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The Marketing Moxie Show

Episode 121: Gwen Elliot: Working with Media For Your Big Break

episode 121

Is getting out there and being featured in the media on your wish list? (And if it’s not, it should be!) Media strategist Gwen Elliot shares how-to get started and some results that have happened thanks to media coverage!

Items Discussed in this Episode:

  • Gwen explains why we should take time out of our schedule to secure media interviews for ourselves, do guest posts, etc.
  • Doing an interview will bring clients to your door, but it more importantly will bring clients to your door that already know you are credible. You have ‘the buzz’
  • Gwen recommends getting on air now and as often as you can so when that big opportunity comes knocking, you’re prepared for it and already have the technical aspects worked out
  • Gwen shares how to get started adding media into your social to do list
  • When reaching out to pitch a media interview or guest post, Gwen shares the three things you need to know first
  • Gwen shares her ‘Commandments’ for pitching
  • When it comes to pitching trust your instinct! If you think you should send it today, just do it
  • When you pitch to a big outlet, you are usually pitching to someone who has to run it by their boss. If it’s hard for them to understand, they’re not going to even bother passing it on
  • Gwen shares her number one tip for pitching media
  • Following up makes us all antsy, Gwen gives us her advice on how to do it
  • Sometimes that answer is not ‘no’, it’s ‘not right now’. Don’t be too persistent in your follow up, give it some time
  • Gwen shares the results she’s helped her clients get with pitching media and how it’s impacted their business
  • Gwen gives her advice on how to move through your blocks of ‘there’s no way I can do this’

[clickToTweet tweet=”It’s time for your big break with the media. Tips from @gweneliot and @magspatterson.” quote=”It’s time for your big break with the media. Tips from @gweneliot and @magspatterson.”]

Top 3 Takeaways from this Episode:

  1. If you’re waiting for the media to come to you, stop that! You need to put yourself out there. Figure out what makes the most sense for you.
  2. Take the time to research every possible site or media outlet in depth before you decide to pitch. A well-researched pitch will always stand out.
  3. Make your pitch irresistible by giving them everything you need to say yes.

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Links for this Episode:

Gwenelliot.com

Gwenelliot.com/marketingmoxie

Your Big Break Podcast

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

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The Marketing Moxie Show

Episode 120: Ellen Ercolini: Grow Your Business with a Quiz

episode 120

Who doesn’t love a quiz? But how do you use quizzes in your business strategically and not in a way that dilutes or damages your brand, or attracts totally wrong for you people to your door?  Guest Ellen Ercolini joins us today to share what’s working now with her quiz.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

  • Ellen tells us a little about her online quiz, what it’s about, and what you’ll find out from taking it
  • Ellen shares what you get along with the results of your quiz, the results aren’t the only thing that matters, people want to know what to do with the results
  • We learn why Ellen’s process of creating her quiz took 6 months and how she tested it out and made changes to make her quiz hugely useful
  • You don’t want a ‘cosmo quiz’ or ‘buzzfeed quiz’, you want it to be unique and give the readers something they don’t know about themselves so it feels personal
  • The quiz is an opt in, remember the same rules apply: it needs to be a value add to draw them in
  • Having a quiz is becoming the new thing for opt ins, so you have to make sure you stand out and actually convert the quiz takers to customers
  • Ellen now uses her quiz as a starting point for each of her clients to prepare them to work with her deeper
  • Ellen shares how this quiz has helped her business and helped her really zone in on the people she wants to work with
  • Ellen shares results from her quiz and how it has been huge in her business and prompted her to develop even more offerings based on the results of her frequency quiz
  • Ellen gives advice on the reasons to have a quiz and what to actually use it for

[clickToTweet tweet=”Should you use a quiz? Get your results in this episode with @magspatterson @ellenercolini ” quote=”Should you use a quiz? Get your results in this episode with @magspatterson @ellenercolini “]

Top 3 Takeaways from this Episode:

  1. It takes time and energy to create a quiz. You need to test and refine it to make sure you really deliver the results you want.
  2. Creating a quiz is not just about creating an opt in, it’s about taking a stand. Your business needs to really speak to your body of work, your approach, and you distinct way of doing things.
  3. Remember that you will build your list with a quiz, but you want to be sure you’re leading people to a clear outcome and a next step. It’s not just about adding people to your list.

