I wanted to let you all know of a FR*EE service that Tina Forsyth and team are putting together. Tina is creating a place where virtual support professionals can join and be listed in a directory. As long as you provide professional services to virtual/online based business owners, you are eligible to join. The THRIVE Hiring System will officially open their doors later this summer. Now would be a great time to sign up, set up your profile, and get ready for the grand opening later this summer. Here’s the link to sign up: http://www.thrivehiringsystem.com/hire/ 

Hi All,

A colleague of mine, Christine Gallagher, is hosting a FR*EE teleseminar on Wednesday, June 9, called, “Wild About WordPress: 7 Reasons Why it’s Now Super Simple to Create Your Own Customer and Client-Attracting Website—FAST, Without HEADACHES, and for FR*EE!"

On this FR*EE teleseminar, Christine will be sharing her tips on the number one website and blog platform in the world–WordPress. Christine knows her stuff! And, she makes it really easy to understand. Honest!

On this call you’ll learn:

* Why you don’t have to be a techie (really!) to get your site up and running in less than a day
* The one very important thing you want to be sure to look for when choosing a webhost for your WordPress site
* Why WordPress isn’t just for blogs–and how you can easily set it up as a full-blown, simple-to-use website
* What WordPress has–right out-of-the-box–that means you won’t have to hire an expensive SEO firm to get your site to rank in the search engines
* Why customizing your site is a lot easier (and more fun!) than you probably think
* Why answers to (even your toughest) WordPress questions are always just a click away
* Exciting new details about Christine’s upcoming course "Website Without Worry: Step-by-Step Strategies to Using WordPress, the Number One FR*EE Web Platform to Gain Clients and Customers FAST"

If you are interested in learning about WordPress and what it can do for you and your client, you’ll want to be on this call! Go here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/27os22n to register.

See you on the call!

To your success!,

Cindy

P.S. I’d love to know what your experience has been with social media, websites and blogging and whether you are still searching for a simple website solution yourself.

One of the things I feel very strongly about as I look around at all of the different ideas and programs available is that no one seems to be talking about what I consider to be the basics: 1) Knowing who your Ideal Client is and why; and 2) Understanding you are now a Business Owner. Today I want to talk just a bit more about Ideal Client, and next time I’ll talk about being a Business Owner.

I have a number of VAs who contact me with what they call “marketing problems.” They are having a difficult time filling their practice. During our conversations, I find they don’t really have a marketing problem so much as they have an Ideal Client problem. They are trying to be everything to everyone. When I ask them who their Ideal Client is I am usually told women, or women in transition, or coaches, etc. While that sounds great, it doesn’t tell me who your Ideal Client is and why she’s ideal. If you don’t know who you are doing what to, how can you do it? And therein lies the real problem: It’s not about marketing, but about knowing who you are marketing to and why at a deep core level.

There are three words I see being used interchangeably around Ideal Client. They are: Niche, Target Market, and Ideal Client. Many people use these three words synonymously. They are not the same. Let’s take a look at each one briefly:

Niche – This is primarily an occupational grouping. For example: Sports Channels, Financial Planners, Coaches, CPAs, VAs, etc.

Target Market – This is a grouping based on one or more common characteristics. For example: age, sex, location, occupation, product purchases, etc.

Ideal Client – This is the person (and yes I am going to refer to this as one person even though you will have several) who you connect with at your core. This is the person you know extremely well, so well, in fact, that you can list their problems as though they were your own problems. You understand their values, desires, and beliefs as well as you understand your own. It is because of this deep understanding that you are able to offer effective solutions and/or guidance to your Ideal Client.

It is this concept around the Ideal Client that will allow you to address the problems of your Ideal Client, offer solutions to your Ideal Client, and create the content on your website that speaks to your Ideal Client. In turn, this will allow you to market more effectively and easily. Once you know who you are doing what to, the rest of your marketing becomes easier.

©2010 Cindy Hillsey

A Note from Cindy: This is a guest post written by my VA Jackie Cunningham of Green Kite Virtual Assistance. She created my new Fan Page and when I started receiving emails asking me about it and whether there were tips/tricks to putting one together, I thought it best to let the expert handle those questions.

Facebook Fan Pages are an integral part of an effective social media strategy plan. While a Facebook profile represents an individual and is held under an individual’s name, a Fan Page is designed for businesses and organizations to share products and services and to interact with current and potential clients.

So why do you need a Facebook Fan Page?

1. Separate your personal profile from your business. You can keep your friends, family and the occasional embarrassing post or pic from that old college buddy separate from your professional or business posts.
2. A Fan Page is a useful tool for driving traffic back to your website or blog. It’s one more way to create awareness around your business and what you offer. And as the largest social network on the planet, and second most visited site on the Internet, Facebook means massive visibility! It’s an excellent venue for building your brand, promoting your products and services and publicizing your events.
3. Build a robust community around your business to interact and communicate with current and prospective clients.
4. Position yourself as an expert in your chosen market.
5. Fan Pages are public and searchable on the Internet, which makes them a great boost to your SEO.

