Office Organization Success with Tracey Lawton

Info Product Creation: How To Create Your FIRST Info Product in 7 Easy Steps

by Tracey on March 8, 2010

in Articles for Reprint, Online Marketing

Once you’ve mastered your online marketing system and you’re growing your list on a daily basis, this is a good time to then set about creating additional offerings for your subscribers. This is where you start to look at your Product & Marketing Funnel and see where the gaps are and where new products can fit.

If you’re like most solo service professionals you’ll have something at the top (i.e. the widest part) of your funnel, which is usually your free taste, and then you’ll have something at the bottom (i.e. the narrowest part) of your funnel, which is usually your most expensive one-on-one services, but you won’t have anything in-between.

This is where you need to create products at different price points so that your clients and customers can experience your services and expertise without having to invest in your top (most expensive) service, but they want more than you are offering at the ‘free’ level.

A great first info product to create is one that sits at the second level within your Product & Marketing Funnel; somewhere between $1 and $50.

So, here is the step-by-step guide on how to create that all-important first paid offering.

Step 1 Host a Free Teleclass

Not only is this a great way to build your list, but it also exposes your audience to your expertise. You get to interact with your target market via the teleclass and they are able to ask you questions right there on the call.

Step 2 Record Your Teleclass

In addition to this being a great incentive to getting more sign-ups (if a registrant is not able to make it to the live teleclass they know that they’ll be able to get hold of the information afterwards via the recording), but this is where you’ll turn your free teleclass into your first paid info product.

Step 3 Create an Accompanying Guide or Special Report

Using the notes you prepared for your teleclass, turn these into a guide to accompany your teleclass. Or turn your notes into a special report and sell the report as the paid product and offer the teleclass recording as a bonus.

Step 4 Create a Workbook

If you also provided instructions or how-to information as part of your free teleclass, take that information and create an additional workbook. A workbook is a simple document that will allow your customer/client to make notes, write down their ideas, or plan out how they’re going to implement the how-to information that you shared with them on the teleclass.

Step 5 Bundle It All Together

Now that you have your teleclass recording, and you’ve created an accompanying guide/ebook and/or workbook, bundle all this information together to offer as a paid product at the second level within your funnel i.e. between the $1 and $50 price range.

Step 6 Create a Sales Page and Shopping Cart Link

You now need to create a sales page for your product, and associated shopping cart link. It is also a great customer service feature to create an autoresponder so that you can follow-up with your customers to check that they are happy with their purchase and are implementing the information you shared with them.

Step 7 Promote to Your List

Once you have your product all set up (Step 5), and created the sales page (Step 6) it’s time to promote it to your list and make sales! This is the exciting part! Include some teaser information in your newsletter leading up to the launch of your product, and once you’re ready to take sales send a solo mailing announcing the launch of your product. A solo mailing is much more effective than including the announcement as part of your regular newsletter.

After the initial launch continue to promote your product through your newsletter; promote it on your blog; and tell all your social networks about your product.

About the author: Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches professional speakers, coaches, and authors how to create the essential online marketing and office organization systems needed to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how YOU can create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com

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Quick Tip… Tidy Up Your PC Files

by Tracey on March 6, 2010

in Streamline Your Systems

Just this week I found one of my client’s folders had become a little full and it was taking me longer than ususal to find the document(s) I needed – simply because there were so many in the folder.

So I created a new Archive folder to store all the old documents – I didn’t want to delete them. Here’s the steps I took:

In Windows Explorer…

Go to File -> New Folder
Call your new folder Archive
Now go along to the top of the folder bar where it gives you the column names: Name, Size, Type, Date Modified etc. Click on Date Modified. You’ll see an arrow appear in that column next to Date Modified. The arrow should be pointing upwards. This means that your files are now sorted with the oldest one being at the top.
Simply scan through this list selecting all the folders that are older than a certain date (in my case I selected all my 2009 files). Hint: Hold down the shift key as you’re selecting your files so that you can select multiple files.
Go to Edit -> Cut (your selected files will now be greyed out).
Select your Archives folder; double-click to open it.
Go to Edit -> Paste

Your old files have now been moved into your Archives folder, leaving your main folder clutter free!

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3 Easy Tips for Keeping Your Client Information Organized

by Tracey on February 26, 2010

in Articles for Reprint, Streamline Your Systems

For many solopreneurs a large part of their business is working one-on-one with clients, and that means having a way of keeping all of their client information organized and easy to access.

In this article I’m going to share with you my top three tips for keeping everything together, so that you can easily access your client information and know exactly where your clients are in your programs.

1. Physical: Create a Client Contact Sheet

For most business owners there will be a physical client file that you’ll need to create. One of the simplest ways of creating this file is by using a manila file folder in which you simply drop your paperwork into. This file will contain things like the agreement form from your client, assessment forms, or details of any projects that you’ll be working on.

Creating a Client Contact Sheet which contains your client’s name, address, email, phone, fax and any other contact information that you want to keep a record of is a useful template to have. You simply print it out and fill it in each time you take on new client.