 

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Links for this Episode:

Ellen’s site

Ellen’s guide to making money from your online quiz

Ellen’s 5 steps to launching an online quiz

Take Ellen’s Frequency Analysis quiz

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

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The Marketing Moxie Show

Episode 119: Laura Roeder: Mastering Scheduled vs. Live for Social Media

episode 119

When you’re on the content creation hamster wheel, it’s easy to forget about all that content you produce, or worse yet, you spend so much time on social with little to show for it. We’ve got EDGAR Founder Laura Roeder sharing her best tips on scheduling, real-time social engagement and more.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

  • I’m sure we all have great ideas over what to do with social media for the new year, but Laura is sharing what overall is working really well with social media
  • Laura shares her favorite way to inject personality into social media
  • How do we find the balance between using a scheduling tool and responding in real time as a business? Laura gives us her advice
  • Batch your social media ahead of time but use your daily time to briefly interact with people in your audience and circle
  • If you leave a trail behind, you can know you’ve been productive on social media. Laura explains how to do this
  • Laura shares some best practices for recycling previous content including recycling your social media
  • The whole idea of social media is that you’re bringing in new people every day, so repurposing older content is ‘new’ to them
  • The easiest way to get more traffic from social media is to share more links
  • Laura shares one of the big power tips she thinks people are overlooking in EDGAR that could help boost their social media
  • What’s next for EDGAR in 2016? Laura shares what’s up and coming!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Master your social media with tips from @meetedgar’s CEO Laura Roeder.” quote=”Master your social media with tips from @meetedgar’s CEO Laura Roeder.”]

Top 3 Takeaways from this Episode:

  1. Your social activities should leave a trail. You shouldn’t just be pointlessly scrolling. Keep your time in check and think about how you can be most productive.
  2. Do you publish once and then let that piece of content languish? Breath new life into old content by re-sharing it!
  3. Check out EDGAR to help you manage your social, seriously. It’s our fave tool around here!

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Links for this Episode:

EDGAR – Social Media Scheduling Tool

Laura on Twitter

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

Categories
business storytelling

13 Must-Read Books for Female Entrepreneurs and Freelancers

13 Must-Read Books for Female Entrepreneurs and Freelancers-2 FBTW

When you’re building a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the constant stream of new tactics and hyped up things in your newsfeed. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who’s legit and who’s just full of hot air.

Which is why I’m a superfan of business books. To actually get a book deal, the idea needs to be proven and the writer needs to be a real, credible expert with an established platform.  And if it’s like the self-published books on this list, they’re scrappy books that are built on a proven process.

A business book is the most affordable training you’ll ever have – think of it as your Amazon MBA. So before you invest in another course or sign up for another freebie, check out these 13 must-read books for female entrepreneurs and freelancers:


Conquer Kit

Natalie’s just-released book tops the list. This is a business planning book unlike no other. It merges soul with selling and finance while encouraging you to play. My favorite part of this book is that it’s designed to be written in and provides you with practical exercises to dream and scheme your way to big things.

Rework

This is a classic from the creators of Basecamp. The book focuses on creating a simple approach to your business. It features short chapters and is an easy read that you’ll find yourself coming back to again and again.

Value Proposition Design

Don’t let the name of this book fool you. It’s actually kinda awesome! If you want to learn how to create products and services that customers want, this book is for you. Instead of putting your idea out on the market and hoping someone buys it, this book walks you through the process of research, testing and validating your idea so you know when you have a winner, and when you should walk away.

Influence

Running a business all boils down to one critical skill, persuasion. This book shares the core tenets of persuasion and the science to back it up, which will help you write and communicate better on a day-to-day basis. Consider yourself warned, once you learn the psychology of persuasion you may never look at marketing the same again.

First Break All the Rules

Released back in 1999, this book based on Gallup research is still incredibly relevant. (And fun fact, it was one of the first business books I ever read!) It looks at how the world’s best managers throw the rulebook out the window and manage to everyone’s strengths. Even if you have only one person on your team, this is guaranteed to change how you manage and think about skills development for yourself.

Everybody Writes

If you’re looking for a writing bible, this is it.  It’s my most favorite book on writing for the web. It’s packed full of tips designed to help make you a better writer, covering everything from easy grammar to 17 types of marketing content to writing credible copy. Plus, it’s an easy read that you can pick up and put down, and then use as a reference for your writing.

How the World Sees You

How do you fascinate? This book by Sally Hogshead examines the science of fascination and how you can become more of yourself. Learning about fascination has been a game changer for me and my business (and I use it with clients) and this book is the perfect place to start. (You can learn more about the Fascination Advantage System here.)

Why Not Me?

Mindy Kaling’s latest book isn’t a business book per se, but as a female business owner it has a strong message to share. If you struggle with feeling like a fraud or that you’re not good enough, this book asks the valid question of why you’re not the one who should be a huge success. Plus, it’s a blast to read.

Sacred Success

This book is a mashup of the practical, psychological and spiritual aspects of wealth and really looks at women’s relationship to power. It’s full of a-ha moments and exercises to help you gain control over your money while getting your head in check about what may be holding you back.

