Rogers Online Business Management for the Agriculture Community

Posts Tagged ‘promoting your business’

A great way to gain visibility within your market and promoting your business is to write articles. You can easily post your articles on your website. Give them away rather than charge in order for people to sample your expertise.

Let people know the articles can be downloaded and used elsewhere as long as you are given full credit with a link back to your website.

The more visibility you gain from your articles the more likely you will be to have magazine and newsletter editors asking to publish your works in their publications. Often they do not pay, but it is great free advertising for you.

Be sure to include at the end of your article a byline that contains key information about yourself and business. It can also help in your marketing by directing people to your website to access further information or to sign up for something.

Here is a sample byline:

Sue Rogers is a partner of the Agriculture Industry Partnership that was formed on behalf of the Northwest Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board and the Regional Center for Workforce Excellence. This partnership was formed to identify a plan of action to assist the agriculture community in providing the necessary workforce, economic developments, and education/training supports necessary for retention and growth within Pennsylvania. To get more tips on how to ease your workload visit http://agriculture.easmyworkload.com.

Through the years I have assembled tons of tips from my research, reading, and by helping my clients with their marketing plans. And today I’m going to share three of them with you.

These tips are cost-effective ways to market your business so you can get more clients, increase sales, and increase your wealth!

1. My first tip is very very important and should not be taken lightly. You need to spend 1-hour everyday doing marketing activities. This can be in the form of planning activities and promotions, or actually implementing your plan. If you’re saying to yourself right now how can you fit one more hour into your already busy day…then you need to outsource this activity to your online business manager or virtual assistant–it’s that important!
2. This second tip is as important as the first one and many farmers don’t think it’s necessary in this industry. But let me tell you right now—-You must have a Website! When it comes to today’s consumers we first look to the Internet for information.

   In my everyday travels I may see a small sign or fruit stand alongside the road and quickly record the farm name into the memo feature on my cell phone. Later in the day when I’m reviewing my memos, I start searching the Internet for anything I can find on that Farm. And what do you think happens? Well, the majority of the time I find nothing. Nothing!!!

   Do you know how disappointing that is for me? I saw your sign but couldn’t stop right at that moment. So now I can’t even get a hold of you to find out what type of products you’re selling or if I can even place an order to pick up later. I may never pass your sign again for weeks or maybe months. So guess what…you just lost the sale. How many other sales might you be losing this way?

   It does not have to cost you a thing to get a website up. You don’t need to have all the fancy bells and whistles at first. You just need to get your name and some basic information up on the Internet so people can get a hold of you. I would suggest that you actually start out with a blog design for your website. There are three blog platforms that are easy to set up and use, and affordable. My first recommendation is WordPress.com. This very site is a WordPress site and I love how easy it is to use, and it’s free. My second recommendation is Blogger.com. This platform is also free. Now if you want just a little bit more without having to work hard at setting it up, you can always use TypePad Blogs – Get a 14 Day Free Trial! After your trial the plans start as low as $4.95 per month. You get one-click integration with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, plus built-in search engine optimization.

3. Now my third and last tip for today is one that I love. Post your farm on your vehicle. All you need to do is get a pair of magnetic signs either at your local sign shop or take advantage right now from VistaPrint and get a Free Car Door Custom Magnet. Include your farm name, phone number, website, or maybe even a special seasonal offer by ordering many different signs that you can change throughout the year.

If you need help with accomplishing any of these three tips, my staff at Rogers Executive Administrative Services can put together a package that is right for your budget. Just contact us at agriculture@easmyworkload.com or make a consultation appointment right now that is convenient for you by going to our online Appointment Scheduler.

In order to outsell your competition your marketing needs to blow them away.

Create a hook, market your product in a different way than your competitors. Find out what the hot topics are in your market. What complaints do they have and how can you offer them a solution.

For example, if you’re going to offer a webinar on a new method you discovered for fertilizing your grape crop that saved you money, even though you are not selling a physical product, your hook should convey that you’re going to help them save time and make more money with a better product on an ongoing basis.

