Take this into your heart… the specific transformation you provide to your target audience is highly valuable. If you aren’t certain about this now, do whatever it takes to raise your certainty. Align your offers with topics your target audience is hungry to learn more about. Your enthusiasm is infectious.

Then, as you’re promoting your next free preview event — a teleseminar, webinar or series of videos to enroll your tribe into your paid program — shout it from the mountaintops! Don’t deprive anyone of the chance to get in on what you’re offering.

Why use a series of different emails instead of just one? Diversity in your subject lines and message allows different people to hear your message in a way and at a pace that lands best with each person in your tribe. I covered three key reasons why email series work better than a single email in the last post – Are You Afraid to Promote Your Offers in a Big Way?

Build the Relationship First

These promotional email tips assume you have a leads list and you’ve been connecting with them through your blog, ezine or other value-based articles regularly. People will only read your promo emails and sign up for your preview events if they recognize you and trust your brand.

A good rule of thumb is to send a minimum of 3 emails to your target audience before the preview event. Supplement with blog posts or ezines on relevant topics during the promotional campaign with a little plug and hot link to the sign up page at the end.

7 – 10 Days Before Your Preview Event — Send one email with a very compelling subject line that emphasizes a pain point or key benefit of what they’ll learn in the preview teleseminar. Ask a question or share something they want. So, instead of Free Teleseminar About Social Networking, make it something like: 5 Reasons Why Social Networking Isn’t Working for You… Yet. Include a bulleted list of what they’ll take away from the event that weaves in pain points and benefits relevant to that topic.

3 – 5 Days Before Your Preview Event — Send another email with a different compelling subject line, differently worded key learning points and related benefits.

1 Day or a Few Hours Before Your Preview Event — Send a very short email with a subject line such as: Don’t miss this… or It’s Today…

If you have followers or friends in your target audience on Facebook, LinkedIn and/or Twitter, post a few compelling announcements there with the link to your preview event’s sign up page.

Remind and Inspire Them to Attend

To the people who signed up for the preview event, send a couple more emails:

Reminder 1 Day Before Your Preview Event — Besides repeating the date, time and dial in details, give them something to think about, a bit of prep work, or attach a pdf handout to follow along during the event. Or, tell them about an incentive to attend. Subject line: Reminder tomorrow is… Or, Here’s your handout for tomorrow… Or Attend tomorrow and receive this gift…

Reminder 10 Minutes – 1 Hour Before Your Preview Event — Similar to above. Subject: In just 10 minutes…

Follow Up to Increase Sales and Close Your Promotion

Once the preview event is over, send 2 – 3 more emails only to those that signed up for the preview event. Don’t send these out to your whole list! If they didn’t sign up for the preview event, respect their choice.

Day of or next day after your preview event — Send one email with the link to the replay (mp3, webinar video) of the event and list a few key learning points you covered as well as any Fast Action Bonus information and the link to your paid program sales page. Subject: Your replay of…

24 hours before your Fast Action Bonus ends — Send one email, only to people who signed up for the preview event, letting them know that the bonus is almost over. Offer several benefits to your paid event, critical event details, and the link to that program’s sales page. Subject: Last 24 hours to sweet deal…

24 hours before the final promo day or day before paid program begins — Send one final, short email with a few benefits, the start date of your paid program and the link to sign up. Subject: Last day for…

Promotional Email Writing Tips

The best way to learn how to write promotional emails is to watch what your favorite mentors do. Write conversationally the way you talk, and use “spur of the moment” energy. You’ll get better and better at this!

Your goal is to help your target audience:

• Feel heard and understood by talking about what bothers them the most and how you’ll help them achieve their biggest goals.
• Feel motivated to hear what you have to say, learn from you and engage more deeply with you.
• Feel inspired to share your event with others.

Every email should include the following:

• Sign up link 2 – 3 times.
• Limit exclamation points, colored text and bolding.
• Bullet points, streamlined paragraphs. Be sure that pain points and benefits are rolled into these points.
• Date, time, time zone for the event. Anything else they need to know up front.
• Your call to action – Join us at…. Don’t miss this one time event. Sign up now. Ideally, there’s a different compelling call to action for each time you repeat your link to the sign up page.