Creating a Facebook Fan Page isn’t hard (find step-by-step directions here), but it does take a little preparation and strategy to make it work for you. One of the most important things to think about before creating your Fan Page is the name. From an SEO point of view, the name of your page is crucial. You’ll want the name to be something recognizable and meaningful to your clients, but also include good keywords. For example, instead of naming your page “Sue Johnson Coaching” go with “Sue Johnson – Mentor and Coach to Women Entrepreneurs in Direct Sales.” See the difference there? And once you name your page it can’t ever be changed, so give it some thought before you jump ahead.

Another critical factor is the design of your Page. If you already have a web presence, you’ll want to make the design consistent with the look and feel of your website. Use your logo, the same colors, your tag line – but make it compelling, unique and appropriate to your market. Fan Pages give you a lot of design flexibility with the option to use a custom banner graphic and to create your own custom tabs and boxes using the Static FBML application. You can go simple and understated or super-charged with audio and video, but be sure to keep your target market in mind and the image you want to portray.

Once you’ve created your Fan Page and published it for the world, you’ll want to add valuable content on a consistent basis. Engage your Fans by asking questions, offering special “Fan only” contests and specials, post status updates that include links to interesting or valuable articles, blog posts and videos you find. Be authentic – let your personality shine through so your Fans get to know, like and trust you. It’s all about building relationships in social media. Stay active in the conversation, posting responses to comments when appropriate.

Here are a few of my favorite tips and tricks for Facebook Fan Pages:

1. Take full advantage of the profile image area, which is 200 x 600 pixels. Create your own custom banner, or have one professionally designed for you.
2. Once you have 25 fans, go to www.facebook.com/username to select a custom URL for your page – most likely your business name. Be cautious here – you can never change the custom URL of a page.
3. If you have a blog, automatically publish your blog posts to your Wall and news feed with the Networked Blogs application.
4. Use the Static FBML application to create custom tabs for your Page, add an opt-in box or any custom HTML code.
5. In the “write something about yourself” box on the left sidebar of your Wall use lots of primary keywords that relate to your business for boosting your SEO.
6. On the “Info” tab, include information like when your business was founded, your website URLs, a company overview or mission statement, and a list of your products/services.
7. Fan Pages can be managed by multiple administrators who post as “the page” rather than as an individual. This is helpful if you have a VA helping you with updates and maintenance, or multiple people in your business who author status updates.

If you would like more information about building your presence on Facebook, developing your social media strategy and action plan or creating your Fan Page, email Jackie or visit her website at www.greenkiteva.com.

©2010 Jackie Cunningham

My good friend, Mia Chambers of Acumen Works, has just started a place for VAs to list their business at no cost. She consults with a lot of potential clients, and if they are not a fit for her she would like to be able to point them to her directory to help them find their ideal VA. How cool is that?!

If you’d like to list your business, click here and follow the directions!

Thanks, Mia! :)

In the last ezine, we spoke about marketing to your ideal client. You can click here for that article. Today, we are going to continue the marketing conversation. In order for you to really be able to connect with your ideal client, you must know what their problem is; i.e., you must feel their pain, because if you can’t feel their pain how can you possibly understand what they are going through? In addition, if you can’t say with conviction to your ideal client, “I’ve been there and I understand how you feel,” how can your ideal client benefit from what you have to offer? (The answer is they can’t! But you knew that, right?)

Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client. Would you purchase a product or service from someone who didn’t truly understand what your problem is and what it feels like? Of course you wouldn’t! This is why it is so important for you to understand who your ideal client is and what problems you can solve.

Now let’s talk about solutions. Your ideal client has several problems that need to be solved. Like anything else, though, you shouldn’t jump in and solve all of them at once. A sequential approach is best. I would suggest you sit down and make a list of all of the problems your ideal client either has or could have. Once you have this list, take a few moments and number the list in order of importance. Take a look at the list. What did you determine was your ideal client’s number one problem? Now, I want you to solve this problem. Remember, when you are putting together your solution, you want to retain that conversational tone.

The other thing you need to be aware of when you are solving any problem for your ideal client is, how are you going to provide the solution to them? What I mean is this: Will you provide them a step-by-step guide, is it an overview with a recommendation, is it a call to purchase, is it an action plan, is it a detailed process, or is it a strategy? The answer will depend upon what you know to be true about your ideal client and their problem.

Have a thought to share? Please leave a comment below — I’d love to hear from you!

