I know I promised I’d talk about doing your marketing planning for 2018. But heavens to Betsy. I just recently had four webinars that made me want to speak out and warn you how NOT to do a webinar.

Don’t Fake The Background

I’ve started doing YouTube videos lately, and they’re fun. But it’s not always easy to clean up my office and close my closet doors. I have a yarn habit for my knitting that sometimes gets a bit extreme. But I digress.  So instead of trying to shove everything in, I hung some peach colored fabric. (I have a sewing habit too)

I use Camtasia 2 on my Mac. It has a nice built-in camera and it’s easier to record video on it than on my Chromebook. But I can’t move my Mac downstairs like I can a Chromebook. So I set up the backdrop to test the ability to “green screen.” It’s a work in progress.

But there’s a huge difference in cleaning up the background and faking the background.

I was on two webinars that were pre-recorded. By the way…most webinars you’re on are going to be pre-recorded. You’ll see someone saying something like “let me just switch to a different camera” or whatever, and they’re just turning on the recording. I don’t mind that, honestly. I’d prefer if it were more authentic and you could go watch it on demand rather than trying to find some time when it’s being played.

And always put in controls. Please. I sometimes want to skip your “about me” section and get right into the meat.

The marketer slash salesperson would say that the intro is important for building up know/like/trust. I get it. I really do. But if I already know you, I want to skip it.

So on one webinar that was supposed to be a lot of free information, the background was a grand study with lots of books in the background. It’s nice, but I didn’t buy it. And the webinar disappointed me because the interviews with the bigwigs turned into a love fest. “oh, remember when we met. And you said this. haha. yes, that was so funny.”

This should be its own heading but don’t waste my time. I’m there to hear what you promised. Make sure you’re delivering it. (I was on another one today where I gave up after 25 minutes. Yeah, I can’t believe I gave 25 minutes of my life to a webinar that never got to the point.)

The second delivered the goods. It was amazing. The person used a fancy car background. I thought it was a bit over the top. It’s so 00’s to show a big house and a car. I think the market is over that.  Then I was checking him out (do your research on everyone.). I saw in his YouTube videos, he had the exact same car in the background. It hadn’t moved & it still shined in the same places.  Therefore, it was a fake background.

Maybe it’s a big joke kind of thing with his tribe. But if you’re trying to bring people into your tribe, think about how they would react to it.

Be There When You Say You Will

So, my other webinar today seemed to do things right. It had a 6 day email series leading up to the event. I was engaged. I was excited.

It was supposed to be 1pm. Now, I thought it was 1pm Eastern Time and had that on my calendar. None of the lead up emails had a link to the webinar. I did get one this morning that said I’d get an email right before the webinar with the link. Ok. Cool. I must have misunderstood & maybe it was 1pm Pacific.

Well, 1pm Pacific came and went.

2:48pm I get the email for “here’s the link!” and it also said that it was starting at 1pm Eastern on the dot. End quote.

I’m guessing their email person goofed and set it up for 4pm Pacific instead of 4pm Eastern. These things happen. It’s just surprising when it happens with a big name.

Always check your time zones in your email service provider before scheduling your emails.

In their defense, they started as a big love fest and I thought “I’m done.” They provided an option to read the transcript instead of quitting. Which I did. It’s a sales gimick. I should have known.

It’s refreshing when someone puts on an information only webinar to help their tribe. I’m going to start doing FB lives on the FB page, and I’m starting to build up my YouTube channel. I want to have the information there when you need it. Sign up to my email list and you’ll be the first to know when a video goes live or when I’m about to hop on to Facebook.

My buddy Boomy Tokan and I released Entrepreneurship for Noobees. It’s the third in our series of business courses to help people wanting to get into online sales and marketing.

Starting up your own business can be challenging. You want to be sure it’s not a job that’s taking up more of your time than your old job did. And you want to be sure you’re treating it like a business instead of a hobby. That means you have plans and repeatable processes.