You need to be creative in how you market this. Let them know that you may not have a degree in this area but that you learned from trial and error on your own farm.

People want to know that you share their pain and frustration.  So by you letting them know that you are a real honest to goodness farmer just like them then they will automatically share a bond with you and will be interested in your informational product.

Everyone wants to have a lot of productive affiliates, but you need to realize that accomplishing this takes a lot of knocking on doors, getting to know people and a large amount of work. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible, but sometimes people have been lead to believe it’s easy. Sure, once you get the affiliates to say yes to promote your product the money comes in more easily, but you need to get them to say yes first.

You can contact website owners by emailing them or phoning them. Offer to do something for them first. Ask them if you can share their resource with your subscribers or if you can promote their product. Once you’ve helped them, they’re more likely to help you back.

You also need to get to know people in your target market. If you’re going to create a product start getting to know other website and list owners. Someone who knows and likes you is much more likely to promote your product when it’s ready.

Here are a few tips on contacting people:

• Always give a full review copy of your product
• Make your contact personal and show that you know about what they’re doing online and comment on some specific projects.
• Offer a larger commission than your competitors and also larger than you do through your regular affiliate program
• Show them some of your sales results if you’ve already started selling your product

Two of the most important things to keep in mind when contacting people are:

1. Don’t take things personally.
2. Make sure when you contact people they understand there is no obligation if they agree to check out your product. There’s nothing worse than burning bridges by harassing people to promote your product. Even if they don’t promote it at this time, keep the doors open to have this product promoted later or for some possible co-projects. Good affiliates don’t have the time or resources to promote everything that comes their way. Sometimes, the timing isn’t right or the products isn’t quite right for their target audience even though they liked it. Do send them a follow up email but don’t harass them.

I have to share my experience about an email I received from someone who wants to share website links. I know this is a little off the subject about affiliate partners but it still applies here as well.

Here is the email I received. I have had no previous connection to this person and no knowledge of what email she is referring to:

Hello,
Sorry to bother you again. My name is (removed); I contacted you some time ago on the possible partnership issue.
In two words, I searched for the websites related to my website topic, and found your site really attractive and content-rich. I think we could benefit from link exchange, as my website (removed) has much in common with yours.
I will be glad to link to your site in return to you linking back to mine. Please let me know if you feel interested in the possible partnership. You can contact me at (removed).

Best regards,
(removed)

So I’m a little taken aback for the following reasons:

1. The email was titled “Partnership Issues.” Using a very strong word like “issues” is not good! And I didn’t know there could be issues with someone I don’t have a partnership to begin with. Now if she would have used the word “request” I might consider exchanging links.
2. If she had really searched for websites related to her topic and took the time to really read my website she would have addressed me by my name and not a generic “hello.”
3. She says that she thinks we could benefit by this link exchange because we share similar content. Ok–but I share similar content with thousands of other websites as well. She should be telling me how this partnership would differ from any other link exchange I might consider, as well as tell me a little bit about herself and her business.

By not doing these simple things above, I was not interested in a partnership. I was annoyed that she did not take into consideration how precious my time is during the day. Oh I’m not saying I don’t appreciate an email offer for link exchange, what I’m annoyed about is that I would now have to take the time to investigate her and her business.  I would then have to email her back and ask her how she planned on promoting my business and then wait for yet another response back from her. Too much time wasted!!!!

Her email should have covered any possible questions I may have about this partnership but it gave me nothing. I still don’t know anymore about this person then I did before she emailed me.

So my point for sharing this with you is make sure you are polite; check that you are not using words that could be taken in a different meaning by the reader; and be sure to answer any anticipated questions your reader may have about you, your company, and what the benefits are for them.

I have been receiving a lot of questions about how can you research a subject for your Ebook before you spend a bunch of time writing something that no one may be interested in.

The fact is that you want to tap into people’s greatest desires. People like to make money, save time and are passionate. Your goal with your Ebook is to help people pursue their goals.

