April 2016 – Page 2

Doris Roberts And Learning Something New All The Time

“I’m learning something
all the time.
That’s the way I want it to go,
and that’s the way I’ll go
until I am no longer
on this planet.”

She won 5 Primetime Emmys.
Although she had worked
as an actress
her entire life,
the first of those awards
was won
when she was in her late 50’s.

If you learn something new
every day,
eventually you’ll become an unstoppable force.
You’ll have knowledge and skills
that will greatly increase your odds
of being… well… great.

Learn something new today.

Nathan Fillion And Feeling The Love

One thing I learned quickly
in the writing business
is that readers can feel the love
a writer has for the story.

This is true of any product development.
Customers know
when someone loves the product
they developed.
It is in the little details,
the things others might not notice.

Firefly fans feel the love
Nathan Fillion
has for that franchise
and they love him for it.
They love that he’ll dress in the costume
for his newer role on Castle.

Nathan Fillion
once shared

“I tell you,
‘Firefly’?
Best job I ever had.
Heartbroken when it was canceled,
but had it not been canceled,
I never would have gotten ‘Serenity’.
I think ‘Serenity’
is the most incredible thing
I’ve ever been able
to actually get my hands on
and do.
I can’t even tell you
how much love
I have for that project.”

The thing is…
viewers CAN tell.

Figure out a way
to love what you’re developing.
Your prospects and customers
will know.

Doing Right By The Customer

I’ve created an ebook series
known for its plot twists.
Readers pre-order
their copies of the books
because they want to be first,
the first to have the books,
the first to read them,
the first to know.

Usually I have these books
available for pre-order
for two months before the release.
This ensures these readers hear
about the release in time
so they all can read it
that first day.

With this latest release,
one of the booksellers (Apple)
decided to release it a month early.
I had a decision to make
— I could pull it from this bookseller
(but X number of readers already had their copies)
or
I could release it everywhere early.
Releasing it everywhere early
will likely result in lower overall sales
(due to Amazon’s algorithms),
less profit in a business with very little profit.

I released it early.

Why?
Because I made a promise
to my pre-order customers
that they would read this story first.
I had to do what was right
for these customers.

The thing is…
even if my customers don’t care
about this
(though I suspect they do care – very much so),
I do.
I’m proud of myself for making this decision.
I feel happier about my business,
about my products,
about my customers.

This is one of the reasons
we should do right by our customers
because WE know it’s the right thing to do.

Put Knowledge To Work

Yesterday,
I posted about
actively increasing our knowledge.

All that knowledge is useless
if we don’t put it to work.
When I take a seminar
or read a book,
I look for that one point
that I can apply to my business building
right away
and I do exactly that.

Don’t wait.
Don’t save it for later.

Apply at least one thing
that you’ve learned
immediately.

Put your new found knowledge
to work.

Are You More Intelligent Today?

I’m a USA Today Bestselling writer
yet this month,
I’m taking two writing courses,
seeking to improve my craft.

You and I are both getting older.
That’s a fact.
The knowledge we accumulated
in college or university
or high school
is becoming
more dated
by the day.

Some of that knowledge
is replaced with experience
but not all.
To keep current,
we need to read articles/books
or
take courses/seminars/workshops
or
learn in some other way.

Are you staying current?
Are you actively expanding
your knowledge?

What We Focus On

We all know people
who dwell on
the wrongs done to their ancestors
or
their rotten childhoods
or
something that happened
years ago.

They look backward
and they don’t see
the opportunities before them.

Seth Godin
shares

“We have a choice
about where to aim
the lens of our attention.
We can relive past injustices,
settle old grudges
and
nurse festering sores.
We can imagine failure,
build up its potential for destruction,
calculate its odds.

Or,
we can imagine
the generous outcomes
we’re working on,
feel gratitude for those
that got us here
and
revel in the possibilities
of what’s next.”

Look forward,
not backward,
where you’re going,
not where you’ve been.

Content Marketing And Your Target Audience

Milan Malivuk,
marketing director
of itracMarketer,
shares

“The most effective strategy
is content marketing,
where you create and publish
the type of content
that your target audience finds useful.
Create guides, reports,
best practice articles
and case studies
that serve your audience well.
For example,
a mortgage broker knows that
if they publish a detailed breakdown
on home ownership costs
and
how much to budget
for the first home,
the type of people
searching for that content
are a perfect fit for their offering.”

The key point is
you must create content
that attracts people
who are likely to become your customers.

It makes no sense
for the owner of a funeral home
to write about baby names.
She might know quite a bit
about that topic
but new parents are unlikely
to be her target market.

When you consider a topic
for your blog posts,
newsletter articles,
social media posts,
keep your target audience in mind.

Fun With Marketing

Next week,
I’m involved in a promo
that pits a character
from one of my stories
against characters from other writers’ stories.
It is like Fight Club
except for vampires or cowboys or aliens.

It is fun and creative
and readers (customers)
are excited about it.
I doubt many of them
will show up
but they now know my name,
my character’s name,
and my book title.
That’s effective marketing.

Geoff Williams
shares
another idea.

“If you own a cleaning company,
for instance,
in this age of popular shows
focusing on zombies,
you might promise
a 75 percent discount
to anyone who has a house
torn apart by zombies.
You may end up
not having to honor that discount,
but it might get strangers
to take a second look at you.”

Marketing doesn’t have to be
dry and serious.
Have some fun with it.

The Value Of Partners

Doing anything completely solo
is challenging,
especially business building.

Even if I have a solo venture,
I always try to have people
I can ask for help
if something urgent comes up
in another part of my life.

John Rampton
shares

“While some have done it,
it’s definitely much harder
to launch a business
as a single parent
or
as a single startup founder with a family.

Unless your business is something
you can integrate into your family life
or do entirely in your off hours
(like a lifestyle blog),
find a co-founder
who can share the responsibilities
and lighten your load.”

I don’t have co-founders
but I do have resources I can rely on.

Success is a team sport.
Don’t try to do this alone.

Creeping Toward A Goal

I’m rebuilding my readership
(my customers)
in one of my series
(my product lines).

I promote daily
yet add only about 30 pre-orders
every day.
This is grueling, a grinding build.

But I’m building.
I’m creeping toward my goal.
It’s slow but I’ll get there.

If I hadn’t put the marketing work in,
I wouldn’t have made my goal.

If you creep toward your goal,
you’ll eventually make it there also.

Don’t give up.

Slow progress is still progress.
Celebrate it.