Learning to Blog for Business Owners

You may think that learning to blog isn’t important to your business. You’re a coach or you sell things you make, why should you blog? The internet has an insatiable appetite for information. Billions of searches are conducted every single day looking for everything from how to bake an apple pie to why zebras have stripes. For anyone who conducts business online, these searches represent a steady flow of potential customers who are looking for what you have to offer.

You can use a blog to present yourself as an expert in your field or as the authority in finding the best deals on clothes – whatever your niche is, a blog can help get more eyes on your website. A blog is an easy, cost-effective method of being found by the exact people who most need, want, and are willing to pay for your services. But only if you have a good strategy in place first.

Know Your Keywords

These are the search terms your ideal client is using to find answers to their questions. When you know what your keywords are, you can easily create blog posts that will:

  • Attract the right visitors to your site
  • Position you as the expert in your niche
  • Make it easy for your ideal client to find—and get to know—you and your services

Write for People

Keywords are great for SEO and making search engines like your blogs. And while it’s important to know and use keywords in your blog posts, it’s even more important that you write your content with people in mind. Your blog should be engaging, informational, and even entertaining, but above all else, it must be readable. When learning to blog and choosing what to write remember this: if you wouldn’t read it, neither will anyone else.

Be Consistent

Content marketing—and blogging, by extension—is very much a numbers game. The more content you produce, the greater your results will be. That means setting—and sticking to—a content production schedule is a must. For most websites, a weekly schedule is both attainable and sufficient to build a steady stream of traffic. If that seems daunting, start with something easier like monthly or bi-monthly. One important lesson to learn when learning to blog is that there are no one-size-fits-all answers. Make a production schedule that works for you and make it something that you KNOW you can stick to.

Keep Long-Term Goals in Mind

Blogging is not a fast business-growth strategy but it is excellent for long-term sustainability. Those posts you write this month will continue to work for you many years from now, bringing in more and more traffic and potential clients. Evergreen content, or content that will last for a long time to come, is one of the best investments you can make in your business. Learning to blog also means learning to re-blog. Once your production schedule has been up and running for a few months, set aside some time to review your past blog articles and see if there’s anything you can reuse. You can also go back to old articles and check if there are any natural places to drop in some links to more recent blog posts to increase internal links.

Use Good SEO Practices

Aside from keywords, great bloggers know there are many techniques you can use to bring in more readers, including:

  • External links to relevant sites from within your blog
  • Internal links to other, related content on your site
  • Use of graphics and headlines to break up long text passages
  • Compelling meta descriptions
  • Good HTML practices such as ALT tags

Get the Word Out

Each new blog post is an opportunity to be seen, so take the time to share your content socially, and encourage your readers to do the same. Share your post on your Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and anywhere else your ideal client is likely to see it.

You can also join social media groups for topics related to your industry and periodically share relevant content from your blog. Just make sure this doesn’t go against the group’s policies and remember to always add value – the goal of this is to promote your website and your business, not annoy group admins.

Mix It Up

Not every post has to be a 3,000-word article. Include other types of content as well, such as:

  • Videos
  • Infographics
  • Curated content
  • Short opinion pieces
  • Audio

Have Fun with It

Above all else, the most important thing to remember when learning to blog is to have some fun. Inject your personality into your blog. Not only will you more easily attract your ideal client but you’ll enjoy blogging a lot more if you use your authentic voice. And the more you enjoy it, the more likely you will remain consistent as well.

How to Start a Podcast for Your Business

As of 2021 41% of Americans have listened to a podcast in the past month and that figure is changing rapidly. Podcast episodes are easy for people to search, access, and listen to. Listeners can find most podcasts for free on different platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Castbox. With the podcast industry evolving, these platforms make it easier and easier for listeners to access your podcasts.

As a business, podcasts offer an easy barrier to entry, little-to-no marketing cost, and access to a wide audience. The form of podcasts, today’s modern-day radio, allows people to listen to your content as they go about their day, from doing daily chores to traveling, or even exercising.

It’s relatively simple to start a podcast and reach a brand-new market and it’s a great way to expand your business’s marketing reach!

