I used to take it personally when someone would unsubscribe from my newsletter. I would think:
- Am I not good enough?
- Am I not providing them with valuable information?
- Why are they so mean?
- Did I offend them?
- Did I promote products and services too much?
Luckily my coach would describe this as “marketing”. Marketing is the process in which you filter out who will buy from you and who won’t ever purchase from you.
He’s right. If they unsubscribe, let them unsubscribe. If they aren’t going to read your newsletter they are certainly not going to pull out their credit card to purchase a product or service from you. So let them go. Focus on those who are on your list and continuing to build your list. When they unsubscribe they are doing you a favour and although it hurts it’s just an icicle through the heart. It hurts at first but then the pain just melts away.
If you like this post, please consider buying me a coffee.Written by Sandra De Freitas
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July 17th, 2008
While IMing (instant messaging) with a client about product ideas and marketing funnels, he sent me a resource. That resource was a link to the Publicity Hound‘s website. I’ve been on Joan Stewart’s site before but this time around the website came at the right time. You see Joan is pretty brilliant, not only does she run a mentor program, not only does she give valuable advice and tips, not only is she a top speaker but she also has a pretty hot marketing funnel! You see, Joan compiles her newsletters, workshop materials and notes from her consulting business and creates “Special Reports”. These reports average $10 each and are no less than 5 pages in length. My Coach suggested I do this years ago and I just haven’t found the time to do this…yet!
While participating on a teleclass today, the speaker mentioned Paulette Ensign, the Booklet Queen. I remember hearing about her back when my Coach suggested I created “tipsheets”, as he called them, years ago. Paulette has a number of products that will help you create and promote your own booklets.
Three years ago I had heard of both Paulette and Joan. I knew what they had to offer would help me boost my business and help me create more products, but back then I must have not been ready for it all. Now that I have been “reintroduced” to them I’m ready for action.
It’s funny how the Law Of Attraction is really taking over my life these days!
If you like this post, please consider buying me a coffee.Written by Sandra De Freitas
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July 15th, 2008
You know which word I’m talking about “recession” blah! It seems everywhere I turn people are talking about the “R” word. “Is there a recession?”, “Are you feeling the affects of the recession?”, “Do you find you are making less these days?”, “Are people buying less?”, “What are we going to do as entrepreneurs when the recession officially hits?”…the list of questions goes on and on.
While in NYC I met, Denise Hedges of www.lifeworkcoaching.com. Denise and I were part of a panel discussing “Creative Ways to Market Your Practice”. One of the questions was “What are your thoughts on the upcoming recession and what should people do to prepare for it?” Denise took this question and she said something along the lines of “If you think there is a recession you will act like there is a recession. If you act like there is a recession you will feel the affects of the recession. People who think there is a recession will not be as successful as those who ignore the media and who will continue their marketing and continue growing their businesses.” Well said Denise!
In a recent newsletter the Ezine Queen Ali Brown, noted that although people are complaining about the recession, malls are still jam packed and those complaining about the recession are the ones buying big ticket items.
So do we want to believe their is a recession so we have something to talk about other than the weather? Do we want to believe it’s true so we have excuse to sit back and not market our business? Or is it an excuse not to look deeper into our businesses to see what other products or services we can offer and maybe look at other groups of people (aka niches) we can promote our offers too?
Some solo entrepreneurs may consider lowering their fees thinking that “something is better than nothing” in a recession. Is that a good idea? Well, I’ve been reading Alan Weiss’ book “Million Dollar Consultant”. In it Alan talks about the disadvantages of lowering your fees. If you lower your fees for one client be prepared to lower it for another client. If you lower your fees for new clients is that fair for your to your loyal long term clients? If your business relies on referrals lowering your fees for a new client will mean that the client who referred you should also get that discount. It’s a viscious circle.
Keys to get “over” this.
1) Stay away from people who believe there is a recession. As an entrepreneur you cannot be poisoned by this way of thinking or it will eat you and your business for breakfast!
2) Stay away from the media. Have you every felt fabulous and fully refreshed after watching the news? Probably not! There’s a reason why they want to scare you…fear makes them money! They are running a business too you know!
3) Surround yourself with people who are successful and who are also ignoring the “R” word. These are the people who will inspire you in good times and in bad. For instance you might want to join a mastermind group or hire a coach who will keep you motivated.
4) Ask yourself “If I had to make $1,000 today, what are the different ways I could accomplish that?” As a solopreneur you have the creativity to do this! You could offer your past clients a “jump start” coaching package. Get them motivated again. You could offer “1 hour lightning round” coaching session. You could also promote that product or service that you haven’t promoted in a while. Just because a product or service is on your website doesn’t mean that everyone remembers that it’s there. Remind them gently in your newsletter or blog.
