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Will Your Product Launch Be a Success? 4 Signs It Won’t Be.

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By Jennifer Spencer.

The truth is, most product launches fail for two very simple reasons, both of which you’ve heard about time and time again.

That big red button is just waiting to be pushed: Maybe it’s the Facebook Ad “Start” button, intended to drive leads to the sales funnel for your brand new product. Maybe it’s the AdWords “Start” button, intended to collect search engine leads for your sales funnel. Maybe it’s something else.

But whatever the case, you’ve been working toward this moment for months, maybe even years. And it all comes down to this moment: Will your product-launch succeed? Or will it fail terribly?

The truth is, most product launches fail for two very simple reasons: Either the messaging for your product doesn’t clearly explain what problem you’re solving or how you’re solving it (think of the social media platform, Google+); or, worse, there’s no market need for the product you created at all (*cough* Google Glass *cough*).

And these negative outcomes befall optimistic startup entrepreneurs all the time. In fact, 42 percent of businesses fail because there is no market need, according to CB Insights research.

But being able to gauge whether your product is aboard an already-burning boat is easier said than done. So, to help you determine your product’s fate, here are four signs that your launch won’t be a success. Are you in the clear?

1.You haven’t nailed your product messaging.

Why should people buy your product? What single problem is your product going to solve? Who are the buyers in your target market and what are they currently experiencing?

If you can’t answer questions like these in just a couple of sentences, things do not bode well for your product launch. You might have a great product that people want and need, but if you can’t explain why they need it, what your product does and why people should buy from you, you’re in trouble.

Take the Google+ social media platform, for instance. Everyone was excited about the prospect of a new, perhaps improved social media platform competing with Facebook — until it actually launched, that is.

With an uninteresting and almost apathetic slogan — “Real-life sharing rethought for the web” — and an experience that left us all thinking, “So… how is this better than Facebook?” Google+ had an uninspiring product launch. Even today, it’s hardly anyone’s favorite social media platform (90 percent of people with a Google profile have never publicly posted on Google+, according to Stone Temple).

Here’s the deal: If you don’t even know why your product is awesome, there’s no way that your target market is going to happily hop onboard to find out themselves.

2. Your marketing funnel is a mess.

There’s certainly something to be said for launching fast, with your minimal viable product in tow. But launching with a minimum viable product is different than launching with a clunky or unclear marketing funnel.

If you’re going to convert your target market and have a good runway ahead, it’s not enough to know what you’re selling, you also need to know how you’re going to sell. And that’s something you should have lined up well before your official product launch.

A clear, well-thought-out sales funnel, for example, increased sales by 412 percent for Mary Hong Art, an online business that sells ShardWorx art kits. As a case study on PageWiz noted, the business’s funnel for consumers was arranged in a kind of chronological order: epic content, lead magnet, tripwire (low-cost offer), core offer, profit maximizer (or upsell).

For Mary Hong Art, a strategic funnel like that made a big difference (412 percent, to be exact). Clearly, every successful product launch needs clear, logical marketing and a sales funnel that guides each consumer to purchase.

3. You haven’t gotten feedback from beta users (or you’ve got negative feedback)

What’s the best way to determine whether your product will be a success before you launch?

Answer: by creating a beta and/or alpha version to test with your target market. So, create your minimum viable product, do a soft-launch pre-release to a limited amount of people and collect feedback.

Based on the feedback you receive, you can iterate your product and ensure that launch day is a major success. If you get a lot of negative feedback or confused responses, though, you might be better off shifting to a different product altogether.

An example? Had Nintendo spent more time allowing beta testers to play with the Wii U before it launched, the company probably would have known that the Wii U would be less than impressive to consumers. In fact, it sold only 400,000 units on launch day up against its previous system’s (the original Wii) 600,000 units sold at launch.

But ultimately, Nintendo seemed to learn its lesson. After it launched its wildly successful next gaming system (the Nintendo Switch), Bill Trinen, Nintendo of America’s senior product marketing manager, spoke about the experience with Business Insider. Said Trinen:”With Switch being something that you can take with you, it made it really important that you could play it instantly… That to me is an example of a direct lesson from the Wii U era, where Nintendo said, ‘That’s something we’re gonna zero in on and make a dramatic improvement on.'”

In short, Nintendo learned what its market wanted. And its engineers altered their next product launch to be a success. Learn from their experience and do a soft-launch of your own product or service to test and iterate before you fully bring your product to market.

4.You know in your gut that it isn’t going to work.

Being honest with yourself about how you think launch day is going to turn out is absolutely critical to your product’s success. Most of the time, you know intuitively what your market buyers are going to think of your product, how they’re going to receive it, and what they’re going to say.

