Strategies to Create a High-Sale Holiday Season Why Customer Reviews Are Critical for Your Business 10 Twitter Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
5 Types of Content to Post on Facebook 13 Customer Retention Emails Every Small Business Should Utilize
Kelly Roach Talks Entrepreneurial Success Through Conviction Marketing
Practical Tips to Help You Stop Micromanaging Your Employees Infographic: Best Video Marketing Practices by Channel November 2021
INSIDE THIS MONTH’S ISSUE Marketing Calendar- pg. 3
This holiday season, give your business the gift of more customers! There are few things that will make an entrepreneur’s entrepreneu holiday season more exciting than seeing their customer numbers rise. This month, we’re going to help you bring that holiday cheer to your business by sharing 10 Twitter marketing tips for small businesses, five types of content to post on Facebook and 13 customer-retention emails every small business should use. If you’re interested in getting into video marketing, we can help you there with best video marketing practices by channel. In case you need to get back to fundamentals, we’re also going to share some reasons why customer reviews are critical for your business and some strategies to create a high-sale holiday season. We don’t want to leave employees out of the holiday fun, so we’ve also got a few practical tips to help you stop micromanaging your staff. This month, for our Meet & Greet section, I enjoyed the honor of speaking to business strategist, coach and bestselling author Kelly Roach. Kelly is also the founder of Kelly Roach Coaching Human Family Foundation, the cofounder of The Courageous Brand, The Advanced Women’s Expert Network and Social Sellers’ Academy. During our interview, Kelly shared some amazing wisdom from her upcoming book, “Conviction Marketing,” explained her approach to becoming a business athlete, and share her advice for becoming a seven-figure CEO. To your business, Dennis M. Postema
Founding Editor & CEO
P.S. Spread the holiday cheer and let your friends know that they can get a free monthly subscription to SHOTCALLERS magazine simply by visiting our website! https://motivationandsuccess.com/ The content in Shotcallers Magazine is made available on the terms and conditions that the publisher, editors, contributors and relatied parties; shall have no responsibility for any action or omission by any other contributor, consultant, editor or related party; disclaim any and all liability and responsibility to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause; are not responsible in any way for the actions or results taken by any person, organization or any party on basis of reading information, or contributions in this publication, website or related product.
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10 Twitter Marketing Tips for Small Businesses - pg. 4 Why Customer Reviews Are Critical for Your Business - pg. 8 Strategies to Create a High-Sale Holiday Season - pg. 11 5 Types of Content to Post on Facebook pg. 14 Kelly Roach Talks Entrepreneurial Success Through Conviction Marketing - pg. 17 13 Customer Retention Emails Every Small Business Should Utilize - pg. 25 Practical Tips to Help You Stop Micromanaging Your Employees - pg. 29 4 Things Women in Business are Doing Wrong - pg. 33 Fun Facts - pg. 35 Infographic: Best Video Marketing Practices by Channel - pg. 36
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Marketing Calendar Plan your marketing messages around these upcoming holidays and proclamations.
November
Adopt A Senior Pet Month Aviation History Month Epilepsy Awareness Month International COPD Month Lung Cancer Awareness Month Military Family Appreciation Month National Adoption Month National Alzheimer’s Disease Month National Diabetes Month Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
4th - International Stout Day 4th - Candy Day 5th - American Football Day 6th - Nachos Day 7th - Daylight Saving Time Ends 10th - Marine Corps Birthday 11th - Sundae Day 13th - World Kindness Day 14th - Pickle Day 14th - World Diabetes Day 15th - Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day 16th - Entrepreneur’s Day 16th - Fast Food Day 17th - Take A Hike Day 18th - Mickey Mouse’s Birthday 19th - International Men’s Day 20th - Adoption Day 26th - Cake Day 28th - French Toast Day 30th - Computer Security Day
November 11 - Veteran’s Day November 25 - Thanksgiving November 26 - Black Friday November 27 - Small Business Saturday 1st - World Vegan Day 1st - Brush Day 2nd - Cookie Monster Day
December Impared Driving Prevention Month Write A Business Plan Month Tie Month Universal Human Rights Month Worldwide Food Service Safety Month November 28th - December 6th - Hanukkah December 25th - Christmas December 26th - January 1st - Kwanzaa 1st - World AIDS Day 2nd - Mutt Day 3rd - International Day of Persons With Disabilities 4th - Cookie Day 5th - International Volunteer Day 6th - Walt Disney Day 9th - Pastry Day 10th - Salesperson Day 10th - Human Rights Day 11th - App Day 3
12th - Universal Health Coverage Day 12th - Gingerbread House Day 14th - Free Shipping Day 15th - Cupcake Day 16th - Chocolate Covered Anything Day 17th - Maple Syrup Day 17th - Ugly Christmas Sweater Day 18th - Answer The Phone Like Buddy The Elf Day 19th - Free Shipping Day 21st - Crossword Puzzle Day 21st - Humbug Day 21st - Winter Solstice 22nd - National Re-gifting Day 26th - Whiner’s Day 26th - Day of Goodwill 27th - Fruitcake Day 28th - Chocolate Candy Day 31st - New Year’s Eve
10 Twitter Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
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Social media is a powerful marketing tool, and you don’t need a budget the size of a small country to launch a social media marketing campaign. Indeed, the primary purpose of social media is to distribute usergenerated content. So, a small business can leverage this powerful medium for no or little cost. Twitter may not be able to boast the largest number of active users, but onequarter of Twitter users visit the platform multiple times a day, and 60% of Twitter users are aged between 25 and 49 years old. So, if you want to catch people’s eye in that age group, Twitter is the place to be. Of all the social media platforms, Twitter is, arguably, the easiest to use, and, for a busy small business owner, time is money, so the simplicity of Twitter should be appealing. But you only have 280 characters per tweet, and the lifespan of one tweet is said to be only 18 minutes. So, how do you grab people’s attention on Twitter when your options are so limited? 5
Well, if you want to use Twitter to market your small business, you must make every tweet count. So, here are ten tips to help you get the most out of every tweet.