—–
©2010 Cindy Hillsey

You are free to use this article in your ezine or blog  as long as you include complete attribution, including live website link. The attribution should read: “By Cindy Hillsey of Virtual Partnering. Please visit http://www.virtualpartnering.com for additional information.”

Now that you know who your ideal client is (click here for previous ezines on how to discover who your ideal client is), you should have an idea of how to market to them, right? If you know who your ideal client is, what problem she has, and where she hangs out, it should be fairly easy to craft your marketing message. Should be. While it is easy to craft your message, great care and attention must be given to that message. In every representation of yourself and your service/product to your ideal client, the message should unambiguously be in alignment with your ideal client’s concerns. Your content (audio, video, etc.) has to speak so strongly to your ideal client that they see themselves in your materials as though it were a personal communication for their eyes only.

How do you create your content so that your ideal client connects with your message? You do this by creating conversational material. What do I mean by that? Imagine yourself sitting in a comfortable room with your ideal client sitting directly across from you. You and she are having a conversation about who you are, how you came to be where you are in your business, and how you understand exactly where she is in her business because you’ve been there. You are having a conversation. You are not reciting your resume to her. You are telling her a story. Therefore, your writing should mimic this conversational tone. If writing in this manner sounds difficult to you, consider recording what you would say and having it transcribed. I, personally, am an auditory learner and as such I need to say out loud what I am writing. I have to "hear" how it sounds.

As always, when you are communicating with your ideal client you want to be certain you are using language they understand. In other words, if there is a particular jargon or lingo unique to your ideal client you need to reference it. This lets your ideal client not only know you understand the language, but that you understand them.

Want to comment on this article? Have a thought to share? If so, please leave a comment below.

(c) 2010 Cindy Hillsey

You are free to use material from the Bridging the Gap ezine as long as you include complete attribution, including live website link. The attribution should read: "By Cindy Hillsey of Virtual Partnering. Please visit http://www.virtualpartnering.com for additional information."

Let’s explore ideal client from the perspective of what happens when you cultivate your non-ideal client. Remember Amanda? (Click here to be introduced to Amanda.) Amanda is now in the process of filling her practice. She is contacted by a potential client who was referred to her by a friend. Amanda did her due diligence by talking to the potential client twice before they started working together. On the surface, everything seems to be right in Amanda’s world.

Fast forward one month. Amanda is tearing her hair out wondering why she agreed to work with this particular client. What do you think went wrong? Let’s start with the initial conversations Amanda had with the potential client. There were red flags that Amanda chose to ignore during these conversations. One red flag was a disregard for Amanda’s standards and boundaries. The other red flag was an attempt to exercise control along with unreal expectations.

Consequently, this relationship is strained, unpleasant, and unproductive. This is typical of a relationship with a non-ideal client. If a relationship is this hard, is it really worth keeping? Amanda should have adhered to her standards and boundaries and politely declined the offer to work together.

Filling your practice with non-ideal clients is worse than no clients at all! Who wants to hate what they do every single day? By listening to her intuition, or honoring the red flags if you will, Amanda could have saved not only herself, but the client a lot of frustration.

So, dear reader, do you have non-ideal clients in your business? What would your business look like if all your clients were ideal clients?

Did you have a chance to listen to Dr. Flora Brown interview me the other day about Overcoming the Fear of Success? If so, what did you think? If not, you can still listen by clicking this link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/florabrown

If you scroll down a bit to the section called, On Demand Episodes, you will see Color Your Life Happy: Overcoming the Fear of Success. That’s the show I did Monday, January 25th. Under the paragraph you will see a ‘download’ button. Click the button and you will be prompted to save the MP3. If you’d rather not download the call, you can click the ‘play’ button and it will play right from your computer.

I hope you find some useful nuggets in this call! Thanks for listening.

A funny thing happened the other day to me. I was writing the articles for my ezine this month and the topic happened to be around finding/discovering your ideal client. As I was writing the articles, I received an email from my ideal client (let’s call her Amanda) wanting to hire me to help her with her marketing. Gotta love that Law of Attraction, right?

As we began to talk, Amanda started to tell me that she wasn’t having a lot of luck marketing her VA business. I started to ask her some basic questions, such as, “Who is your ideal client? What is the problem your ideal client faces? Where are you marketing? How are you marketing?” This is where things got interesting. Amanda couldn’t tell me who her ideal client really was or what problem they faced! Without this critical piece of information she was trying to market her business, and guess what results she obtained? Right! Nothing. It was like shooting an arrow into a room full of a hundred people and not hitting a one of them.

So, I ask you, was Amanda’s problem really a marketing problem? No. Her problem is she doesn’t know who she is marketing to, and without that knowledge how can she even begin to market her business? By getting to the root of the problem Amanda can solve her marketing problem.

Let me ask you, dear reader, do you know who your ideal client is? Let me hear from you on this topic.