by Angela Taffs | Sep 4, 2017 | Sales and Marketing
Do you ever get stuck when trying to come up with new ideas for blog posts or your latest newsletter? Here is a simple way to never run short of ideas.
Ask questions!
Yes, it’s that simple!
Recently, I was wondering what new things to write about so I asked the simple question in my Facebook group, ‘What is the biggest challenge you are facing in your business at the moment?’
I got so many responses that I easily came up with headings for loads of blog posts. These included:
Getting distracted by too many ideas
- How to keep focused
- How to create the right workspace
- How to make the transition from a day job to being self-employed
- How to grow numbers on a Facebook business page
- How to create the right type of social media posts for my clientele
- How to grow a list without a budget
Now I had my headings. And of course, I wrote an answer back to everyone who had replied with a challenge they were facing. So there was the core content for my blog article. I then expanded on this with some links to further resources, templates etc and wrote my blog. I then went back to each person, thanked them for their feedback and sent them the link to the full blog that I had written on how to solve their challenge. A win-win situation.
Go think of a question for your audience. Go think of a list of questions. Then post these one at a time (perhaps once per week) and see what response you get. When your audience realise they are going to get help and value from answering your questions, they will soon become far more eager to answer in the future. And of course, this is building relationships and trust that will help lead your audience to buy from you when the time is right.
Here are a few ideas for questions:
- What is your biggest challenge when (insert problem your business helps with)
- How badly on a scale of one to ten do you want to (insert problem you can solve)
- What frustrates you most about (insert problem your ideal client has)
- What would you like to know more about (insert solution your business helps with)
- If there is one thing you would love to do, but can because of (insert problem your ideal client has) what would it be?
Do you have any favourite questions you would like to share? Please let me know in the comments below.
by Angela Taffs | Jul 9, 2017 | Sales and Marketing
Are you breaking Facebook rules
Over recent weeks, I have had a number of new ladies join my Facebook group only for them to have their posts deleted and a message being sent explaining why and what to do in future if they want to stay in the group.
I have also had a few ladies contact me as they have found themselves banned from other groups that they were in.
I’m sure the majority of us use other social media groups to build relationships and promote our businesses but before you fall foul and get yourself banned, try adhering to these simple rules.
When joining a new group, before doing anything else, READ THE GROUP RULES
It’s so simple but so many don’t bother to do it. The rules can usually be found in the group description or sometimes at the top of the page as a pinned post. If you don’t read the rules, you are pretty rude and don’t be surprised if you get kicked out.
And here are a few other things to consider:
Mistake 1 – Promoting Yourself in a Non-Promotional Group
It’s quite simple – you will get banned. There are a number of groups that don’t want their feeds saturated with ‘you can make a million in a week – come find out how’ or some other promotional spam. Even if it’s not spam, if it’s a non-promotional group, you can’t promote in it. Simples!! Which part is not understood? It really annoys me that people join my group and can’t be bothered to read the description and group rules. if they are that lazy, I simply ban them.
Mistake 2 Jumping on Someone Else’s Post to Promote Yourself
This is what happens. Someone asks a question or starts a conversation. They strike up a conversation with their ideal client and are building a relationship with them by giving them valuable help and advice. You see this and decide to jump on board. You leap in to tell the ideal client what you can do to help them and tell them to get in contact.
Let me tell you, THIS IS PLAIN BLOODY RUDE AND UNACCEPTABLE
Don’t be so lazy. Go start some conversations of your own.
Mistake 3 Sending Friend Requests and Private Messaging Other Members
This has to be one of the biggest irritants of all time. It’s false. It’s spammy. It makes you look unprofessional and desperate.
Before approaching anyone privately, you need to build a relationship with them. Not just jump on them as soon as you see a glimmer of an ideal client.
If you are genuinely offering free help to them or giving them some valuable advice in private, then ok. But if your sole intention is to sell to them, don’t be surprised if they report you to admin and you get yourself banned instantly from the group.
Mistake 4 – Joining a Group and Making your First Post a Promotion
Why would you do this? Again, it makes you look unprofessional and desperate. You wouldn’t go to a dinner party where you didn’t know anyone, walk into the room and start shouting at everyone what you do. You would (if you have any manners) walk in, introduce yourself, ask others what they do and get to know people a little first.