What other ways can you think of to get over the “R” word way of thinking? Post your comment here.
If you like this post, please consider buying me a coffee.Written by Sandra De Freitas
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July 11th, 2008
Do you write a newsletter, a blog or other articles? Do you just post them in one place? Why? Make the most of your content by reusing and recycling your content. What does this mean? Take your newsletter article and put it on your blog. Take your blog post and put it on your newsletter. Take your articles and post them on your newsletter and blog. Take all 3 and post them on article banks. Article banks are online sources where you can deposit your articles for others to use on their blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers etc. They must keep your author bio on your article so you still get the credit for it. Sometimes they are used to find experts for interviews or teleclasses.
There are many Article Banks out there and you can spend hours posting your articles on each one of them, or you can post your article once and have a service post them on 100′s of other sites for you. This service is www.SubmitYourArticle.com and it will save you time and generate tons of traffic to your site. Make this part of your marketing homework for the day!
If you like this post, please consider buying me a coffee.Written by Sandra De Freitas
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June 20th, 2008
Super star marketer and author Seth Godin wants you to be on the cover of his new book. The book won’t be available until October and your picture may or may not be completely visible but how cool would it be to say “I’m on the cover of the new Seth Godin book”. People will think you are a celebrity!
Seth is very creative. I know I had a hard time trying to figure out what cover I should use for my book “Does this blogsite make my wallet look fat?“. So *high five* Seth for making the work easier on yourself!
If you like this post, please consider buying me a coffee.Written by Sandra De Freitas
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May 26th, 2008
It’s been about a week since I’ve returned from the Day of Marketing in New York city. I haven’t posted much since then because my computer decided to take a vacation of it’s own(!) and because I caught a bad cold which has now turned into harsh coughing attacks. Lovely! 
The conference was great. We had the priviledge of speaking in the Millbank Chapel. It is an old Chapel with impressive architecture and design. As a lover of great architecture it made me drool!
The conference began Friday morning with a great keynote speaker by the name of Sandy Schussel. Sandy spoke about building your brand and he did it with humour! He was a joy to listen to and a true pleasure to meet.
I also enjoyed hearing Jim Cameron speak about attracting the media to interview you. Jim made a lot of great points but the point that hit me the most was “always talk about your business.” His said “When someone asks you about where you are from, what you had for lunch or where you got your tie, always relate it to what you do”. He had an audience member ask him where he got his tie, to which Jim replied “My wonderful and caring wife gave me this tie. It is a constant reminder of how she keeps me honest and motivated in my business which is helping people get in the media…” I don’t remember what he said word for word but it was something like that and he made his point.
Jim was so very funny and I was happy to find out he’s originally from Toronto. I often joke about how we (read: Toronto) export all of our comedians to the U.S., like Mike Myers, Jim Carey, John Candy, The Barenaked Ladies…I could go on.
Speaking of Toronto, I had the pleasure of hanging out with fellow Torontonian, Garry Schleifer Co-Founder and Publisher of Choice Magazine. He and I had a fun time walking in the rain over to the subway station where we shared a number of laughs. See, Torontonians love to laugh!
There were other fabulous speakers as well. I wish I could write about it all but I realise that I could go on forever!
I wish I had more time in New York City. Unfortunately it rained a lot and that stopped my boyfriend and I from seeing a few great landmarks like the Statue of Liberty. I’ve been to NYC 3 other times and so there was only two things I really wanted to do – see Brooklyn (which I didn’t get to see) and visit the Central Park Zoo. I didn’t even know they had a zoo until I watched the movie Madagascar!
If you like this post, please consider buying me a coffee.Written by Sandra De Freitas
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May 24th, 2008
Don’t miss this special event: Friday, May 16, 2008, at Columbia University in New York City.
Plus check out details on the newly added “Mastermind Saturday!” including “speed coaching”.
What is “speed coaching”? Every single attendee at Mastermind Saturday (yes, every attendee that day!) will receive a 20-minute laser session with an expert to review their current materials or marketing needs. Also on Saturday four attendees will be selected for a marketing makeover. Everyone in the audience learns from these on-stage sessions.
I will be speaking at the Day of Marketing on Friday and coaching at “Mastermind Saturday”. Come join us. For a special negotiated price visit www.dayofmarketing.com/default.asp?id=2011
If you would like to volunteer please let the organizers know at www.dayofmarketing.com/contact.asp. Volunteers get lunch and get to attend the workshops when they are not volunteering.
If you like this post, please consider buying me a coffee.Written by Sandra De Freitas
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April 23rd, 2008
