consistency Archives - My Team Connects

How do you stay consistent?

A few online tools keep my team and me on task. These tools are all free until you decide you need an upgrade, and I recommend them to help you stay on track. These are the ones I really couldn’t live without. If you’re getting started managing your content in house, check out these tools today:

Feedly

…for regular story ideas and curation. Not sure if you remember Google Reader, but I’d been saving blog posts and online articles from newsites for years when Google stopped this service. Almost immediately, Feedly burst on the scene to replace it. And wow, what an improvement! Add the feeds you like to categories you define and you’ve got your content creation made in the shade. I check in daily and hit the categories I like to tweet about and share.

Buffer

…is the next step for social sharing. This SaaS was made for social sharing of your content or others’ content. Add the Buffer extension to your browser of choice and simply click it every time you find an article you want to share. (You can even add stories to your Buffer right from within Feedly.) The idea behind Buffer is you set up your social profiles and the times you want to share content. Then, all you do is click your Buffer icon extension and add text to go with the link. You can use the title, which automatically populates, or you can delete that and add your own words. In the paid version of Buffer, you can even queue up your best-performing social shares (analytics provided) in a library for easy, one-click re-use.

Coschedule

…for free and paid content calendars. OK, these worksheets are sweet. CoSchedule is a SaaS we use here at Content Boomer and My Team Connects, and we’re big fans. They’ve created free content calendars to help you get some direction regarding your website posts. If you’re at a loss as to what to post; what subjects you need to cover for your ideal audience; and how to schedule your content throughout the coming months and year… these help you think it through. Download these helpful content calendars and get to work. (By the way, as an affiliate, I get a tiny compensation when someone purchases a paid calendar that links to your WordPress site, and enables you to share your blog content to your social sites. But you can use the downloadable calendars for free.)

Trello

… for organizing your thoughts and managing projects. Organizing your ideas, sources you need to cite, images you’d like to include in your next blog post, and random thoughts you may or may not use in the article you’re writing… can be a big, hairy deal! Trello helps you get all your ducks in a row by allowing you to create separate boards for each blog post on your content calendar. You can add cards (like notes) to each list you create. Here’s an example (below) of a typical board. This one is titled Content Boomer Posts and each list includes links to articles and ideas I want to explore. Some lists include book links, pictures, etc.

Trello is great because it has tons of features like folder colors, the ability to add team members to a list or a card within a list, and assign due dates to cards. You can organize your boards in any way you like. I’ve shown you how I use Trello to collect content ideas, but I also use Trello to manage projects. I can easily move tasks from one list to another (I particularly love to move cards to a “Completed” list) and even assign them to members of the team. You have to try Trello if you do not yet have a project management system in place. It’s a great option for basic project management — and it’s free.

How about you? What tools have you found that you couldn’t live without?

P.S. Some links in this article are referral links, and I may receive payment if you click on them. Just so you know!

As an expert in your field (but an email marketing slacker), how do you manage to be right in front of your most perfect prospect or client at just the right moment? The moment they have that problem only you can help with?

One of my favorite sales trainers, Coleen Francis summed up what I’ve been thinking lately. If your sales are a hit or a miss, just remember that timing is everything. [paraphrasing… You can read the article here.]

The more you are in contact with your prospects, the more you establish a connection. But liking and trusting you will NOT convince a prospect to purchase anything from you. You must be seen as an expert who can solve their problem.

That means “Persistence.” Mastering a few ways to connect with customers and doing them over and over again. That doesn’t mean taking the advice of all the online gurus out there. (You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to keep up!)

It just means sticking with a few tried and true marketing channels and forcing your small business to stick to a marketing plan; one that includes email.

Even if you’re a marketing slacker — but an expert in your industry — you can do this.

First you should know the difference between consistency and persistence…

Being consistent is one thing. Consistency says a few things about you:

Sending regular emails at regular intervals develops your positioning as an expert in your field.

It also gently reminds your customers that you are still reaching out to them with information and offers because you are in business to serve THEM.

Finally, it tells them you actually WANT their business.

Being persistent, however, well that’s a mindset that YOU need to reach your goals. It’s not what you do; it’s how doggedly you pursue what you do with passion.

Persistence is reflected in consistent messaging and the standard application or delivery of it to your customers. But consistency is merely a behavior. Behind that behavior is “bulldog persistence.”