Before you QUEUE emails to go out, send a test to yourself or ask your assistant to do this. Read every word out loud. Be sure you’ve included all the critical details correctly. Test each link.

I like to send each email out with intention that it will touch those that are ready to fully engage and transform now, blessing all without attachment to who signs up.

Share your tips, challenges and questions about promotional emails in the comments below. And, set up your next promotion using these tips now! Let me know how it went!

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS ONLINE AT: How to Write a Series of Enthusiastic & Effective Promotional Emails

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Are You Afraid to Promote Your Offers in a Big Way?
• Bite Size Steps for Creating Ace Promotional Copy
• Lightning-Fast Credibility Building with WordPress – by Kenn Schroder
• Ten Handy No-Cost Online Tools for Your Coaching Business
• Write Your Way to Coaching Business Success

Don’t make decisions out of fear.

Have you shied away from sending a series of promotional emails about one of your offers because you’re afraid of bothering people or doing it wrong? Your fear may be sabotaging your desire to be a successful coach.

But, if you’re on the mailing lists of well known thought leaders, you know this… when they promote a few times each year, they really go for it!

You can tell they believe in what they’re offering and they’re not shy about letting you in on it. Everything they do has been planned out well in advance, including a series of emails that point you to a preview of their program through a free teleseminar, webinar, or video series.

It’s highly effective. That’s why they keep doing it despite the fact they have a huge list of raving fans.

It’s all about frequency, diversity and pacing.

Three Smart Reasons to Send a Series of Promotional Emails

1. Frequent invitations build a buzz. With each successive email, excitement builds, and as time goes on, more people want to get in on it. People tweet it, share it on Facebook and forward the email to colleagues. If you’re using promotional partners, the buzz grows louder and reaches more people faster.

2. Different words and phrases resonate with different people. If one email doesn’t strike a chord, another will. That’s why you want to craft each email with a unique perspective rather than repeat the same info over and over. And, when you craft the emails your promotional partners send, you’ll want allow your partners to customize them as an endorsement.

3. Allow people to decide at their own pace. Some people want in as an “early bird” for the best deal, others allow each email to build a case for saying “YES!”, while others may only read your last email and catch the train just before it leaves.

I can’t tell you how often people respond to my fourth or fifth promotional email with: “I just saw this and want in! Is there still room?”

If you only send an email or two, you may never capture the attention of a large percentage of your list. Also, if you send one email a few days before your program starts, you’ve missed the people who don’t open their email regularly. They could on vacation or be focused on family for a few weeks. A longer email campaign accounts for those situations.

And here’s something you know, but might forget… for each email you send out, only a fraction of your list will open it… a fraction of those people will click through… a fraction of those will sign up… a fraction of those will attend, and only some will invest.

• For example, out of a list of 2000, say only 500 open the email.
• Out of that 500, only 100 sign up for your preview.
• Out of that 100, only 50 attend.
• Out of that 50, only 10 invest.

You may have better results than these above, but these are considered average results.

So you see, sending out multiple emails helps you reach more of your 2000 fans. And if you have promotional partners you’ll reach people that aren’t on your list. You partners will send out a couple of emails on your behalf to their lists. Ultimately, that raises the number of people investing in your programs.

What has motivated you to invest in programs? Have you ever enrolled at the last minute?

If you’re worried about losing people off your list – here’s the thing – they were probably never going to play with you anyway. If all they want is your free advice and they can’t tolerate invitations to engage, they won’t be your ideal clients anyway.

Okay… ready to play? Over the last two weeks I’ve covered planning your year, including your promo calendar. Then in the last post I showed you how to do step one for a promotion – create ace copy. Next time I’ll talk about how to create a series of promo emails. This time I wanted to help you get out of your own way about this.

Share in the comments below, your questions, you fears, how you’re overcoming those fears and anything else about multiple emails. Many Blessings!

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS ONLINE AT: Are You Afraid to Promote Your Offers in a Big Way?

RELATED ARTICLES:

• How to Write a Series of Enthusiastic & Effective Promotional Emails
• How One Email Can Make a Big Impact for Your Coaching Business

First, I’d like to normalize this process for you a bit. I know it can feel scary to promote your programs. You might be afraid of irritating the people on your list. You may believe promotion is ugly or at best a necessary evil. Or you may have judgments about your abilities.