into the bio description but avoid keyword or hashtag stuffing in that space. 2. Set Goals and a Posting Schedule
1. Create a Recognizable Twitter might appear to Profile be a throwaway medium. But a Twitter marketing A Twitter profile needs campaign works best to be easy to find and when it is planned and instantly recognizable properly thought out. So, as belonging to your first, define what you want brand. So, use a Twitter to achieve with Twitter, handle that relates to your and then design and business name, is relatively schedule your tweets for short, and is easy to the next few months. remember. If possible, use the same username across Of course, your use of all the various social media Twitter will develop over platforms. time. You may change your mind about content, It is generally best for and you may change your businesses to use their approach when you see logo as their Twitter profile which tweets generate picture. You should brand the most engagement. the header image at the But it would be best to set top of your Twitter page, out with a clear objective too. You might want to in mind, whether that get more creative with the goal is generating leads, header image. You could, brand awareness, creating for example, promote a sales, or a mixture of those special offer in that space. objectives. Even so, your logo and business name should 3. Listen as Well as Talk appear in that space, too. Use Twitter as a tool Complete all the available for market research as fields in the User bio well as a platform to section, including location, broadcast messages to full business name, and your target audience. For the 160-character bio. Try example, check what your to get relevant keywords competitors are doing on
Twitter before you launch your campaign, and listen to what your target audience is talking about and discover what issues concern them. Understanding what is being said will help you pitch your messages with the right tone, and it will help you focus on what is most likely to attract attention. It will also be helpful to know what people are saying about your brand.
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company announcement, helpful information, or a sales message. Either way, every tweet should offer something of value to readers, even if the value is nothing more than putting a smile on someone’s face.
can increase engagement by as much as twofold. 5. Find the Peak Time for However, overusing Posting Tweets hashtags can reduce engagement. So, it is There are certain times critical that you only use when your target appropriate hashtags audience is most active and use them sparingly. on Twitter, and, as already Surveys have suggested mentioned, tweets have that the optimum number 4. Take Your Time a limited lifespan. So, it of hashtags per tweet is Composing Tweets would help if you found two. the optimum times for As mentioned in the posting tweets. You can find appropriate introduction, it’s easy to hashtags by searching on fire off a tweet. However, It has been found that Twitter for topics related try not to allow the the best days of the to your niche. Tools like platform’s simplicity to week to post are Fridays, Hashtagify and RiteTag will tempt you into posting Saturdays, and Sundays, also help you find popular ill-considered tweets in and afternoons and early hashtags related to your haste. Instead, take your evenings are generally keywords. time composing tweets the best times of the day. to ensure that you get the right message across, However, the best times to 7. Add Images and and think about the brand reach your target audience Videos to Tweets may differ from the personality you want to general peak times. So, do The effect of adding an portray when writing some online research to image to a tweet is quite tweets. find the most active times remarkable. This one simple Twitter marketing You will see lots of advice for your audience, and monitor the engagement trick is likely to increase about the importance of with your tweets to get likes and retweets by as tweeting often. However, the timing right. much as 90%. However, quality always wins over images need to be highquantity. So, avoid posting 6. Use Hashtags quality, relevant, and tweets for the sake of Sparingly engaging. tweeting. Try to make the images Using relevant hashtags you use as interesting as A tweet might contain a
possible. A product being used by a customer, for example, is way more interesting than a picture of a product against a plain white background. A photo of an employee working on something interesting will be more engaging than a posed headshot.
also generally go down well. Remember, the purpose of social media marketing is not to sell, sell, sell. Social media is all about engaging with your audience, providing value, and creating a buzz. The sales will come as a byproduct of the interaction with your target audience.
Videos increase engagement even more than images. So, consider creating some branded informative video content to go with your tweets. Video content can also be reused on other platforms and your website, so you get an excellent return on investment from marketing videos.
9. Don’t Forget the CTAs
8. Ask for Feedback Like all social media platforms, Twitter comes to life when you have a conversation. So, post tweets that are likely to generate comments, likes, and retweets, and encourage people to get involved in the conversation by asking them to comment on your tweets.
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You can also increase engagement by posting things like polls, surveys, and quizzes, and competitions with prizes
While you are busy entertaining and engaging, though, don’t forget the objectives you set. The primary purpose of Twitter marketing will be to generate leads, sales, or traffic to your website. So, you will need to include calls to action (CTAs) in some or all your tweets. The CTAs you use on Twitter will need to follow the same rules as CTAs on a website. Calls to action are best worded using commanding phrases like “visit our site,” “subscribe now,” or “shop now.” Although space is limited on a tweet, it would be best also to try to make CTAs stand out. You could capitalize CTAs, for example, and place them where they can be easily seen. 10. Evaluate and Adjust
Finally, you will need to monitor and evaluate the results of each tweet to gauge what type of content works best. In this respect, Twitter marketing is no different from any other marketing strategy. Track the engagement levels by monitoring comments, retweets, and likes. Observe the end results, too, such as click-throughs to your website, orders placed, or new subscribers to your newsletter. Then, adjust your strategy as appropriate to achieve the best results. But don’t repeat what you have done before. Instead, use the concepts of what was successful in creating new engaging content. So, even though tweets must be brief, there is a great deal of scope for marketing a small business on the platform. But you need to set out with welldefined objectives. And you need to monitor the results and adjust your strategy as appropriate. Most crucially, remember that Twitter is a place for discussions, not a hard sell. So, tweet content that offers value. And that value could be entertainment value, helpful information, or monetary value.
