.
You worry that you're awkward or aggressive or too quiet.

Part of the reason it's so hard is because it's all so verbal. And the minute you start picking words or stringing them together, The Monitor shows up. This isn't just your emotions or self-esteem, there's an actual part of your brain that judges what you say and do. This is super helpful when you need to make a decision, but troublesome when you have to speak extemporaneously or write freely.

But there is good news. You can turn the Monitor off. The best jazz players and comedians have learned to do just that. You can circumvent words + judgement all together and work with another part of your brain.

That's what Diane and I had in mind when we started talking about a visual process that could make it easier for makers to talk about their work. Instead of judging and thinking and arguing with yourself, we want you to skip right into the images that stir you. We jump past the thinking and go right to the seeing. (You can join us in Monitor-silencing this Monday right here.)

For a visual-thinking person, using images to spark words make perfect sense. But it's not the only one. When I started thinking about it, I have all kinds of tricks for turning off the Monitor…

Working in the same place with the same little rituals.
Zooming way out of the screen I'm writing on, so that I can't read as I write.
Writing to just one person.

How do you do it? What are your tricks for turning off The Monitor?

PS. The last chance to join the class is this Monday. If you'd like a reminder, sign up here.

You don’t have to convince anyone

I talk a lot about what the real work in your creative business is: it's your job to follow your enthusiasm, to communicate clearly, to create a path for the customer.

I focus on what your job is, because there's so much that your job is not. It's not your job to change someone's mind. It's not your job to solve all of your people's problems. It's not your job to to make your buyer use the product they bought.
It's not even your job to convince anyone to buy your work.

This is where people get confused about what marketing is. They think it's being convincing, cajoling or self-promotional (as you know, I hate that.) But what if it wasn't?

What if your main job when sharing your work was simply to communicate your passion clearly and with love?

Would that make it easier to talk about your work?
Would that make it something you looked forward to doing?

Good news!
It is this simple.

In fact, forgetting the simplicity, and trying to do something unnatural (self-promotion) or just giving up all together, is why your work languishes in obscurity. Being something that you're not, or using generic words for your work, sounds a warning alarm in your reader. It's an integrity thing: when the words you use don't line up with your passion, enthusiasm, and magic, it feels off or phony. That off-ness silences your true voice while turning off your readers.

So now the question you have to find the answer for is: How do you remember that all you have to do is communicate clearly and enthusiastically, without convincing? How do you start to feel great about sharing your work?

Here's what I've found works:

1. Figure out what words will communicate what makes your work awesome. (Hey, we've got a class for that.)
2. Stop trying to convince anyone. Focus on your Right People, and talk to directly to them.
3. Experiment, experiment, experiment. Try stuff. See what works, try other stuff. See each “failure” as an opportunity to tune into what doesn't work, and permission to try something totally new.
4. Listen in to what your buyers love, and reflect those words back, by using them in your descriptions, pages, and conversations.
5. Keep your eyes on your own work. Don't let other people's success (or marketing) distract you. What works for them might not work for you…and that's perfect. That means you are fantastically unique.

Do you get distracted by convincing or comparing?

What step will you take today to make it easier to share your work?

I don’t know what to say!

If I hear one sentiment more than any other, from makers, artists and writers, when we talk about marketing, it is this:

I can't stand to talk about myself!

I just don't know what to say!

Oh, honey, I hear you.
This is the hardest part about taking your art into the world – being brave enough to talk about, doing the work to find the words to communicate all that it means to you.

But here's the hard truth – makers who take the time to figure out how to talk about their work do the best. They make sales, get press, get accepted into that show.

Being able to talk clearly and passionately talk about your work and why you do it is a gift to the world.

It gives your work handles, so that anyone can pick it up and carry it along. It empowers your fans to tell their friends. It gives editors the words to write about you. It becomes retweetable.

The easier your work is to talk about (because you've found the words and communicated them) the more your work will be talked about. I've seen this happen again and again with my students. As soon as they settle down on one description of their work, people take notice.

This is so important and yet so hard to do on our own (we're just too close to it!), so Diane and I created a class where we'll walk you through a process of finding the words and crafting a description. Even better, we're providing you with a community to talk it over with peers, so you can get feedback and ideas on what you're too close to see.

Class begins June 10th (no, we're not holding it again) and you can read more and join here.

Connection via automagic emails (a love story)

Last week I taught a live workshop for a bunch of artists on Social Media for Beginners, and I think I wasn't quite what they expected. I didn't start by talking about Twitter, or Facebook or about how to post a status update. I started by talking about a path of connection to your customers.

