How to Build Five Star Online Reviews to Fuel Your Business and Career

freelance, Marketing Metrics, marketing muscle, Marketing Strategy, Online Reviews, reputation management, Reviews, testimonials, Uncatergorized, word of mouth campaigns

Zero-cost word-of-mouth marketing is the gold standard of brand ambassadorship and the one thing that will surely build your business, customer base, and client book.

The best way to build online reviews for your business is by designing a superb product or service that delights your customers and clients while delivering an exceptional experience from beginning to completion of a purchase. Restaurants know this via Yelp and Open Table. Businesses are starting to pay attention to Glass Door. However, consultants, freelancers, and hired guns also need reviews.

It doesn’t matter what you do or what you offer. If you’re a nutritionist or personal trainer, or maybe a fashion apparel designer or corporate wellness director. Perhaps you’re a physician, attorney, life coach or yet another creative director, you want to work for five-star ratings.

As I transitioned from marketing and PR agency owner to online business consultant and strategist, I knew that one of the fastest ways to bring in new business was to focus on my current clients’ absolute happiness.

I knew that when they shared their happiness with other people who didn’t know me, I was creating a built-in lead generator for future clients while minimizing my cost per client acquisition spend. What does that mean? Well, this has been going on since the dawn of time, but so many free agents don’t remember to make recommendations and referrals a priority. You see, my reviews on LinkedIn, Upwork, Angel list, Clarity, Thumbtack and my website help convince and convert those that are on the fence about working with me. They help to get the client to sign the agreement and start the project.

Whether you own a healthy fast food cafe, or you’re a veterinarian looking to build your thought leadership position, great reviews will let everyone know what to expect from you.

So how do you get reviewed? Well if you are pivoting your career like I did or you’re just starting out, you want to create profiles on above-mentioned platforms, like Linkedin. Then you want to find clients and you can do that on platforms like Upwork. Then you want to deliver the goods in an impressive way. Some platforms will prompt a client to give you a review. Others, like LinkedIn, require you to request a recommendation. How?

I continue to work diligently for great reviews and recommend you do too. Need help creating your online presence? Let’s connect about what you’re up to @madelinemariejohnson on Instagram.

Marketing Health, Fitness, Food & Fashion + 3 Smart Ways To Build Your Online Business

digital content strategy, digital marketing, Email Marketing, Influencer marketing, instagram insight, Instagram marketing, madeline johnson, Marketing Mavens, marketing muscle, marketing plans, social media marketing

What to Do When You Hate to Sell

So many business owners tell me how they hate to “sell”. They don’t like to push their products or services on people because they can’t stand it when they are sold to by other companies. They delete email campaigns, block brands on their social media accounts and get really weirded out about retargeted ads appearing out of nowhere while they are surfing online. I know, it’s spooky. I get it, I don’t like pushy sales campaigns either, but I also think many business owners need a shift in their perspective. If you have a great product, you shouldn’t be selling at all. You should be building a community with your website, blog, video and social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. You should be creating valuable videos, posts and downloadable tools that help future customers. Create and share like a thought leader about the problem your product solves and always give them a call-to-action.

Social Media Marketing Isn’t Difficult, But It Is Time-Consuming

So many brands want to create social media posts on the fly or worse yet, farm out the work to a freelancer who doesn’t understand their market. The truth is, without proper planning, research or quality visuals, you aren’t going to attract any attention at all. Posting thoughtless or copy cat content can also lead to breaking trust with potential customers and clients. If clients only spent more time being thoughtful about what they want to post and really answered their audience and their community’s burning questions. If they only put themselves in their customer’s shoes. Think like your customers and clients and then give them solutions and broadcast it out to your social media content.

Even The Best Content Won’t Be Seen Without a Sizable Community

On the other hand, many clients have fantastic content, but they haven’t bothered to build a following on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat or Pinterest. They are wasting all that work on a community of zero. The way to get followers is to follow, to comment, to like and engage with the audience you want to attract.

I often get asked by associates, friends and new clients about what I am currently working on these days. Lately, I am in the midst of helping a number of businesses navigate their way through digital marketing & web-based sales.

