The Success Magnets with Cara Lumen

How to Effectively Position Yourself in Social Media

OK, we have this new opportunity going on that everyone is doing, but not everyone understands. I've joined Linkedin, FaceBook, and Squidoo. I blog and I podcast. I'm working up nerve to get on YouTube. But wait. What am I going to get for all this? How much time do I need to spend? Where does this fit into my marketing strategy?

There is no question but it's a happening thing

FaceBook is adding a million adults per week to their rosters.
YouTube gets over 50 million unique visitors per month.
FaceBook and MySpace have the equal daily traffic of Google and that's going to double!

So how do you get in touch with all those people? How do you make social media work for you?

Social Media is about collaboration

It is said you already know enough people to network out to any resource you need. Social Media is about becoming a strong link in that networking web in which information, resources, ideas, friendship and inspiration are shared.

Casual vs. Purposeful Interaction

The easiest two places to start are Linkedin, which is focused on business and job related networking, and FaceBook, which seems more animated with people sharing everything from Karma Links to Groups for specific causes. Posting on forums is both causal and purposeful. For these versions of Social Media you just have to show up and participate. It's all very casual and conversational.

It's the blogs and podcasts and wiki's that are more purposeful. They can be specifically targeted and used to actively build your business.

You need both the casual interaction and the purposeful content.

People are no longer willing to be sold

However, because there is so much hype, so many "buy now" urgent sales messages with "last-chance-to-buy" calls to action, we, as a buying public, are no longer listening to or being swayed by that approach. We are becoming immune. Internet readers want information from the internet. They don't want advertising or marketing or some sort of pitch.

Don't sell yourself - Be yourself

You know about the Law of Attraction, where your personal vibration attracts to you the essence of the energy you are emitting. Just be yourself and the perfect people will find you. Notice exactly how you are sharing. Are you helpful? Supportive? Friendly? Are you putting out the vibration that will attract the people you want as clients and customers? If not, get conscious about what you say, do, and write.

Hang out with your target market

Narrow your niche just as you have for your business. If you are in business go where business people hang out and relate to each other. If you are in health and fitness, join groups where people with that interest hang out, just as you would if you were joining a networking group in your area that you felt would lead you to new contacts.

Listen before you leap

Listen to what is going on in the social environment you choose to join before you start to post. Ease into the conversations. Keep your comments relevant. Offer suggestions and resources but do not promote yourself. Join forums that allow you to put your web site in your signature so people can get to know you more. Ask questions. Answer questions. Make friends. Build relationships. Keep listening for what other people in the social environment need to hear from you. Engage in conversation. This is not about you being a teacher or lecturer or even an expert. It is about engaging in a conversation. It is about building community. It is about establishing trust.

Get them to invest in your advice

So here's the plan. You go on these social media environments and start relating with others. You post short supportive messages to friends and acquaintances you haven't talked to in a long while. You post new discoveries you have made that others might like to know about. You share of yourself and your insights. And gradually you will establish yourself as a go-to person. And at some point, they will come to you to invest in your advice.

The bottom line is trust

Haven't we been taught over and over that we need to build trust with our prospects and clients in order to see them purchase from us? Every time I offer a new teleclass or ebook, it's the people who know me that purchase, the people from my list that I have been developing relationship with over the years. Sometimes they tell a friend but the major purchases come from people who trust me because we have built a relationship over time.

Don't say it till you mean it

I have found a weight loss program that I really like. It is multilevel marketing and my upline was eager for me to get two people under me so I could get my product free. But you know what? I wasn't ready. I was about ten days into the program and was getting results but I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about it yet. My upline urged me to tell my prospects about what other people had achieved. But the people I want to reach, the people who know and trust me, only want to hear my personal recommendation.

After a month on the program I had results I was eager to talk about and share. I could come from my own heart, my own conviction and my own experience and really listen to and address the needs and concerns of my friends who I think might benefit from having information on this product. Please notice, I'm not going to sell them anything, I'm going to give them information so they can make an informed decision for themselves.

As one friend said, "Your word is gold with me." What an honor. What trust. I want to always share from a place of personal integrity. I want everyone to know my word is gold with them.

Get yourself a platform for your passion

A blog can be up in five minutes. A podcast can be only 3-5 minutes long. Focus your content on something you care about, something you want to learn more about or help others do. Link that back to your web site where your services are listed.

Solve a problem

Look at your business. Look at your clients. What solution can you give them to a common problem that will bring immediate and noticeable results? Make a video with that solution and put it on YouTube, MySpace and FaceBook with links back to your main website.

