Authentic email marketing and newsletters is the greatest way to communicate with new prospects, and existing clients.   It will also allow your clients to market your services for you by forwarding your email or newsletter to their friends.  Your email list is your greatest asset and you can use it to generate income by sending great relevant income and offers to your list.

Here are three reasons you should continue sending great relevant content via your newsletter and email to your prospects and clients.

1. staying in touch with your existing list and communicating with prospects

Email marketing and newsletter will help you to stay in touch with your new prospects and clients.  You get to educate them about your services and send information and new offers.  With regular communication and great relevant and exciting information you can stay fresh in their mind.

2. Sending great relevant information

Prospects and clients are looking for great information and solutions.  Hence, they value quality over quantity.  You just realize that their time is valuable.  So, you must send great information.  It is OK to give an offer but keep in mind that the point of sending newsletter is to keep them engage and bring them back to your website.  This is how you are building a relationship with your clients.

3. Building relationship and trust

What do your prospects and clients want?  You must know the answer and cater to their needs.  That is called proving relevant information.  We are busy as it is and no one appreciate sales letters when they are looking for something completely different.  Consider how your products or services could help your clients, then inform them about the ways that you can be assisting them.  explore each one and dig for interesting and relevant information that would help your clients.

For more information about newsletter and newsletter articles check here.

1. Go back to the basics and reconnect with your purpose and passion

Most coaches and heart-centered professionals are passionate about what they are doing.  They wanted to start their business and serve people.  However some ignore their passion and purpose in the process of creating their business.  This is normal and happens to so many of us.  We get lost in doing and forget our bigger purpose.  Here is how you can deal with this challenge.  Write a personal contract and plan to evaluate your progress and alignments once a month.

2. Monitoring your mindset and energy

The biggest challenge for coaches, consultants and service professionals is their mindset.   Most of us work alone and we deal with so many different tasks, challenges, and opportunities.  We tend to work too hard.  Most of us don’t want to ask for help.  We want to do it all on our own.  We are under so much pressure to perform.  So many of us burn out after some time and our energy starts to go down.  We stop following our plans and sabotaging ourselves.  Learn to ask for help.  Delegate what you can.  You are not here to do it all alone.  You are not alone.  If you are sharing your gift with others, then you must also allow others to share their gift with you.

3. Create a plan and take action

Most coaches, consultants, and service professionals don’t have a marketing plan.  We all know planning is important and we may have done some planning at the beginning of our business.  However, we stop following our plans and start reacting to urgent tasks.  Instead, we must focus on our plan.  Reacting to events and situations will never take us forward toward our goals.  You will never reach your destination if you don’t know where you are going and how you are planning to get there.  Planning is important and it is even more important to follow the plans and take actions.  Planning is the best way to know where you are and what you need to do next.  Hence, create and adjust your plans at least once a month.

Follow these three tips and stay aligned with your bigger mission.  Ask for help; hire a coach, or a virtual assistant to support you.  There are other professionals that are passionate about doing the things that you don’t want to do.  Share the wealth and collaborate with them.  Your purpose and passion is to share your gift and help others, it is not to do it all!

True success begins with self-mastery and being who we are! While becoming a master in our field requires a lot of effort, being who we are is effortless!  Ironically, we exert more effort trying to be something or someone else rather than being who we are!

We are all unique and perfect in our own way, and we all have a unique gift to offer to the world.  Self-mastery begins by tapping into our core, discovering our true gift, and sharing it with the world.

Here is how we can achieve self-mastery:

1. Understanding that we all have a unique gift to offer to the world
2. Discovering our true authentic self
3. Authentically and fully expressing and sharing our gift with the world
4. Detaching from the outcome

Self-mastery is about knowing and being who you really are and fully expressing that in what you do. There is no need to control anything or anyone.  Self-mastery means living with a higher energy and attracting abundance, joy, and opportunities into your life.  It is not about what you do or how you do it.  It is the knowing that reflects in whatever you do.

Self-mastery is about you and the gift that you have to offer to the world. Hence, there is no need to become like someone else. Instead, be who you are and find out what you really want.  You will attract your ideal clients and opportunities when you are truly authentic and sharing your gift with the world.