I have a digital marketing consulting gig, which includes web and email campaigns for Glaxo Smith Kline. I am working with Roy Heitzer, Head of Multichannel Marketing in the Nordics: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden and Norway and his team.

I am also creating a full marketing plan (including editorial content for articles, video and blog posts as well as strategy for social media and special events) for Nuvo Suites.

On the side, I am writing articles about healthy and natural living for Green Scene Gal, a new blog dedicated to helping women who long for a more natural way of life that is free of synthetic chemicals, GMOs, pesticides and artificial hormones.

I just published this article to help warn new moms and dads about arsenic levels found in baby food.

In the meantime, I am also developing a B2B Drip campaign for the fitness franchise Get in Shape for Women. See attached for email one of the five email campaign.

On a day-to-day, I strategize and assist Alana Johnson, designer and founder of Orseund Iris with her made in NY fashion label. This includes strategizing and optimizing the business for growth which continues to build a following with 98% of online sales coming from Instagram and fashion influencers

For those startups looking to build their vanity metrics with media interviews, I also have an online course www.ThePRPlaybook.com for entrepreneurs in health, fitness and wellness. This is targeted to brands like PEbyDesign.com who I have helped from the ground up.

HOW TO SUSTAIN YOUR STARTUP SUCCESS

business, creative collaboration, digital content strategy, Email Marketing, Influencer marketing, instagram, instagram insight, Instagram marketing, Marketing in the Moment, marketing muscle, marketing plans, social media, social media marketing, Technology, the future of branding

This list of market building business tips about how to stay on course while you design epic products and services for the world was originally created for my daughter who is a hard-working, bad-ass fashion designer. Like every child ever born, she asks for advice daily and then ignores a lot of it. SO THAT IS WHY THERE IS SO MUCH EMOTION BEHIND THIS POST. All of these tips apply to anyone making anything. They work and they are important and today is a SPECIAL DAY because she is FINALLY heeding more of this advice. Amen.

Sure she’s nervous, as any startup who has achieved a bit of success would be. You might be nervous too – the big question – how do I sustain the success? Especially in the finicky world of Insta-fashion. Here, I humbly give you YOUR GUIDING STRATEGY FOR STAYING & GROWING SUCCESSFULLY.

WAKE UP, DESIGN, REPEAT

Design EVERY SINGLE DAMN DAY. Do not let a morning go by without designing. That means you don’t answer emails or texts or schedule meetings unto 1 pm every day. Why? Because the life of your authentic brand depends on you DESIGNING. Designing can mean sketching, shopping vintage, eating something delicious, going to an inspiring store, museum, listening to music – WHATEVER MAKES YOUR CREATIVE MINDFLOW BABY. The only reason you are in business is that you designed epicness in the first place. There is a lot of stuff people can buy out there, they are choosing to drop their bank on yours. KEEP THOSE CUSTOMERS HAPPY.

DEVELOP SYSTEMS FOR REPETITIVE STUFF.

What is a system? A set of rules that a baby monkey can do. They just learn the system (written or video instructions) and they do it.

Develop a system for responding to customers emails including templates for their frequently asked questions.

Develop a system for making sizing 1,000% CLEAR for all customers. Put it on the website.

Develop a system for ordering office stuff – like your favorite drinks, food, printer ink. Yes. make a list for the intern or assistand – where to go, when to reorder, how to pay for it. Make it so YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO TELL HIM OR HER WHAT TO DO.

Develop a system for packing items for shipment – include the surprise and delight gift – write it down or video it for the new interns. Then make them watch it. Show them PRECISELY HOW YOU LIKE IT DONE.

If you are complaining that an intern or assistant isn’t doing something the way you like it, it is YOUR FAULT. You didn’t set up the easy-to-learn systems.