Just having a blog and posting a video will help you establish more Web 2.0 presence than 90% of your competition. It's that easy.

Social Media as a marketing strategy

Engaging in social media is both an Outreach Strategy and a Keep In Touch Strategy. You make new friends, develop relationships and support each other with your goods and services. After all, what are friends for?!

© Cara Lumen 2008
www.caralumen.com

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps proactive entrepreneurs translate their passion into a profitable presence on the internet Her Magnetic Marketing Method guides you through internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development and helps you become a true Success Magnet. www.caralumen.com

How to Organize Your Content so it Practically Writes Itself

I once wrote a play. Well actually I wrote a lot of scenes and found myself laying them out all over my bed trying to sort them in some sort of sequence. (This was before computers). It was the only way I could take what had emerged from my imagination and make any sense out of it.

Of course, now I know better. Even now if simply start writing content as I get inspired, I find it much, much harder to organize than if I had a plan in the first place. Being able to see the overview of what you are going to create is actually a talent, but it is also a skill you can learn. Here's my method.

Find your core message

Why are you writing this? What one point do you wish to make above all else? I'll use the example of a book I'm working on now. It's "How to Write Magnetic Sales Pages." My purpose is to create a ebook/workbook that helps people pull their ideas and phrases from their subconscious and put it into a specific structure in order to create a compelling sales page. That makes sense. This core message is the clothes line that will go from beginning to end upon which I will hang my points, one chapter "clothes pin" at a time.

Find your beginner's mind

Who are you writing to? How much do they know? What foundational material do you have to include in order to orient them to your content? I'm beginning my book with information on why people buy. That makes sense. We're writing sales pages to get people to purchase so understanding that process is an invaluable foundation upon which to build.

Build your path

Lay out your stepping stones. What do they need to know next? What after that? These are your chapter headings. Don't worry about the name for them, just get the idea. In my case, I need for people to get very clear about the purpose of their sales page so I have organized my chapters and exercises to help them make internal decisions that will affect their content. It takes them step-by-step to a finished product.

Choose your equipment

What "tools" will your readers need in order to reach the conclusion you are taking them toward? Again, in my example, it's fairly easy to see. We have to talk about the mechanics of creating content – headlines, subheads, keywords, the circular paragraph, etc. Fill your reader's toolkit before you move on.

The key question

Now comes the magic organizer. Imagine that you have just mapped out a nature walk. You have posted signs along the path to mark the places you will stop and discuss with your students the scene before them. Why did you choose one viewing point rather than another? You have to know exactly what you want them to learn. The most powerful phrase you can ask yourself is "Students leave with an understanding of…." If you place that question at the beginning of every chapter heading you have created and answer it, your content will practically write itself.

The first time I created a Table of Contents for the Magnetic Sales Page book I found that on one chapter heading, when put in the line "Students leave with an understanding of…." I had to answer it with "I have no clue." Needless to say I rearranged that particular point.

This key question is a powerful measuring stick for making certain your content is heard and understood.

Review your overview From your work so far, create your table of contents and look it over for a logical sequence. Do you need to move the chapter on one topic higher up? Have you answered a question in another place? Do chapters need to be combined? Remember your beginner's mind and build your case one logical sequential step at a time. Look at your core "clothesline" theme. Look at the "garment" chapters you have hung on that line. If you have made your point, if you know what your students will leave with an understanding of… start writing.

Are they students or readers? We all want to be heard. We don't write unless we want to communicate. Whether it is fiction, a how to book or a sales page, we want our content to be understood, So of course, we want to make our point. For me a reader can be a casual observer. A student, on the other hand, really wants to "get it." That's why I use "Students leave with an understanding of…" and let my content write itself.

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps pro-active entrepreneurs translate their passion into a profitable presence on the internet. As a content strategist she guides you to copy that compels and sells. Her own information products are noted for their clarity and richness. Through The Magnetic Marketing Method she offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development. Find more articles like this in The Success Magnets Emagazine at www.caralumen.com

The Psychology of Pricing - How to Position Your Products to Sell

In his article "Pricing tips for selling in a tough market" in the Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Clements presented pricing tips for the difficult housing marketing. Using this universal psychology of pricing I have translated his concepts to help you price your products to sell.

Make your first number count

Have you noticed how $4.99 looks like and feels like a lot less than $5.00? Manoj Thomas, a marketing professor at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management explains, "We read from left to right so we anchor our judgment on the first thing we see. We make that judgment in a fraction of a second." A $99 home study course will look more affordable than a $100 one. A $124.75 teleclass series will feel like a better bargain than the same one at $125. Pay attention to number on the left. It's the one your prospect will remember.