You need to start building relationships and trust before bleating about what you do. I would suggest at least a couple of weeks of interacting with others and getting the feel of the group before any type of promotion.
Mistake 5 – Arguing with Admin
Yes, sending private messages to admin that you have a special case for promoting your latest craze and telling them how to run their group is likely to get you banned also. I have had a few of these in the past where people have contacted me to say how everyone wants promotions to be allowed freely so I ought to change the rules. Nope!! My group. My rules. If they don’t like it they can go somewhere else.
In future, use some common sense and some manners when joining groups for the first time. Yes, we all mistakes but learn from them and be respectful to others. Alternatively, set up your own group and do whatever you want!
by Angela Taffs | Jun 19, 2017 | Sales and Marketing
There are 4 key points when creating any sort of marketing message. If you work through these one at a time, in the end, you will have a crystal-clear message to attract your much-needed clients.
Who are you talking to and what problem do they have?
Describe your ideal client and what problem they are having. What keeps them awake at night?
You really need to get your ideal client clear in your head. Who are they? Where do they hang out? What interests do they have? What age and gender are they?
It is through this clarity that you can then nail down what problem they are having (which they may not yet realise themself). Do they need more time, money, easier way to do something? What exactly is it?
How can you help them solve this problem?
Once you have identified your ideal client and what problem they have, the next step is to describe simply and clearly how you can help them solve this problem.
Really dig deep as to what the end result is that will make a huge difference to them. Will they be healthier, happier, and more confident? Get clear on the benefit of the client working with you rather than taking no action at all and carrying on as they are.
Why should they believe you?
Moving on from who your ideal client is, what problem they have and how you can help them, you need to explain why they should believe you.
Don’t be vague on this. Be specific. What results have you gained in the past? How many people have you helped and what results did they get? Do you have glowing testimonials from happy clients? You need something tangible here so that will start to trust that you can make a difference in their lives.
Why should they act now?
The final part of your marketing message is why should a buyer act now.
Think about what is going to happen if they delay their purchase. Why should they buy now and not wait for another six months? How can you create a sense of urgency?
Now you need to put this all together to create your full marketing message. Remember the 4 key points:
- Who are you talking to and what problem do they have?
- How can you help them solve this problem?
- Why should they believe you?
- Why should they act now?
You don’t need to write a novel here. Keep it short and sweet and attention-grabbing.
Write it out and post over in the Facebook group with the tag #Feedback and I will take a look and give you some feedback.
by Angela Taffs | Apr 21, 2017 | Business Success, Sales and Marketing
A few years ago I was in a really bad way. Severe illness had decimated my health and career. A disastrous relationship had gutted me emotionally. My life had gone up in flames (literally, my ex set the house on fire). I was living in my mum’s box room, flat broke, in tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt, and utterly devoid of hope.
Starting my own business was a revelation for me. Working on my terms, to my timetable. I could focus on what I love (writing), earn a living, and still have time to work on my health.
Entrepreneurship was a gift from the gods, truly, but it wasn’t half a lot of work…
How I Escaped The Eternal Hamster Wheel…
For the first couple of years I did okay. I paid down my debt. Everything ticked over. But I was nowhere near the income level needed to bust me out of the rut in which I was myred. I craved independence, freedom, an escape from the eternal hamster wheel of marketing (not to mention my mother’s box room). I’d done all the courses, watched all the vlogs, read all the blogs; I’d devoured everything I could find on digital marketing but something wasn’t quite clicking.
It was kind of working.
I had clients, money was coming in, I was steadily raising my profile, it just wasn’t enough…
Enter Angie Taffs: The Woman Who Changed My Business (And Life)…
Hustling my butt off for a couple of years had one tangible benefit: I had a lot of friends and contacts in the entrepreneurial world. One of those was Angie. I was a member of her Facebook group, and had been following her for a while, so when a webinar she was running popped up in my newsfeed, I jumped right on it.
Little did I know…
Angie’s webinar was a revelation. She shared one fairly simple tip for managing clients and it transformed my business. I honestly wouldn’t have believed how powerful it was until it actually happened.
The premise is really simple: give people a free sample of what you can do; leave them craving more.