What you need to start a podcast:

  1. Equipment & location. You will need a computer or smartphone, a microphone, and a quiet place to record your podcasts.

    • Computer or smartphone. To start a podcast you will need a device to store the recording before uploading it to the podcasting platform. You don’t need anything special. As long as it can access the internet and has the ability to have a microphone.
    • Microphone. Good-quality microphones are fairly inexpensive and can be purchased on Amazon or at your local electronics store. Do a little research in advance to find out what type of microphone will work best with your computer/smartphone and your needs. We don’t recommend using the built-in microphone on your smartphone, they usually result in lower-quality audio.
    • Decide on a location to record the podcast. It needs to be very quiet and ideally comfortable. A quiet bedroom would work, however, a sound-proofed room or a sound-proofed closet would work best. Keep in mind that every sound will be translated to the podcast, including typing on a keyboard and the sound of computer fans.
  2. Recording, editing & hosting. How you are going to record and edit your podcast, and how it will be hosted?

    • Recording and editing. There are a lot of software options available for recording and editing audio, but if you’re just starting out with a small budget, you can use a web-based service like Anchor.fm that provides free recording and editing. Be sure to compare the features and cost of any software/service to ensure it will work for your needs. When you first start a podcast it might be better to go with a service and then switch to your own editing software later.
    • Hosting. A host for your podcast is simply the place where the file is stored online so it can be broadcast to your subscribers. There are multiple hosting options available. Anchor.fm also provides hosting for your podcast and we highly recommend it! (We aren’t getting any commission for saying that – we just really like them!)
  3. Brainstorm content theme. What’s the overarching theme or concept that will guide your podcast episodes? People search for podcasts related to certain themes, topics, or ideas.

    • What theme or idea will every podcast episode relate back to? Think about something that you’re familiar with or passionate about that relates back to your business. Even topics you don’t know a lot about are fair game, as long as they tie into your business or industry.
    • For format will your episodes take? Will they be conversational interviews, solo shows, or tell a story?
    • What types of content will you produce? Do you want your podcast to be helpful and informative, inspirational, practical, or conversational?
  4. Set a publishing schedule. How often will you publish podcast episodes?

    • When you first start a podcast it’s a good idea to spread out your episodes to give yourself time to record each one.
    • You might also want to create podcast “seasons” where after you publish a certain number of episodes, your podcast takes a scheduled break.
  5. Create a podcast marketing plan. How will you market each episode after it’s published?

    • Use these ideas to promote episodes and help with content exposure, SEO, and authority-building:
      • Repurpose the clips from podcast episodes into Instagram reels, Twitter audio, or YouTube videos.
      • Highlights, takeaways, and timestamps from your podcast can be typed into “show notes” to be published on your blog or website for SEO purposes. In your show notes, you can include links or resources mentioned in the podcast.
      • Create graphic images of inspirational or informative quotations from the episode and circulate them on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. (Steady Radiance Design can help with creating your podcast graphics!)
      • Interview other companies, businesses, or influencers in your industry and ask them to promote the episode when it’s live.
      • Add keywords and search terms to your podcast titles and descriptions so that people can find them when looking up a topic.

Final Thoughts

The podcast industry is growing rapidly, and it isn’t stopping. Platforms like Castbox are evolving with the industry, and now is the perfect time to start a podcast and reach a new audience. Overall, publishing podcasts builds brand awareness with listeners. By listening to your episodes, they learn more about you and your company over time.

Anatomy of a Landing Page: How to Improve Your Conversion Rates with Three Simple Changes

Your readers have short attention spans. I’m sure that’s no big surprise to you. In fact, you probably browse the Internet at lightspeed too, scanning titles and subheads, skipping to the bottoms of landing pages, and fast-forwarding through videos just so you can get to the next thing. The same is true for your readers, and if you want to capture their attention long enough to entice them to opt-in to your mailing list, then you have to keep that in mind.