12 Week Year

Want to do more in less time? Or achieve big things instead of dreaming about them? The 12 Week Year brings the secrets of peak performance used by Olympic athletes to get improved results by working in 12 week chunks. I personally follow this book’s time management approach and it’s skyrocketed my productivity.

Get Rich, Lucky Bitch

Until I read this book I would have told you my relationship with money was fine. But newsflash – this book helped me realize I had some serious mindset issues and I needed to start to work through them. This book is a fun and illuminating read that I come back to time and time again.

Firestarter Sessions

Author Danielle LaPorte is better known for The Desire Map, but the Firestarter Sessions is chalk-full of goodness for the business owner. It helps you look at your passion and purpose, while delivering some serious truth about success and commonly held views about balance and skill.

Book Yourself Solid

If you’re struggling to find clients or book your calendar and run a service-based business, pick up this book immediately. Author Michael Port walks you through an entire system to, as the title implies, book yourself solid. It covers networking, follow-up, referrals and more that are relevant to every service-based business.

[clickToTweet tweet=”13 Must-Read Books for Female Entrepreneurs with @magspatterson” quote=”13 Must-Read Books for Female Entrepreneurs with @magspatterson”]

There you have it, my top 13, and I’m sure there’s more I could share, but I’ll save that for another post. What’s your favorite business book? Share in the comments below.

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The Marketing Moxie Show

Episode 118: New Year, Now What?

episode 118

We’re Kicking off season 3 today – and we’ve got lots to talk about to get ready for a brand new year. I always look so forward to the New Year, and then a few days in, it seems anti-climatic. I mean, things are still pretty much the same. It’s sort of how I felt after getting married when we’d been living together for more than a year, sure the paper made it legal and we had a great party, but the day-to-day didn’t really change.

In last week’s episode, episode 117, I talked about getting reset for the New Year and specifics on how to build a workable plan. But this week we’re going to dive into how to not succumb to that feeling that this year is just a continuation of the last one.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

  • Sometimes we get so excited about all the new things that will come with the new year, that we experience let down when things seem to stay the same. I share how to overcome that ‘meh’ feeling
  • Being honest with yourself is hard, but necessary when looking at what’s not working in your business
  • I share my night owl tendencies, and how I have to watch myself but also make room for this in my biz
  • I explain what a digital detox is and why you should schedule it right now for sometime this year
  • I share my own digital detox success stories
  • Space is always a good thing, don’t try to ‘do it all’ right now, you have the whole year!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Pushing the reset button for a new year? Listen to this from @magspatterson.” quote=”Pushing the reset button for a new year? Listen to this from @magspatterson.”]

What’s Working for Me to Start the New Year Strong:

  1. Be honest about what really isn’t working. This is harder than it seems, and is not meant to be negative. To be clear, you need to be truthful with yourself.
  2. Schedule your downtime and make room for a digital detox. This is probably one of the hardest things to do but it’s so important for your creative time. The only way this works is to put it on the calendar right now.
  3. Remember, you have a FULL year – 365 days! It’s so easy to think it has to all get done now, but a year is a long time. Give yourself some breathing room!

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Links for this Episode:

Episode 117

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

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The Marketing Moxie Show

Episode 117: The New Year Reset

episode 117

New year…now what? In today’s episode we’re going to talk about what a new year really means in your business, and how to get reset.

In the spirit of what’s working now, I’ll share what’s coming with me into 2016, what needs to go, and some of my fave ways to get reset for something new.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

  • Give yourself room and space to be okay with not everything changing immediately just because it’s a new year
  • I talk about thinking of each day as your fresh start instead of the entire year, not everything will go according to plan!
  • I share with you how I do my planning each year and why it works for me
  • I give examples of how things are constantly changing for me every 90 days, including pulling things off my dream list onto my to do list
  • A plan is really important but can lead to planning paralysis: I explain what this is and how it holds us back in our business
  • Make sure you do the math with your planning: it’s easy to thinking you have to do something but if the math doesn’t work out to make you a good profit, it’s probably not worth it
  • Know what is possible and set your goals on real numbers, as you probably won’t be ‘the different’ one
  • I share my personal plan for 2016 and how I’m getting there
  • Set your desired feeling for 2016; mine was space for 2015 and I share what that meant for me. I also share my new desire for 2016 and why
  • I’m also sharing what’s in store for my business in 2016 and what’s happening to The Marketing Moxie Show

[clickToTweet tweet=”Reset for the New Year the right way with @magspatterson” quote=”Reset for the New Year the right way with @magspatterson”]

Top 3 Strategies for Resetting for 2016:

  1. Take the pressure off! A new year doesn’t mean everything will automatically fall into place. It’s about the small gains you make along the way.
  2. Ditch the full year planning. I do 2 part planning: the overview (things like vacations, launches, etc) and then 90 day plans and goals.
  3. Stop over planning! You learn by planning, not by doing. Don’t plan yourself right out of what you’re doing.