Here’s a prosperous reframe: Think of promoting your program as if you’re inviting people to a party where you’ll serve up your very best. You want them to be there and accept your gifts. You’re offering them a meaningful experience. I have 12 little steps to help you create your “invitation”.

To write compelling copy, become crystal clear about what you’re offering, why you’re offering it, why someone would want that, what it will do for them and all the details they’ll need to know to decide.

Guess what? That’s exactly what’s in a sales or landing page. Here we go!

Let’s assume you want to promote an 8-week tele-workshop, that you’ve already designed content for, and it begins (or launches) in twelve weeks. That will give you plenty of time for each little step to design your promotion.

Create Copy for Your Sales Page

1. What outcome or transformation will your program help your target audience achieve? Or, what solution to what specific problem will you provide that they know they urgently want?

2. List specific take-aways participants will get from your program.

3. What are the “pain points” and challenges your target audience faces related to the overarching topic and key takeaways of your program? What are they trying to avoid or get beyond? What mistakes do they keep making? What’s missing for them to get where they want to go? What is it costing them not to have the desired outcome they want right now?

Go deep. Be very specific. Get it down roughly at first. Then, go back and finesse the language so it strikes a resonant chord.

4. If they achieved the outcome your program promises, how would it benefit them? What would it do for them personally, socially, and financially? And what else? How would achieving that outcome help their family, community, and the world? Why is it so important to them?

Go deep. Be very specific. Get it down roughly at first. Then, go back and finesse the language so it strikes a resonant chord.

5. Why should your target audience listen to you? How does your own story relate to this topic in your tele-workshop? Write a brief story about your challenges, how you transcended them, and now have a system or steps or insights for others. Finesse that story. Be sure to relate it to your target audience. Weave in client success stories.

6. What are the specific details of your program? What are the dates/times of the sessions, what time zone, and how long? Will they get mp3 recordings, notes, transcripts, exercises, private support, and Q&A sessions? As you list features, add in benefits of the features. For example: You’ll get: mp3 recordings of each session so you won’t miss a thing. Plus pinpointed exercises to help you immediately implement what you’ve just learned.

7. How will your program be priced? What is the regular price, early bird price, and if you’re going to use promotional partners, the partner price for your program? Will you offer payment plans? (Incentivize single payments; make a bit of money on payment plans to cover admin and credit card charges.)

8. Will you offer a guarantee and what are the terms? It’s a good idea to offer one. Look at other programs similar to yours to see what they are doing.

9. Craft a snappy outcome-based title for your program and a few juicy headlines. Look at other programs you’ve enrolled in for models.

10. Hire a designer to create a small “thumbnail” graphic to advertise your program on your website, in emails, on social media etc.

11. Now pull all this together to write copy for your landing or sales page. Look at sales pages for programs you’ve invested in and follow that model. You can create a vertical sales page with sections to read or a “horizontal” sales page in a video. You’ll want to still include some details in written form below the video.

12. Put your sales page on line. Use a web designer to do this for you, or use a great creation software called http://optimizepress.com

Let me know your thoughts about this in the comment section below. I’ll get into other details for your promotional plans in the weeks to come!

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS ONLINE AT: Bite Size Steps for Creating Ace Promotional Copy

RELATED ARTICLES:

• How to Write a Series of Enthusiastic & Effective Promotional Emails
• 7 Steps to Your Own Coaching Products, Part 3
• 7 Steps to Your Own Coaching Products, Part 2
• 7 Steps to Your Own Coaching Products, Part 1

One key to growing a big list fast is to make sure your opt-in form is very prominent and very easy to use.

Many coaching websites tend to, with very low effectiveness, place the opt-in box low on the home page or buried within the site. This is not ideal for building a list.

Enter AWeber’s “light-box” style opt-in form.

In addition to being a sweet email list management service with great support, AWeber has a very nice form generator tool that enables you to create your opt-in forms.

One such form is the “light-box”.

The light-box form is a pop-up box that “grays out” your website into the background so that the sign-up form is front and center.