Why Customer Reviews Are Critical for Your Business The simple fact is that your business needs customer reviews to stay competitive. Some executives would scoff at that statement; others would acknowledge its truthfulness but argue that customer reviews are not an urgent priority for their organization. However, here are just a few of the key advantages that customer reviews offer: • Enhanced brand image/reputation • Increased customer conversion rate • Deeper consumer trust in your company and product 8
Can you really afford not to pursue the abovementioned benefits, especially in a highly saturated market? With that question in mind, the following information will discuss why consumers place so much trust in reviews, how customer reviews can impact your business, and what you can do to gain a steady stream of positive reviews for your company. The Trust Factor Have you ever seen an advertisement for a certain product or service and thought to yourself: “Yeah, it’s probably not as good as they say it is?” Then, a few days later one of your friends recommends that exact same product to you; in fact, he says that he uses it on a regular basis, and that it’s exceeded all of his expectations. Would you start reconsidering your first opinion? That same scenario plays out on a macro scale across countless consumer bases today. The truth is the majority of customers no longer trust organizations anymore. A company can spend countless dollars on advertising, with some
gains to show for it; however, most targeted consumers will approach the marketing message with more than a trace of skepticism. On the other hand, customers do trust individuals, whether they are family members, friends, or even influencers on social media platforms. When such individuals make product recommendations, consumers are much more likely to listen. A far-fetched claim? Not at all! In fact, there’s a mountain of supporting evidence that you can examine. For instance: • Forbes reports on a Nielsen study that found 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family members over all other forms of advertising. • Another survey found that 64% of marketing executives believe word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is the most effective form of marketing there is. • An estimated 77% of all Millennials have recommended a product or service to
someone else in the past month. • A Harvard Business School paper found that “online consumer reviews substitute for more traditional forms of reputation.” The paper found, among other things, that chain restaurants tended to lose market share as Yelp penetration increased. The logical conclusion: modern customers put more faith in online reviews than they do in name brand reputation. That last point is particularly telling, because online reviews are the Internet’s version of word-of-mouth marketing. As such, these reviews can either be a powerful driver for business growth, or a missed opportunity. The Business Impact of Customer Reviews Imagine this scenario: you walk into a restaurant on a Saturday evening. You’ve never been to this restaurant before, but you are excited to sample their cuisine. As you enter, you notice that the signage is well-lit and inviting, the dining room(s) seem to be exceptionally clean, and
the staff appears friendly. However, there’s one major problem that makes you feel uneasy: no other customer is eating at the restaurant. Why do you feel uneasy? Because there is a glaring lack of social proof that this restaurant is a good choice for dining out. In other words, if no one else is here, there must be something wrong. In a similar way, a lack of online reviews for your business can scare potential customers away as effectively as negative reviews. People care a lot about whether a business has online reviews to its name; one study found that 92% of customers will hesitate to buy from a company that has no customer reviews. Other research indicates that over half of US based online shoppers (53%) view customer reviews as one of the most important attributes of their online experience, behind only ease of search/navigation (61%).
onset of the relationship. Customers that are unsure about one company’s credentials can quickly move on to a competitor; a competitor that has the social proof to affirm its legitimacy. The bottom line is, without a steady stream of customer reviews coming your way, your company will get left behind, and may not be able to catch up. What You Can Do
Clearly, customer reviews are critical for your business’ long-term prospects. Now it’s time to discuss some practical ways to get those positive reviews. Of course, all of the following tactics come down to one basic element: you have to ask your customers for reviews. You can do so: • Face to face. If your business model lends itself to in-person interactions, then by all means make it a practice to ask satisfied customers to leave a review on your website What story do such of choice (or train your statistics tell? They indicate sales associates to that businesses need do so). A face-to-face customer reviews in request is generally the order to build trust with most effective way to prospects at the very get a customer review,
especially if you or your employee established a rapport with the customer during the transactional process. • Via email. If you can’t request a review face to face (or if you forgot to do so), then a follow up email may do the trick. Simply thank the customer for his business, and then ask for him to leave a brief review on a specific website. For maximum convenience, you may want to embed the link in the email. • Via text. In many cases, text may be the preferred option for requesting reviews. Users open text messages at a 99% rate, and many of your customers may be more willing to leave a review on their smartphone than on their PC. You would use a similar outline to the email request. Bottom line? If you encourage happy customers to leave their reviews for your business, then you’ll gain powerful social proof, enhance your reputation, and ultimately win over a greater share of new customers. What could be better than that?
Strategies to Create a High-Sale Holiday Season
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The holiday season begins when businesses run their first promotions targeting year-ending sales. With this information considered, it is important to have a holiday sales strategy well ahead of time. Even with the uncertainty that surrounds every market cycle, the main goal for businesses around the holiday season is to have the best sales as possible. As you prepare for this upcoming sales season, here are tips and strategies you can integrate with your team. Outline Holiday Sales Goals
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The holiday season requires early planning even well ahead of fall. It is important to fully understand what you want to accomplish by the time summer has wrapped up. By avoiding early planning, you risk investing your money into ventures or projects that may not turn out to be aligned with your original goals. Before the fall season rolls around, plan a meeting with
your sales and strategy team to outline goals ahead of time. When discussing these figures with the team, use the SMART framework, which consists of making your goal specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. By including these factors in your goalsetting process, you can better prep your business for a strong holiday season.
customer profile also includes those who are already interested in the products and services you sell. By recognizing your primary audiences, you can map out a clearer strategy guide to drive your holiday sales campaign. Look at Consumer Behavior
Your existing customers’ behavior and trends can be significant in how you delegate your holiday campaign budget. A common mistake businesses make is trying to distribute their ad Craft a Goal-Oriented spend evenly throughout Strategy the season rather than syncing with holiday With your goals formalized, consumer behavior. You the next step is to create can then use the data you a strategy that your team collect to adjust the level can gravitate towards. of spending throughout Look at your budget and the holiday season. You determine where to invest can first start out with a your financial resources small budget in October, in according to the and then make marginal parameters that make up increases until you reach your goal. Another factor the peak of December. you can use to help you More customers are allocate your budget is making purchase the exact profile of your decisions earlier in the main core customers. Your season, so it is important
to know when to change your advertising spend to match the activity of the audience.
improve loyalty from existing customers during the holiday season.
can be in responding to sudden challenges or new opportunities.