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Links for this Episode:

http://maggiepatterson.com/behind-the-scenes/

http://www.rachealcook.com/big-goals-for-2016/

Ep 107 Talking About the 12 Week Year – http://maggiepatterson.com/episode107/

Neuyear Wall Calendar

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

Categories
business storytelling

2015 in My Business: The Behind-The-Scenes

blog 12.17

Remember the E! True Hollywood Story?

Confession: This is one of my all-time favorite shows. What could be more enticing than the behind-the-scenes on a celebrity who seems like a mystery? (And if you don’t know this show, it’s a full hour on a celebrity’s backstory, including interviews with whomever they can dig up.)

It’s the exact same reason that I adore celebrity gossip blind items, VH-1 Behind the Music, A&E Biography, pithy articles in Vanity Fair and the Startup or Serial podcasts.

The idea of getting behind-the-scenes on pretty much anything is completely irresistible to me. Especially when it comes to business. Which is why I’m going to give you the nitty gritty on what went down in my business, and a bit of my life, in 2015.

The real-life what’s-working-now is how I tend to learn, and I appreciate transparency in a world of ever evolving hyped up success stories, unrealistic claims and really ridiculous marketing tactics.

So, here we go…

What Worked This Year

A lot of things worked this year, so I’ll spare you a detailed accounting, but here are some of the highlights that helped grow my business.

1. Creating Space

My word of the year was space, and honestly, I had no idea exactly what that would look like, but I knew it needed to happen.

At the beginning of the year, I was running two businesses on top of this one: a training business for teachers/demonstrators in the papercrafting industry, and a business teaching papercrafting and selling supplies.  Both came out of my inability to stay still for very long which meant I  turned my hobby into a successful business, and then seeing even more opportunity.

Even though I loved those businesses wholeheartedly, something had to give. The number of hours I was working was ever increasing, and I need to give myself space, so I handed over the training business to my trusty partner and then wrapped up my other business.

Not going to lie, this was a hard decision. I was walking away from a passion project that was profitable, along with a business partner and literally hundreds of customers I adored.

Much ugly crying and planning later, by mid-year, I was wrapped up. The hard decision was the right decision and this was the first time in a long time that I didn’t work all Summer, and my brain wasn’t on hyperdrive.

2. One Big Launch + Program

My name is Maggie and I have a launching problem. Before this year, I was perpetually launching.

Why? I’m all about new ideas. My primary Fascination advantage is Innovation, so I sort of can’t help it. Ideas flow easily and quickly all. the. time.

But when I started this year, my team and I committed to one program launch in September. My coach Natalie MacNeil held me to that all year long.

As a result, we were able to launch without a major meltdown or burn out. The worst thing that happened during the launch was a cart close email with the wrong subject line, but that was truly it. We were able to pull it off with lots of planning and preparation starting in February.

Along with the launch was creating the program itself (hello, nothing passive about this, I probably spent over 100 hours writing/recording course content) and then running it. In this first round we had 23 students, and I was seriously blown away by seeing them in the program, doing the work and making small wins every week.

Now, a lot of the work is done and when we open up the doors to the Inside Scoop Academy in January, we can focus on making the launch even better and most of all, taking care of our students in a big way.

3. Doubling Up Our Team + Revenue

When I basically started this business fresh in 2014, I had no idea what was going to happen, just that I was going to make my vision work.

Nearly two full years later, that vision has resulted in significant growth. Growth in our team going from a team of 4 of us in early 2015, to a team of 9 now in December. As client needs have emerged, we’ve been able to strategically add to our team and hire the right contractors to help me grow.

Back in 2014, if you told me the team would be 9 people I would have laughed my ass off. But here we are! 2016 is going to be a year of optimizing our existing team, adding some full-time hires and shifting my role so I’m not the chief cook and bottlewasher on all client accounts.

As the team has doubled, so has year-over-year revenue. We’re more than double last year’s revenue and that’s without year end numbers. It’s the biggest year in my business ever.  Think of it as an overnight success story that has been in the making for over 10 years.

That’s not to say my take-home is doubling…because growth requires investment, and that’s a strategic choice I’m making now for the future. It may not be the best choice for every business, but it’s the right one to help fuel the future.

4. Marketing Growth

A lot of what we started in 2014 was status quo this year with the podcast and the blog, newsletters and list building.

To support this, we focused more and more on social media this year which has been way more consistent, and we’ve focused increasingly on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram. So far, Pinterest is driving quality traffic to the site that convert well (outpacing Twitter and often Facebook), while Instagram is one big experiment at this point.  LinkedIn isn’t driving traffic at all to my site, but it is driving opt-ins as we’ve been publishing original content on the platform, and more than 50% of our posts have been featured on the site’s Pulse section.