Because social media, blogs, and even websites are completely pointless unless they are part of a path that brings a potential customer closer and closer to you and your products.

If the only Real Work in your day is to connect or to create, then everything you do to connect…should actually be effective at connecting. My favorite piece of a path doesn't actually include social media at all – it's your email list.

You know, the place where people who want to learn more about your work sign up to get updates or news or stories from you? I'm not talking about cold-calling via emailing, or even subscriptions to your blog. I'm talking about giving interested people a way to connect with you directly, and then sending those people regular messages.
Why is this so effective?

It's direct. When you send an email to your list, it is going directly to the people who have asked for it. Unlike a blog, where they have to visit you, or social media, where only a few people are online to see it at a time, an email is delivered to them. So you don't have to hope or wonder if they saw it.

It's desired. If you clearly explain what they're signing up for…and then you send them exactly that, your messages are wanted. You never have to worry if the people really want to hear about your new project, of course they do! They signed up to hear about it!

It's conversational. While it's easy to lurk on blogs or skim tweets, an email inbox is a place of conversation. We're used to opening, reading and then responding to the messages we get there. So when you send an email, you can ask questions and expect answers (especially if you ask about them and not you.) And these conversations can guide everything you do – they help you know your real Right Person, they can inform what you make next or suggest where to sell.

It's foundational. You can start a conversation in today's email and continue it for three or four weeks (or a whole year!) Using autoresponders, you can create a whole series, so that every new person that signs up, gets the same messages in the same order, ensuring that everyone sees your best work or your introduction or gets to know you before you take the conversation deeper.

I know lots of makers avoid starting (or using) an email list because they think of it as another To Do to add to their week. But what if it wasn't? What if you could create the content once, have it delivered automagically to every new member, and then not worry about it until you had something new to say? This is why I love autoresponders (an email series sent automatically when someone joins a list or buys a product). Creating content can be as easy as collecting up your best blog posts or chunking up your about page and BAM! You've got a tool that introduces new people to your work and starts new conversations, without any extra work from you. It's a clear and easy step on the customer path that can be automated without losing any of the connection or honesty.

I've been getting questions about them from Starship members, so I created a little class about using this tool in your customer path. I'll be sharing the first video lesson with you here, tomorrow, for free. You can subscribe here to be sure not to miss it.

Do you have an email list as part of your customer path? How do you use it?

Creating a path of connection to customers

createcustomerpath

Wow! Tuesday's post about creating a path of connection really touched on something, prompting emails + tweets from so many of you!

We're all searching for a rhythm to interacting with our community, one that is sustainable for both sides, one that feels generous and friendly and doable. After spending the first months (or years!) of your business searching desperately to find your people, it take s a conscious shift to move into serving your people – through your marketing and making – to stop pushing so hard and start looking around and talking with who's there already.

But take note! Even if you're in the very beginning stages of finding your People, you still need to think through the customer path, so that every new person who discovers you knows what to do next. This is part of the system you want in place as you begin to reach out to new customers.

Now that we have a path to bring interested readers closer, let's talk about what happens after they commit to us, after they become a customer. The path doesn't stop here, at the door of The Purchase, it can keep going deeper and deeper into your community. In other words, each of your products or services can act as a different part of the path – each one can deepen a relationship with your customer.

Like I said before, every path will look different. Even if you sell products online and never interact in the physical space of your customers, you can still create a path. Even if you only do craft shows in person, you can still create a path.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you lay your path

Make it easy to start on the customer path. Have something available for the taste-tester. If I'm on your newsletter and open all your emails and am a fan of your work — how can I first support you? If you're an artist – do you have affordable prints (or even notecards?) If you're a teacher, do you have a book or PDF or email series?For some of your people, this will be the end of the path (even if they love you), but for others this will reassure them that they want to continue on the path with you, into bigger commitments.

The more time or money commitment required by your product or service, the farther down the path it is. Offer this deeper commitment to people who have already invested in the relationship.

If you make products, it may seem difficult to come up with further parts of the path. Brainstorm ideas that would either give the buyer more of your products over time, more of your personal time and attention, or a special access to treasured, limited editions.

Guard your path. It's easy to think we should offer everything we have to everyone who finds us – but this doesn't serve you or them. It confuses a first-time buyer (or scares them off), and it throws your precious time into the hands of strangers. Instead, offer your deepest options to those already on the path – past customers, long-time readers, customers-who-have-become friends.

