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.

How to Create Sharable Content That Goes Viral

Ever wonder what makes some posts, videos, or blogs “go viral,” while yours are lucky to have 7 shares and two comments? While it might seem like some well-kept secret, the truth is it’s easy enough to create shareable content, if you put some thought and creativity into your efforts.

1. Everyone Loves Infographics

Whether you want to know more about how coffee is grown, or you’re looking for ways to boost your blog traffic, you’ll find a variety of infographics to fill you in.

These colorful, easy-to-read graphics share vast amounts of data while still entertaining an audience. By condensing numbers and stats down to easily digestible bite-sized pieces, you can make valuable information highly understandable for any audience. Even better, your market will be happy to share (and share and share).

If you’re not artistic or don’t have the skills required to create your own, we can help you make infographics your audience will love.

**Pro tip: create an embeddable link for your infographic and encourage other blog owners to share it on their sites. You’ll automatically drive traffic from every site that posts your content. If you don’t know how to do that, reach out to us for help!

2. Create Valuable Posts

Writing a blog post? Don’t just skim the surface of a topic. Dig deep. Provide as much information as you can on the topic.

While some bloggers will tell you that shorter is better, the truth is, posts of 3,000 words are more likely to be shared than their shorter cousins. So don’t worry about attention spans. Readers have proven they want good info and they don’t mind digging into a long post to find it. The bottom line – more detail = more shareable content.

3. Let Your Personality Shine

No one wants to read or share another post that just agrees with the masses or doesn’t share any new ideas. Not you and not your audience.

What they do want—and what they’ll happily share with their friends and fans—is personality-driven pieces that aren’t afraid to take a stand.

That’s what makes many bloggers and coaches so popular. You know, simply by reading their content and watching their videos, that what you see is exactly what you get. Nothing is hidden; there’s no “corporate speak” to be found.

It’s easy to form a connection with someone like that because you feel like you know them personally. And what do you do with your friend’s content? You share it, of course!

 

It doesn’t take much to create shareable content. Just be yourself, be transparent, and be valuable. In short, just do what you’re already doing, only with a little bit more oomph!

5 Life-Saving Professional Services for Stay-at-Home Moms Starting a Business

Guest post by Leslie Campos of Well Parents

Staying at home and taking care of your children is a challenge enough of its own, but simultaneously taking on the role of an entrepreneur can make your day-to-day schedule even more difficult to handle. The launch of your company is a vital and time-consuming period as a business owner, but you don’t have to do it alone. By hiring the right team of experts to stand by your side and assist with the details, you can set your business and family life up for success. Here’s a list of services that can help you with your business.

Business Consulting

While you may have expertise in a particular product or service you can sell, this doesn’t mean you’re fluent when it comes to the specifics of starting and running a business. This is where a business consultant comes in. Professionals in this field often have a business degree and several certifications, as well as experience, under their belt. They can help you focus on the most profitable business model, whether you are planning to make income through an e-commerce, affiliate, freemium, or subscription-based model.

Business Formation Services

Forming your business structure, whether that be a corporation or LLC, can be complicated and time-consuming. But you don’t have to take it on yourself, nor do you have to pay a pricey attorney to do the work. Online formation services like Zenbusiness are a convenient and affordable resource, walking you through and completing the process quickly. An LLC is a popular choice for startups, as it offers liability protection to your assets and avoids the double taxation of a corporation. LLCs also have tax advantages, and less paperwork is required during formation and later for filing (which an online service also takes care of). States have different regulations around forming an LLC, so check the rules in your state before moving ahead.

Website Development and Design

Having a space to call your own on the internet is an exciting step in becoming a business owner. A website allows potential customers to find your business, and it gives you a spot to write blogs, build out a shop, include a contact form, or display an impressive resume.

While there are several easy-to-navigate website building programs available online, a website development and design company like Steady Radiance Design can help bring your vision to life and make sure your site boasts fast load speeds and SEO. Additionally, you should take time to choose a professional you’re comfortable working with for a while since your developer may take care of hosting your website after it’s launched for a monthly fee.

Public Relations and Marketing

As soon as your business is ready to be released to the world, you need a way to announce your launch. Studies show you only have one chance to make a good first impression, so it helps to hire a public relations professional who can write great copy and start building a positive reputation for your brand. You’ll want to continue building your online presence and attract the right people to your company with the help of a digital marketing company.