Be Ready to Change Your Your holiday sales strategy Stimulate Buyer Budget can be one of the most Behavior with Incentives important factors in how Many successful your business closes out Some businesses and companies do not stick the year. It is important to online stores provide with one budget and let prepare ahead of time and incentives for customers it go for the rest of the allocate the right amount to expand their shopping season, but they are on of budget towards a cart. These include standby ready to adjust well-targeted marketing shopping for additional at any time. If you foresee campaign. In addition, bundles or adding more additional opportunities understanding your quantity to a specific or sources of growth that customer behavior and product they are buying. other competitors aren’t getting your budget ready In addition, there are capitalizing on, then shift ahead of time can further holiday bundles you can your budget towards help shape your strategy. set up, which can allow them as well. In addition, As you work with your customers to buy a series you may need to expand team in outlining your of products in a single your ad budget in case holiday sales campaign, package. By providing you see yourself falling consider integrating the rewards and incentives, behind on sales. The more aforementioned tips as you can further expand flexible your budget is, well. your sales reach and the more prompt you 13
5 Types of Content to Post on Facebook
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Most brands realize the importance of having a solid social media presence but getting your digital marketing right isn’t always as easy as it might initially appear. With that in mind, this article aims to focus on Facebook. We’ll discuss the five best types of content to post to make your Facebook page grow.
1. Short video content
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content performs well on this platform, but live Video content can video content performs perform exceptionally well even better. on Facebook. However, don’t be tempted to post a Therefore, think about link to your latest YouTube what your business can do offering, especially if that to leverage Facebook Live video is lengthy. To take to your advantage. Keep advantage of the strategy in mind that this strategy here, you want to publish works best if you can use your videos natively to it regularly. So, you should Facebook itself. aim to do Facebook Live once a week if you can. Remember, users don’t Some things that work always have a lot of time, best here include Q & A so short videos work best. sessions, tips, and tutorials, Also, keep in mind that and streaming live events. not everyone will have As ever, think outside the sound on and may be box, and you will find browsing on a mobile something that works. device. Therefore, if you optimize for mobile and 3. Engaging images include subtitles, you will find more success. ProWhether you can take tip, if you cannot create advantage of the video your own video content, approach or not, engaging consider sharing videos images are the next best from others to your page thing. Think about how that are relevant to your you can use this approach brand and strategy. to your advantage. For example, image content 2. Facebook Live can be great to promote your latest blog post or an Anyone who spends event that’s coming up. time online will realize how popular online When it comes to images, streaming has become, be prepared to do some from YouTube to Twitch. editing and optimize the However, Facebook sizing for Facebook. You was also early to take don’t want it to look like advantage of online your image was designed streaming when it for Instagram, Twitter, or launched Facebook Live. Pinterest. Also, you can As mentioned, video combine this strategy with
the point on Facebook Live, for example, to advertise the next session. There are various sources of royalty-free images, and you can make things even more personal by making your own if you choose to do so. 4. Competitions Facebook is an excellent place to start your next competition. Depending on your aims, you can get a lot out of a contest. For example, you can use it to boost the number of likes on your page, traffic to your website, or to get one of your products talked about. If you want to take things a step further, you can even get your audience involved by submitting their images, for example. Whatever your aim is, though, you want to ensure your next competition creates buzz around your brand. If your objective is to increase your page’s reach beyond its current audience, you could consider requiring users to share your competition image to enter the competition. Also, you could use Facebook Ads to boost the reach of the competition. Remember the other
rules; you want to create engaging video or image content to promote your contest.
process starts with using Google Analytics and analytics from social media sites.
what you already know, but you will also almost certainly learn something new.
The other part happens Whenever you are creating within your content and how users respond social media content, to it. Remember to it’s crucial to keep your audience firmly in mind. If ask questions of your you are talking to yourself audience in your posts; this will encourage on social media, then comments in response. you are probably failing Try this strategy if your to do that. Create the Facebook content doesn’t content your audience get much response. wants rather than the content you want to share. Second, try running user polls every once in a while; However, it’s crucial to you will learn where the learn more about your majority opinion lies. Of audience before you course, this may reinforce can do that. Part of that
Facebook is a versatile social media site that the majority of brands can be successful on. However, it can be more challenging than it initially appears, and it’s crucial to post the right type of content. Therefore, this article has provided some pointers in the right direction. So, remember to post video content, use Facebook Live, engaging images, run competitions, polls, and ask your audience questions.
5. Questions and polls
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Kelly Roach Talks Entrepreneurial Success Through Conviction Marketing
This month, I had the opportunity to sit with business strategist, coach and bestselling author Kelly Roach. Kelly is also the founder of Kelly Roach Coaching Human Family Foundation, the cofounder of The Courageous Brand, The Advanced Women’s Expert Network and Social Sellers’ Academy.
Dennis Postema: Your new book, “Conviction Marketing,” is coming out in February. How is this book different from your others?
Dennis: How do you stand out within that noise right now?
Kelly: The biggest thing is breaking down the mindset and the methodology Kelly Roach: It is wildly to understand how to go different from my other from being one in a milbooks, but it’s also the next lion to being a category building block in helpof one. A category of ing online entrepreneurs one brand can be in any understand how to build market, big or small, any epic, dominating, worldindustry, big or small. The class brands. The noise in vast majority of marketing online marketing is at an online right now is called all-time high. There’s zero “Me Too Marketing.” Literalbarrier to entry, and it’s ly, it’s people waving their getting crazier, especially hand, saying, “Oh yes, I do with the Great Resignation this too. I cover this in my that’s going on right now. program also. I saw my Millions of businesses are competitor running an ad pivoting from brick-andabout ABC, I’d better talk mortar into the online about that also, otherwise space. people won’t choose me.” What does that mean for the average online business owner? It means you’d better understand how to differentiate your brand in a meaningful way. Otherwise, you will never get discovered, seen, heard and paid. It’s all well and good if we show up online and create lots of content and have great intentions around what we want to do and who we want to serve, but if no one sees or hears you online, that’s a big problem. 18
This has completely taken over the online space. And I don’t know about you, but when I started my business, I certainly did not envision building a brand in which I go see what is trending on TikTok to lip-synch. And I certainly didn’t create a business so I could go create reels on Instagram where I dance around and point at things. I started a business to make a difference in the world. So I created this book because I wanted to give everyone a framework to understand
how we went from a seven-figure to an eight-figure brand online in the business coaching space, which is extremely fragmented. There’s almost no other business at our level, especially female-founded ones, and we did it over a period of a year. Dennis: How would you define conviction marketing? Kelly: Conviction marketing [means] actually standing for something and knowing what your beliefs are about, what impact you want to make in the world with the work that you’re doing, and what you’re willing to do about it. That is really central to building a category-one brand. In the book, I give a framework and a methodology and explain the mindset. The book is all about empowering people to stop doing inauthentic marketing that really doesn’t match their values and start going to market with provocative, thoughtful pieces that will actually speak to their target market. There’s a lack of innovation, new ideas and thoughtful perspective. This idea that was once called thought leadership
has basically evaporated. We still call it thought leadership, but there isn’t a lot of thinking going on. I wrote this book to help people find themselves again. That’s really what it’s all about: rediscovering who you are, rediscovering why you built this business, rediscovering what message you have in your heart, in your soul, about what you want to do in the world, the difference you want to make, and then how to translate that into the content you create, the launches you do, the marketing materials you put forth that are really gonna elevate and differentiate you in a very noisy world.