This isn't about keeping the wrong people out, this is about keeping your Right People engaged and interested. A clear path helps you and the customer know what to do next.

Make it obvious. And then even more obvious. Don't rely on your biggest fans to find your other offers, show it them clearly and with love. Make it perfectly obvious what they should do next if they want to enjoy even more of your work.

What's your customer path look like? How do your products guide a reader into becoming a more invested buyer?

May 2014 Update: Craft your Customer Path with the new class! Register here!

What to do with all those Pinterest followers?

Last week during the #omhg chat* Marisa asked a great question:

“What do I do with my nearly 1 million Pinterest followers?”

Yes! I jumped all over it and Marisa and I got to emailing with ideas and suggestions for what she could do with all that possible-traffic. I've come across this question (and some great answers) so often that I know you're probably wondering the same. So here's my 4 tips for doing something great with your Pinterest account:

I forgot to mention it in the video, but I recently read and enjoyed Pinfluence. If you want more ideas and some technical how-tos it's a great book! {Buy it from your local bookseller!}

Do you use Pinterest for your business? How's it working out for you?

I get quite a bit of traffic thanks to Pinterest, but I'm just starting to use the kind of pin-able images on my blog posts (like this, for example). How about you?

Got a question you need answered? Ask me!
Want to get every video + special lessons? Subscribe here.

*Next week I'm co-hosting the chat! Come hang out, Thursday 1p-2p!

Feel Good Experiment – Review + Renew

Even though October is long over, I've been holding off on reporting back on October's experiment…because I love it too much and don't want it to stop! And then I remembered: I'm in charge of my experiment! It can go on as long as I want! And just like that, the Feel Good Experiment became a 3 month study in awesomeness. Through the end of December, I'm focusing my scientist microscope on what feels great and how that effects my business (and life).

But before Month 1 of the experiment gets too far in the past, let's look at what worked and what surprised me.

Timing:

It was the best time and the worst time for this experiment. We had two deaths in the family, plus a road trip to visit grandpa before he passed away. Lots of hard stuff, emotions, crying. But feeling good and cozy is exactly what we (not just me!) needed this month. Without the daily reminder of the experiment, I might have slipped into head-down, just-work mode to catch up at work, and just-be-sad mode at home. But the Feel Good Experiment reminded to look around and identify something that would, well, feel good.

The expected good things:

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Soy Chai

Following the Enthusiasm. This led to quilting, Project Life, and lots of baking. I'll talk more about this soon.

Music. My Happy Sparkly Pandora + Spotify playlists are vital.

Reading – especially Quiet and Daring Greatly.

Permission + Attention. Ah, permission. It's the simplest thing: just allowing yourself to want what you want. But it manages to escape me entirely when I'm working. I like to think it's because I get so into the flow, but I have to admit that sometimes it's just because I zone out while clicking. But this month, I tried. When I was tired, I rested. When I was hungry, I ate. Giving myself permission to feel good meant paying attention to what felt good (and what didn't) and then trying something else, even if was outside my scheduled workday.

Holiday Sanity. Creating it, writing the Stay Sane course, and now, chatting with the students is everything I had hoped. I'm also smitten with the cute stickers I created.

Writing, using Sarah's prompt: What is most true right now?

Connection: I built in SO MUCH of this into my month, since part of my hypothesis was: “Connecting with people always feels better than disconnecting (even when it’s scary).” I had appointments to chat live with Brooke, Sarah, Melissa, Rebecca, Amy, Steph and Anna…and it was so invigorating (and felt so good!) that I'm building more one-on-one time into the Starship.

The unexpected good things:

Saying goodbye is never easy, but Jay's family made it a beautiful, holy experience. I was honored to be a part.

Fitness. Who knew? Paying attention to my phsyical body and challenging it was the big surprise this month. I don't know what came over me, but now I'm training for a 5k in the new year. This is so far outside my personal comfort zone (or my life experience) that I never would have expected it.

What's next:

Just listing out everything here is a great reminder to revisit it. But I'd also like to add on an extra reminder, so that I don't forget n to pay attention to what feels good. Each morning, when I start my day (whether it's a workday or not), I'm going to answer the question in my journal: What do I want to feel today? What would feel good?

What about you?

Did you join me in your own Feel Good Experiment?
How'd it go?
What to join me now? Here's a primer on creating an experiment, and here's my hypothesis at the beginning of this experiment.
If so, what are some of the good-feeling stuff you wanna try?