Here’s a screenshot of my website with the light-box form activated.

Do you see how the background is grayed out and the invitation for the sign-up box is front and center?

Do you see how there’s a handy “X” in the upper right that people can click if they’re not interested?

Three reasons why it’s sweet

1 – It’s easy to implement. AWeber gives you a form generator where you can choose templates or create your own if you’re tech savvy.

If you’ve got a web designer on hand, he/she can easily customize a form with graphics to match the style of your site and highlight your free giveaway. 

Once designed, it’s simply a copy and paste of a short block of JavaScript code into your site and you’re off and running. Have your web guy or gal do it – and remember to test it out by subscribing.

2 – It’s smooth.

The word pop-up might seem like a cuss word these days but this light-box style of popping up is very agreeable with users because it can be set to pop-up once per day and it can pop-up with a delay of 20 seconds so as to not interrupt the visitor too much.

Basically, experiencing a light-box popping up is like meeting someone new at Starbucks who happens to have a lot in common with you and the idea pops up, “Hey, we should stay in touch” and you quickly grab their email address and then resume your conversation.

It’s smooth, unobtrusive, and respects your visitor’s attention.

3. It increases opt-ins.

Reports from many websites claim a significant increase in opt-in rates. And it’s quite obvious when you experience it.

The only way to confirm that a light-box is worthwhile is for you is to test it out. Determine your opt-in rate before installing the light-box and then after for a fixed period, a week or a month and compare the results.

In summary

If list-building is important for your business growth, if you’re using AWeber, and you’ve got value to offer ongoing to your market, then adding the light-box to increase sign-up form is must.

Kenn Schroder, coaching website specialist, helps coaches build client-attracting websites. Get a free copy of his report, 5 Website Strategies for Attracting Coaching Clients at http://www.CoachingSitesThatWork.com.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS ONLINE AT: Build Your Coaching Client List Faster with This Simple Tool – by Kenn Schroder

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Does Your Coaching Website Have the 3 Client-Winning Keys?
• The Best Low Cost Method to Build Trust with Your Tribe (& Build Your List & Income Too)
• Sky-Rocket Your Client Load – by Christian Mickelson
• Lightning-Fast Credibility Building with WordPress – by Kenn Schroder
• Social Networking Tools for Coaches – by Lara Galloway

Whoosh! As soon as I aligned my website so that it spoke to the people I was serving, my list built exponentially and so did my income.

I often hear from coaches that their website’s just sitting there, doing nothing for them and they don’t know why. Many say they don’t really know what’s on their site without looking.

Sound familiar? If that’s you, I understand because once upon a time I put my website in the hands of my web designer, let go and hoped for the best. I truly thought that I could set it and forget it. Wrong. A website is a living thing.

If you get clients primarily from the Internet, as I do – or if you’d like to, it’s critical that your website is the HUB of your business.

Now, I have a blog for my main website. With all the fresh content and social network plug-ins, it’s a happy command center for my business. Most everything I do, plus all the clients and joint venture offers I attract, come and go from that hub. It’s like a busy airport and I’m really proud of it. (My site won the Best Coaching Blogs contest in 2010 and received Runner-Up honors this year, as well.)

There are three “secret” ingredients every website must have going for it to be a client winning site, one that:

• Showcases your brand and specialties.
• Inspires engagement with your freebie and offers.
• Creates an online community of fans who refer others.
• Increases your list daily with people who truly want to hear from you.
• Fills your group programs and brings you new clients even while you sleep.

Try this quick test…

Pull up your website right now and do your best to answer these questions from the perspective of your target audience.

1. Will new web visitors, that you’ve never met, immediately know who you serve?
   Within seconds, is it crystal clear by your company name, tagline or position statement, blog titles, product titles — everything… how this website will be beneficial to visitors?
2. Does your freebie and opt-in box draw your eye to it without scrolling?
   Does the title of your freebie make people hungry to grab it right now?
   Are you solving a very specific problem that’s urgent for your niche market?
3. After they sign up is it obvious how to take the next step with you?
   Usually this comes in the form of auto-responders, but your site should also showcase your coaching programs in a way that’s easy to navigate and understand.