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people’s phone numbers, their email addresses, and their physical mailing addresses, and we’ll send out copies of my book for free to people constantly in exchange for a physical address. You’re absolutely right—any one of these platforms can go to paid, can disappear, can completely stop working for you at any time. We had a launch earlier this year where Facebook was going through some algorithm change. We’d invested $100,000 in ads and no one saw the content. We’re accustomed to doing multimillion-dollar launches every single time. We have a very dialed-in process and strategy, very predictable outcome, and Dennis: Last month I it was like overnight, one interviewed 14 women, change to the algorithm, and every one of them and boom. Luckily for us, talked about their email we have 18 other mechlist, either on-screen or anisms for closing clients off. Every one of them and one of them is our talked about how Facesales team getting on the book changes, Instagram phone with people. But changes, but the email what you’re talking about lists never change, and is the foundation of sales taking care of your email success. It is relationship list and nurturing that is building with people over always going to be some- time. thing that you can’t take away. Do you have any Social media is not your comments on that? business. You don’t own social media. We already Kelly: I’ll take it a step furknow people are aging ther and tell you that we out of Facebook. Your really focus on getting population is aging out of
Facebook, and I always like to look at things like this: if I look back 20 years from now, am I gonna be proud of how I’m showing up, of what I’m doing, of who I’m being? Most people reading this don’t want, 20 years from now, to be on the latest new social media that all the cool kids are on and have to be doing these challenges and these new games that they’re doing and follow along. So to me, it’s very, very important that you look at your business like an investor, and you make strategic investments in building it in a way that you don’t have to participate in what you don’t want to, whether it’s now or down the line. Building that relationship
marketing, that list— whether it’s your email list, your phone number list, your physical address list—that you can send things to is one of those fundamentals that has been completely lost in the online world. I think a lot of people see the perception of social media of what it means to be a CEO or what it means to be an entrepreneur, and then they get in it and they’re like, “What is this? This isn’t what I signed up for. This isn’t what Instagram told me this was gonna be like to 20
run my own business. This is awful.” So I think we have to prepare people, we have to empower people, we have to be truth tellers about what it really takes, because otherwise, some people who really do have some great gifts that could make a huge difference in the world are going to opt out of entrepreneurship because the dream they were sold is not the reality they’re going to be living.
been kind of dumbed down and oversimplified. I remember when I first started as an entrepreneur, the thing I was most passionate about was teaching entrepreneurs sales, because I had this great sales background and I knew I could change so many people’s lives and help them achieve financial freedom. I remember the first thing I did was launch a product teaching people how to sell, and it Dennis: Why do you think completely bombed. Comwe’ve gotten away from pletely bombed. I learned sales so much? very quickly that entrepreneurs live in this fabricated Kelly: I think everything’s fantasyland where you
don’t sell anything, so I changed the word “sales” to “marketing” and all of a sudden, my business started exploding.
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with you. They want to be in your program. That’s all wonderful, but the vast majority of people are really not looking to do the work it takes to achieve We’ve glossed over, dumb- the results they want. So I ed down and oversimplistarted having a very dirfied what it takes to be ect and open, honest consuccessful. Every role in an versation with the market, organization is a sales role. even in my launches, When I lead my 50-perwhere I started sharing son team, I’m selling them that I’m only interested on what we’re executing in working with business as an organization. Every athletes, and if you’re not manager is a salesperson willing to be a business getting their team to buy athlete, you kinda need into what they need them to wrap it up and shut it to execute. Your mardown. That’s why 85% of keting team, of course, businesses still fail. is sales. Then we have a sales team, and of course, We have information and that’s what they do. We education coming out of have to live in reality, our ears on YouTube and not in fantasy, and if you podcasts. You can watch want to build a successful free business education business, there has to be 24 hours a day, seven someone in the business days a week if you want that’s focused on generat- to. But there’s a difference ing [sales]. between consuming information and taking inDennis: Can you explain tentional, focused action. the concept of being a I really like to challenge business athlete? people’s thinking around this idea of are you willing Kelly: When someone sees to be a business athlete? someone like you or me What does an athlete do? online and they see the They run drills, they reenergy and the success cover quickly from injuries, and the results and the they fall down, they get multimillion-dollar busiback up again, they fail ness, that feels really exoften and fail quickly and citing and inspiring, and learn from it so they can people want to jump on get better and move forboard. They want to work ward. These are the things
that I see are lacking so much in the world of entrepreneurship, and it’s why so many businesses don’t make it. So I’m trying to educate the world entrepreneurship on the mindset and the commitment it takes to become that multimillion-dollar CEO. It’s not about manifestation or about wishful thinking or about positivity, although I love all those things—I’m a huge fan and a huge student of personal development— but at the end of the day, intentional and focused action where you can move quickly through failure and learn from it and recover it and move forward—these are the secret keys to the kingdom. Dennis: Tell me a little about the philanthropy work you’re doing with the Human Family Foundation. Kelly: Our goal when we started off a couple years ago was to make a donation to charity water for every client that we closed. As the company began to grow and grow, we thought we could build an entire well. So in about 2019, we fully funded our first well. Then we decided we wanted to donate to meaningful
projects around the world and make a difference. Not necessarily to give the money to an organization, but to directly donate and directly give back.