One of the easiest ways to do your research is with your own readers. If you are already doing business online and have a website and a mailing list, you have your very own research center. Get to know your readers and what they want…and then sell it to them. Ask them questions and really get to know them and how they respond to different mailings and bits of information you give them.

It is so much easier selling to someone who is already a customer then to go out and look for other customers. That is why I limit my products to my main market. I already have a decent list of customers, why would I go create an information product on something completely different when it would be just that much harder to sell to them?

But if you don’t have a list or a website with much traffic, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start creating information products. We all had to start somewhere so if you’re just getting started there are plenty of research tools available.

Tools:

Google Suggest: http://labs.google.com/suggestfaq.html
 - As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you’re typing and offers suggestions in real time. Google Suggest uses data about the overall popularity of various searches to help rank the refinements it offers. Just write down the suggestions that come up and then later enter them into a spreadsheet to keep track of them.

Google Zeitgeist: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist/index.html
 - Several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. These tools are available for you to play with,  explore, and learn from. Use them for everything from business research to trivia answers.

After you’ve done some keyword research, you should:

1. Look for other products on the same topic. If there is no other information product or book on the same topic, don’t get discouraged. Usually this would mean that the idea may not be profitable but in our case the agriculture industry has been untouched by this new way of marketing. Think of how you can blow your competition right out of the water by creating information products in this way.
2. Promote similar products as an affiliate. Sign up for the affiliate programs for these type of products and sell them on your website, blog, or through a Google Adwords campaign.

I really want to encourage you not to be afraid of this new way of marketing. The agriculture industry needs to look for ways to make things better than what has been out there. You need to make yourself stand apart from the rest of the crowd…differentiate yourself from the competition and outsell them!!!

The most frustrating call I receive from a potential client is when they say they have this great product that they want to sell on the Internet. After asking them a few basic questions, it becomes clear that they are trying to enter markets where they think there is massive profit potential, but they know little about the subject.

What they don’t realize is that it’s going to take them more money to get things going. They will probably need to hire writers and work with other experts just to make it look like they themselves know what their talking about.

I personally have fired clients who wanted to market themselves as an expert with a product they knew nothing about. Why? Well for one I don’t want my name to be associated with someone who lacks honesty and credibility. I see them as misleading the public. They are lying about their background, their knowledge, and about the product.

If you are going to claim to be an expert in something you must be able to share your experiences and opinions. For example, back in January my house flooded. After six months of a tug of war game with the insurance adjuster, my house will be under construction in about three more weeks. Now after going through this process I know a lot more about insurances, and adjustors, then I did before the flood happened. But I would never consider myself an expert in this area because I have no other experience, nor any background in this field. Granted I do have car insurance, medical insurance, and of course my house insurance, but I can not say I’m an expert on insurance. 

Sure you can always work with writers and other experts in the market you are trying to enter to develop your information products. They can fill in the gaps where your knowledge may be lacking. However I will say that people who hire writers to write ebooks don’t necessarily have that uniqueness unless they go in and add some of themselves to the product.

You also have to keep in mind how will you answer any questions that are thrown your way. Say you decide to give a webinar on a particular product that you market but you have absolutely no experience in using this product. During the webinar, an attendee says that they have been using the product for some time now but seem to always have trouble in one particular area. When they pose the question to you as to how do you handle this particular situation, what are you going to tell them? You now have to answer them with your experiences. If you decide to opt out the easy way and tell them to email you with their question after the webinar you just lost all credibility to the other attendees in the webinar. People want answers now. All this does is create a fast majority of the attendees saying, “Can you email me the answer too!” They don’t want to have to wait for you to answer if you claim you’ve been using the product, nor should they have to wait.

Don’t underestimate the intelligence of your market. They will sooner or later catch onto you and your reputation will be ruined.

Do you think you are an expert? In every day life what someone considers an expert may be different to different people. If you can share your experiences and opinions, you can become an expert and gain a following. The important thing is that you help people.

If people can learn from your advice, experiences and from your opinion…you are an expert to them. And that’s what makes you unique and helps you stand apart from the crowd even more.