You have to master persistence in order to amplify sales. Who ever heard of a successful salesperson who didn’t have this characteristic? You don’t have to be a salesperson to hit your numbers, though. You can do it with email and blog posts, too. Persistence is the common denominator.

If you’re having some trouble establishing a regular schedule for your email marketing, here are some self-starting tips:

There’s no shame in copying. If you receive marketing emails from a business you value, note how often they send and what kind of content they share. Are they offers? Notifications of sales? Information? Use others’ email campaigns to inspire a schedule — and content ideas — for your business.

Limit the time you spend crafting a campaign to two hours or less. Establish a set time slot each week and dedicate yourself to it just as you would a meeting with a colleague. Set a timer and force yourself to crank something out.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel each time; use a template that has some flexibility and simply fill in the blanks. Once your email design is set up within your email service you can simply copy and paste new content each week. You can even compose your email directly within your email service.

Looking for some email inspiration? Subscribe to some email marketing blogs and see what the trends are that are working for other small businesses like yours. Or, you can download these templates from the email service I use…

Use the medium you prefer to get your message out there. Is it easier for you to just say it, rather than write it? You’re not alone. Speak into a digital recorder and have the file transcribed. For a few bucks you can take a 3 or 4 minute message to your customers and have it converted to text you can directly import into your email service. (Your transcriber may even do that for you as an added service! Video is becoming a preferred choice for marketers, too. Make a quick video and post a link to it within your email. Easy — done!

Divvy up your duties among your team. If each person is responsible for only one email per month, no one will feel overwhelmed.

Set a goal (say one email campaign per week) and put it on the calendar. Just writing down the task, along with a topic idea if you can, will help you make sure it gets done. If you merely think to yourself “I have to write that email sometime this week” — and you never put it on the schedule — you may not ever get to it.

If you love what you do, but hate the marketing and email copywriting; you’re not a slacker. (I just said that to get you to read this.) You may just need a little help with your marketing, that’s all.

Jack Canfield, the Chicken Soup for the Soul author knows something about persistence. His book was initially rejected by over 130 publishers. This was before you could self-publish your book and market it yourself. Authors were beholden to the almighty New York publishers. (Glad those days are over!)

Canfield didn’t give up. He sent his manuscript out one more time and hit the mark. The Chicken Soup series has now sold over 120 million copies in over 40 languages with over 200 spins-offs of the book. That’s a lot of “overs!”

Canfield says persistence is probably the single most common quality of high achievers.

The longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will happen in your favor. No matter how hard it seems, the longer you persist, the more likely your success. ~Jack Canfield

I call that “bulldog mentality.”

Bulldog persistence is what makes email marketing (and for that matter blogging, social media, and cold calling) a meaningful contributor to your brand-building, your reach and ultimately your sales. It’s what enables people who hardly know you (personally) to think of you as an the expert you are.

As you develop a marketing strategy that aims for consistency, dig deep for the persistence to stick with it. Stay passionate enough about your business to want to share it with all your best prospects…

So the eighth and final tip for staying persistent… (I’m tagging this on because you’re never supposed to have eight; seven’s the magic number): Hire out the job to an email and copywriting expert. Shameless plug for MyTeamConnects, yes, but it could make the most sense for helping you achieve your goals.

Does persistence come easy to you? Are you a bulldog, never-give-up online marketer? Are you a marketing slacker? I’d love to hear your secrets. Pop on over to Facebook and tell me about it there!

*This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one, I may receive compensation for the referral.

Four Free Tools For “Type A” Blogging Consistency

A blog is the way to go for getting your marketing message out there, but for it to stick, you must blog consistently.

How do you stay consistent?

Feedly

Buffer

Coschedule

Trello

The Slacker’s 7 Steps To Off-The-Chain Email Campaigns

It just means sticking with a few tried and true marketing channels and forcing your small business to stick to a marketing plan; one that includes email.

First you should know the difference between consistency and persistence…

Finally, it tells them you actually WANT their business.

If you’re having some trouble establishing a regular schedule for your email marketing, here are some self-starting tips:

If you love what you do, but hate the marketing and email copywriting; you’re not a slacker. (I just said that to get you to read this.) You may just need a little help with your marketing, that’s all.