Once you’ve printed out the Client Contact sheet, staple it to the inside left cover of your client folder. This way whenever you need to access your client’s information you just flip open the file and the information is right there.

I’ve been keeping a track of my client’s contact information in this way for several years, and find it very handy – more so than storing the data electronically (which I also do). It’s so much easier to grab the file, flip it open and find the information I need straightaway than it is to open the software, locate the client record and find the information – that’s assuming the PC is turned on and I don’t have to wait for it to boot up!

2. Digital: Create Client Folders

As the majority of your communication is probably done via email with documents going back and forth, you’ll also want to create an individual client folder on your PC. It may not be necessary to print out everything your clients send you, but you do need to store the information so that’s it easy for you to find.

A couple of places where you’ll want to create individual clients folders are:

In your email program. For each of my clients I have created their own email folder so that any emails that are sent to/from my client goes into their individual email folder. This allows me to keep track of our communications easily, rather than having to sift through hundreds of emails that come into my Inbox each day.

Tip: In Outlook you can also set up rules so that email is automatically filtered into the appropriate client email folder – saving heaps of time!

In your main client folder. I’m a big believer in creating main/sub folders for managing my filing system – both for paper-based and PC files. (If you’ve been a member of my Easy Office Organization program you know that I tell you step-by-step how to do this.) So if I have a main Clients folder then within the main folder I will create individual client folders. I then use this folder for storing all the documents that I send and receive from my clients. Again having everything in one place makes for quick and easy access.

Tip: In Windows you can change the icon of individual folders so if you’re more of a visual person you can have different icons for different clients.

3. All Clients: Client Tracking Spreadsheet

Once you have your physical and digital individual client files created, you’ll want to think about utilizing a client tracking spreadsheet. If you are a coach or other service professional chances are your core programs are working one-on-one with clients during sessions (phone or in-person) so it makes sense for you have a system for tracking where your clients are in their programs.

In the beginning stages of your business it may be easy for you to keep tabs on just a few clients, but as your business grows and you’re working with more and more clients, you will quickly find yourself overwhelmed if you don’t have some kind of tracking system in place.

If your clients book a certain number of sessions with you creating a simple spreadsheet that has your client’s names in the left-hand column, and a column along the top for each session will allow you to easily see how many sessions they have already booked and how many sessions they have left.

By setting up a client tracking spreadsheet that shows you at a glance exactly where your clients are in your programs will give you a ‘big picture’ view of your business.

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Creating Your Online Marketing Flow in 3 Simple Steps

by Tracey on February 15, 2010

in Articles for Reprint, Online Marketing

Many business owners make the mistake of picking one or two online marketing strategies, trying them for a couple of weeks, deciding that they don’t work because they’re not bringing in new subscribers, and then moving on to the next hot online marketing strategy that they’ve heard about.

Don’t make this same mistake!

There are many, many, different online marketing strategies you can implement to grow your business and attract new subscribers to your list, but the key to making any of them work is consistency and persistence. It simply isn’t good enough to try one for a short time, decide it’s not working, and then move on to the next.

You won’t see the results you’re hoping for.

This is exactly what I’ve seen some of my clients do. They come to me because they’re struggling to attract new subscribers and want me to put in place a system for growing their list. They say they’ve tried article marketing, blogging, social networking, or one of the many other strategies, and none of them are working. The problem is they’re not giving them time, and they haven’t got their system set up so that their marketing plan flows.

Here is my three-step system for creating an online marketing system that flows, grows your list, and turns your prospects into paying clients.

Step One – drive traffic to your website.

In this step you will apply techniques such as article marketing, blogging, social networking, podcasting, hosting teleclasses, or any other technique and drive traffic back to your website. They key here is to be effective in your technique so that your target market knows that you are the person to help them solve their problem.

Pick three of the online marketing techniques that are most suited to you and your business and be consistent with them. Work at them on a weekly basis over a three-month period before deciding whether they’re working or not. Don’t just try it for a week … and then decide you’re not seeing results. You need to give it time.

At the end of the three-month period analyze your results to see which strategies were the most effective. Continue with the ones that are working, and then look at implementing a new technique to add to your online marketing toolkit.

Step Two – have a way to capture visitors to your website.

Now that you’ve decided on two or three techniques for driving traffic to your website you need to have a way for capturing visitors to your website, and getting them on your list.

To do this you will need to have a sign-up box on every page of your website, and offer a free taste, i.e. a report, audio, ecourse, tip sheet etc. that you can give your visitor in exchange for them giving you their name and email address.

And, most importantly, you need to make this process automated!

To do that you need to be using a list management service. The more popular ones amongst solopreneurs are:

1ShoppingCart
Aweber
Constant Contact
iContact

Although there are many to choose from. By utilizing one of these services you will be able to add a customized sign-up box to your website, and visitors signing up to your list will automatically be added to your database, which is hosted with your list management service.

Don’t let visitors leave your website without giving you their information – otherwise you’ll have lost them for good and all your hard work implementing your techniques will have been in vain.

Step Three – stay in touch with the people on your list and turn them into paying clients.