TAKE PRE-ORDERS ON ALL NEW DESIGNS

The best rule of business is to MARKET BEFORE YOU MANUFACTURER. This is done by the best, most SUCCESSFUL companies. Create the demand BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY MAKE THE style. How?? Start sharing the backstory of design on your Instagram and Pinterest (YES PINTEREST) accounts. Show your customers the inside scoop. Tease them and then create a link to a page where they can GIVE YOU THEIR MONEY. Let them know they are going to be the FIRST TO HAVE IT. How exciting is that?? And give them a little something special for supporting you in the meantime. Make the “landing page” really JAZZY, sexy & FUN. Show the super special parts of designing, what inspired you. What is a LANDING PAGE? It is a special page on your website that you LINK TO THE BIO in your Instagram account every time you POST about that one design to INSTAGRAM. Don’t wait for the customer to SAVE your post. Make it EASY FOR THEM TO SHOP THE LINE. Stop with this I DON’T WANT TO BE TOO “PUSHY” CRAP. THERE IS PUSHY AND THEN There IS MAKING IT SIMPLE & EASY. DO THE LATTER.

SAVE SOME MONEY FOR GOD’S SAKE

Stop f-ing WASTING YOUR MONEY on stupidly expensive food. That $6.00 matcha drink isn’t good for you. Don’t buy into it. What is good for you is PEACE OF MIND THAT YOUR BANK ACCOUNT ISN’T NEGATIVE. Lack of money is the most stressful thing that can happen to you. You can lose your lover, break a leg, create something stupid that people will laugh at, but if you don’t have dough in the oven, life will SUCK. Make it a habit. Open up a BUSINESS SAVINGS ACCOUNT TOMORROW. Do it after you finish designing. Move $500 over IMMEDIATELY and then add reminders to your calendar to drop $500 in every month. DO THIS NOW. More if you can. Save, save, save. We are going to INVEST that money too, so your money can make baby money. GROW THAT ACCOUNT BABY.

LET THOSE DAMN HATERS HATE

It’s their job. That is what they do. Haters are going to HATE. It’s GREAT to have haters. Why? Because you are actually doing something that get’s noticed. Hater’s don’t hate on something that isn’t getting any attention. Why? BECAUSE HATERS DON’T DO ANYTHING BUT HATE. That is how they get their ATTENTION. MORE MONEY, MORE HATERS. That’s okay. Hell, some brands actually pay to have more HATERS. It’s called Facebook and Instagram ADVERTISING.

CHILL YOUR ROLL. TAKE A BREAK.

Every day make sure you do something ridiculously extravagant and/or luxurious. GO AHEAD WASTE SOME TIME. Whatever that means to you. A pedicure, a bike ride, a hello fresh meal with your partner. This business building thing is NOT A RACE. It is YOUR LIFE and you need to enjoy YOUR LIFE. So make some time every day to do something fun that you enjoy. DON’T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT. Just do it. Just like you design, you also take time to RELAX every day.

IMITATION IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF FLATTERY – MY ASS

Anytime you can call out some creep ass KNOCK OFF cheater brand copying your original designs DO IT. Make them feel like what they are GREEDY, UNORIGINAL A-HOLES. That’s right. Call them out. Call them out in public in a CLEVER AND FUN WAY. Like you care but you don’t care. Unless they are HUGE creepy conglomerate – a dinosaur – looking to stay relevant. Then EMAIL CALL & SCREAM at the CEO & Founder and their BOARD OF DIRECTORS. Remember, however, when YOU are INSPIRED by something to REDESIGN IT and make it your VERY OWN. Best thing to do really is KNOCK OFF YOUR OWN DESIGNS and start a second business in the weird ass bowels of eBay. LOL. P.S. Don’t spend too much time on this and try to design something so ahead of the curve that the market has to catch up. One step ahead baby.

MOST PEOPLE ARE CLUELESS ABOUT HOW FAST THE WORLD IS CHANGING

So, don’t listen to MOST anyone, except maybe people like Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil and maybe me because I have made it my business to stay RELEVANT, ahead of the CURVE and on top of my game. I AM FASCINATED WITH CHANGE AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO. NO JOKE. Every business is being disrupted by technology. This includes INSTAGRAM. You have to start emailing & MEETING with your customers and clients. WHY? Because Instagram may become the old people’s party and then how you gonna find them customers? SnapChat?

But doesn’t everyone hate email? Hello, people DON’T CHANGE THEIR EMAILS. Some still hang on to their freaking yahoo and aol accounts. Emails are a tighter connection. Better YET get the cell phones of your VIP customers and take them to DINNER. Just, whatever you do, DON’T BE BORING. Create an email you WISH SOMEONE WOULD SEND YOU.