Throughout our life, we construct certain tendencies based on our thoughts, beliefs and perceptions.  These tendencies may support us at times; however, they may also limit our progress in business and affect our personal life.  Personal Energy assessment (ELI) is a unique approach for discovering the beliefs and perceptions we have picked up over the years.   ELI process assists us in becoming more conscious about how these default tendencies, habits, and reactions have guided and shaped our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and affected our results.  Here is how you can learn more and take a Personal Energy Assessment.

E-zines, Newsletters, and email marketing is a great strategy to market your services and help coaches, consultants, and professionals to easily do the following:

1. Communicating and staying in touch with prospects and clients with minimal cost
2. Sending updates and promotional information
3. Building loyalty and credibility
4. Enabling to share your information with friends
5. Creating curiosity and interest to visit your Website again
6. Connecting with new prospects visiting your website and Capturing new email addresses
7. Developing fans by sending relevant content
8. Getting market information through polls and surveys
9. Providing free and relevant content for your website and search engines

Creating content for your newsletter, building lists, creating opt-in form, and using an email marketing tool are confusing for some professionals, coaches, and consultants.  However, you can either hire help to set-up your system or start small and develop your skills as you move forward.  In the beginning, it is better to get help for setting up your email marketing tool such as Mailchimp, Aweber, or Constant Contact.  Most email marketing tools are free or as low as a $1 to get started.  Also, they provide a lot of training.

Writing and content creation is another challenge for most Professionals and coaches. You will get better at writing by taking a class and practicing.  Nevertheless, you can start by writing short blogs or hiring a ghost writer to assist you.  Also, you can purchase Ready to go e-zine articles for your newsletter.

Ultimately, you will have enough content to use and recycle for your blogs, newsletters, and even creating a book.  Email marketing and newsletters are still the best way to keep in touch with your clients.  Don’t miss this opportunity!

Here is how you can increase your confidence and improve your marketing:

Step one: Why are you in business?

Why are you doing it?  Solo professionals are in business to serve their clients.  Without clients we will be out of business!

Wait…there is another reason that you are in business!  So many other service professionals are in business to server the same clients.  So, why are you doing it?  What is your purpose?  What has motivated you to leave your job and start your business?

Knowing your Why is very important.  Connecting with your “why” is the best way to define your niche and target market.  You must be passionate about what you are doing and why you are doing it.  It is your strong desire and passion that will make everything simpler and motivate you to move forward.

Step two: Clarify and simplify your offering

Do you have an offering?  If not, create an irresistible offer that your clients want and value.

Coaches, consultants, and professionals must be clear about what they are offering and how they are helping their clients.  Your offering must solve your client’s problem.  Also, it has to be easy to understand.

Here are some questions that professionals, coaches, and consultants must consider:

• Can you clearly explain how you are serving your clients and what they gain by working with you?
• How you are solving your client’s problem?
• Ask your clients about your offer, is it what they want?  Do they see what they gain? What can you do to make it clearer?

Step three: Practice, Practice, and Practice!

Stand in front of mirror and talk about your offering.  Explain what you do to yourself!

Assume you are talking to a client and explain what you offer and what they gain from working with you.  Repeat this process until you are feeling comfortable.  You want to feel confident about what you are offering.  The more you practice the more natural you will feel about your offering and what you do.

Step four: Get out there and fully express yourself

You are ready to get out there and fully express yourself now.  Start talking and practicing with people that you know.

Be present and don’t hold back.  Share your passion and why you are doing what you do.  Go to places that your potential clients gather.  Tell your story and share your experiences.

Your story differentiates you from other service professionals.  Some people may not need your services today.  Some may choose to work with others.  However, learn from each experience.  You want to work with your ideal clients.  There are plenty of those people out there and you will find each other as you offer your services and express yourself confidently.

Please contact me if you need help to create your offering

.

Have you subscribed yet?

Marketing planning is important.  How could you get to your destination if you don’t know where you are going and how to get there!

What makes marketing planning difficult is our perception about it.  Most people avoid doing what is hard and confusing.  So let’s make it simple.  Effective marketing starts by creating a simple plan that you can follow consistently.  Here is how you can create a simple marketing plan.

Step one: what do you want to do and why?

Everything starts with thoughts.  You must be clear about what you are doing and why.  Your confusion will stop you from attracting clients.  Also, lack of passion will lead to abandoning your plans as soon as you hit the first bump on the road.

