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Added for You - How to Profit from Your Expertise (Part 2 of 2)
If you are a small business owner and have been putting off getting adequate security coverage, then you are not just putting your business at risk from unwanted intruders but could be costing yourself valuable dollars in lost productivity and fraud.Okay, you completely trust your small number of staff and that's admirable but it seems many business owners are of the opinion it costs a small fortune to set up a complete video surveillance system on their premises. It doesn't!The business security camera has evolved with technology. It's smaller, less obtrusive and the best part, it's now inexpensive. A classic example is the wireless security camera. One camera which is making a noise in the world of security cameras are the X10 products.XCam Business Security CameraThis system gives business owners a double dose of effectiveness. It provides excellent security coverage and doesn't hurt in the hip pocket. A one time cost opposed to forking out monthly fees makes it an affordable alternative and one, uncovered businesses should co
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it conge
Last month, while sitting with a client discussing her resum?, I realized she forgot one extremely important piece of information: her strengths. She focused on the work that she did and how her experiences could assist her in the future, but she forgot to describe those tasks and projects she could effortlessly handle and enjoy the most.When I asked her about this quality, she looked at me a bit puzzled. She explained that her strengths were her accomplishments. While achieving large goals is a definite strength, I explained to her how I use or leverage my strengths (strategizing, meeting and connecting people, thinking creatively, communicating, and being responsible) to my advantage. Since understanding my strengths, my life and business have never been so much fun.Step 1: Be open and positive.Assessing one's strengths is one of the most difficult things a person can do. Most of us look at the things that are hard for us to do, not the easy stuff. The easy stuff, which we enjoy, we often take for granted. It's the hard stuff that we
This month, we’ll look at how to get in front of the right audiences to put your attention-getting articles and talks to work in promoting you and your firm.
Before we go there, make sure you’ve:
• Given your talk or article a compelling title that answers your target audience’s “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me?). It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is, if people don’t read past your title or sign up for your talk. Your title is ALL that matters, at first glance.
• Got a title that’s clear and easy to understand, targets the audience specifically, includes core benefits directed at the reader/listener’s self-interest, and leads the reader/listener into the copy/talk.
For specific tips on how to make your titles compelling, read last month’s issue of this e-newsletter at http://www.turningpointemarketing.com:8080/icms/icms.php/cs/9/linktarget.html.
So if sharing your expertise through articles and talks is the fastest way to promote your professional service firm, how do you get in front of audiences that are full of good prospects?
STEP 1: Find the right audiences
In the beginning, this is about promotion and getting the word out through knowledge sharing…not getting paid to speak or write articles. So if you’re doing this for free, get a return on your investment by being in front of your target audience.
Finding the right target audience for your talk or article takes some old fashioned footwork. Here’s what you do:
1. Think about who you want sitting in your audience or reading your article – your ideal target client – and find out where they go for professional education, what associations they belong to, what they read, where they network, etc. Where are you most likely to bump into them?
In some cases, it could even be events held by your larger clients for their own employees (i.e., national and regional meetings for sales, HR, finance, IT staff, etc.)
For ideas and association contact info, try http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/ and http://www.galegroup.com (accessible for free at the public library).
2. Know you “customer.” Check out the websites of the organizations and publications you’re targeting. Find out what the hot issues are. Also research any procedures for speakers and writers – you’ll often find guidelines right on their website. Sometimes you have to complete an online application, other times is less formal.
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it congen
It’s about twenty after 9, on a Tuesday morning, Mike Johnson is an architect and he's thinking that life is bed of roses. But it wasn’t like that a year ago…This time last year, the revenues of his practice were shrinking at an alarming 15% annual rate… he was trying everything in the book to pull those revenues out of tailspin, primary of which was outsourcing most of his CAD drafting offshore. That exercise failed miserably, and he couldn’t even start to figure out why.He had been very diligent in selecting the service provider (who was based in India)… got custom samples done, and ramped up slowly to midsize assignments, to the point where the service provider successfully drafted a 120,000 square-foot, mixed-use project in Miami…Bertie Spalding, Mike's Project Manager for the Miami job, was impressed with their work. He decided to move the service provider even further up the ladder of design complexity.Mike had just been awarded the design of a 1,250-room luxury hotel in a major metropolis. He decided to ask the service pr
• Got a title that’s clear and easy to understand, targets the audience specifically, includes core benefits directed at the reader/listener’s self-interest, and leads the reader/listener into the copy/talk.