GROW UP WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS OR KEEP ATTRACTING THE YOUNG GUNS

Yeah, your 25-year-old Insta-hottie is going to have a baby and all of a sudden that cropped off the shoulder number isn’t going hide her love handles and/or mother belt. Oh, am I “body shaming”? Read the HATERS note above. This is reality. Have a plan as to how you will keep moving forward with your biggest fans now or the babies coming down the pike.

EVERYONE IS GOING TO WANT A BIG BITE OF YOU. CHOOSE YOUR PACK WISELY

Why? Cause your haute, hot, HOT right now. Yup. Especially the has-beens and the wannabes. Be DISCERNING. Be choosy. Be SUPER SELECTIVE about who you chill with. Why? Because if you hang with the reckless and wild, you will become reckless and wilder. If you chill with the sorry asses, you, in turn, will be a sadder one. EVERY dedicated entrepreneur experiences a bit of FOMO at times. There should be a LONELY HEARTS CLUB MEETUP for those building something big. Get out, dance, laugh and then get back to work. That BULL SHIT ABOUT WORKING HARD & PLAYING HARD is for drunks and trust fund IDIOTS without a purpose. Balance your work and play and stay away from the MDMA. Seriously, it’s not worth the emotional roller coaster ride. Get HIGH ON LIFE.

SELECT WHO YOU WANT TO DO BUSINESS & SCREW THE 15 MINS OF FAME

Stop getting so flattered every time someone wants to COLLAB or PARTNER WITH YOU. You are WORKING YOUR ASS OFF and deserve to be noticed. Say NO to anyone not willing to collaborate with respect or who brings their headaches to the table. You have enough of your own problems to solve. If it’s not a HELL YEAH immediately than it’s a F NO. If you have to THINK about whether you want to sleep with someone, then it’s A F NO and collaborating is a lot like sleeping with someone. Create a list TODAY of the discerning people or businesses you want to align yourself with. SAY NO to anyone else who reaches out. Say it nicely. Always be kind. Kind always works.

You WON’T MISS OUT. Andy Warhol was WRONG and RIDICULOUS about that 15 minutes of FAME. Not true. Most people remain anonymous their whole lives. You may never be famous. Who cares? It’s better to BE GREAT.

KNOW WHAT SUCCESS MEANS TO YOU

Stop measuring your success by other people’s stupid ideas of success. SUCCESS IS SIMPLY DOING WHAT YOU LOVE. Life is short. Everything else is BS.

IT ALWAYS TAKES LONGER THAN YOU THINK.

Whether it’s sex with an ex or a check-up at the dentist or building your first prototype or sample. So STOP with the anxiousness. IT WILL TAKE YEARS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS. Even Google, the FASTEST growing business in the history of the world took 15 years to become a GIANT. SO SLOW THE HELL DOWN.

Day-to-Day Marketing Success for Health, Nutrition & Fitness Pros

Content management, Content strategy, Creative Marketing Campaigns, digital marketing, Digital Newsroom, Health Coaches, How to Do Your Own PR, Marketing in the Moment, marketing muscle, Marketing Strategy, Nutritionists, personal trainers, video marketing, Yoga Professionals

Day-to-Day Marketing Success happens when you are creating articles, social media posts, and inspiring & enlightening “content” that is linked to remarkable products and services. This includes the ongoing creation of engaging information that people are willing to read, watch and share as they begin to refer your brand to friends and family.

In the Beginning, You are Building Trust & Giving them a Taste of What You Offer

These initial website visitors that you attract are so grateful and inspired by your willingness to help them through their daily struggles. Your initial marketing lures them in with free guides, downloads, helpful “how to” videos, uplifting social media posts, etc. Eventually as they begin to trust the consistent value that you are giving them for free they become more and more willing to buy your products and services, as they hand over their hard earned money to you.