Babysitting or Nanny Services

While you settle into your new role, you may want to consider hiring a babysitter or nanny to help care for your kids while you navigate the specifics of starting a new business. You may have chosen the work-at-home route so you can spend more time with your kids, but having help available when work gets stressful can help you focus on one task at a time, allowing you to dedicate your full attention to your family when the workday is over.

Even for the mom who can do it all, there’s no shame in enlisting the help of other professionals as you set your business up for success. By establishing a good foundation, you’ll be able to fulfill all your responsibilities more effectively in the long run and watch your startup grow. Let Steady Radiance Design help you in your journey — but don’t take our word for it!

Image via Unsplash

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.

Outlandish Stunts: How to Drive a Ton of Traffic with Crazy Claims (and Have Fun Doing It!)

Here’s one sure way to build up a great following fast: do something just a little crazy.

If you’ve ever watched a reality TV show such as Married at First Sight or Survivor, then you know what a draw it can be to attempt something just a little crazy. Millions of people tune in each and every week to see what new catastrophes would befall the cast of Survivor, or what new battle would break out on someone’s wedding day on Married at First Sight.

Now imagine if you could generate that kind of traffic to your blog or website, just by attempting something off the wall.

The fact is, this is a tried and true marketing plan that companies have been doing for more than a century and you can easily do something similar in your business.

Write a Book…Or 20

When Kristen Joy of TheBookNinja.com needed a boost in traffic, she turned to the medium she knows best: Kindle publishing. Accepting a challenge from her business coach, she agreed to write and publish a new Kindle book each week for 20 weeks.

As the word spread about Kristen’s plan, her traffic grew (and grew, and grew). Why? Some people no doubt wanted to see her fail—after all, that’s really why we watched Survivor, isn’t it? But most people rightly thought that Kristen must have something important to say if she had committed to such a large project.

Nicole Dean pulled off a similar plan with her Blog World Tour. During the summer of 2009, she visited 15 blogs in 15 weeks, guest posting on the target blog for 5 straight days before moving on to the next. Did it work? Absolutely! Just like Kristen’s crazy book-writing spree, Nicole’s blog world tour gained her lots of traffic and thousands of new fans.

Stretch Yourself A Little

Now, you don’t have to write a book a week for 20 weeks or even spend the summer guest blogging. But there are plenty of things you can do to build some buzz and drive some traffic to your site. The key is to find something that would make most people say “I could never do that.” And then do it.

  • Post to your blog every day for a year
  • Post a new video to your YouTube channel every day for 90 days (check out these tips for live videos)
  • Speak at or attend one conference each month for a year

Whatever “stunt” you decide to pull off, it must have two components to be successful:

  1. It must be outside what most people would consider their comfort zone
  2. You must commit to it publicly and often—tell your list, your social media followers, your blog readers, your clients, everyone.

A challenge of this sort must have one other component as well—your absolute conviction to finish. The last thing you want is to publicly declare your intention then quietly fade out mid-way to your goal.

If you’re looking for a fun, innovative way to drive a lot of traffic to your website, and to get more eyes on your content, consider setting a big, outrageous goal for yourself. You’ll be surprised how many people turn up to watch and cheer you on, and you’ll have fun along the way. Not only that, but at the end, you’ll have lots of content you can repurpose again and again, and you will have learned a thing or two about your audience and yourself, too.

Get Seen, Get Traffic: Three Ways to Borrow Someone Else’s Audience

Ask nearly anyone who runs an online business what their biggest struggle is, and chances are they’ll say “more traffic.”
You need traffic to build an email list.
You need traffic to make sales.
You need traffic to fill your coaching programs.
So the big question is, where do you get all that traffic?
Sure, you could buy ads, but if you aren’t careful, you might just fill your list with less-than-ideal audience members and that will do nothing for your sales. You could focus your time and energy on search engine optimization but unless you have years to build your business (and who does?) then SEO should not be your top choice.
Good thing you have other options.

Be a Guest

Everyone needs content. It’s the one thing that remains consistent among all content creators—there is never enough. That’s where you can help.
By guest posting on other coaches’ blogs, you can “borrow” some of their traffic.
You can’t simply regurgitate old content and send it out in a dozen directions though. To get the best results, you’ll want to:

  • Create custom content designed with your host’s unique audience in mind.
  • Provide stellar value with actionable ideas and strategies not found everywhere else.
  • Inject your personality so those new to you will instantly connect with you.
  • Offer a compelling reason to click through to your website or blog for more information.