Step two: who are you serving and why?

The next step is to identify your target market and their needs.  You need to know what they really want and need.  Otherwise, you will not be able to attract clients.  No one goes to the dentist unless they are in pain or trying to avoid pain!  Knowing what they need will enable you to align your services to solve their problems.   That is what niche is all about.  Niche is the specific service you provide to your target market.

Step Three: How would they find you?

How will you connect with your clients?  You may have the greatest products and services; however, you will only succeed if you can attract the right clients.    You must connect with your potential clients and tell them how you can solve their problems.  Speaking, networking, social media, and writing are some of the common marketing strategies for service professionals.  Look into what you do best and choose the strategy that is aligned with your strengths.

Step Four: Express yourself fully, monitor often, and remember to have fun!

Now it is time to get out there and share your gift with others.  You must express yourself completely and authentically.  Your clients buy from those they like and trust.

Monitor your efforts and change as needed.  You must be passionate about what you do and who you serve, but detached from how you are reaching out to them.  Stay open to changing your strategies and identifying the ones that really work for you.

Step Five: Constantly improve yourself and get help!

You must improve your skills and knowledge constantly.  Successful solo professionals constantly learn new things.  They internalize what they learn and discover new strategies that work for them.  Most clients come to you to learn from you.  They want to hear your ideas and thoughts.  Therefore, you must constantly learn and improve in your respect field.  Also, you must learn about marketing and how you can run your business more effectively.   Finally, get help! It is impossible to become expert in everything.  There are coaches and consultant who can help you in areas that you need help.

Step Six: listen to your heart and enjoy the process

Always listen to your heart.  You will know what to do. Running a business is tough at times.  It is important to be honest with yourself and follow your heart.  Your emotions tell you everything.  You know when you are afraid and when you are being stubborn.  You know when your ego is talking and when you are on the right track.  Trust yourself and move forward.  Take baby steps and enjoy the ride.  Yes, enjoy the process or find something else that you enjoy more!

How many of your subscribers open the emails you send?

Many coaches and service professionals new to email marketing get discouraged when they look at the measurement called “open rate.” Those who’ve been at it for a while do, too.

Why is only a third of my contact list opening my emails? There must be something wrong. Is it worth all this effort if only a few people are reading what I send?

Before you throw in the towel, I want to let you in on a secret that a lot of folks don’t know:

Your open rate isn’t really your open rate.

As a measurement, the open rate is highly unreliable, imprecise and inadequate.

To show you why that is, I have to explain a little about how open rates are calculated and tracked.

The open rate is actually a ratio calculated as the number of people who opened your email divided by the total number of emails that were successfully delivered to your list.

Email marketing software automatically adds a tiny, invisible image to each email delivered. When this invisible image is called to show up (invisibly) from the server where it lives, that tracks the email as being opened.

But this number is skewed — perhaps significantly — by what are known as “image blockers.” More and more people use web mail providers (such as Gmail or Yahoo) or applications (such as Outlook) that allow users to decide whether to view their emails with the images turned on or off.

When you see things showing up in your email with all the images turned off, that’s what’s happening: you have a setting somewhere that is saying “Ask me first if I want to see images.” Your images are “disabled” until you click to “enable” them. So…

If a person elects not to view images when reading an email, it will NOT count as an open.

Likewise, the people that elect to receive text-only emails from you (if you give them the option of text or HTML), also will not register as an “open.” Some mobile devices only allow emails to be viewed in text form.

Your open rate reporting could actually be off anywhere from 11% to 35%, according to generally accepted metrics in the email marketing world. That’s quite a bit!

So while it may look like nobody is opening them, your emails may actually be doing quite well.

So should you just ignore open rates then?

No. Despite their shortcomings, open rates can still provide valuable marketing information. Tracking your open rates can help you:

1. Spot trends. For example, if you notice a significant downward trend in your open rates over time (not just occasional dips, say during summer when folks are out of town more), it may be a signal that you need to do something to re-engage your subscribers.

2. Learn your audience’s preferences. You may be able to notice what days and times of day are better for sending by comparing your open rates.

3. Test subject lines. Split your list into two or three groups, and send the same email with different subject lines to see which one generates more opens (which may indicate more interest).