Welcome to the World of Publishing

Your company should aim to be the ultimate guide, guru and media publisher of everything in health, fitness, nutrition and wellness. The number one source of information on each healthy therapy or treatment you offer – from yoga to meditation to personal training, whatever it is you do, give up your best advice and recommendations, for free. Everything you write, share on social media and offer to potential customers must be better than anything else written or filmed on the web. You must become the go to source for information about your speciality and beat out the

Experimenting is Everything

Smart marketers and businesses experiment as they grow and they also monitor and measure what works and what doesn’t. A part of day-to-day marketing is taking notice of your most popular social media posts, product promotions, blog articles and videos. Oh, and your competition’s as well. Smart marketers also dig deep to find out more about their first customers. Where do they live? What else are they reading? Where do they shop? They play close attention to those that are visiting the site often, commenting on YouTube videos and clicking their way to the cart.

Day-to-day marketing involves A/B Testing of website offers (testing one promotion against another), Buy one, Get one Free, 20% off first time sessions, $30.00 for referring a friend. Smart marketers try different promotions and use promotional codes to monitor their success and/or failure.

Some Daily Marketing Rules for Success

Build a 30-day Stock Pile of Great Blog & Social Media Content before You Hit Publish

Create, write and video at least one full month of content before you begin posting. This will be thirty days of blog articles, thirty days of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube posts. If you have one month of content you won’t get behind because each day you will be creating new content for the future.

You Will Be Marketing Every Single Day

Plan on publishing existing articles and writing articles for the future every single day. Not all articles need to be written, some can be posts of beautiful photos with a few lines of copy. Others will be 15 second videos. The most important thing is that they are very helpful to your readers, viewers and visitors.

Create the Article and Video First & Then Posts for All Social Media

You will start with an idea for an article, write that article, maybe script it for a short video too and then you will create a version of it for a Facebook Post, a separate Instagram Post, 3-4 Tweets, a Pinterest board, a Google + post, a LinkedIn Pulse article, maybe a different version of the article on Medium and a YouTube video. You will take that one idea and turn it into different useful updates for all social media channels and each channel should be understood to have a different context and a unique type of user.

Engage with Others by Commenting, Liking, Retweeting, Reposting & Sharing Their Content

Engage with your competitors’ readers, viewers and those that follow your competition, especially influencers so they can begin to become familiar with your brand. You don’t simply push out content, you must connect with your like minded tribe. On Instagram, search through hashtags and top users; on Facebook & LinkedIn look to groups; Repin and comment on Pinterest. Spend as much time as you do creating a post as you do reading and commenting on influencers and enthusiasts content.

What will we write about? What blog article content will be best for Health, Fitness, Wellness & Nutrition Professionals? How and where will we get this information?

The best content topics will be those articles and videos that answer the most frequently asked questions that people ask therapists and health professionals and the questions that they place into Google and Bing search engines.

This information needs to be gathered from a variety of places. How? and from Where exactly?

1. Survey the Practitioners

Survey all vetted trainers, therapists and professionals especially those that you follow or know in person. Make it easy on yourself and use a survey tool like SurveyMonkey.com

A list of questions

What are the most frequently asked questions from new clients and patients?

What are their biggest mental and physical health problems?

What treatments, trends and therapies are they most skeptical of?

2. Copy & Improve Your Competitor’s Content

Research and Monitor the type of content that your competition is sharing with the world. They have an advantage – sites like Mind Body Green & Greatest.com have years of users and data under their belt. They know to write and create video content that their audience wants. Copy their content ideas but make your articles more detailed, more instructive, more valuable to your audience. Yes, you want to steal content ideas.

3. Stay on Top of Trends in the Holistic Health & Natural Market Place

Read and Review trend reports from various media including traditional health media like Women’s Health, Prevention and even Mother Jones. Do more research, find as many lists of trending topics in health and wellness and write about each individual trend. What’s trending right now in 2017? Personalized nutrition, Ketogenic diets, Rope wall yoga, Animal Flow, Barre & Cardio Fusion, Women-only clubs, Mushrooms as the new superfood to name a few things. Google search your way to the top trends in health and fitness and plan to create your own trend report for 2018.

4. Actively Network & Record Conversations

Listen to Viewers, Readers and Those Customers You Meet in Person

Attend trade shows, workshops and events, keep your ears to the ground, listen to what people are asking, what they are talking about. Jot down questions in Evernote or your notebook. This will also make for amazing blog article content.

5. Review Your Online Offerings

Review all of your offerings – this includes in person and by appointment video sessions, courses, retreats, etc and write and script a video about the benefits of these offerings. Write about them in detail. Interview people (testimonials) who have benefited from these services.