Partner Up

No list? Here’s a quick way to “borrow” someone else’s list to kickstart your own: Schedule a free event with a partner.
Here’s how it works.

  1. You (as the one with the small list) create a compelling, free training which leads naturally to a low-cost, no-brainer product.
  2. Install an affiliate tracking system such as aMember, Infusionsoft or 1Shopping Cart.
  3. Offer your best affiliates a higher percentage of profits in exchange for co-hosting your webinar and bringing their traffic along for the ride. (Don’t have affiliates yet? Check out this article for how to find affiliate partners!)

This is a win/win for both of you, as you gain the traffic while your affiliate gets a bigger payday. Just be sure you have a good funnel in place so that your new list members can benefit from all that you have to offer.

Get Interviewed

Want to really show off your expert status and bring traffic back to your site, too? The easiest way is to get on the interview circuit. Just like authors with new books and actors with new movies, coaches and service providers can get in front of new audiences simply by answering questions about what they know.
Of course, you’re probably not going to appear on the Today Show or Oprah (although that’s not impossible), but there are still plenty of opportunities out there for coaches and consultants in every niche.
Look for interview and speaking opportunities on:

  • Podcasts
  • Other blogs
  • YouTube
  • Periscope and Blab
  • Local events
  • Industry conferences
  • Telesummits

Start by reaching out to your colleagues and to podcast and blog hosts you most admire. Get the word out with your friends and your list that you’re looking for opportunities.
Even if you don’t yet have a list of your own, it’s easy (and fun) to kickstart your audience growth simply by making yourself available for these and other opportunities. Each guest post, podcast interview and webinar is another chance to get in front of a whole new market, so take advantage of it!

Email Subject Lines That Increase Your Open Rates

It’s one metric we consistently watch and try to improve: email open rates. There’s a good reason for it, too. If your subscribers aren’t opening your email, then they can’t read about:

  • Your newest coaching program
  • Your latest must-have tool discovery
  • That epic blog post you just wrote

The trouble is, you only have about two seconds to entice a reader to open your email. Even worse, you have to do it in ten words or less.
Yikes! That’s a pretty tall order, even for seasoned copywriters. But there are some simple tricks you can use with your email subject lines.

Be Ambiguous

If you’ve been on Facebook lately you’ve no doubt seen those “clickbait” headlines that say things like, “She adds this to a box of Wheat Thins and I’m drooling!” The reason headlines like that work is because we can’t help but want to know what “this” is that she’s adding to her Wheat Thins. Is it sugar? Salt? Peanut butter? We imagine the possibilities, but in the end, we have to find out, so we click.
You can employ the same technique in your email subject lines. Just substitute the word “this” for the actual thing you’re writing about, and you’ve got instant enticement.

Use Numbers

Here’s another strategy for creating must-read content: numbers.
“7 Hidden Benefits of Waking Up at 5am”
“3 Unlikely Ways to Close the Sale”
“5 Social Media Platforms You Shouldn’t Be Ignoring”
The reason numbers work so well in subject lines is because we are ego-centric and curious. We simply must know if we already use those three ways to close the sale. We will either walk away feeling good for being a marketing maven, or we will have learned something. Both are compelling reasons to open an email.

Use Power Words

Just as with all writing, choosing power words is far more effective than settling for their weaker counterparts. Imagine these two subject lines appear in your inbox. Which are you more likely to open:
“WordPress Makes Better Looking Websites for Non-Designers”
or
“Create a Gorgeous Website—Even if You’re Not a Designer”
While both subjects offer the same information, the first is weak, while the second is far more compelling.

When it comes to email subjects, there are a few more tips to keep in mind if you want to up your open rates:

  • Keep it short – no more than 10 words at the very most, and fewer if you can.
  • Test everything. Use your autoresponder’s split-testing functionality to see which subject line styles perform best in your market.
  • Use personalization, but sparingly. Occasional use of your reader’s first name can be a powerful technique.

Here’s the bottom line: If your subscribers aren’t opening your email, they’re not buying. Paying closer attention to your email subject lines is the single most important thing you can do for your email marketing campaigns.