A Tip From Newspaper Publishers

Have you ever noticed that everything you need to know about a news story is in the first paragraph? Journalists are trained to answer all the questions—who, what, where, when, why, and how—in the first few sentences, just in case the story gets cut off when the paper goes to print.

In today’s online world, where column inches no longer matter, this type of story formatting isn’t quite so critical anymore, but it’s still a useful tip to use when you’re writing an opt-in page.

Think about it: If your readers are skimmers (as most of us are) then making sure you include the most important information right at the top of the page is going to greatly improve your conversion rates.

For landing pages, that means putting the biggest benefits in your subject line and following it up with two or three sentences that build on your headline. That’s it. Keep it short, sweet, and benefit-driven, and you’ll have greater success than you would with longer content.

Graphics Matter

Whether your opt-in incentive is an eBook, a video, or even a simple checklist, having a graphic representation of your offer is an important component of your landing page.

Typically, you’ll need to create a visual representation of your offer, and the more interesting the visual, the more likely you are to get your readers to opt-in. You can easily outsource the design of the graphic (we can help with that), but whether you make it or self or outsource it, it’s a good idea to follow these simple guidelines:

  • Bold fonts and short titles will make your graphic more readable.
  • Use high-contrast colors for more visibility.
  • Be true to your brand. Stick with colors and fonts your readers expect.

Crafting a Compelling Call to Action

While it seems as if you can expect readers to know what to do when they land on your opt-in page, it’s just not true. You have to invite them to take the next step. Give them specific instructions and you’ll have higher conversion rates than if you just leave it to chance.

Your call to action should tell a reader exactly what to do, like this:

  • Click here to download
  • Enter your name and email for instant access

Watch the text on your form buttons, too. After all, “Subscribe” or “Sign Up” doesn’t exactly make you feel excited, does it? Consider using a phrase that matches your call to action instead, such as:

  • Get the Checklist!
  • Send Me My Free Video!

Final Thoughts

Take a look at your existing landing pages. Do they follow these strategies? If not, consider making some changes to your copy, your images, and your calls to action, then watch your results. You’ll more than likely see a boost in conversion rates if you do.

How to Identify Your Target Audience

Each and every business owner in the world has one regardless of size or industry – a target audience. You may not know what your business’s target audience is, but you have one – you just need to identify it. The term “target audience” means the specific group of people most likely to want to buy your product or service. The basic criteria for your target audience are things like income, interests, age, gender, location, etc. You can use information about your target audience to market specifically to that group of people, therefore increasing the likelihood that your marketing and advertising will be successful.

There are numerous ways to identify your target audience, and we have compiled a list here of the most common ways to help get you on your way.

Analyze Your Current Customer Base

Look at everyone who already buys your product or service and try to identify what they have in common. Where do they live, how much do they make, what interests do they have? Using surveys and doing quick polls on social media is a great way to learn this information.

Conduct Market Research

Do a Google search for market research for your industry to identify the holes in service that your product/service can fill. Find out what common problems consumers in your industry face and identify ways that your product/service can solve them. This process of identifying your audience’s pain points can be invaluable to your business and can help you identify new ways your business can thrive.

Define Who Your Target Audience Isn’t

There may be certain consumers who are close to the demographic you’re looking for but who will not take the final step of purchasing or participating in your product/service. Use some of your market research to help determine who in your target demographic is least likely to do what you’d like them to do, then make sure your marketing and advertising do not target them. For example, your target demographic might be women, but let’s say that women between the ages of 30 and 40 typically don’t buy your product/service. Knowing that you can remove that age group from your target audience and increase the likelihood that your marketing and advertising dollars will reach those most likely to purchase.

Make a List of Your Product’s/Service’s Benefits (not features!)

This is a sort of reverse way of utilizing the pain points identified in your market research. This can help you determine why a consumer would want to purchase your product/service and from there, you can identify the type of consumer that would want to purchase your product/service. For example, if you are a coach, a feature of your coaching class might be that it’s a self-study course, but why should consumers care about that? What benefit is a self-study course to a consumer? Perhaps they need to study on an unusual timetable or maybe they prefer to work on their own rather than in a group.

