I hate it when a perfectly intelligent and super person lets her blog die out because she hates writing. So when one of my favorite clients admitted she hasn’t posted in, well, let’s just say a few weeks, I tried to find a way to show her an easy, alternative way to blog. ‘Cuz every professional should find a way to have an Internet presence that works, no matter what.
Author Archive for Patsi Krakoff – Page 67
I work with a lot of coaches, writers, and consultants. Some of them are doing well, in spite of the recession. Others are struggling. I often wonder what the difference is between those that stay afloat in a downturn and the others. I think it's their marketing savvy more than their talent or education, but who really knows?
One of my favorite clients, a successful executive coach with a Ph.D., emailed this week to say how frustrating it is in the coaching field these days. It seems everyone's a coach. People take an Internet coaching course and market themselves by giving away free sample coaching sessions.
As a trained organizational psychologist with licenses and years of experience, he doesn't feel he should be giving away free sessions. I don't blame him. And yet, I was thinking…
The problem is universal. How do you attract new clients without standing on the sidewalk like a carnival barker, begging people to come into your tent?
I guess this is why Chris Anderson author of The Long Tail, has written a new book called Free: The Future of a Radical Price.
I love salt. When I was a kid a used to dip my fingertips in salt and suck them. When I was a teenager, and afraid of gaining weight, I’d just lick the potato chips and throw them away. Or sometimes I’d suck on Cheetos and not actually eat them. Only in private, of course.
Then when I quit drinking, over two decades ago, my craving for salty things went away. Unfortunately, it was replaced by a love for sugar and all things sweet. But that’s a whole other story…
Recently my taste buds seem to be changing back again. Right now I’m snacking on Mexican peanuts, very salty with a touch of lime. It’s only 10 a.m. and I already had breakfast. So, what’s that about?
I think it’s one of those, “It’s time to write, gee I’m hungry…” kind of thoughts.
I'm a nice person and I'm highly educated. As a result, my writing can really stink. I'm not kidding. There's nothing worse than writing nicely, except maybe writing intelligently, if you want to get read and make an impact.
I've been trying to write a post about this idea for some time. Then along comes this person I'd never heard of before, Pace Smith, over on Copyblogger, and she writes a brilliant post much better than I ever could.
Go there, go read it now. I'm not going to be nice about it, I'm telling you, you must read this post now…She gives really good examples of writing samples that are wishy-washy and shows you how to be bold.
Why You’re Too Qualified and Respectful to Produce Great Content
by Pace Smith
If you’re like most bloggers, you’re making two huge mistakes with your content. You’re suffering from both qualification and respect when you write.
You’ll need to leave both of those behind if you want to be a successful writer with high conversion rates. The only way to write powerfully is to be bold, and to write boldly you must stop qualifying yourself and being overly respectful. Read the rest here…
How to Make Your Content Work For You:
How do you know if the content you write and publish on the Web is working for you?
Content marketing isn’t as easily measurable as ads used to be. However, the payoffs can (and should) be better!
Here are a few things you’ll notice when we’ve done some work on your content marketing strategies together:
- Increase in web traffic and blog traffic
- More downloads of your key content pieces
- More requests for further information (new prospects, new leads!)
- People who contact you are already “pre-qualified: and “pre-sold”
- More opportunities to improve your marketing reach through media contacts & joint ventures
- Improved reputation, brand recognition, and customer relations
- More clients, more work, more money! (and perhaps more time to do what you love?)
If you need a boost to make your online content do a better job for you, may I suggest a Content Marketing Strategy Review? I also write quality content for certain niches (personal and leadership development).
Here’s how we can work together. I am an experienced online content marketing specialist, journalist and psychologist. You may not think you need the psychologist part of that, but you’d be surprised…
I guarantee you’ll come away with an inspired plan of action. Stop working to create content. Instead, make your content work for you to get leads, get known, and make more money.
Here’s how I can help you get more mileage on your content marketing tires.