Is there anything you can do to improve your open rates?

Yes, absolutely! It may not be the most accurate measurement in the world, but there are proven ways to improve your open rates.  And improvement is always good.

Of course, your list should be an opt-in (permission-based) list. If not, that’s the first place to start improving. Otherwise, look to some of these areas to improve your rates:

1. Make sure your content is relevant and valuable. Know what your audience wants, and provide it. Relevant content is read content.

2. Examine your frequency of emailing. Too much emailing can cause “list fatigue” and too little can cause the “who’s that?” syndrome.

3. Write HOT subject lines. These short phrases are often the golden key to unlocking your open rates. Make people hungry to open your emails and see what’s inside!

Do you want to learn more about effective Newsletter Marketing?  Here is your chance, attend this free webianr: http://www.6figurenewslettersecrets.com/subjectlines/mike

Get together with a group of like-minded Solo Professionals to discuss business challenges, brainstorm for new opportunities, and provide new perspectives

Sign up Today!

Many solopreneurs don’t even have a marketing plan.  They start their business with a hope to succeed.  They talk to their friends and sign up a few clients.  They show up at a networking meeting.  They get on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  They consider these activities as their marketing plan.  Some have vague goals about what they want and most don’t know what marketing strategies and tactics are.

Success requires clarity, planning, and preparation.  On the other hand, lack of clarity, planning, and preparation make it much harder to achieve success.

Imagine that you are driving on a cold winter night.  Your car starts sliding; you may be moving in the right direction but you have no control over the outcome.  That is how marketing is without a clear marketing plan.  You may do well, but you have no control over the results and you don’t know what will happen next.

When you are planning your life or business, you need to have goals, strategies, and tactics.  Otherwise, you may not get the results that you want in the long run.

So what are the Goals, Strategies, and Tactics?

Goals are what you want to accomplish. For example, you may want to create a 6 figure coaching business within a year.  That is a clear goal.  You know what you want to do and by when you want to do it.

Strategy is the “How”. Strategy is the list of options that you can consider to achieve the goal.  It is the roadmap.  You consider your target market, what they want, how you can reach them, and how you can differentiate yourself.   For example, in order to develop a 6 figure service business, you may consider a list of strategies and pick one or a few options that are aligned with your business.  As a coach or consultant, your strategy must focus on your ideal clients, partners, and how you can reach them and stand out in their mind.

By now, you know what you want to accomplish.  Also, you have decided on your strategy to achieve your goal.  Now, it is time to decide on what tools and resources you want to use to carry out your strategy.  Tactic is the “What”.  For example, to develop a 6 figure service business, you may decide to use newsletters, social media, and article marketing to reach out to your clients and to stand out in their mind.

Without goals, you don’t know where you are going.  Without strategies, you don’t know how to get there, and without tactics, you don’t know what you are going to use to get there.

Strategy is more important than tactics. Most professionals find several tools to market their business.  However, if they don’t know where they are going or how they are going to get there, then they will never get there, no matter what they use.

Are you clear about your goals?  Do you have a business strategy in place?  If not, get clear about your goals and come up with strategies to achieve your goals.  If you need help, please contact me to create your marketing plan and define your strategy to achieve your desired goals.

Solo professionals need to market their services with consistency. They need to follow their marketing plan closely and do something to move forward toward their goals every day.  That is the only way to market your business effectively and it is the only way to create the successful business that you want -”Rome Was Not Built in a Day“.

In the video below,  Brian Tracy speak about goals and the most important goal.  I love watching this short video.  It motivates me to look at my goals every day.  Listen to it carefully and think about your business and marketing plan.

Here is an important point to remember, create your marketing plan and focus on the goals that would affect you and your business the most!  In short, focus on what is important not on what is urgent.  Finally do a Little Every day!  Simple advice, but very powerful!

I know this is difficult to do sometimes.  Here is couple of suggestions, find a marketing buddy to support you.  You can take turn to support and coach each other.  Also, Work With A Coach.  I know money is always the greatest concern.   However, you will always move much faster and make a lot more money when you work with a coach.  Check out my end of the year offer! to see how this can work within your budget to have tremendous impact!

Marketing your business effectively starts with great planning and only happens when you follow your goals and build your business one day at a time.

What do you think about the most important goal?