Think of benefits as the “why should I care” part of a feature. Look at the features your product/service provides, determine why a consumer should care about them (the benefits), then you can find the pain points that are solved with those benefits. Check out this article to learn more about the difference between features and benefits and how you can apply that information in your business.

Use Online Customer Feedback

Once you’ve identified your product’s/service’s benefits (see #4 above) then you can go to online forums and see who is asking questions or is interested in those topics. You can start with popular forums like Quora or Reddit. This can help you to identify the age group, gender, industry, interests, etc. of your target audience and “get a hand on the pulse” of the consumers you’d like to market to. Following the coaching example used above, you could search Reddit for “how to learn [whatever you teach] while working full time”.

Research Your Competitors

If you’re in an industry that has long-term or well-known competitors, it’s a good bet that they already know their (your) audience well. Researching their marketing and response can be a great way to identify your target audience. Look at their website, social media platforms, and reviews of their products/services. Look for the type of people who typically like their posts or give positive reviews, and what types of content get the most response. You can also look at what isn’t working for them and try to identify ways that you can improve on it.

Find Your Niche

Especially if you’re just starting out or if you have a limited budget, it’s important to make your marketing dollars work as effectively as possible. To that end, it can be beneficial to really narrow down your target audience to a small niche group of consumers. Identify the group that has the highest potential to purchase your product/service and only market to them. Doing this can help you to build brand loyalty and develop your company as an expert in your industry.

Final Thoughts

Following these steps is a great start to honing in on your target audience so you can develop your brand messaging and perfect your marketing strategy. Doing this will help to build a solid foundation for your brand going forward.

No List? No Problem! Building a List with Paid Ads

We’ve been told (and told and told) for years that “the money is in the list” and that “your mailing list is your biggest business asset.” But if your list numbers are hovering in the low four-figures, or fewer, with no sign of growth on the horizon, such advice can seem a bit unhelpful. (If you don’t have a list at all, check out this Mailing List 101 to know where to start!) The fact is, building a list is a catch 22: you can’t get sign-ups without traffic and it’s difficult to find traffic when you have no list. You can go in circles for months trying to figure out how to build your list, or you can do it an easier way!

Paid Ads Make Building a List Easy

By strategically placing ads in front of your target audience, you can drive tons of traffic to your opt-in offers and enjoy conversion rates of two or three percent or more. Even better, with some tweaking and split testing of your offers, you can carefully refine your ads and copy so that you’re attracting your exact ideal client and filling your list with buyers who are ready to take action, rather than freebie seekers.

All you need to run paid ads to your opt-in pages is:

  • A compelling offer, such as a video training series or live webinar
  • Copy to grab the attention of your target audience

Best Ad Placements

Once you have your components in place, the only question remaining is where to run your ads. You have dozens of choices, from Twitter to Google to YouTube to solo email spots.

The key to successfully building a list is to first determine where your market is most likely to be hanging out. If they’re on LinkedIn, then running ads on Twitter will be a waste of time. Keep in mind the cost as well. Ads on Facebook are generally less expensive and less competitive than a Google Adwords placement.

Start Small, Then Refine

Once you’ve decided where to place your ads, it’s time to set your budget and begin running a small set of ads. Consider setting a small daily budget, such as $10 or $20 at the beginning, so you can get a feel for how your ads will perform. Watch the traffic, track your conversions, and create split tests of your landing page and ad sets to determine which performs the best. You can refine the audience you’re targeting based on the stats you receive. For example, if you find that men between the ages of 20 and 30 are clicking but not opting in, you might want to remove them from your audience.

At least at first, it’s best to avoid running ads for paid products. Conversions for a free offer will far outshine those to a paid product, especially if your program is expensive. After all, those who are clicking on an ad most likely do not know you at all, so it takes a much bigger leap of faith to offer up a credit card number than it will to provide an email address.

Ad Copy Blunders to Avoid

Have you ever clicked on an ad because you saw an adorable pair of sandals that you just had to have, only to land on a page full of sneakers, with not a sandal in sight? It’s frustrating, to say the least, and that kind of ad-to-landing-page mismatch will kill your conversions.