For specific tips on how to make your titles compelling, read last month’s issue of this e-newsletter at http://www.turningpointemarketing.com:8080/icms/icms.php/cs/9/linktarget.html.
So if sharing your expertise through articles and talks is the fastest way to promote your professional service firm, how do you get in front of audiences that are full of good prospects?
STEP 1: Find the right audiences
In the beginning, this is about promotion and getting the word out through knowledge sharing…not getting paid to speak or write articles. So if you’re doing this for free, get a return on your investment by being in front of your target audience.
Finding the right target audience for your talk or article takes some old fashioned footwork. Here’s what you do:
1. Think about who you want sitting in your audience or reading your article – your ideal target client – and find out where they go for professional education, what associations they belong to, what they read, where they network, etc. Where are you most likely to bump into them?
In some cases, it could even be events held by your larger clients for their own employees (i.e., national and regional meetings for sales, HR, finance, IT staff, etc.)
For ideas and association contact info, try http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/ and http://www.galegroup.com (accessible for free at the public library).
2. Know you “customer.” Check out the websites of the organizations and publications you’re targeting. Find out what the hot issues are. Also research any procedures for speakers and writers – you’ll often find guidelines right on their website. Sometimes you have to complete an online application, other times is less formal.
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it conge
A potentially profitable business can fail because of poor management of cash flow. Equally, an unprofitable business can enjoy a period in which is has plenty of cash before the bills arrive!Cash flow and profits are two very different concepts:- A business makes a profit if, over a given period of time, its rebenue is greater than its expenditure. A Business can survive without making a profit for a short period of time, but it is essential that it earns profits in the long run.- Cash Flow relates to the timing of payments and receipts. Cash flow is important in the short term as a business must pay people and organisations to whom it owes money.Unless a business manages the timing of its payments and receipts carefully, it may find itself in a position where it is operating profitability but is running out of cash regularity. This could be because it is forced to wait for several months before receiving payment from customers. In the meantime, it has to settle its own debts.Why do businesses forecast cash flows?B
STEP 1: Find the right audiences
In the beginning, this is about promotion and getting the word out through knowledge sharing…not getting paid to speak or write articles. So if you’re doing this for free, get a return on your investment by being in front of your target audience.
Finding the right target audience for your talk or article takes some old fashioned footwork. Here’s what you do:
1. Think about who you want sitting in your audience or reading your article – your ideal target client – and find out where they go for professional education, what associations they belong to, what they read, where they network, etc. Where are you most likely to bump into them?
In some cases, it could even be events held by your larger clients for their own employees (i.e., national and regional meetings for sales, HR, finance, IT staff, etc.)
For ideas and association contact info, try http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/ and http://www.galegroup.com (accessible for free at the public library).
2. Know you “customer.” Check out the websites of the organizations and publications you’re targeting. Find out what the hot issues are. Also research any procedures for speakers and writers – you’ll often find guidelines right on their website. Sometimes you have to complete an online application, other times is less formal.
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it conge
An extranet is a web-based tool that provides a secure environment for the organization and exchange of documents and information among a defined group of users.Extranets are often used to support team collaboration in circumstances where the team members are geographically dispersed or are drawn from variety external organizations. Examples include a group of departments within a company that collaborate on a common project, or service companies that collaborate with a variety of outside clients, customers and partners.Access to the extranet requires a valid password with username. The permissions given to your unique username by the network administrator determines which part of the extranet you can have access to. Thus, an extranet allows you to share important documents, exchange information and conduct online collaborations in a secure environment, free from spam and un-authorized access.Spam-Free Environment An extranet has the same look and feel of an ordinary web site hosted on the World Wide Web. The only distinguishing featur
In some cases, it could even be events held by your larger clients for their own employees (i.e., national and regional meetings for sales, HR, finance, IT staff, etc.)