Now that you’ve got your website visitors to sign up to your list it’s crucial that you have a plan in place for staying in touch with them. The absolute best way of doing this is through publishing a regular newsletter (or ezine).

A basic format for your newsletter should look something like:

A personal note from you
Promotion of a product/event
Feature article (the main part of your newsletter)
About you section
You Recommend Section and/or Market Place

A general rule of thumb is that your newsletter should follow the 80/20 guide, i.e. 80% should be useful content, and 20% promotion of your product/service/program.

Send your newsletter out on a regular basis in order to stay in touch with your list and turn your prospects into paying clients.

By following the three steps outlined above you will create a marketing plan that constantly brings in new subscribers, and turns those subscribers into paying clients.

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Create Joint Venture ‘Giveaways’ to Boost Your List

by Tracey on February 1, 2010

in Articles for Reprint, Online Marketing

One of the best ways you can give your list building efforts a HUGE boost is to partner with other solopreneurs to create a giveaway event … also known as a joint venture (JV). If done right this strategy can literally add hundreds of new subscribers to your list in a very short period of time. I’ve been involved in this strategy a number of times over the years and have welcomed several hundred new subscribers into my community in a matter of days. The latest joint venture I participated in added 115 new subscribers in just ONE day.

Today I’d like to share with you my all-time favorite type of joint venture – the giveaway event.

What is a giveaway event?

Well, simply put it’s where a group of business owners who all share the same target market, but who all offer complimentary services, come together and ‘give away’ some of their best stuff – there aren’t any teleclasses to host/co-host or affiliate links to mess with – it’s just simply a giveaway. How it works is that one person leads on organizing the event and creates an event page. The other partners all promote the event to their individual lists and networks and point their networks to this event page where the visitor will see a selection of free giveaways which they can sign up to receive.

Let’s just do the math on this, so you can see exactly how effective this strategy is. For example:

If you collaborate with five other joint venture partners, and you each have a list size of 500 subscribers (we’ll keep it simple), that’s a potential target audience of 3,000 – how quickly could you reach that number of people on your own?

Now, supposing each partner’s list size was 1,000 – that’s a potential target audience of 6,000.

Do you see why I like this strategy so much?

Today I’d like to share with you the key steps for creating your own joint venture giveaway event so that you can welcome lots of new subscribers to your community.

1. Plan the Event. Decide on a timeframe for your event. When will it take place? How long will it last? What is the theme of the JV event? For example, is it a New Year giveaway.

2. Create the Web Page. If you’re the organizer you’re going to need to create a web page for it so that you have somewhere for your JV partners to send their networks to. You can either create a page that has the free giveaways listed right there and the visitors simply sign up for the ones they want; or you can require that they first leave their name/email address (which gets added to your database) in order to access the free giveaway materials. If you choose the latter make sure you specify on the event page exactly what a visitor can get access to once they give you their details.

3. Invite JV Partners. Create a list of JV partners. Who do you know who would want to partner with you on this event? Do they already have established lists?

4. Prepare the Promotional Materials. As the JV organizer you are going to have to prepare the emails/promotional material for your JV partners to send out to their lists. You are more likely to create a successful event if you do everything for your JV partners so all they really have to do is copy and paste the promotional information and send it to their lists.

5. Launch the Joint Venture. You’re now ready to go! Simply inform your JV partners the event is now live, and ask them to send out the promotional mailings to their lists. Watch your own list grow!

6. Solicit Feedback. Once the event is over, contact your JV partners and ask them how the event went for them. What worked well? How much did their lists grow by? What could be done better next time?

Now that you’ve successfully created and launched your own joint venture giveaway event, you want to make sure that you add this to your regular list building strategies. Make it an annual event and, not only will you be building your own list, but you’ll be making excellent contacts for future collaborations too.

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It’s a one-of-a-kind event … yet couldn’t be more timely!

Products and Events January 26, 2010

Whether you admit it or not, the word resolution goes hand in hand with the start of a new year. Whether you make your resolutions in the form of business goals and priorities, or actual resolutions …. By mid to late January, you’re likely tired of forcing yourself to follow-through on what you set out [...]

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5 Ways to Significantly Increase Attendance of Your Free Teleclass

Articles for Reprint January 22, 2010

Hosting a free teleclass is one of my favorite ways to increase my subscriber base as well as get to know members of my community. Setting up your teleclass is relatively straightforward too – all you need is a:

Registration page
Teleconference bridge line
Follow-up system usually via an autoresponder

And you’re good to go. And hosting a free [...]

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3 Easy Steps to Creating Your First Info Product

Products and Events January 20, 2010

Join me…
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
1:00 pm Eastern/NY
If one of your goals in 2010 is to create an info product and have it available FOR SALE on YOUR website or blog, but you don’t know how to get started with creating your product, then I know you’ll want to be on this call with me.
On this [...]

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3 Basic Steps to Business Planning Success

Business Development January 18, 2010

There comes a point in every solopreneur’s business where they need to sit down and plan … and I mean, really plan! Not just write down a few ideas on the back of an envelope and hope for the best, but really map out a long-term strategic plan for their business.
Creating this kind of business [...]

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