How is this intuitive? It’s because your market will have the same concerns you have about your product in the back of your mind — that itching lack of clarity, that muddy user experience or thatcheap look and feel.

The lesson here: Do not ignore your gut instinct. I love the way that Irene Barrera, founder of Stay Fit With Irene, put it in an email to me: “If you know in your gut that your product or service won’t resonate with your audience, if you hate or even dislike the experience it will give your target market, then why would you launch it? It’s far better to take additional time to launch a product that you’re proud and excited about to announce to your audience.”

So, a launch might seem complicated, but it really isn’t. Launches go sour for two simple reasons (usually): Either the market doesn’t have a need for the product at all, or you need to get the messaging for that product dialed in.

Of course, knowing whether your product will succeed before you launch is easier said than done. But treat the above four signs as indicators that you should rethink your product before bringing it to market, and, in the end, you’ll have a successful launch day. Even if it does take you a bit longer to get there, the effort will still be worth it.

Feature Image Cedit: VectorHot | Getty Image 

By Jennifer Spencer.

CEO of Energent Media

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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The Implications of Instagram Becoming One Big Shop

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By Moya Lothian-McLean.

Many fans of influencers say they aren’t bothered by advertising and that ‘selling out’ doesn’t really exist on the platform. But why?

Emily can almost always spot an influencer #ad on Instagram – even when the tell-tale hashtag is buried at the bottom of a lengthy caption. The giveaway, she says, is the tenuous nature of the post. “I usually begin to read a caption and start to feel that it’s very disingenuous or flimsily linked together. That’s when I think, ‘This has got to be an ad,’” says the 25-year-old, whose preferred content creators tend to be lifestyle and interiors influencers like Liv Purvis. “Sure enough, when I scroll down, the post will be hashtagged ‘#AD’.”

Emily describes a scenario that’s likely familiar to those of us who while away our lives looking at pictures of other people’s. Since September 2018, whether consciously or not, anyone following UK-based influencers on Instagram may have noticed a rise in the amount of paid marketing – AKA spon(sored) con(tent) – that these professionally Shiny Happy People churn out.

And that’s because last autumn UK advertising bodies the ASA – who apply the codes of advertising as written by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) – and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued stricter new guidelines for online influencer marketing. Easy-to-follow language left no room for confusion about what counts as an advert – and no loopholes for influencers to plead ignorance with, if caught flouting the rules. And so they state: any content paid for (whether payment is financial or in goods) by a third party is an ad. If an influencer is promoting their own products – e.g: Zoella hawking her own brand cosmetics – that’s an ad. Giveaways? Ads. Freebies? Ads too, unless there’s no affiliate relationship with the brand and it has no editorial control over what influencers post (often this can be something as ‘small’ as just having final approval or the influencer agreeing to post a specified amount of times).

The new guidelines also spell out exactly how such a post should be labelled; either as ‘AD, advert, advertising, advertisement or advertisement feature.’ Influencers who soften the impact of declaring paid content by only tagging their posts as ‘sponsored content’ or ‘sponsorship’ risk falling afoul of the CMA or ASA and having their account features limited by Instagram (ie: ‘shadow banning’). Phrases like ‘in association with’ or ‘thanks to [brand] for making this possible’ are explicitly called out for being too vague. Equally, just @-ing the brand doesn’t cut it. “The main thing to remember,” the guidelines say, “is you need to make it obvious [emphasis their own].”

As someone like Emily knows, this leaves influencers little room to hide. But, for her, that’s not a big deal. Research has previously found that sponsored content and non-sponsored content receive equal interaction (measured in the form of likes); instead, the glaring factors that made sponsored content perform poorly was text placed on photos, unnatural product placement and poor photography. Influencers also have long mastered the art of blending ‘genuine’ content with uploads they’re contractually required to make. Yet Emily also admits that knowing content is paid-for doesn’t necessarily make a world of difference to how she engages with it.

“If it’s an influencer I follow who I have genuinely seen recommend the thing anyway, or I feel they’re authentic enough that I’d truly believe they’d like/use the product then I wouldn’t care,” she adds. “[It’s only] if the link between their love for this product and their partnership with the brand feels forced then I’d absolutely pause.” Unsurprisingly, users say their reaction to spon con differs depending on how well they perceive it aligns with the influencer’s brand.

“It depends on the picture whether I engage or read on,” says 28-year-old publishing PA Indre, who cites her favourite influencers as lifestyle and/or empowerment bloggers like Amelia Perrin (full disclosure: Amelia is a friend of the author) and Megan Jayne Crabbe. “If it’s interesting to look at then yes, I’ll engage. If it’s just them holding the product, I’d actually consider unfollowing them straight away – especially if it’s something that looks random or not their typical area.”