Your ad copy is making a promise to the reader. If your landing page doesn’t fulfill that promise, your readers will click away, and you’ll have wasted the money you spent to get them there. Before running any ads, be sure your ad headline, image, and copy all match the message on the landing page; use these Sales Page Copy tips to get started.

Final Thoughts

Paid advertising was once a tool used only by big companies or marketers with a lot of money to spare, but today they’re more cost-effective than ever, and technology makes them easy to create and monitor. If you haven’t yet tried your hand at this useful traffic generation method for building your list, it’s time to do some experimenting. You might just find your list numbers – and sales – growing.

Go With the Flow: Managing Cash Flow for a Healthy Business

Guest post by Michael Stephenson of The Entrepreneur Hub

Whether your business is a $10 lemonade stand or a $1,000,000 tech venture, positive cash flow is intertwined with long-term success. But reaching and maintaining healthy incomings/outgoings is not always easy and, in fact, becomes a lot harder as your business grows. That’s why it’s important, while your operations are small, to develop good habits for managing cash flow that you can use in the years to come.

Monitoring

It’s hard to make necessary changes to your work processes if you don’t have a clear overview of inflows and outflows. At any moment, you’ll need to know your expense costs, inventory quantities, active projects, due invoices, fixed assets, and more so that you can accurately calculate cash flow and use your findings to build an airtight financial plan moving forward. Even if you’re a full-time entrepreneur/business owner, it will pay to spend some time building a working knowledge of accountancy.

Once you’ve dug out your bank statements, calculated your overheads, and collected all of your contracts, the next step is to quantify and store this information. If you haven’t already, it’s never too early to invest in accounting software. You can use this software to help track times, build reports, create and monitor invoices, and store receipts. Try to look for software that is suitably designed for small businesses and that you can easily use and operate independently. You can also invest in data analysis services to gain insight into your company’s operations. You can find data analysis professionals on freelance job platforms and vet candidates by reviews, experience, and skills.

Cutting Costs

Even when things are running smoothly, a savvy business owner is always looking to cut costs where possible. The best and perhaps the easiest way of doing this is to aim attention at recurring costs like subscriptions, office supplies, utility bills, insurance plans, or loans. For example, with the popularization of remote working, it’s possible to skip a hefty office contract entirely and conduct all business from home or in shared spaces.

Remember, even though it’s important to save money, you need to be careful how you go about doing this. One of the common mistakes when reviewing your budget is to slash marketing or advertising. This can be tempting for a business, especially during a recession, but oftentimes the value of marketing is multiplied in more difficult economic circumstances. Instead, consider adapting your processes – for example, you might try to utilize cost-efficient strategies such as PPC or paid social, rather than expensive ad campaigns or spending through an agency.

Adapting Your Business

Sometimes, to get to a positive cash flow, it’s necessary to make profound changes not just to your work practices but to the business itself. Using a sole proprietorship, for example, you can usually enjoy reduced tax rates (as there will be no legal separation between you and your business). Registering as a sole proprietorship will also save you on legal costs, as these will no longer pertain to state registration or obtaining an agent. Remember, before you take any major steps, it’s always a good idea to find the right financial advisor first since managing cash flow is just one element of your overall business financial management.

Another common strategy is to move everything to the digital space. Most businesses founded in the 2010s were either digital or have transitioned online. This is a major advantage for erasing geographical limitations, improving your reach across consumers, and, of course, saving cash on personnel and illiquid assets. Even though it’s an easy adjustment, you should make sure you’ve done plenty of research before you buy a domain or spend on online services.

You can also revamp your marketing efforts to improve your cash flow. In today’s business climate, digital marketing is an essential part of promoting your products and services. The pros at Steady Radiance Design can handle all your web design, SEO, and social media management needs so you can build your brand effectively. Need a budget-friendly way to create dynamic images for your marketing materials? You can utilize a free remove background tool which allows you to customize your images.

Recent studies found that 29% of businesses fail due to a lack of cash. If you can’t pay salaries, suppliers, or afford the resources you need to operate as normal, your business simply can’t function. Keeping strict cash management is essential, not just to the working of your business, but also to its long-term future.