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this idea of focusing on the fundamentals in the world of entrepreneurship, running a business is simplified down to generating sales. And we all know that it doesn’t matter The Human Family Founhow big your launch is or dation is our channel for how many sales you can giving back and making make—if you don’t have a difference. But the even systems, infrastructure more important piece is and a winning team beto create a generation of hind that, you’ll lose every entrepreneurs that build dollar you make. So the giving back into their secret to going from six business from day one, figures to eight is to focus even when they’re starting on five systems from the small, even when it might standpoint of being able be $0.50 cents a month. to scale your sales on the We were a baby company front and then being able when we started with a to institute the systems, donation of $30 a month, the infrastructure and the which, by the way, brings people on the back end clean drinking water to so that the business runs one person for the rest of like a well-oiled machine, their life. So, you can’t say is sustainable, and has the that we can’t all make a components of what it difference. We can. And takes to operate a business you can do it from the versus just having a sales very beginning. That’s a mechanism. huge focus with the Human Family Foundation. A lot of people don’t How can we encourage understand the distincall entrepreneurs to make tion between the two, but this a part of their business there aren’t a lot of busimodel, no matter how big ness teachers out there or small, from day one? who are helping people understand these things. Dennis: What would you That’s really the biggest tell an overworked entre- difference between what preneur the secret is to I do and what a business becoming a seven-figure coach does. I’m really a CEO? strategist, and my focus is helping people to underKelly: When we talk about stand the core fundamen-
tals that go into building a sustainable company, not just how to generate sales. Dennis: What advice would you give to somebody who’s thinking about becoming an entrepreneur and starting their own business right now? Kelly: The most important thing is to build your relationship with imperfect action and failure. Anyone today can be successful as an entrepreneur if they have the grit, the tenacity, the willingness to show up on social media every day. Anybody can do it, but you have to build a positive association with failure to extract the learnings that will be required to get you where you’re trying to go. So I would say really focus on that relationship with failure and extracting the learnings, and allow yourself to try to test and play in the playground of imperfect action, because that’s how you innovate, that’s how you really land on the core concepts that will be central to how your business grows. To get on the waiting list for Kelly’s new book, visit convictionmarketing.com.
Kelly on the hard work of success.
I think that the more we take a cue from the world of athletics, the more successful we’ll all be. I think that the world of entrepreneurship has become very soft, and it doesn’t help anyone. For those of us who are teachers, educators and mentors, part of our job is the education, the inspiration, the teaching, the passing the torch on the fundamentals of what makes people successful. But another piece of it is really helping people mentally prepare for the journey. Because if you can’t mentally sustain staying in the game, that’s the thing that’ll take you out. I tell my team and my clients to focus on their mental and physical health. It’s hard enough as it is, but if you are not able to mentally sustain moving from failure to failure and learning and then adjusting and not taking things personally and being able to dust yourself off and reset for more, that’s the thing that takes people out. I think there’s this whole conversation about the mental toughness element necessary to achieve success, and then there’s another conversation about instilling the fundamentals, but they’re really two sides of the same coin. To help really empower people, we have to focus on both. However hard you think you’re going to work to make your business a success, multiply it times a thousand. All the most successful people in the world are also the hardest-working people in the world. That doesn’t mean you don’t work smart. That doesn’t mean you burn the candle. I get eight hours of sleep every single night, I exercise every single day. But there’s discipline there. There is an intentionality. There is an intensity of focus that all very successful people have. 24
13 Customer Retention Emails Every Small Business Should Utilize
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Many small businesses focus too much on acquiring new customers, when they should be devoting more attention to retaining and nurturing existing ones. According to consulting company Invesp, the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20 percent, while the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent (1).
email into two separate emails. Cross-Selling Emails
Delivering post-purchase, cross-selling emails can be one of the most profitable email marketing strategies. Recommending products or services that complement recent purchases is a great way to boost sales. And even if the customer isn’t yet When it comes to retention ready to purchase, it keeps strategies, email is still the your business top of mind. most efficient channel, Cross-selling emails can generating around $44 in be triggered immediately revenue for every $1 spent after a purchase or after a (2). To keep your existing specific period of time. customers loyal and engaged with your brand, here are 13 types of retention emails you should bring into play. Onboarding Emails
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Onboarding emails or welcome emails set the tone for your relationship with prospective customers. In short, they should welcome and thank new subscribers, briefly explain what your business does, and guide prospects to take the next step. To avoid overwhelming your audience, consider breaking up the welcome
lets users choose multiple options in a checkbox format. For example: • Product updates and company news. • Discounts and special offers. • Weekly tips and advice. • Monthly newsletter. Obviously, the options will vary depending on your type of business, but the goal is to increase the relevancy of content that lands in subscribers’ inboxes. This builds trust with your brand and should ultimately improve engagement levels. Birthday Emails
According to credit bureau Experian, birthday emails have a 179% higher unique click rate than regular promotional emails (3). Ultimately, they work because they’re more personal and therefore Subscription Preference more memorable. Emails Including an exclusive gift will also encourage users Empower subscribers by to stick with your business. letting them choose the For maximum impact, send type and frequency of the offer on the recipient’s email content they receive. actual birthday. If they Start by sending out a don’t act within a few days, simple email form that send a reminder.
Calendar Event Reminders
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Use email automation to send short email surveys a few days after a purchase or trial offer is completed. Consider including a friendly request for testimonials, which you can repurpose across marketing channels.