Option 1: Blogging Services
A blog review and critique – A review of 4 key areas of your blog:
a. Content
b. Outreach
c. Design
d. Action & results
b. Outreach
c. Design
d. Action & results
Content Marketing Blog Review: Price $195
Delivered by phone and email
Blog writing and posting: If you need a ghost writer to supplement your blogging, please email or call me to discuss these services. I have one slot open right now, but this gets filled quickly.
Blog Directories Submission Service: In order to start promoting your blog, you want to get listed in all the appropriate blog directories. Don’t waste your time doing this yourself. My handy VA will help do this for you, including 10-12 hours of painstaking work.
Blog Directories Submission Service: Price $125
Option 2: A white paper, ebook, case study or special report
You probably can’t write about yourself the way an experienced Internet journalist can. Here’s how to create a key piece of killer content that sells you and your services better. You can use this to attract the right people and get them on your marketing list.
Let me do it for you. I will interview you, review your current content marketing information, and create a new piece exclusive for you and your business.
Customized White Paper: $1900.
Customized White Paper Payment Plan: $1275 + $675.
Delivered digitally, PDF formatting available.
Questions? Want to see if we can come up with something new and different for you? Email and let’s talk.
Option 3: Content Strategy Review
By now you might have a clue that having a great blog is needed, but not enough,and then there’s an ebook or white paper, and Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facedbook. It can be overwhelming…
Which is most important, how much time should you be spending, where should you be putting your energies and resources…?
Let’s talk about your content marketing strategy, and what it should be doing for you.
Content Marketing Strategy Consultation hourly fee: $200.
Option 4: Content for Coaches and Consultants
I write quality articles that can be used in e-newsletters or blogs for executive coaches, on leadership issues. I also provide complete e-newsletter services for professionals in all coaching fields.
E-newsletter Services and Content available: ContentforCoachesandConsultants.com.
Here’s an email from a happy customer:
Hi Patsi,
The Thailandgolfzone is 3 years old today and still remains the single best investment I have made in marketing and client communications, by a long mile.
From your excellent set-up work and encouragement my blog has grown to over 387 posts (and counting), generated new leads that resulted in $2,000,000 US dollars (yes 2 Million!) in new business, and even catapulted me into becoming the “Thailand Golf Guru.”
For the latter I have been asked to write for Asian Golf Monthly, a major golf publication here, invited to speak on golf tourism at the Asian Golf Business Summit, interviewed by Forbes magazine along side of billionaire Herbert Kohler, and even contracted by the Thai government to be Thailand’s golf ambassador to the world! Wow, now the fun really starts!
Who would have imagined that a small one man operation like Golfasian armed with great service and a Blog Squad business blog and a customized newsletter to get the word out could have achieved so much success and fame in just 3 short years, and this is in spite of the world’s economic and equity crisis.
Well once again I have to thank you, Denise and Patsi, for your initial consultations, advice, and encouragement. I am 100% convinced that without your assistance on the Thailandgolfzone, these accomplishments over the past 3 years would have not been realized.
Keep up the great work, count me in as a true believer in your services, and feel free to use me as a reference for business blogs as well as your current venture, social networking for business success.
Best Regards,
Mark Siegel
Managing Director
Golfasian Co. Ltd.
+66-(0)2-714-8470
The golf experts in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia!
Another client reports…
Dear Patsi,
When we started working together back in 2001, I could never have envisioned the important role your newsletter service would play in the successful growth of my coaching business. As you recall, in the beginning we were only mailing a bi-monthly print newsletter to about XX subscribers. In the subsequent years, we converted from print to electronics and quadrupled our output.
Today, thanks to you, we’re e-mailing two newsletters per month to over 6000 readers! And because people like the newsletter and tell others about it, the list is rapidly growing.
Not long ago I received a call from the president of a company who wanted to talk about my
coaching services. When I asked him how he got my name, he replied, “I’ve been reading your newsletter for the past six months. In every issue, you describe our problems so well that I’d swear you’ve been following me around. We know you understand us, so we want to talk to you about helping us.”
