The challenges you face in starting a business are different than any other thing you’ll do in your career. Episode 131 is a summary of my 10-part series about the early days of my small business – my strategies, successes, and mistakes – so that you have somewhat of a roadmap in your own journey.
Productizing Your Knowledge
If your business involves teaching or training, then you are in a good position to create “knowledge products” out of your expertise. Whether you sell these “outputs” or use them for customer acquisition, a little planning up front can help you work towards something bigger in your content strategy.
Building Your Email List
Email is your conversion instrument. It’s 40 times more effective than social media in this regard, so building your email list is one of the most important things you can do for your business. It pays to get started early, with a plan for segmentation and some simple automation as well.
Producing a Podcast: Pros and Cons
Have you ever thought about starting a podcast? It’s a great marketing tool, which is why I’m a big proponent of podcasting. Let’s take a look at the criteria for deciding whether or not it could be a good strategy for your business in particular.
Creating Effective Cornerstone Content
Cornerstone content supercharges your efficiency. It not only carries some the sales load, but it’s good for SEO too. With a little investment of time up front, it can pay dividends for years to come. Let’s look at why cornerstone content is so important, what it can do for your business, and a simple guide for how to get started.
Making the Fear Disappear
We all start out scared. But in order to be successful, you have to learn how to quiet the voice of fear in your head. It takes time, but making the fear disappear puts you in a position of power. You make better decisions, attract better customers, and produce better outcomes.
Surviving the First Few Months of a New Business
In the early days of a new business, structure is critical. Otherwise, how can you be sure that you are spending time on the right things – and that you are building something that your customers want? Episode 124 is about testing your initial assumptions to make sure you’re on the right track.
Finding Mentors and Models
What makes a great mentor, and more importantly, how do you know who will be the best mentor for you in particular? Here’s a rundown of the key things to look for – and key things to avoid.
Day 1 of Your New Business
The sooner you start interacting with and learning about your audience, the better. This starts on Day 1 of your new business – it’s too important to let it wait. A side benefit is that it gives you a system and structure for creating worthwhile content to serve your audience. Let’s take a look at exactly how to do that.
So You Want to Start a Business?
There’s so much to learn when you are starting a business, and the challenges that you will face are as unique as your own fingerprints. It will be up to you to chart your own path, but it helps to have a map. That’s why I created this 10-part series, taking you through my process as I built my own business.
Creativity Is a Business Imperative
You can draw people in with your creativity. Or you can repel them with annoying ads. We have a choice, and my strong belief is that the storytellers and artists will win, while the aggressors and interruptors will lose. Let’s commit to making every interaction with your audience either educate, inspire, enlighten, or entertain.
Repurposing Content to Create an Online Course
In today’s world, the selling process really is about teaching. Here’s my method to streamline the process of creating a online course that you can use for customer acquisition, customer on-boarding, or just to “productize” your knowledge and create a new revenue stream.
Repurposing Content: The Downstream Method
If you’re not repurposing blog content for your social posts, you are missing a huge opportunity to save time and effort. In this week’s episode, I cover how to reuse the meta description, the post excerpt, and the post content itself so you can streamline your social media activities.
Repurposing Content: The Upstream Method
Have you ever thought about writing a book, but can’t find the time? In this week’s episode, I lay out my entire blog-to-book process – from planning to execution. It allows you to achieve two goals at the same time: Completing a large project and building an audience while you do it.
Repurposing Content Across Different Contexts
Marketing is getting highly personalized. Each channel is its own community, which means that one “message” won’t cut it anymore. Let’s look at the ways this affects how you repurpose content across different channels, in different contexts.
Repurposing Content Across Different Formats
Are you repurposing blog posts into email newsletters? This and other strategies for making more than one use out of your content can make you much more efficient. Here’s how to do it safely and effectively.
Repurposing Content Is a Part of Any Content Strategy
Are you making multiple uses of blog posts, press releases, and emails to customers? With a little planning up front, content strategy helps you think a few steps ahead and save yourself valuable time – while building a set of content as a business asset.
How to Syndicate Content Safely on Medium
Have you been reposting your blog content on Medium? It’s a great way to extend your reach, and with Medium’s new “Import a Story” feature, it’s incredibly easy – and 100% safe for SEO. In this week’s episode, I give a quick overview of how to incorporate this into your content strategy.
Content Syndication: Safe SEO Practices for Your Blog
Duplicate content is bad for SEO – or is it? Content syndication, done properly, is not only safe – but encouraged. There are 4 methods for syndicating content, two of which I endorse for a clean and effective content strategy.
The Four Principles of Teaching Your Customers
Do you like to be sold to? I don’t. “Push marketing” can only generate awareness. While awareness is important, it’s only Step 1. Trust comes when you try to teach your customers instead – bring some value to them instead of just pushing product on them.