 

Image by Pexels

How Much Does Video Really Matter to Your Marketing?

Have you been ignoring video, hoping it will just go away? Or worse, thinking you can accomplish the same goals without it?

I’m here to tell you, video is going nowhere. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world and TikTok recently overtook YouTube for the number of hours watched per month. Video clips on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter enjoy far more engagement than do plain text or even image-based updates. And when it comes to training programs, most people prefer video to text or at least a combination of the two.

And now with streaming video, this new marketing channel has become even more important.

  • Live video lets viewers get to know you better
  • Your personality and brand shine through in ways written words or pre-recorded video simply cannot manage
  • A built-in sense of urgency makes it easy to connect with your action takers (trust me, FOMO is a real thing – that’s “Fear Of Missing Out”).
  • Repurposing video for other channels is easy and super productive
  • Facebook and other social networks appear to give more weight to video, showing it in more newsfeeds than other post formats

In addition to all of that, video is easy to produce – especially the new streaming services. Simply prop up your smartphone, log into your preferred app, and viola! You’re live.

And because it’s a live, streaming video, your viewers likely have less expectation of perfection. For example, with a scripted webinar, they expect a certain polish. But with streaming video, you can get away with a much more lighthearted, go-with-the-flow style. It’s perfect for Q&A sessions, special announcements, group coaching, or anything else where you simply want to connect with your audience, and there’s no agenda.

Don’t Abandon Your Other Marketing Channels

We see this happen a lot – a hot new marketing tool or strategy comes along, and all of a sudden everyone is on board – much to the detriment of the tried-and-true methods.

Remember, you have loyal fans on many platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, your blog, etc. And these fans won’t always be quick to move to a new site just to stay in touch. You owe it to them to maintain your presence on other social sites as well.

So while Facebook Live (and other streaming video services) definitely matters when it comes to your overall marketing efforts, it’s not the end-all, be-all tool that will outshine all others.

4 Tips To Expand Your Company’s List of Repeat Customers

Guest post by Leslie Campos of Well Parents

Experts assert that repeat customers are more valuable than new ones because those who already have confidence in your business generally spend more money on your products and are willing to recommend your company to friends. Unfortunately, making a great first impression during a patron’s initial visit is not enough to secure his or her business well into the future. Encouraging loyalty in consumers requires careful strategizing and investment of time and resources.

Here are four things your company can do to ensure your customer’s first visit is not their last.

  1. Provide Superior Products
    A critical factor in earning patrons’ continued business is offering goods that exceed people’s expectations. High-quality products should be visually appealing, effective, and simple to obtain and use. When consumers feel they can depend on your company to provide a good value for the money they spend, they are more likely to continue working with you moving forward. This also applies to the way you serve patrons, as, according to Ameritas, statistics show that customer service has a significant impact on the likelihood of keeping current clients and earning their recommendations. Make sure your company is reachable, friendly, and quick to resolve issues.

    While offering exceptional products and services may seem to be straightforward, it isn’t always simple in practice. A good way to improve your skills related to marketing, managing employees, budgeting and similar tasks is to return to school to earn your Master of Business Administration degree. MBA programs cover a wide range of topics to sharpen your business acumen in all these areas and more. And a reputable online MBA degree program gives you the flexibility you need to earn your degree on your terms. You can earn while you learn, continuing to work full-time and manage your responsibilities while earning your degree without having to attend in-person classes.