We live in an online social networking era. Attention spans are shorter than ever – especially when we’re on the Internet. People want to be seen, heard and understood… before they’ll give you their precious time and attention.

The temptation is to have your coaching website be all about you and coaching. Uh oh… that’s a miss. Guess who will be attracted by that… people who already know, like and trust you and who are already “initiated” into the value of coaching. You need to keep your pipeline full of future clients to have a sustainable biz.

What should your website be about? The home page should speak to the specific people you’re targeting — right where they live — about their biggest challenges, their pain, their hopes and most desired tangible outcomes. It should inspire, motivate, educate them and transform their thinking. It should build your credibility and be the start of a beautiful relationship.

So how’d you do? From the perspective of your target audience is your website rocking it? And what about your metric results… are you getting clients from your site? Is your list building up nicely?

Please join me on Tuesday, August 9 at 1:00pm ET for How to Get More Clients from Your Website and learn about the other things your website needs to have going for it to be a client-winning site.

We’ll look at a few real sites out there – maybe even yours – and see what can be tweaked to bring better results. And I’ll also answer your burning questions.

Grab your seat at this interactive webinar now and then mark your calendar and show up for the fun and eye opening truth about how you can get your website or blog working for you!

Also, please share your comments below. Based on the quick test, what do you think is missing on your site? What shift can you make now? What turns you on about other websites and gets you fully engaged?

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS ONLINE AT: Does Your Coaching Website Have the 3 Client-Winning Keys?

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Build Your Coaching Client List Faster with This Simple Tool – by Kenn Schroder
• Why the Best Website for Your Coaching Business is (Still) a Blog
• The Worst Coaching Website Mistake: Not Knowing Why Your Home Page Exists
• Coaching Website Makeover (Or Startup!)
• What’s Your Coaching Website & Ezine Done for You Lately?

I hope it was within the last week. You may think I’m crazy for saying this (or you may think it’s a no-brainer), but –

Your blog is the perfect place to show a bit of your humanity… to let your tribe in on some of your mistakes, as well as how you overcame them.

There are two BIG reasons why you want to be vulnerable with your tribe:

1. Showing that you’re vulnerable builds trust and understanding. People will like you better and want to connect if they get a sense of who you are under all that “expertise” or skill.
2. Being real is more fun and… well, more real!

When I started writing for coaches in 2001, I had this idea that I needed know more, seem perfect, and be the “wise one”. I wrote a lot of how-to articles full of good stuff, but I missed the opportunity to show more of myself and relate to my audience.

So when I hear coaches say they don’t know enough to serve their niche market, it reminds me of me back then. But that’s just a lie we tell ourselves.

Of course, some of your blog posts will educate the people in your niche market. Some will correct mistakes or take them step-by-step through how to do something. But your tips will land more deeply if you also share how you got there — which is almost always about fumbling into competency, right?

When I launched my blog in 2009, I started following some pro bloggers like David Risley, and I witnessed in his blog posts a kind of take-me-as-I-am transparency that really appealed to me. I noticed his posts attracted lots of comments. And, because he shared those personal details, I saw he was making a really good six-figure income just by blogging and selling a few products. Wow!

So I shifted my approach a little and got better results. And recently, when I switched to providing an intro by email that links to my blog, instead of sharing the whole blog in the email, I opened up even more. And it’s paying off.

Who knew? (You might be saying “Well duh, Rhonda” but really, I’m not the only one this is a new paradigm for.)

This is the age of social networking. This is a time when having more fun and being more real is good business. The goal is to show more of who you are — just a regular Joe or Jill — while you also show your unique style, your extraordinary qualities and know how.

Believe me, you have a great story to tell. Everyone does. And stories rock! So get them into your marketing, your blog… everywhere where you connect with your people.

Tell me what you think about this whole vulnerability thing in the COMMENTS below. If you’re hip to it, thanks for leading the way. If it’s new to you, I double dog dare you to share your vulnerability with your tribe once a week (especially in your blog, if you’ve got one)!