Patsi, that’s a tribute to your knowledge and skills. You pick timely subjects and express them in a manner that helps people do their jobs better. Readers see my newsletter as a valuable service, not as an advertisement.
I suppose I could publish my own newsletter. But you’re a talented writer, which I am not, and you know how to publish newsletters in attractive formats, which I don’t. Besides, you save me an enormous amount of time that I can devote to income-producing activities. Teaming up with you is a win-win proposition. It increases the effectiveness of my newsletter and the profits of my business.
This year, Joan Walsh and I launched a new business, Kashbox Coaching, which offers corporate and individual coaching, strategic planning, and assessment services. We plan to start a newsletter for it soon (in addition to the ones you are currently producing for me), so expect a call. You’re our “go-to” person for building a successful company!
David Herdlinger
Herdlinger Associates
St. Simons Island, GA
I have a secret Internet crush on Havi Brooks. Everything she writes I wish I had written. I have a serious case of Content Envy.
It's all I can do to not steal her stuff. Well, that's not true, I got the "Internet crush" phrase from her because she said she has an Internet crush on Naomi Dunford of Itty Biz, whom I also admire but for other reasons. Naomi swears like I think, only she says those words out loud and writes them on her blog too.
For my series of occassional blog interviews about Content Marketing, I snagged an email exchange with Havi. Not easy, since she's on email sabbatical and I had to go through her assistant "can-do-ologist," Marissa, and then there was her duck Selma, and it's just tough these days getting to these blogging celebrities.
Fortunately I still have some clout in the blogosphere, and it helps that I recently rubbed elbows with Havi at Jen Louden's Writers Spa in Taos, NM.
Are you ready for this? I love Havi's responses, and I hope you do too. It inspires me to write bettah.
Havi Brooks and her duck Selma write about "biggification" (growing the cool thing you do) and "destuckification" (working on the stuff that gets in the way). You can hang out with them on the Fluent Self blog.
1. What does Content Marketing mean to you in your business?
It means not having to sell stuff.
Newt Barrett on Content Marketing Today recently reported what I have long suspected: visitors to company websites spend a lot of time reading the people or team member pages, you know the ones that describe "who we are"? It's common knowledge that one of the most clicked on blog pages is the About page, where authors showcase themselves.
But how much thought and time goes into writing bio pages? In my opinion, not enough. In fact (horrors!), I've seen company websites that don't even bother putting up a people page. No way to get to know the people running the show.
News Flash: People do business with people! Personality counts!
There's a reason new tools for social networking and online interacting are working like gang-busters. We're social animals and enjoy getting to know people, especially before hiring or buying something from a company.
So it's worth it to make your people pages the best you can.
How should you write your About page or your website Team/ People page? I see many professionals use their resumes. ("Dr. Smith has 20 years experience in strategic planning and holds an MBA from Harvard, etc.") But really, this is pretty boring and very old-school.
When I was little and an adult would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said I wanted to play all day. That got laughs. But I showed them, by turning work into play.
My father told me that if I wanted to be a journalist, I'd better get used to eating olive sandwiches because I'd never have any money. I didn't buy into that then and I don't now. I happen to love olives anyway…
I'm a big picture kinda gal. I don't do so well with the detail stuff, which makes me less-than-perfect when it comes to managing the Web tech stuff. But I can see where things are going. Are you in the mood to read Patsi's Predictions?
I can see the future of content marketing:
Here are 6 key questions to ask yourself every time you review your online content that markets you and your business:
- What problem do you solve?
- Who are you writing for?
- Why should anyone read this? Does the headline compel people to read more?
- How are you different from your competitors?
- If your ideal clients were to search for solutions to their problem, what keywords would they use? Are these keywords in the headline, first paragraph and repeated in the body?
- What key piece of content do you give away to visitors that showcases your expertise and engages with readers on a really human level?
These review questions apply to all your content: blog posts, emails, e-newsletters, special reports. What else should you ask yourself before you publish content? What am I missing that needs to be considered?
Content for Coaches and Consultants
Serenity Virtual Assistant Services
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