  1. Foster a Sense of Community
    Although connecting with individuals is a key aspect of holistic marketing techniques, Inc. magazine notes that experienced businesspeople argue that bringing patrons together as a community is another effective way to hold on to previous customers. To accomplish this, your company must consistently provide useful content and engage with patrons on public forums. For instance, you could regularly post updates on social media that people can follow to learn about new merchandise or upcoming events. For automated, high-quality posts and top-notch social media content and service, contact the pros at Steady Radiance Design!
  1. Reward Loyalty
    Harvard Business Review notes studies have shown that rewards programs are an effective way to establish long-term customer relationships. Even so, these strategies must be carefully planned so they target the most valuable patrons without sacrificing profits. There are a number of different types of rewards programs commonly used by various businesses, including tier, subscription, point and partner programs. Though the style you employ depends on your business model, the overall goal is to offer a future benefit that clients can earn by spending more money on your products and services.
  1. Clarify Your Identity and Mission
    While it may seem that consumers do not care who you are as long as you offer what they need, companies’ values are often very important to the public. When patrons feel they share key worldviews with your business, they are much more likely to support you with their purchases. Company goals may vary widely, but they generally speak to a desire to improve the world or individuals’ lives in some way.

Whether your business is large or small, in person or online, repeat customers are essential to your success. Remember to establish relationships with your patrons and to earn their confidence by allowing them to get to know your company and the surrounding community while enjoying your products.

How to Have a Successful In-Person Event

It’s been a long year and many live, in-person events have been put on hold due to the pandemic. That doesn’t mean that live events are a thing of the past though. We’re slowly starting to see them come back and we think people are ready to get out of their houses and attend more in-person events! From conferences and workshops to fairs and festivals, we still think it’s definitely possible to have a successful in-person event. We fully support the idea of keeping your business and your community safe, so please keep that in mind before planning an in-person event! Even if it can’t happen now, there’s no better time to start the planning phase than right now!

Having a successful in-person event requires a little more work than a webinar or Zoom event, but they are much more profitable and fun for all involved. Sure, they take a bit of planning, but if you follow these tips you’ll be well on your way.

  1. Have a Clear Objective – Your first need is to have a clear objective for the event. That is the only way you can successfully market it to your audience as well as potential JV partners and sponsors. People can see when something is well-considered or not.
  2. Find JV Partners – A joint venture partner (or two or three) can help you pull off a much larger and well-attended event than if you did it all alone. The JV partners should be people who offer complementary products and services to yours rather than direct competitors.
  3. Hire an Event Planner – The cost of an event planner is more than worth it when you consider all the little things that need to be done to ensure your event goes smoothly. An experienced event planner can actually save you money by helping prevent costly mistakes.
  4. Recruit Volunteers – Once you know that the event is going to happen and you’ve sold a few tickets, it’s time to recruit some volunteers. The best volunteers are those who have signed up for information about your event but for whatever reason cannot afford to go but fit within your demographic.
  5. Market Everywhere – Well, market wherever your audience lives, plays, works, and socializes. Your marketing should be directed and specific in order to get a good response. You can have Facebook Live videos, webinars, articles, blog posts, eReports, and more to promote your event. Everyone involved should be promoting the event. Also, consider advertising your event in the local paper or on local radio stations to attract new people who might not find you online.
  6. Collect Leads – During your marketing, find ways to collect leads because the people you market to via email directly are more likely to sign up for your event than people who find your information in other ways. Consider allowing affiliates to market your event too.
  7. Land Sponsorships – If you can land a well-known sponsor for your event it will make your event seem even more impressive when you say “sponsored by XYZ Corporation” if that corporation or entity is well known and trusted by your audience.
  8. Choose the Right Venue – One of the most important decisions you’ll make is where your event will occur. Ensure that the space is right for the size of your event. You don’t want people to feel too crowded, or as if they are swallowed up by the venue. You also want the style of the event to fit in with the style your audience has in terms of them worrying about what to wear and how to present themselves.
  9. Get Technical Help – Even if you’re great with technology, monitors, computers, microphones, and whatnot you really want someone else to take care of these issues. You want to be a personality at the event, not the technical person because it will take away from some of the fun for you. You’ll have enough things to do as it is.
  10. Practice the Performance – Your speech, the order of the talks, the use of the technology, and so forth needs to be completed on-site at the event location when possible to avoid any issues with lighting, technology, or even walking up a step or two to get to the podium. This will make you all look more professional and avoid mishaps.
  11. Test Technology – It’s been mentioned more than once in this list, but that’s how important it is. You should ask speakers to send you a copy of their presentation prior to the event so that if something happens you’ll have a copy, they’ll have a copy, and put a copy in the cloud just in case. But do not assume the internet will work. Have backup plans.
  12. Allow for Breaks – Don’t forget to put realistic breaks into your event so that your participants do not get too fatigued or uncomfortable. Even interesting talks can put people to sleep if they are uncomfortable, hungry, or need to use the restroom.
  13. Ensure the Temperature is Comfortable – A very important component of a successful event is how the environment feels to the participants. You don’t want it to be too cold or too warm in the location. If there is an issue, ask it to be fixed on behalf of your guests.
  14. Serve Healthy Food – It’s tempting to go crazy and serve heavy food that will shock and awe the participants but you really want them to focus on your message and not their full and possibly sick and overfed stomachs. Give options for different types of people. You can survey those who purchased a ticket to ensure the food choice fits most people.