And thanks for sticking with me through all the ways I keep learning to do this better.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS ONLINE AT: Why it Pays to Be Vulnerable in Your Blog

RELATED ARTICLES:

• 5 Ways to Captivate Visitors to Your Coaching Blog
• Why the Best Website for Your Coaching Business is (Still) a Blog
• Easy Ways to Publicize Your Coaching Business Blog, Part 3
• Easy Ways to Publicize Your Coaching Business Blog, Part 1
• Getting Started With Your Coaching Business Blog

Plus, I’m working on a new learning system called Client Winning Websites & Blogs. It’s a step-by-step blueprint (with lots of examples) to launch well, get known and attract fans fast. (Coming soon.)

If you’re using a blog to attract clients, or you would like to be, what exactly do you want your blog to accomplish? For a moment, think about this from an outsider’s perspective.

Every new visitor to your site is deciding, within seconds, whether it’s something they value or not. So if you want your audience to grow, you must captivate them as soon as they arrive on your site.

Are you making sure that when your ideal prospects visit your site, they immediately feel seen, heard and understood by you?

Here are the five most important ways to captivate your audience on your blog:

# 1   Resonate Quickly with Your Target Market

There is a set of cues that in seconds tells your web visitors whether they want to stay on the site or bounce off. As a website owner, your job is to optimize those cues so your ideal clients are attracted to engage with what you’re offering. Blogs have the potential to do this best, because fresh relevant content builds connections with your audience.

These 3 critical cues determine whether visitors stay or bounce. They need to be immediately evident without scrolling when someone arrives on your blog (or any website):

1. WHO is the site for?
2. WHAT will it help them overcome or achieve?
3. HOW can they get free info to learn more?

Have you been on any sites lately where you had to scroll around to decide whether it was relevant to you? I have. And those sites lose me fast. I have a short attention span on the web – like most people.

Whenever you write a post or change anything on your site, think it through from the perspective of a first time visitor. There may be good reasons for everything you want to do, but what really counts is how it will impact your audience.

To entice your ideal prospects to stay on your site and take a next step with you, make sure the 3 critical cues are obvious at a glance in all these elements of your site:

• What you call your blog and business
• What you call yourself (your title)
• The unique benefit statement or tag line in your header
• The topics or categories of your blog
• The titles of your blog posts

#2   Prioritize Opt-ins

The first thing you want first time web visitors to do is subscribe for your blog (or ezine) so you can connect with them again. If they leave your site before opting in, they’re likely to never come back and you won’t even know they were there.

Give them something they really want immediately in exchange for their name and email address.

Is your freebie and opt-in box obvious on your website without scrolling, and is it about something your audience is truly hungry to learn?

#3   Post Consistently

Nothing turns off blog subscribers like inconsistent or infrequent posting. It’s very telling if there’s not a recent post within two weeks. Blogs die quickly if they aren’t freshened regularly. So get a rhythm and stick with it. I recommend at least one post a week.

#4   Make Posts Easy to Consume

Readability is key. Include an interesting and relevant image with each post. Use subheads (with keywords) and bolded phrases or sentences. Write in conversational language in short paragraphs, and include bullet points and numbered lists. Use humor and/or shock factors occasionally. Add in video or audio.

#5   Encourage Commenting

If you want to build your list, engage your audience, and build a community of trust – encourage commenting by:

• Inviting comments in every blog post.
• Responding to comments, authentically and quickly.
• Inviting your subscribers to your site to read each post.

And take the time to add pithy, useful comments to other blogs for your target market or niche specialty. This builds relationships, it can drive traffic to your site, and it’s good karma!

I’ve made all the classic mistakes on my blog. Fortunately, I am blessed with kind readers who clue me in whenever I miss the mark. I’ve also made vast improvements on my site by continually studying what makes blogs and static websites work.

Help me and your colleagues out by sharing your blog strategies, insights and challenges in the comments. Let’s build up this list of ways to captivate an audience together. Because you know, with outside perspective we can all grow faster.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS ONLINE AT: 5 Ways to Captivate Visitors to Your Coaching Blog

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Why the Best Website for Your Coaching Business is (Still) a Blog
• Easy Ways to Publicize Your Coaching Business Blog, Part 3
• Easy Ways to Publicize Your Coaching Business Blog, Part 2
• Easy Ways to Publicize Your Coaching Business Blog, Part 1
• Getting Started With Your Coaching Business Blog