Indre has noticed the influx of new #ad tagged posts (which she says puts her off – “I prefer gifted”), but is torn. On the one hand, she says advertising feels ‘normalised’ and she’s happy to plug into it – but only when it appears ‘genuine’, which she admits is somewhat oxymoronic. But recently she’s mass-unfollowed a bunch of influencers because their feeds had become over-saturated with #ad posts and little else.

“I felt like there was no honesty left there, like I was being constantly sold and lied to,” Indre tells me. “Why would I voluntarily follow what’s essentially an ad page? I rarely unfollow influencers just because of the spon con – I unfollowed Louise Pentland when she became a parenting influencer because her content was no longer relevant to me – but if the spon con is for shit that’s way out of my budget, or if their posts become mostly spon con, I smash that unfollow button.”

As that research showed, pretty or well-made sponsored posts don’t put people off liking or interacting with them. Instagram has quickly turned into a giant shop, warm in your back pocket and ready to be opened at any time. Its shift from strictly image-sharing to a tool for big businesses and influencer marketing was never expressly detailed to Insta users. Rather, the change crept up, from the odd post here and there, to the swipe-up features for business and verified accounts, to the full in-app shopping features used by boutiques and brands. Anyone who opens the app, following people outside of their direct friendship circles for personal reasons, steps into this marketplace automatically. And at times, followers are more than happy to engage on that hyper-consumerist level.

“Sometimes I engage with an ad – I don’t comment but I ‘like’ it without intending to buy if it’s a product that isn’t really for me but seems of good quality and I like the influencer” says Rebecca, a 31-year-old Londoner who works in marketing, making her more conscious of the power her engagement with paid posts carries. She describes her tastes in influencers as ‘feminist,’ citing Florence Given (@florencegiven) as an example. “I’m aware that interaction with a post is something that brands who work with an influencer will consider,” she continues. “So I see a ‘like’ as my way of providing very minimal support for their career.”

Rebecca’s also not too bothered by influencer ads, so long as they’re balanced with alternative content. “I care about being ‘sold to’ because I see it as a sort of relationship,” she says. “I want to support interesting people who seem authentic and who care about what they put their name to. It feels disrespectful to your audience to try and shill any old crap.”

Rebecca’s stance reflects a sentiment I continue to hear, where following influencers implies an acceptance of a certain level of spon con. It’s not seen as ‘selling out.’ As 21-year-old student Lachlan puts it: “It doesn’t tend to bother me if it’s a subtle post and they’re not bombarding you with ads; gotta get the bread somehow.” Capitalism is so embedded in the fabric of our lives that few of the digital natives I speak to sound particularly thrown by influencers ‘just doing their job’.

However, as Lachlan continues, “There is nothing worse than a ‘genuine’ caption paired with an ad; someone trying desperately to convince you a beautiful river they’re stood over reminds them of a cool beer or something.” That being said, she still feels the constant hum of advertising. “I get targeted ads all the time on social, using my most personal information that they’ve skimmed out of my messages. So I’m not going to get that bothered about someone I like enough to follow on Instagram, earning a bit of cash if they can.” Followers just want to buy into the idea that the ads and persona their chosen influencer has presented to them is ‘genuine’, no matter if deep down, they know it’s not.

Feature Image Credit: Collage by Chelsea White for VICE, featuring photo by Benjamin Egerland via Alamy Stock Photo

By Moya Lothian-McLean

Sourced from Vice

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How to Define and Analyse Your Target Market

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By Colleen Egan.

To create happy, loyal customers, small businesses need to know who they are. Not everyone who buys your products or services will fit the same profile, but it’s far more effective to focus on a core customer base than spread the net too wide. Beyond helping you streamline your offering, it equips you to give those customers the best possible experience.

Understanding your target market

Another way to describe your core customer base is your ‘target market’. These are the people whose desires, values and needs most closely align with what your business can offer them. Ultimately, they’re already looking for what you have. Understanding your target market requires research over assumption. It’s about trying to grasp on a much deeper level who those people are, what motivations they’re driven by and how you can reach them.

Demographics such as age, gender, education level, occupation and family situation give you a broad idea of their lifestyle. Beyond this, consider the minute detail of their daily lives. Where do they work? What gives them enjoyment outside of work? What are their goals in life? The answers to questions like these help you create an authentic understanding of who they are instead of relying on a hunch.

How to determine your target market

Hoping for a certain demographic or using guesswork won’t help you determine your target market. It requires an in-depth review of your products and services, the behaviour of existing customers and the marketplace as a whole. Breaking down the process will give you focus, direction and maximum insight.

Analyse your offering

What do your products and services solve? In turn, to whom do they appeal and why? Try to be as granular as possible when you’re answering these. For example, a gardening business helps people manage their outdoor space. If that business is based in a city, its services become specifically useful for busy professionals wanting to make the most of limited space, and people without the means to travel to out of town garden centres.