Make sure that each blog article ends with a Call-to-Action without selling to hard.

A few Call-to-Action ideas –

Book a session now
Download Today
Sign up for our email newsletter
Schedule a webinar
Listen to a Guided meditation
Get a Free Workout Session

6. Publish Great Content Daily using Specific Keywords and Hashtags

Obviously the hashtags will change as you post about different treatment and fitness modalities or healthy recipes. Gather and write about all of the information you learn. This will allow you to create individual blog articles and a content strategy that will –

Build your organic search engine optimization for your website
Create a level of trust between you and your potential audience
Help convert website visitors into valued customers

Stay Organized and Create a Daily Content Calendar

You can use a word document, Excel, Numbers on Mac. Anything to keep you organized. One post per day, posted to your blog and then shared with everyone on each social media channel in a different way. Mix it up. One day about meditation, the next about massage therapy, then a favorite new roller work out, Energy Healing, test all of the different healing and health therapies you have and develop blog posts about them, using the formula above, to find out what people care about the most. Look at your stats, see what they like, comment on and read the most.

Your calendar should be in tune with everyone’s schedule. Most look at social media more deeply during the evening from 8-10 pm. This is what data shows for Facebook. Twitter is for news updates all day long. As you watch your Instagram stats you will see when you have the highest amount of engagement and likes.

How else can you stay organized? Well, you can stick to a consistent theme, so your customers and followers know what they can expect from you. Here is an example of a weekly themed calendar.

Monday Motivation

Lift up your audience and get them ready for the week. Empowering blog articles and videos will inspire your readers to help themselves heal their mind, body and spirt.

Tuesday Transformation

Articles (and social media) will guide readers and viewers through personal transformations using nutrition, fitness, mindfulness and empowering messages. Posts will clarify and answer questions for your audience – How does hypnotherapy help transform my weight? How does acupuncture bring on mental clarity while reducing stress? Will Reiki help me sleep better? How will personalized nutrition make me healthier? Educate & inspire them.

Wednesday Wisdom

Sharing of ancient wisdom of modalities like Energy Healing, Shamans, Ayurveda. Quotes from masters, unknown secrets to healing. Everything and anything to educate the public about how to stay healthy, wealthy and wise.

Thoughtful Thursday

One of the most popular days on Facebook, thoughtful posts can dive deeper into how we heal ourselves, how we live and how much thoughtful attention we should pay to our well-being.

Finally Friday

It’s the end of the work week. Keep Friday articles “lighter” and social media in line with getting ready for the weekend. Focus on “how to relax” “how to get the most out of your weekend” how to create an at home retreat”. Post about courses you offer that customers can take over the weekend. Maybe you are starting your business in NYC or possibly the North east coast. You may want to post about healing places to go, healthy & wellness events or new classes to take.

Super Saturday

Oh the weekends, when most are either hung over or ready to rock the gym.Weekend workouts, personal fitness and training, meal prep for the week.This is when people have more time for themselves to work out.

Spiritual Sunday

Focus on those therapies that can help heal the spirit. Meditation that soothes the soul. How to create an Ayurvedic spa day. A post about how Energy Healing soothes the spirits. Poems by great writers. Keep your content soulful and real, so it resonates emotionally with your followers.

If you have particular questions about how you should begin marketing your business, please feel free to reach out. Send me a Tweet @MarketCouncil or email me at m.johnson@themarketcouncil.com. I would love to connect.

Don’t Sell, Focus on Why they Buy

building brand trust, How to Do Your Own PR, marketing muscle, marketing rituals, press release writing, Sales Funnel Explained, Start up Success

So your marketing isn’t getting any traction. No retweets, likes, comments or love. You need more traffic to your shopping cart, eyeballs to your website.

The real reason you don’t have engagement, why your blog and social posts aren’t read is because your content is too self-serving.

Word of advice. If you want to succeed in growing your business, do not try to sell or market another thing. Every time you say or share something about your company that emphasizes the upside you will most likely get skeptical responses.