Use special occasions such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day to remind customers that you’re still around. Also, don’t forget to take advantage of national holidays and observance days. Offer a Thank You Emails discount or free shipping to celebrate each occasion. You can also trigger “thank you” emails whenever a Anniversary Emails customer takes a specific action, such as replying to Anniversary emails are your survey, downloading effective because they’re a guide, or making a usually unexpected. It purchase. Showing might be one year since appreciation is a simple a user first subscribed to way to make customers your list, or a month after feel good about interacting a customer tried your with your business. Use the product. Whatever the opportunity to encourage occasion, make an effort further engagement. For to reconnect with the example, point customers customer. You don’t have toward a new product to promote anything; just page or blog post. reaching out with helpful content is enough to Cart Abandonment strengthen the bond with Reminders customers. According to research Surveys company the Baymard Institute, up to 75 percent Asking for feedback of all online shopping carts achieves three things: are abandoned midway • It shows customers you (4). This is why abandoned value their opinions. cart emails are one of the • It helps you find ways to most popular retention improve your goods and strategies. Many businesses offer a small discount services. to encourage shoppers to finish the checkout • It keeps customers engaged with your brand. process. Remember to
place at least one eyecatching link to the customer’s shopping cart within the email. Inserting a large button with the text “Take me back to my cart” or “Get my 10% discount” can be highly effective. Announcement Emails If you have any news to share about your business, products, or services, you should seize the opportunity and get in touch with subscribers. Does one of your products have a new feature? Is your company expanding? Whatever business news you have to share, let your audience know. Re-Engagement Emails Some subscribers will become inactive after a certain time period. There are various reasons for this: • They forgot about you. • They found an alternative solution. • They didn’t fully understand your offer. • They lost interest in your product or service. In many cases, people just need a gentle nudge to continue with your services. Using your email
Exclusive Offers
take care of your product. Acquiring new customers While most companies is important for any small promote deals during key business but looking after events in the calendar, you existing customers is key can obviously choose to to long-term success. offer something special This is why customer to subscribers whenever retention emails should it suits your business. Why be an integral part of your not start building buzz broader email marketing around a specific day of the strategy. The good news month? For example, on is that many of these the fifteenth day of each techniques can be used • Send a “we miss you” month, offer a 15 percent with email automation, email. discount on a particular so you simply need to set them up once and let • Re-promote an exclusive product. them do their magic. offer. Free Guides • Ask subscribers if they Ultimately, retention need any help. Throughout the year, emails will keep existing customers engaged • Simply ask if subscribers help customers get the most out of your products with your business and are still interested. or services by offering encourage them to stay free tips and advice. The important thing is to loyal to your brand. Try For example, deliver reach out. If you still get experimenting with instructions on how to no response from these different messages and use the more advanced subscribers, it might be then track the results to see time to remove them from features of your software, which ones work best for or provide tips on how to your list. your unique business. marketing platform, you can use behavior-based filtering to identify contacts that have been inactive for a certain time period - for example, if a contact hasn’t clicked on your emails for three months. You can then set up an automated re-engagement email that gets triggered at the right time. For example:
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Practical Tips to Help You Stop Micromanaging Your Employees
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It can be incredibly challenging for owners of small businesses to ease up on the reins when their company expands. After all, business owners will have expended a great deal of time and money getting their company to the stage that it needs employees.
employee benefits to attract the best talent. And you might need to take more time when recruiting.
Subject to cost considerations, it is generally best to hire overqualified employees in a growing business. Then, you can have more However, employees are confidence in new hires, more productive when and your employees the boss isn’t looming over can grow with the their shoulder. And, if you company. You could, micromanage workers, of course, fill vacancies you will stifle innovation. with inexperienced or Plus, it will eventually underqualified people. But become impossible for then, there will always be the owner to be handsa need to micromanage on with every aspect of a your team. business. But how can you stop Let Go of Your micromanaging a business Perfectionism in which you have so much invested? How can It is crucial to remember you be sure that quality that your way is not the will be maintained and only way and accept that work will be completed mistakes happen. Instead, on time? Here are ten let employees try things tips to help you let go their way and only get of your compulsion to involved if outcomes are micromanage employees. unacceptable. Hire the Right People
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The most obvious step towards eliminating the need for micromanagement is employing the right employees. And that might mean increasing salaries and improving
Try managing by exception rather than micromanaging every aspect of the business. You might want to be handson with every delivery to key customers, for example. But you probably do not need to be involved with every single
delivery your business makes. You can also check random samples of employee’s work rather than overseeing everything they do. Focus on Outcomes Instead of micromanaging an employee’s day, try setting clear targets and assessing performance against those goals. For example, the goal of a sales manager is to achieve a certain number of sales. How they achieve their targets is mainly irrelevant. So, how many cold calls they make in a day or meetings they set up doesn’t matter. What matters is that the sales are coming in and targets are being achieved. And suppose a production worker meets 75% of their target in the morning and eases off in the afternoon. In that case, the crucial thing is that targets are being met by the end of the day. Set Clear and Reasonable Expectations Of course, you cannot focus on outcomes if employees are unaware of what is expected. So,
you need to set clear and achievable targets for employees. And it would be best if you made clear your expectations regarding things like attendance, too.
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not only reduces the need for micromanagement but also has many other benefits too. For example, documenting workflows will make it less challenging to cope with employee absences. And establishing safe practices will help to reduce injuries in the workplace.
So, define timescales for tasks rather than demanding that things be done a certain way. And set targets for employees where outcomes can be quantified. It can also help to share with employees your long-term goals for the business. Then you can encourage everyone to pull together Treat Employees Like to achieve those high-level Partners business goals. You may feel that you have Document Policies and more at stake than your Procedures employees. But employees have a vested interest There will be some tasks in the success of your in any business that must business, too. So, it will be completed in a certain help reduce the need for way. And there will be micromanagement if you corporate policies that treat employees more like must be followed. The partners. best way to ensure that policies and procedures So, encourage employee are adhered to is with input into the decisionadequate documentation, making process, especially such as job descriptions when decisions directly and company handbooks. affect them. Consult with employees when setting Documenting procedures targets. And ask what you
can do to help employees hit those targets and excel in their roles. People working as a team to achieve common goals work better than those working merely to satisfy a boss. Define What You Need to Know When you micromanage, you look at every detail of a task within a project. However, the only thing you probably need to be concerned about is the final outcome. For example, suppose one thousand units of a product must be manufactured each week. In that case, weekly monitoring of output would likely provide all the information you need. But you don’t need to know how many products are being produced each hour. So, define the highlevel information you need to manage your business. And make employees aware of which performance indicators (KPIs) you consider crucial. Then, leave it up
to employees to achieve those high-level objectives and report back to you only if there are any issues.
be transferred full-time to that person. And the employee needs only to report back to you when the job is complete or needs your input. Create a Management Hierarchy
Practice Delegating As mentioned in the introduction, many small business owners are reluctant to delegate tasks. But it will help you get used to the idea if you switch to a less handson management style in steps. So, begin practicing delegation by handing down one or two tasks and see how things go. But remember to give clear guidance on what is expected and when a job must be completed.