Good planning and plenty of forethought will help ensure a successful in-person event. Not only that, but you’ll be able to create a profitable and fun outing for everyone involved.

3 Tips for Better Live Videos

Live videos are everywhere – Periscope, YouTube, Facebook, and who knows how many more in the future.

Live video is clearly the hottest thing since Facebook, and marketers in every niche are taking advantage by hosting their own events.

Some of them are good. They’re well attended, fun to watch, and you feel like you benefitted from attending. But some of them feel like they’re an afterthought, put together at the last minute, and don’t really bring out the best in the host.

If you’re thinking of hosting a live video event, you don’t want to fall into that latter group! Here’s how to avoid it.

Promote, Promote, Promote

On many platforms, a live video event is just a few clicks away. You can literally plan and host a video in just a few minutes, and an impromptu event can be fun.

But with a little planning, you’ll have a much better turnout. And that planning must include promotion.

Let your private groups know about upcoming events. Email your list. Post a blog. Even consider running paid ads for your upcoming video event if there’s the potential to grow your list or increase your sales.

In short, don’t throw a party without extending invitations to your friends!

Interact with Your Audience

One of the biggest draws of a live video event is the opportunity to interact with the host. Your viewers want to get to know you better. They want to chat with the other participants. They may have questions to ask.

Don’t make the mistake of ignoring them. To do so is to say, “You’re not important to me.”

Instead, take the time to chat up the audience, acknowledge their presence, and answer their questions. Even if it takes you out of the flow and you lose your place momentarily, it’s worth it to make viewers feel respected and as if they’re a part of the event rather than just a passive viewer.

Remember to check the comments later, too. If your video is available for viewing after the live event is over, encourage the conversation in the comments.

Repeat What Works

You have a lot of options when it comes to live video. Periscope, YouTube, Facebook, and others all have their place, and I encourage you to try them all. But in the end, you’ll want to concentrate on what’s working.

If your audience loves Facebook but can’t figure out Periscope, it makes no sense to broadcast there. The same goes for length, topic choices, and day and time of broadcast. You’ll want to test all the variables, track your results, and do more of what’s working.

Here’s what you don’t need to worry about when it comes to live video: Perfection.

No one expects you to look like a cover model or to speak like a news anchor. In fact, if you do look that perfect, it might actually negatively impact your results, simply because your audience loves to feel connected to you. They know they aren’t perfect, and if you can show off your imperfections, it will help create a stronger connection.

BONUS TIP – Topic Ideas for Live Videos:

If you’re struggling to think of topics for your live videos, here are some great options to get the juices flowing!

  • Behind the scenes for your business (what goes into making your business run, how you make the things you sell, etc.)
  • How-to videos for something you’re great at
  • On-location at conferences, conventions, festivals, or fairs that relate to your business
  • Interviews with staff, other business owners in your industries, past clients, etc.
  • How your product or service solves problems (read this to learn how to identify your potential client’s problems a.k.a. pain points)

No matter if your video is impromptu or planned and no matter the topic, the one thing you absolutely must remember is to be yourself. It’s usually quite obvious when someone is pretending or trying hard to be something they’re not, and you are amazing and have so much to offer the world. So just be you and you’ll already be ahead of the game.