For ideas and association contact info, try http://www.marketingsource.com/associations/ and http://www.galegroup.com (accessible for free at the public library).
2. Know you “customer.” Check out the websites of the organizations and publications you’re targeting. Find out what the hot issues are. Also research any procedures for speakers and writers – you’ll often find guidelines right on their website. Sometimes you have to complete an online application, other times is less formal.
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it conge
A recent survey by Salary.com shows employee productivity may not be all that employers would like. According to the survey, “the average worker in the US admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per eight hour workday”. This figure does not include lunch breaks or other scheduled break-time.In Wisconsin for example, for every eight hours work an employer pays for, the employee is likely to deliver less than six. Respondents admit to wasting 2.8 hours on activities such as: • Surfing the Internet for personal use • Socializing with co-workers • Conducting personal businessTake out employer sanctioned time off such as lunch breaks, vacation time and sick leave and the productivity picture looks even worse.According to the survey, the number one time-wasting excuse is “Don’t have enough work to do,” reason enough for many to consider outsourcing over hiring. Since a whopping 33.2% of respondents cited this as their biggest reason for wasting time, small business owners need to seriously consider whether they can keep a
3. Contact the right person – the one making the decision about speakers or articles. Even if decisions are made by committee (i.e., the Education Committee), they still have a main contact and a process you need to follow. Get the person’s name and talk with them directly.
4. Make it congenial and low-key – this is not a sales call. You’re simply asking if they think their members or readers would benefit from learning more about __________ (and then use one of the catchy, compelling titles that you developed using the guidelines in last month’s e-newsletter!).
5. In most cases, you’ll get a polite “maybe,” “can you send me some information?” or “you need to jump through these hoops…” Great – you’ve got the green light to take the next step!
If you get a “no,” move on. Learn what you can, adjust your approach if you’re making no progress, and keep going.
STEP 2: Send the right materials
Getting a green light means you need to send something.
Talks
For talks, it usually means sending your “press kit” or “media kit.” This isn’t as fancy as it sounds. Often a well-written, cover letter, 1-page description of your talks, and your bio (again, client-centered and must pass the WIIFM test) will due. In most cases, though, you need more.
To really knock their socks off, you should include some of your articles, a list of places you’ve given talks, a couple of client case studies, any brochures or printed web pages that are high-value and about the target audience, and a 1-page collection of testimonials from people who’ve attended your past presentations. If you sell products or have “packaged” your expertise into tapes or CDs, definitely throw one in!
The point is to clearly demonstrate how valuable you’ll be for the decision-maker’s audience. Remember, the person booking you for the talk has one concern: that you make their event a success. So they need to know that you’ll be well received, offer loads of value, and not ruin the event.
You’ll build their confidence in you as a good choice, by giving them lots of evidence that you’ll do a great job. That’s what your press kit, your website, and your easy approach with them on the phone will do.
Articles
For articles, you’ll need to do a query letter with a brief description of your article. You can offer to send a sample article or direct them to your website for examples of your writing. Again, the decision maker needs to know they can count on you to deliver the goods.
A couple of points about articles for major publications:
• You probably won’t retain the copyright if you’re writing an original article, but ask for it anyway. At a minimum, make sure you can get “reprint rights
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.added4u.com/article/5068/added4u-How-to-Profit-from-Your-Expertise-Part-2-of-2.html">How to Profit from Your Expertise (Part 2 of 2)</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.added4u.com/article/5068/added4u-How-to-Profit-from-Your-Expertise-Part-2-of-2.html]How to Profit from Your Expertise (Part 2 of 2)[/url]
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