Facebook ads were a big win this year, especially the Launch Tools and Tech opt-in that we ran this Fall. We were able to add over 1500 subscribers in two months with this checklist. This is definitely the direct product of the willingness to experiment and what could only be termed as a complete shit show over the Summer including: very expensive mistakes, a pixel that was behaving badly, a Leadpage that was utterly possessed and much more.

If you’re going to focus on ads, be prepared to lose money as you figure it all out. Or get help. Don’t be a DIYer like I was as you learn the ropes.

Most of all, a big win with marketing was an upleveling in overall branding with our designer, Amanda Genther, as well as getting everything we do super systematized and consistent.

What Didn’t Work

This gig isn’t for the weak. Failure is part of the game, and every single time you fail it’s a great lesson for the future. Here are some of my fails this year:

1. The Trademark Debacle

We started planning the Inside Scoop Academy in February, so you’d think by the time we started branding in May that we would have everything squared away with the name in time.

Nope. The day before I needed to finalize the name for the logo design, I had a short list. I ended up going with the No B.S. Marketing School. Which was right on brand, but I missed a super important step for a course with this level of brand investment and intellectual property involved – filing the trademark.

We went ahead and I was in blissful ignorance as we launched. Once things settled down and the course started, I got in touch with a Trademark Attorney.

After an exhaustive trademark search, the amazing Patrice Perkins told me I really shouldn’t use No B.S. Marketing as it was registered and not something that I would likely be able to secure.

This was literally on week two of my program. Branding and launch completed. So I had to hustle to find a new name. The first few of which weren’t going to cut it, so we finally settled on Inside Scoop Academy.

But, this meant time and money had to be sunk into redoing existing worksheets, video intros and more while the program was running. Then we had to move the site to a new domain. (Props to my team for making this SO much simpler, even if it was annoying as all get out!)

Lesson learned. First step is the name then the trademark before you do anything else.

Rookie mistake and won’t happen again. And don’t assume anything. Learn how trademarks work before you get too far in and have built brand equity in your product or service.

2. Monthly Behind-the-Scenes Posts

In March I had the big idea to do a monthly post on a behind-the-scenes in my marketing called the Lab Report.

Amazing idea. But I did exactly one lab report.

Why? They were WAY more work than I realized going in. Screenshots, videos, how-tos and more were needed to back up what I was talking about.

It bothered me not to execute on something I’d publicly declared and it’s been nagging at me since May. But, I’m going to consider this as an idea that was put on pause and that we can look at bringing back in 2016.

3. Client Experience

If you run a services-based business with any type of volume, there are going to be situations where a client isn’t 100% happy.

It happens to all of us. I wanted to share this as I did have a couple of these situations in 2015, and all you can do is choose to learn from it.

I do pride myself on trying to make the situation right by being fair and honest. But sometimes, it’s not going to matter what you do. Things are going to go off the rails to the point where you need to walk away and practice kind, but firm, boundaries.

I pride myself on client experience, so when these rare instances do happen, this hurts my heart. My business is personal, so I take it personally. Which means it crushes my confidence in more ways than I can possibly count, but I also know that if I let these situations define me or my business, then I’m not going to be able to help the 99.9% of clients that are delighted.

All you can do it make it right. Be fair and act with integrity. That’s it. Because in the words of Dr. Phil, “you can’t win against crazy.” Sometimes you’re going to need to agree to disagree and move on.

(Whoa, that was hard to write, but it helps you think about how you can better handle these situations, and to not let them break you.)

My question every single time these situations arise is how can we improve on what we’re doing to make things better. To stop SNAFUs before they can happen.

The lesson for me? A number of my services will be restructured with more specific timelines and deliverables, as well as setting clearer client expectations in writing. I’m thankful for the not-so-great moments, because I think these packages and how they are structured are going to be amazing.

What’s Next?

Well, I’m glad you asked. A fresh new year is about to begin, so of course, there’s awesome things brewing. Some big, some little, but all amazingly good.

1. Introducing Scoop Industries

But let’s start with the big one. My business is changing, and I couldn’t be more excited. As of January 5th, all my services (and products) will be offered through a new agency called Scoop Industries.

I’ve teamed up with my friend and Operations Director for the past 2 years, Brittany Becher, to co-found this new company. It’s literally been in the works for 11 months as we carefully planned and plotted every week.

Both of us come from an agency background, and we realized that for us to scale our respective businesses, we needed a different type of structure, and quite frankly, we didn’t want to build something bigger flying solo.

Scoop will focus on digital marketing for small businesses. We’ll be continuing to offer strategy, content/copy, tech and other services, and more products like Inside Scoop Academy will be developed over time.