What’s It About

The course starts you off with identifying some important mindset issues. I put in a quiz to help you determine your risk tolerance. Some people are ready to jump in with both feet first. Others want to wade out.

Those who jump in should probably pause a bit to do some planning and research. You remember my cautionary tale about the bakery that closed after about nine months.

Those who wade in will need to identify when is the right time for them to commit to their new business. If they don’t, then it will always be just a hobby.

Why Should I Buy The Course

If you’re struggling, you may need to step back and build up a solid foundation. It helps to get your brain thinking about owning a business and not just a job or a hobby.

That and I have a special coupon link for you where it will only cost you $10. I know a lot of people compare it to the price of a cup of coffee, but I won’t. I’ll just say it’s only $10 with no risk. Plus, I really want your feedback. And I want to do a case study on you and how you turned your desire to be an entrepreneur into a successful business.

So click here to check out Entrepreneurship for Noobees for $10 during this introductory release.

Before starting, you need to find out if there’s anyone out there that really wants to buy what you’re selling.

As I mentioned in a prior post, it’s important that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that people want to buy what you think you want to sell.

This video talks about how important it is to build up trust first. I like his point about thinking about what other people want rather than what you think you want to sell them.

At this point, some people bring up Steve Jobs. Yes, he was a brilliant marketer who could create want and need. But let’s think back to 1976 when the first Apple I was invented. There was a small market for home computers that Radio Shack (TRS-80) and Commodore (Pet) were moving into.

The Steves also lived in Silicon Valley where nerds were building their own computers. They were able to create one that was friendly looking and worked well. And thus, they sold into an existing market.

Brand Expansion

In the early 1980’s, Steve Jobs visited Xerox Park in Menlo Park and saw a computer with a guided user interface (GUI) and a mouse. He saw the need for a friendlier computer for the masses. Kids were using computers in schools. People were using computers in their offices. It was a natural progression to making a computer for the home.

Steve Jobs kept pushing the envelope, and people responded well to it. It wasn’t always that way.

Start Simply

When you’re starting out, look for something that people will buy. You’re better off selling them things similar to what they are already buying.

My favorite T Harv Eker example is that the best person to buy a hamburger is someone who has already bought one. They know they like them and will want another.

Competition is Your Friend

There are some markets that are really difficult to break into. I won’t pretend there aren’t. But that’s where differentiation is your friend.

USPS used to have the lock on delivering packages. Then along came FedEx and UPS. But it didn’t end there, did it? You’ve probably seen DHL. They specialize in businesses. FedEx differentiated themselves by being the first company that would promise and guarantee overnight delivery.

Think how many pizza parlors, coffee stores and hair salons are in your town. For each of them to survive, they’ve had to craft a way of being different. One pizza parlor caters to kids’ sports teams.  Another has a play structure for little kids.

What problem are you solving, and how do you do it differently than others?

Competitor to Collaborator

If you want even more money coming in, find someone you think is a competitor. Then find ways where you collaborate. I’ve seen plumbers do this. One specializes in repiping homes. Another specializes in repairing leaks. They refer clients to one another, and get to focus on what they do best.

Where can you do this in your business?

Do you think you have to be on the bleeding edge of every marketing tactic? If so, you’re probably suffering from head explosions. I’m talking overwhelm.  Information overload.

You’re looking at trying to juggle Pinterest with Instagram and Facebook with Twitter. And is Tumblr still relevant?

And blogging and vlogging and YouTube and Facebook Live. And what about Snapchat.

What’s a marketer to do?

Review Your Marketing Plan

You should have already crafted a plan that details who you’re marketing to and how you’re marketing to them.

People over a certain age are probably using tablets and sharing information on Facebook. And they’re probably not on Instagram or Snapchat.

Some are. I’m not trying to clump everyone together. The key is to identify generally where your ideal target audience hangs out. Would you rather be fishing in an ocean or a bucket?

Have a Content Calendar

Know in advance what you’re going to post and when. It can be monthly or weekly. For example, I have a website CookYourselfThin. My target audience is women 35-55 who want to eat better so they can lose weight. But they think healthy cooking takes too long.