Sure, it is perfectly fine to list the benefits of your brand, but whatever content you are creating – whether it be a blog or Instagram post, your unbridled optimism about what your business can do for customers and clients comes across as salesmanship and it seems dishonest. As a consequence it is met with skepticism.

Everyone is allergic to the feeling of being sold something.

What you should focus on instead – why people buy.

Buying motives are a million times more powerful than selling skills.

Don’t sell your product. Instead think about why people buy products like yours.

Marketing – Educate, inspire and enlighten your audience instead.

Learn more at ThePRPlaybook.com

Building Your Business with Media & Influencers

creative collaboration, digital content strategy, How do do your own PR, Influencer marketing, marketing muscle, Marketing Technology, The PR Playbook

This video is part of a lecture in ThePRPlaybook.com, my new online course to help you build your business by leveraging media and influencer collaborations.

When it comes to driving eyeballs and business to your website, influencer attention can have quite an impact.

Now, there are basically three types of influencers.

The Elevated Consumer

A passionate enthusiast, they may not have formal training, but they are learning along the way and taking their community on the journey. Typically, they are sharing DIY’s, How to’s, interviews and product reviews for their fans and followers to try.

The Professional

A skilled, licensed and seasoned professional who has decided to scale themselves to reach a wider audience, typically with a product or service to sell.

The Celebrity Influencer

This celebrity can be a combination of the above or simply so entertaining that they have amassed a large enough following to have star status.

Finding influencers has typically involved some type of Google search but I have just signed up for a free trial at Scrunch.com. I have been waiting for something like this for a while.

Search the Health & Fitness Directory

Filter by Instagram, Twitter and Blogs
By minimum and maximum follower range.
By location. In this case North America.
By date range of posts.
By quantity of posts.

While influencers with a social reach of one million plus are going to be more difficult and expensive to reach, try finding those with a reach of 20-100K by location.

You will increase your chances of collaboration when connecting with emerging bloggers and vloggers who are on their way up.

How To Score Media Coverage for Your Brand

collaborations, creative collaboration, Digital Newsroom, Earned Media, Fitness Marketing, growth hacking, Integrated public relations plan, marketing muscle, media relations, Public Relations, The PR Playbook

Yes you need press coverage. No you don’t need a press release. What you need are answers to the most important questions that writers, reporters and bloggers want to know.

In this video, I quickly move through the top 20 questions on every media influencer’s mind.

The Top Three Questions on every writer’s mind. . .

What makes your story newsworthy right now? Why is it so timely?
What problem does it solve? And, is it a big problem?
Will readers and viewers want to share your story?

If you need help reaching out to bloggers, vloggers and writers about your brand story, check out The PR Playbook, a crash course in winning over the media and collaborating with influencers.

The Fastest Way to Finding New Clients & Customers

business, Customer Acquisition, marketing muscle, Uncatergorized

Spying on competitors and copying their best practices is a growth hacking and marketing secret to finding your next clients or customers. This tip really applies to all businesses, so anyone can really benefit.

Stealing from your competitors is nothing new. That’s how Airbnb built their business off Craig’s List. Read here for the back story. It was pure, unadulterated hustle.

Growth hacker Vincent Dignan recommends a site like SimiliarWeb but I really like the list below. Spy on your competition with these tools.

1. SEMrush (super powerful, highly recommended)

2. ahrefs.com

3. Searchmetrics Essentials

4. Open Site Explorer

5. Majestic SEO

6. SimilarWeb.com

7. Compete.com

8. Alexa.com

9. Hubspot’s Marketing Grader (general web marketing overview)

Simply Measured

Have you found a way to dig deep into your competitor’s best practices? If so, comment below.

Growth Hacking for Startup Success

growth hacking, Marketing Mavens, Marketing Metrics, marketing muscle, Measureable Marketing, Vincent Dignan

Startups who measure their social media goals increase their chances of success. Why planning out every single user (customer) with a specific strategy is really important.

Social Media for Health & Fitness Coaches

Content management, digital content strategy, marketing muscle, Social Content Management, social media marketing

The most shared content in health, wellness, fitness & nutrition will –

1. Demonstrate a quick how to

2. Motivate and challenge your audience

3. Share the benefits and your expertise

Here, in this quick video, demonstrations from @FitMenCook, @JayCardiello and @JenSinkler