So, what does this mean for you, my clients and community of listeners and readers?  Here’s a rundown:

The Marketing Moxie show will continue in 2016 and I’ve committed to another season focused on What’s Working Now of at least 12 episodes.

This blog will continue with two blog posts a month focused on a mix of business and more with a personal twist. Less tips and tricks, more deep thoughts, snark, sass and business goodness. It will become a little showcase for what I’m thinking and seeing in the industry called Maggie, Unlimited.

Scoop will have a twice weekly blog completely jam-packed with digital marketing, behind-the-scenes on what we’re learning from our clients and more. Plus, we’ll be adding a podcast in the first half of the year.

As for newsletters, you’ll still get The Scoop on Thursdays in your inbox curating ALL of this content, as well as things we’re diggin’, smart articles and much more.

2. Working my Ass Off for a Book + Publishing Deal  

My big push project for this quarter has been writing a book proposal for my digital marketing focused book for female entrepreneurs.

This is one scary mofo project.

Even writing about this here on the blog scares the ever lovin’ shit out of me. The goal to get a book traditionally published is the stuff my little 8 year-old Maggie dreamt of and pushing towards it is alternately exhilarating and terrifying. (Excuse me while I curb the urge to vomit as I write this.)

Right now, I’m in the process of pitching agents to find representation for this book. I’ve had some rejections and some agents quickly respond to take the proposal, but this is a long way from done. Which is why I’m putting this as a key goal for the coming year to get the agent lined up, a publishing deal and then the book written.

Ambitious? Completely. But if I’m in, I’m ALL in. (And if you happen to be an literary agent representing non-fiction writers reading this, I’d be happy to send you my proposal – it’s kinda awesome.)

I’ll keep you posted. Because any way you slice it, this is going to happen no matter what. Done deal. Coming to your local book store soon.

3. Family + Personal Time

2016 is going to be a year of expansive growth personally and professionally, so I’m making a renewed, conscious effort to focus on having a life.

That may make you laugh, or you may feel me 100%. But when you’re working so hard, it’s easy to let having a life slide.

And remember the theme for the year being space? Things at home have lined up completely magically with shift changes for my husband and more free time than ever before. (That’s a full blog post for the new year!)

This concludes my very own business edition of the E! True Hollywood Story, Maggie style.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. This is is the longest post I’ve ever written but I hope you’ve found a nugget or something in here that’s useful for your journey. Wishing you all the best for 2016.

Categories
blogging content marketing strategy

The Secret of Promoting Your Blog Posts

blog 12.10

You’ve written a blog post so it’s cause for celebration. Pop the bubbly! Alert the press! You’ve got BIG THINGS to share.

Prepare for the parade of people to your site to be wowed by your genius.

If only this blogging thing was this easy.

The truth is that publishing a post is only half (or maybe even less than half) the battle. Once your little slice of genius is on the web, now you need to promote it, because if you publish it, it doesn’t mean you’ll magically have readers.

Blogging is an exercise in persistence, patience and promotion. It’s all about the long game, because while one post may be the one that sends you lots of traffic, you may find you get crickets on others and you need to build a loyal, faithful audience over time.

While you may have heard the overnight success story of a blogger who made a zillion dollars just blogging, that’s the exception and not the rule. Most blog posts don’t see the light of day, so it’s up to you to understand that to build an audience, people need to see your posts. And for them to see posts, you need to be hustling to promote them.

So while you’re furiously planning out your posts for the coming months, promotion needs to part of that plan.

Let’s break down how to promote your posts from the day of publishing and beyond:

Publishing Day

Your post is published, so now what? The question you need to answer here is how do you get eyeballs on your post and connect with YOUR audience so your content is found, read and shared.

The key is to figure out where your ideal audience can be found. Promoting to a bunch of places with wrong-for-you readers isn’t going to do much to build your business which, after all, is the point of blogging for your business.

Cultivate a list of places to promote your post based on where you know your ideal audience is. Create a checklist so that once you publish, you know you need to ensure to hit each of those places.

What should you include on your list? Here are a few suggestions:

  • Social media networks
    • Craft a series of social media updates/images for each social network
    • Call out any expert sources you refer to in your post on social media
    • Sharing in groups you’re involved in
    • Promote via an ad on Facebook
  • Reach out to influencers via email
  • Submit it to Scoop.it or Reddit
  • Answer questions with your post on Quora

That’s by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s a good place to start. Remember, this is just publishing day – day one of many of promoting your content. But get intentional, build that checklist and set aside time to promote on the day you publish.

The Week After Publishing

Extend the life of your content by ensuring you continue to promote your post  in the week after you publish.