In order for you to differentiate yourself from your competition you need to outsell them. One way to do this is to make a better product.

Study your competitor’s product and make a better one. Find out which important questions still are unanswered in your competitors products so you can make more complete information. Find a way to help your customers make more money, save more time or whatever your product does.

If your competitor just sells an ebook–create audios, videos, or a workbook. Anything that can make your product have a higher perceived value and appeal to all kinds of learners. After all, not everyone wants to read an ebook so you are losing a lot of customers who want to listen to an audio in the car or be able to download a recording to their iPod. So if you can make a better and more useful product, you’re way ahead of the game.

The hardest part of writing a book is the first sentence. When you look at the whole project, it seems like an impossible task. That’s why you have to break it down into manageable tasks.

First, figure out your ebook’s title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually, you’ll find one that will grow on you. Titles help you to focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in anticipating and answering your reader’s queries. Aim for clarity in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books as long as it’s not too cute. For example, Remedies for High Energy Bills: twenty different ways to cut costs and save the environment. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans to whip you into shape.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem. All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement. Once you’ve got your thesis statement fine-tuned, you’ve built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis statement. If they don’t, they don’t belong in your book. For example, your thesis statement could read: We’ve all experienced high energy bills, but there are twenty environmentally friendly things you can change right now to lower your energy consumption.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write, make sure there is a good reason to write your book. Ask yourself some questions:

• Does your book present useful information and is that information currently relevant?
• Will your book positively affect the lives of your readers?
• Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader’s attention?
• Does your book answer questions that are meaningful and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel confident about the potential of your ebook.

Another important step is to figure out who your target audience is. It is this group of people you will be writing to, and this group will dictate many elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction, and even length. Figure out the age range of your readers, their general gender, what they are most interested in, and even the socio-economic group they primarily come from. Are they people who read agriculture magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you can pin down your target audience, the easier it will be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you want to bring quality traffic to your website or maybe to your farm? Do you want to enhance your reputation?

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing and promoting your business. Do you want to sell it as a product on your website, or do you want to offer it as a free gift for when they visit your farm or for ordering a product? Do you want to use the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook to attract affiliates around the world? The more you know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction, keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to your chapter topic, and then divide it into four subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

Here is how I usually start: I take an hour of my day and come up with 3 different topics I want to write about. I then think of a bunch of different ebook titles to go along with those topics. My next step is to say the titles out loud and in diffenent tones of my voice. This lets me experiment in how people might read the title so I want to make sure its one that seems to be catchy. When one sounds good to me I choose that one and start my writing.

Next time I’ll tell you how to make your ebook “user friendly”.

Ok I know I’m jumping ahead here but I wanted you to know this before you start asking yourself how this is going to work.

Getting your ebook out to the agriculture community is going to be your focus once you’ve finished writing it, just as it is with print books. People will hesitate to buy any book from an author they’ve never heard of. Wouldn’t you?

The answer is simple: give it away! You will see profits in the form of promoting your own business and getting your name out. You will find affiliates who will ask you to place their links within your ebook, and these affiliates will in turn go out and make your name known in their own marketing efforts. Almost every single famous ebook author has started out this way.

Another powerful tool to attract people to your ebook is to make it interactive. Invent something for them to do within the ebook rather than just producing pages that contain static text. Let your readers fill out questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles geared to testing their knowledge on a particular subject. Have your reader hit a link that will allow them to recommend your book to their friends and associates. Or include an actual order form so at the end of their reading journey, they can eagerly buy your product. My favorite in any ebook is a link that allows me to download even more free information related to the topic.

When people interact with books, they become a part of the world of that book. The fact is just as true for books in print as it is for ebooks.

That’s why ebooks are so essential. Not only do they provide a forum for people to learn and make sense of their own thougths, but they can also serve to promote your business at the same time.

Hope this eases that little question running through your head about how this is going to help you make some extra income. If you think that you may want to set up an affiliate program for your products, you can always contact our team of experts for a consultation meeting.