Make effective price comparisons

One study of price comparisons found that, if the left digits are the same, buyers will focus on the right hand numbers. Thus an ebook at $12.75 feels a lot more expensive than one at $12.54. Have you ever been on Amazon ordering a book from an outside source? The prices vary by only one penny, but you inevitably go for the cheapest one. We love bargains.

It also turns out that buyers perceive the discount to be larger if those numbers on the right are declining from two to one rather than from nine to eight. Go figure.

Sometimes comparisons get out of hand. Have you ever been on a sales page that says you are getting $3,572 worth of bonuses? I personally don't need that much information, so it is a comparison that is not compelling to me. But if you tell me there is an Early Bird Special in which a $125 teleclass I'm considering is available for $99 I may jump on it. And you know what, that's a 20% savings. Which number did you respond to—the dollar amount or the percentage amount? I'm a dollar and cents type of person but it doesn't hurt to use both in your copy providing it’s a good percentage drop.

What is a reasonable price?

The best way to make a pricing decision has never been determined. There are guidelines, but no easy to apply rule. Obviously you want to be within the range your market dictates. When I priced my first ebook, a colleague said, "Oh well, you can always offer a discount." I knew then that I had priced it too high. You may not be able to sell an ebook for $29.95 since you are probably sitting there with a bookshelf full of very informative hard cover business books that average $12 each. It's very common to look at the amount of effort that went into creating your product and over price it.

Another decision is what your target market can afford. Eckhart Tolle prices his book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose at $7.70. In doing so he made it available to anyone who wants it. He wants to get his message out. And it will be since he's an Oprah book club selection. Suze Orman felt so strongly about getting her message to women that for 24 hours she recently gave away a free PDF of her book Women and Money also through Oprah. If you have a book that you want to reach as many people as possible, keep it in a price range that will entice them.

Another consideration is that academics are used to paying more for a text book than the average reader. Research your market and stay within a reasonable price range for those you want to buy your product and services.

Do you want to convey quality or a bargain?

An interesting discovery about the psychology of pricing is that a round number will convey quality. A precise number will indicate a bargain. Vicki Morwitz, a marketing professor at New York University's Stern School of Business says that's because we associate precise numbers with lower-priced products. A precise number also indicates you have given a lot of thought to your pricing. Look at Amazon prices, the last two numbers are all sorts of un-rounded numbers – $14.37, $12. 64. It makes you feel like you are really getting a bargain because you assume they have arrived at those prices in order to be the lowest source for that product.

Make the discount easy to calculate

Make it easy for your buyer to relate to the price cut. If it is difficult to do the math, they will perceive the savings as small. A drop from $149.85 to $127.48 taxes anyone's math skills. But with a drop from $149.85 to $129.85 you can see a $20 savings. And in a drop from $150 to $130 the $20 savings is extremely clear.

Instead of cutting prices, add bonuses

In my coaching practice I have two ways for people to pay for my major package. They can pay in two payments, or if they pay in one payment, they get a bonus of four of my ebooks that are related to what they will be doing in our coaching sessions. My reasoning? Every time a prospect pulls out her credit card, she has the opportunity to reconsider the purchase. Fortunately my shopping cart can automatically charge monthly payments but my clients have an opportunity for some valuable bonuses if they pay in full. What kind of added value can you add to your bundles?

Don't stay married to your price

Price your product or service reasonably and if it doesn't sell lower your price. If it rushes out the door, consider raising your price. You could easily do some split testing by having identical sales pages with different prices and send half your list to one and half to the other and monitor the results.

Give it time

It takes prospects as many as nine exposures before they purchase. That's why building your list is vital to your success. An opt in list gives you permission to market. The prospects are willing to hear from you again. Through emagazines and special offer promotions, you will have time to speak to them often enough to build their trust and get ultimately them to purchase.

One last thought on information products

An information product is not your business, it is an adjunct to your business. It enhances your expert status, it lets people move up your marketing funnel. When people come to me for help in developing an information product, I make certain they have a strong name capturing system in place on a compelling web site with strong content that stimulates conversion. Laying that strong foundation is paramount to your success. Then you can create all the products you wish and use the psychology of pricing to position your products to sell.

Want to post this article in your emagazine? You may as long as the unedited article is printed in its entirety, and you include the copyright notice and the following statement:

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps pro-active entrepreneurs translate their passion into a profitable presence on the internet with a minimum investment by using time, energy, information, and imagination. Through The Magnetic Marketing Method she offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development. Her own information products are noted for their clarity and richness. Find more articles like this in The Success Magnets Emagazine at www.caralumen.com