The big one is continuing to share it on social media with new updates, fresh images and more. Don’t assume that because you had two Tweets and a Facebook update about the post that everyone saw it. Social media moves fast so your content likely isn’t being seen by even a smidgen of your total possible audience.

Beyond social, this is a good time to consider republishing the content on other networks including Medium or the Huffington Post if you’re a blogger there. Many sites enable you to syndicate your content there so you’re able to share the content that you’ve already published.

The key here is to get creative so you can continue to share this content over and over again so it doesn’t lose momentum.

Weeks and Months to Come

If you’re publishing weekly, it’s easy to create a 7 day promotion cycle and then simply move on to your next post. But there’s so much possibility in each piece of your published content. Every month, spend time planning out how to maximize that content so you can continue to use it as an asset.

Every post is an asset, which means you can save time by recycling your brilliance. (And if you need help getting this organized, check out the Blog Planner Toolkit – there’s a content recycling email in that series that you won’t want to miss!)

My challenge to you is to take each piece of content and recycle it using at least one of the below ideas:

  • Create a graphic for Pinterest and start building your presence on this fun platform. (This is quickly becoming of my biggest sources of traffic to my site.)
  • Turn your blog post into a Slideshare. This forgotten network is a great place to share content especially if you run a B2B business.
  • Repurpose the content as a podcast episode, audio training, video training or other piece of content you can publish. Remember, you should only be covering a set number of topics and themes, so you will cover the same topic more than once.
  • Take all of your posts on a theme and turn them into a piece of opt-in content that subscribers can sign up for.
  • Resurface your posts using a social media tool like EDGAR so your best content continues to be seen and shared.
  • Share your past blog posts as part of your welcome email sequence after your opt-in gift. Your best posts are the perfect thing to share with new subscribers.
  • Take multiple posts and re-use the content in list posts, round-ups and other new posts.

If you can, pick how you can extend the life of your content as you’re planning it so you’ve got a plan in mind and can create any social updates, images or other assets as required. For example, when our team creates a blog post, we create two Pinterest images with it, knowing we’ll be using them in the coming weeks. That little bit of foresight saves time (and money) later!

Are you ready to start promoting and not just publishing your posts? Make this a priority for 2016 and you’ll reap the benefits of greater traffic and more of your content being seen.  And you can get an extra hand with your blogging for the New Year by signing up for the Blog Planner Kit below.

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The Marketing Moxie Show

Episode 116: Jules Taggart-Boosting Revenue by Marketing to Existing Clients

episode 116

What’s working now continues as we dive into a specific tactic that’s helped Jules Taggart do less outbound marketing and increase the percentage of referrals and repeat clients. If you run a services-based business, you’ll want to listen to what Jules is doing and get these ideas into action.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

  • Jules shares how and why she has spent more time this year marketing to current and past clients and people in her inner circle instead of mass marketing
  • Jules explains how she keeps touching base with clients without feeling pushy
  • Jules shares her 4 steps she uses to market each client individually according to their needs
  • Sending your potential clients information pertinent to them lets them know you’re thinking about them whether or not you decide to work together
  • Once she’s wrapped up a client, Jules explains what she does to continue nurturing that relationship
  • Once you’re done working with someone, anticipating what’s next for them and how you can help them further is key to continuing your relationship
  • Playing the long game in sales is how Jules has shifted her marketing and kept clients coming back
  • Jules tip for scheduling the follow up so you don’t keep putting it off or miss it
  • Jules shares some of her results from focusing her marketing in this way over the past year
  • Asking for referrals is key, and doing it in the right way is super important
  • Jules explains how doing less marketing is okay, it’s more important to be doing the things you want to do

[clickToTweet tweet=”Market to your existing clients and boost your biz with @julestaggart @magspatterson” quote=”Market to your existing clients and boost your biz with @julestaggart @magspatterson”]

Top 3 Takeaways for this Episode:

  1. Be of value and understand your sale cycle. Be very strategic about when you touch people and how you do it. If you have a longer sales cycle, you may need to get creative!
  2. I’m very passionate about the thank you note: a hand written, thoughtful note speaks volumes. It’s way more personal than an email and will set you apart.
  3. If you want to have repeat clients continue to come back to you, you need to be anticipating their needs. Don’t just follow up with ‘do you need something else?’ Instead, offer help with something specific you know they have coming up. Do this with real acts of service in mind and not in a pushy, ‘sales-ey’ way

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Links for this Episode:

julestaggart.com

Episode 109

Link to Free Marketing Moxie Facebook Group

Categories
blogging

3 Strategic Blogging Tips for 2016

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There are a lot of things in business that feel like a grind because you have to keep repeating them over and over and over again.

Take for instance, writing blog posts. This is a pain point for most business owners because they 100% know the value of publishing on the regular, but it takes time, energy and a plan to actually make it happen.