I use a weekly content calendar.

• Monday – Lighten a Classic Dish
• Tuesday – Substitutions
• Wednesday – One Ingredient Focus
• Thursday – A Quick to Make Meal
• Friday – Restaurant Quality Dish or Meal
• Saturday – Healthy Habit
• Sunday – Kitchen Skill or Small Appliance or Tool

This allows me to go in and find my content with a focus. I’ll be releasing an ebook soon on Focused Facebook Ads that will show you how I drive traffic that converts.

Outsource or Batch Create

For this site and others, I’ll find themes and write about four or five blog posts based on that theme. Then I schedule it over the next few weeks or months. It works with the content calendar.

But the bottom line is that if you’re going to research one topic, you may as well write a few articles on it while the information is still fresh in your head.

Repurpose Content

Have you written an ebook? Created some videos? Wrote a bunch of good blogs? Re-use that content. The ebook could be turned into a series of videos. The videos could be turned into blog posts. The series of blog posts could be turned into an ebook.

Take a quote from one bit of your content and attach it to a vivid stock image in Canva. Then post that on the image based sites along with a call to action to click through to read more.

That’s it for now. I’ll write more tips in a future post. (maybe I’m writing it now and scheduling it…maybe I’m not…but what do you think?)

Every year, we set new resolutions. Or maybe we set the same ones year after year. We resolve to do more of the right things and less of the wrong things. Then we try to apply this to our business. We resolve to go to more networking meetings. Get more clients. Finish more articles.

But it’s not going to work just like it doesn’t work with us.  After 21 days, something comes up, or we get distracted. Or it feels like work.

Yup. The time when we have to dig in and actually make an effort is when we give up. Then we’ve broken our resolutions and say it didn’t matter anyway.

There is a better way.

Set Intentions For the Year

The problem when we set the resolutions is we’re not really looking at the whole picture.

Look at your goals. Are they achievable in one year? And it’s ok if it’s a stretch. But if you’re only earning $1500/month right now, you’re probably not going to get to $150,000/month by July.  (Well, hey, maybe you could. If so, tell me how you did it. I’m always open to learning and encouraging).

Brian Tracy taught that we would often set ourselves up for failure if our goals were too big because our brains wouldn’t really believe we could achieve it. Enter our friend self-sabotage.

So what I do is I look at doubling my monthly income and then work backwards to identify tasks that will take me down that path to achievement.

Break It Into Achievable Chunks

Often our task list is taller than we are. In my case, it used to be twice my height. I always said I was 5’3″ but the truth is I am 5’2 3/4″  Shh. Don’t tell the Department of Motor Vehicles.

T. Harv Eker recommends having tasks take no more than 30 minutes of your time. And don’t set more than three at a time to achieve.

Now, obviously this can’t be for every task, can it?  Actually it can.  I’ll set a task to spend 30 minutes working on Chapter 4 of my latest ebook. That allows me to feel comfortable that I’m not going to have to work on the whole ebook. I just have one small chapter or section.

Chances are good that once I’m in there, I get into the flow and end up spending a lot more than 30 minutes writing. But I’ve tricked myself to get out of my own fear.

Success Builds Momentum

At the end of the day, make sure you write down your successes. When you see how far you’re moving towards your intended goal, you will get more enthusiastic and get more ideas.

Now is where you need to be careful. Always keep some kind of method to capture ideas. I use Evernote.

Often, you’ll be working hard and feeling great when an idea pops into your head. You need to capture that idea and promise your brain that you will get to it when you’re done with this task.  That is the only way to shut your brain up.

For a minute.  Sometimes, though, my brain takes that as an opportunity to give me a laundry list. I just thank the brain, write down all the thoughts, and then say “Back to work.”

Nothing feels better than success.  Even if it’s a smaller goal. But let’s be honest…would you rather achieve a smaller goal or never achieve a bigger goal?

Leave your thoughts in the comments. I am interested in what you think.