Yes, free.
Not a freebie, or a download, a cheat sheet, or a blog/vlog, an actual sample of your paid products or services.
I baulked at this to begin with. Badly. I’m a copywriter. Offering a free sample of my work meant a lot of work for me. Writing a whole blog post, in fact. But Angie’s explanation made a great deal of sense, and while I was going great guns building my tribe, I was really struggling to convert them.
Educating them on the benefits of hiring a copywriter to produce regular, awesome content was easy enough. Getting them to take that final leap was considerably harder.
Hiring a freelancer is scary.
Seriously.
What if they’re a bad fit? What if they can’t really write? What if they take your money and don’t deliver? What if, what if, what if…
Allaying Their Fears And Showing My Chops…
Much as it made me flinch, I had faith. I began offering a free blog post. No strings, no catch. An actual, bonafide, free version of a service that would usually set you back (at that time) £25.
Totally free.
This did two things: allayed my tribe’s fears and concerns about making that final leap, and allowed me to really show my writing chops. It’s one thing to say you’re a great copywriter, it’s quite another to hand over a shining, polished, perfect example of exactly what you can do for a person’s business, complete with all the bells and whistles (in my case, royalty free images, memes, and a week’s worth of Tweets…yes, still for free!).
The Results Of Angie’s One Super Powerful Trick…
The response was phenomenal.
In marketing, a 2% conversion rate is reasonably good. 5% is good. 10% is epic. Anything above 10% is magical wildfire of supernatural origin.
The free post I instigated using Angie’s method has…wait for it… a 75% conversion rate.
Not kidding.
75%!
Yes, it’s a lot of work writing them, but it’s so worth it!
Here’s How You (More Than) Double Your Income…
You want serious numbers? I analysed the conversions on my free blog post, here’s what I found…
- Three out of four people who sign up for a free post become paying clients.
- Of those clients, one in three spend an average of £35 on a one-off service.
- One in three spend an average of £300 on either a one off service bundle, or repeat business in lower-ticket items.
- One in three spend an average of £3,500 on monthly blog packages (and that’s just how much they had spent in December 2016 – most are still monthly clients, so that figure gets higher every month!).
- One in three of these new clients recommend me to a friend, who sign up for their own free post, or simply buy a service outright, to the tune of £500 a piece (again, on average, again, growing each month!).
- The financial reward I receive is over £1,000 per free blog post I write (including those that don’t convert) and growing monthly.
The Bottom Line…
Since I started running this offer, my business has thrived. I soon had a gaggle of clients. I put my prices up, expecting to lose a fair few. I didn’t lose any. I kept on hustling, and before the year was out I was debt free, and living in a house of my own. I invested more in the tech needed to action Angie’s epic system, and experienced another big boom in my income.
I had more clients than I could handle.
After rebranding and refocusing entirely on copywriting, I put my prices up again.
The free posts I offer are now worth £55 a piece, and they are still available for free to all new clients. I’ve not done the maths on the offer since the end of 2016, but I can tell you that my monthly income has more than doubled since then. Angie’s offer isn’t the only thing affecting that; I launched a new vlog in January that had a massive impact. But content marketing can only get you so far. It builds you tribe, it grows your list, but you still need that ineffable magic charm that converts your audience into paying clients.
That gives them the final shove.
Of all the coaches I’ve worked with, watched, read and listened to, Angie is the only one who showed me exactly how to do this. For that reason alone, I refer to her as The Woman Who Changed My Business.
But she didn’t just change my business, she also transformed my life.
If you want your business to be the mechanism that enables you to live a happy, fulfilling life of freedom, doing what you love best, this girl can show you how…
Thanks, Angie, you’re an absolute superstar!
Many thanks to Hazel Butler from The Write Copy Girl for this wonderful guest post. Having feedback like this fills me with joy and makes all my work worthwhile.
Angie x
by Angela Taffs | Feb 2, 2017 | Sales and Marketing
I do my best to support small independent traders, so just recently I made several purchases from members of my Facebook group along with a few from promotions I had seen in other groups, all of whom were small business owners.
I made a point of letting people know I had purchased in order to help boost their posts and help promote their business.
The response I got was quite varied.