And while you know all of that, your blogging may still look something like this:

Night before the day you usually publish. It’s getting late. I’ve got NO ideas. In fact, as I sit here trying to conjure up a post idea, ideas are as elusive as the Loch Ness Monster. And really, I just want to eat popcorn and watch Scandal.  And whoops, hold on, what do you mean it’s midnight? (As you wake up hugging the popcorn bowl after a power nap on the couch.)

Two weeks since your last blog post.  Still not sure what to blog about. Well, I’ve not blogged for a couple weeks, so what the hell, what’s another week? I’ll get to it later because there’s sooooo much other stuff. (Blogging avoidance going on right here, because if you’re cleaning out the linen closet instead of blogging, that’s a sign.)

One month before you need to launch. Oh crap, I’ve not blogged for 12 weeks. Now I need to find a way to blog to warm people up for my launch, and I’ve not emailed my list, and OMG, I’m gonna look like a total d-bag.  (And yes, now you’re going to look skeevy and your community may feel like a ATM.)

The truth is, if you’re going to blog, you need to show up consistently and deliver the goods. The proverbial goods being high quality content, great value and a regular message in your subscriber’s inboxes.

But how do you make that all happen?

With a new year on the way, and blogging in your sights for 2016,  now’s the time to lock in your blogging plan so you’re not avoiding your blog come January 1st.  Get started with these three blogging tips:

#1.  Start by Mapping Out Your Goals

If every week you’re picking a topic out of the air, let’s face it – the content you’re creating isn’t as strategic as it could be.

Blogging is part of your content marketing strategy, and that strategy should be supporting your business goals.

Maybe the goal is to grow your email subscriber base, book more clients or boost your bottom line, but your content needs to have a specific goal in mind.  Sure, your content can entertain, but it also should be tied to a clear business goal.

Once you’ve figured out your goals, then you can start to reverse-engineer your content. For example, going into the launch of the Inside Scoop Academy: Marketing School this year, all of my blog content was related to topics we would cover in the course including conversions, storytelling, copywriting, email marketing and more. The goal was to get my readers thinking about those areas of their marketing in a new way and open them up to my approach.

With clear goals for your blogging, creating content gets a whole lot easier as you’re able to see exactly what your readers need from you.  The purpose of each piece of blog content is to be a key part of the customer journey.

#2. Execute Quarterly Content Storming

Your goals are ready, so now you’re on the way to better blogging. But before you get carried away creating an editorial calendar, please close that Google spreadsheet.

Before you create that editorial calendar, you need a big dose of creativity.

The goal isn’t just to create content and check it off the list.  The real goal is to create the type of content your readers can’t resist, makes your business stand out and serves a real need.  Also, to create content that isn’t so cliched or vanilla that your people roll their eyes when they see it in their inbox.

Which is why you need to put at least an hour or two each quarter on the calendar for a Content Storming session.

This is a brainstorming session where you go wild and just come up with ideas.  The end result is to create a stockpile of blogging ideas for use in the weeks and months to come by answering questions such as:

  • What core themes are important to my clients and business?
  • What business goal(s) does each theme support?
  • What are five topics for each of my themes?
  • What are the FAQs I get from my community and clients?
  • What are the top things people need to know about what I’m offering?
  • What are three things that I feel strongly about?

My favorite way to content storm is to get in my office, play some tunes I love and then bust out my sticky notes. As I answer each question, each one goes on a sticky note. From there I can organize them to see how 12 weeks of content can come together and support my business goals in the process.

From there, I then place them into an editorial planner document that my team uses for the quarter as part of our overall content plan.

Get Your Free Blog Planner Kit Now

 

#3. Create a Blog Process that Holds You Accountable

Having ideas for each week’s post isn’t enough to make sure you actually write and publish your posts. Which is why I recommend you create some type of blog post process that holds you accountable. If you have a Virtual Assistant (VA), clearly document the steps and deadlines for each part of the process. It may seem like a lot of “needless” work, but you’ll be thanking me once you have weeks of content actually published. In my case, I know I have to write my posts by the end of the day on Monday to ensure that my communications coordinator Lizzie has time to prepare them for publishing on Thursday. Many times I’m ahead of that schedule, but knowing it’s due to someone helps me ensure it gets done on the weeks where I’m tempted to bail. If you’re a party of one, this is the perfect thing to work with an accountability partner on.  Make a plan to exchange blog posts each week so you both actually publish them. And if you don’t have an accountability partner, get one for the new year. It can be a peer or a friend, but it needs to be someone who will hold you to what you commit to getting done. (Think of them as your gym buddy, but for your biz.) That’s it – three steps that can help you get on your way to better blogging in 2016.  Get your blogging ready for 2016 with the FREE Blog Planner Kit full of templates and more to get you on your way to better blogging.