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Once you have a reasonably large team working for you, it will become impossible to have every employee reporting directly to you. So, the next thing to do is to create a management hierarchy. If you have a team of five production workers, for example, then it would be more efficient to appoint a production team supervisor. Then, you can set and monitor targets for the supervisor. And the supervisor manages their team to ensure those targets are met. You then become a manager of managers rather than a micromanager of employees. Encourage Autonomy
Your existing employees Then, once someone might find your new has demonstrated hands-off management competence, that task can approach a little
disconcerting at first. So, you will need to encourage autonomy, innovative thinking, and self-governance. And you must be sure that employees know that you will support them, even if mistakes are occasionally made or targets missed. You will probably also have to hold yourself back when you feel you are about to tell an employee how to complete a task. But in the long run, extracting yourself from the minutiae of running operations will be good for you, best for your employees, and good for your business. As challenging as it may first appear, you can stop your micromanaging your employees. And doing so will bring out the best in your team and free up more of your time to steer the business to success. So, the next time an employee comes to you to ask how something should be done, don’t give them step-by-step instructions. Instead, tell them what you need, when you need it, and ask them how they propose to deliver the results.
4 Things Women in Business are Doing Wrong We women are AWESOME, and we do a lot. But as we strive to give our best, we need to evaluate what we are doing, because there are some things we are not doing quite right. Here are a few things we are doing wrong. Saying Yes. We say YES far too often. And I get it, we want to be helpful and support others. The truth is, however, that saying YES too often is stealing time away from other things we need to accomplish. We need to shift our focus from saying NO is a bad thing, you understand that it is perfectly acceptable to say No and still be successful. Business Coach, Christie Wright said “an honest NO is better than a dishonest YES”. When we say yes and do not really mean it, we are not giving our best or showing up authentically. 33
So, how can we say NO and not have it cause issues? Well one way is to say it in a better way, such as “I would love to help you with that, but I have a previous commitment”. Another thing you can do is line up the request with your goals – if it fits into helping you achieve your goals… do it! If not, pass. No Self Care. We cannot help and serve others when we are burned out. Self-care needs to be a non-negotiable to us. It keeps us healthy, focused, energized and happy. Far too many women put themselves and their needs on the back burner telling ourselves we do not have time. We need to MAKE the time. It doesn’t have to be hours, a simple 5-15 minutes a day to step away and take care of ourselves can make all the difference. Here are some simple tips to self-care: Drink more water, take a 5-minute walk
outside and get some fresh air, put on music and dance, call a friend and laugh, take a BREAK and get out of your office. You do not need to over complicate it. Sometimes the smallest gestures and actions can make all the difference. Helping Everyone. Going in conjunction with saying yes, we also cannot help everyone. What I mean by this is, yes be kind, but if someone is not your ideal client or needs a specialist in another field, you do not have to work with them. The truth is we are not the perfect fit for everyone. This was a lesson I have had to learn the hard way. Early in my career as a consultant, I was afraid to turn away business, so I took on everyone possible. It was a disaster! I simply could not meet the needs of some clients, and for others I just did not have the expertise in the areas that they required. And you know what…. it is OK! Get clear on who your ideal client is and serve them well. For the others,
serve them by directing them to someone else that can be a better fit. Not asking for help. Another think we do wrong is that we try to do it all on our own. There is no shame in asking for help. I created a mindset that asking for help was a sign of weakness; I felt that if I showed I needed help my clients and team would think less of me and that they could not count on me. Boy was I wrong. By trying to do it all on my own, I became overwhelmed, burned out and miserable. I have learned to accept what I am good at, and not so good at and bring in others that can balance out my strengths. Asking for help has given me more time, better relationships, a strong referral business and happy clients. No one can do it all…. so stop. There you have it – we are pretty amazing, but not perfect. But we can get better! When you stop doing thing the wrong way, you open up space and time to focus on the right things. There is where true growth and success happens. Cheers to your success!
Clara Capano “Strategist for the SMART Woman” is an Best Selling Author and Award Winning Educator. Executive Producer/Creator – the Working Women’s Channel https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UC7HkFgvq4S9bdB3LygEo0Sw Clara has been featured on: NBC, ABC, CBC and FOX. She is contributor with Forbes.com and the Forbes Coaching Council. Watch Clara on Season 3 of AmazonPrime’s Speak Up. Visit Clara’s website at www.claracapano.com 34
The name ‘November’ is believed to derive from ‘novem’ which is the Latin for the number ‘nine’. In the ancient Roman calendar November was the ninth month after March. November begins on the same day of the week as March every year and also February except in leap years. November Milestones: • Nov. 8th, 1972 - Home Box Office (HBO) was launched, in WilkesBarre, PA. • Nov. 10th, 1983 - Bill Gates introduced Windows 1.0. • Nov. 22nd, 1995 - Pixar’s Toy Story was realised. It was the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated animation. • Nov. 25, 1920 - The Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade is the oldest in the US, starting • on this date. • Nov. 27, 1924 - Macy’s department store held its first Thanksgiving Day parade down a two-mile stretch of Broadway in New York City. • Nov. 28, 1895 - America’s first auto race started: 6 cars, 55 miles, the winner averaged 7 MPH 35