The first lady I purchased off and left a comment for, saying how excited I was to have placed my order and was looking forward to receiving my goods, completely ignored my comment. Not even a like even though I had tagged her! However, a comment below mine got an instant response from someone who was obviously a friend as she said she would drop the order over when they went out for drinks later.
How did that make me feel?
Ignored (obviously) and that my purchase was insignificant and not of any value to her.
A few days later I received my product and that was that.
The second purchase that I left a comment for did manage to get a ‘like’ but no reply or further interaction with me.
How did this leave me feeling? That she wasn’t really bothered by my purchase either. Another example of how not to create raving fans for her business.
Again, product received but this time with a card asking me to rate the business on social media. Hmm! Now then. As I had been ignored previously, would I take time out to do this. Maybe, maybe not.
How to create raving fans
Now take a moment to compare this was another purchase further along the line.
Here I did exactly the same. Completed the purchase and left a comment on their promo post whilst tagging them so they couldn’t miss it.
The difference in the response I got here was so far removed from the first couple.
Hallelujah!! Someone cares!
I had a reply to my comment thanking me so much for my support and that she was as excited as I was about sending my purchase to me as I was in receiving it as she knew I would love it.
Between my order and my receipt of the same, the lady kept me fully updated via email. Again, I received an email thanking me for my order and with an expected dispatch date. I then received a lovely email saying how my order had just been lovingly wrapped and taken to the post office so would be with me soon.
When the order arrived, it was beautifully packed in tissue paper and tied with a piece of ribbon along with a business card that had a handwritten message on.
How did this purchase make me feel? It made me feel valued and warm and fuzzy inside that I had supported a small business that really appreciated my support.
Out of these three businesses, who do you think I will return to when I go to make future purchases? Which ones are creating raving fans and which ones aren’t? I’ll give you one guess.
The moral of the story here is that if you are going to promote your business on social media, then get social! If someone takes the time to make a purchase and flag up your business to try and support you, then at least have the courtesy to respond to them. It only takes a few seconds to say thank you.
Remember, it’s now what you say or what you do, it’s how you make people feel that matters and will determine if they return to you to buy from you again or not.
Does this resonate with you? Yes or no? Leave a comment and let me know below.
by Angela Taffs | Nov 17, 2016 | Sales and Marketing
How to know if your marketing message is really getting through
Sometimes we get so caught up in our business that we think everyone else knows exactly what we do, and then out of the woodwork, reality smacks us in the face.
I have had this happen to me just recently!
It has come to light over recent weeks that some members of my Facebook group still don’t know about my Small Business Kit. I have members of my Small Business Kit who aren’t aware that in addition to the member’s club I also do one to one private coaching.
And there was me thinking that everyone knew everything about me and the range of services I offered. (slowly taking head out of sand!)
I am so good at telling everyone else to market like a madwoman and making sure all their contacts know exactly what they do, that I have let this slip for my own business. Doh!!
A challenge for you
To make sure this hasn’t happened to you, and to check if people really know what you do, I am going to give you a little challenge.
Post in your Facebook group, send out a newsletter to your subscribers, send an email to your contacts and ask them one simple question – ‘What services do you think I offer?’
Now, you may want to explain to them what you are doing so they don’t think you have gone slightly mad. Explain exactly what I have said here. Write something on the lines of:
“Would you help me out?
It’s vitally important to all business owners to know that their marketing is working and the right message is reaching those who would benefit from what they do.
As one of my valued subscribers/fans/clients etc. (delete as appropriate) would you take a moment of your precious time to hit reply and let me know which services you are aware of that I offer?”
Alternatively, you could send out a survey listing all the services that you provide and ask respondents to put a tick against all those that they are aware you provide. Take a look at my own survey here (see what I did there?).
The benefit of this is twofold. Firstly, you get valuable feedback whether you’re marketing the parts you want to reach. And secondly, you raise awareness of your services to those that may not yet be aware. A win-win situation.
Not to miss an opportunity
Not to miss this opportunity, if you didn’t click the link above, would you be so kind as to take a moment of your precious time to respond to my own survey and let me know what you are aware of that I do? There is a special thank you waiting for.
COMPLETE SURVEY
I look forward to hearing from you.