It’s important to drill into the detail when you’re running this analysis. Make note of everything you stumble across — the niches and finer points will be crucial in giving your business a unique edge against competitors.

Conduct market research

To analyse your target market fully you need to go beyond your customers and understand the marketplace. Analytics tools like Quantcast, Alexa and Google Trends identify and assess potential competitors, helping you find new customers and determine ways to improve your competitive offering.

Well-known sites like Yell help you see what competition exists in your business’s locale — and don’t underestimate the power tools like surveys, focus groups and in-person discussions. These are a great way to tap into the mindset of people who are already buying from your company or competitors: what they need, why they are (or aren’t) shopping with you and what you can do to make your offering more appealing.

With an integrated POS system you can also look into the specifics of what people are buying from you, when and how often.

Create customer profiles and market segments

Market segmentation is the process of organising a group based on various categories, such as demographics and psychographics.

  • Demographics describe the more fundamental characteristics of a person, like their age, gender, education level, ethnic background and marital or family status.
  • Psychographics offer deeper, psychological insights into who people really are as individuals, like their behaviours, values, personality and lifestyle.

You’ll find yourself with more accurate segmentation and profiling when you consider both demographics and psychographics in your analysis.

Assess the competition

Use the online tools discussed above to get a comprehensive view of the competitive landscape. Who are the businesses offering comparable products and services? How much do they charge? What are they doing differently?

You could create a SWOT analysis chart to demonstrate weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and risks for both your business and theirs. This will give you a good idea of what improvements you can make, and where you’re excelling already.

If you’re going after customers in a densely competitive space, make sure you’re well aware of your USPs. It’s harder to succeed when you’re contending with numerous others, so thoroughly develop an understanding of how why you excel above them.

Using your target market analysis

Once you’ve completed your analysis, put that data to work. Here are some ways to use the insight you’ve gathered to grow and improve your business:

  • Product development.
    If your analysis exposed holes in the market, plan how new services and products or an improved subset of your existing offering can plug them.
  • Niche markets.
    Did you identify an underserved group? Instead of going after the same customers as your competitors, explore these untapped markets.
  • Expansion opportunities.
    If you identify underserved areas while assessing your local market, you might consider franchising or adding a new location.
  • Pricing strategy.
    If the insights into your competition reveal that you’re either pricing yourself out of the market or not charging enough, use comparative data to determine competitive prices or deals.
  • Curation.
    There is such a thing as offering too many options, and it can confuse and deter customers. Try specialising more instead. If you offer many of the same items as your competitors (especially if they aren’t big sellers anyway), pare down your inventory to focus on top-selling and exclusive items.
  • Marketing.
    Your target market should be the foundation of your marketing strategy. Use what you know to determine which channels and messages to use when communicating with customers. Whenever you think about implementing something new, whether it’s a social platform or a promotional campaign, check your analysis to see if it’s likely to reap a positive response.

By Colleen Egan

Colleen writes for Square, where she covers everything from how aspiring entrepreneurs can turn their passion into a career to the best marketing strategies for small businesses who are ready to take their enterprise to the next level.

Sourced from Squareup

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Branding Strategies That Create Customers Who Spend 300% More

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Brand equity or its value is based on how much profit a brand makes, how strong the brand is in comparison to the competitors and the role that the branding plays in the product purchase. A Nike logo matters for shoe purchases, a Keebler Elf matters a little, but not as much in cookie purchasing. The number one brand in the world, Apple, is presently worth $214 billion.

Branding is the process of creating a name, logo, symbol, and personality to represent your product or service. Brands become valuable when customers associate high value and quality products or services with your brand. Branding is vital because it creates a memorable imprint on the consumers’ brain that helps establish awareness and long-term loyalty. It provides a consistent image so consumers know what to expect. Satisfaction is based on meeting or exceeding expectations. A stable, positive image is essential. New entrepreneurs spend so much time building their new products that the importance of branding is often forgotten. The branding process can seem daunting for a new entrepreneur, but a few simple steps can start the process.

1. Establish a brand identity.

Base your brand identity on the product’s key value proposition, which is the number one reason why customers purchase your product or service. The proposition should be able to be stated in a clear, succinct manner. Base all subsequent communications on this image. Lyft stresses, “Rides in minutes,” whereas Uber claims to be “The smartest way to get around.” Thumbtack “helps you find experienced professionals.” While conducting sales training, I found that veteran sales reps typically struggle to state their company’s value position. The reps would usually report what product they sell, in feature-specific terms. For example, the reps would say, “We sell after-market automotive parts.” They would struggle to say why the customers buy their product in value-specific terms. Instead, the value proposition should be, “We sell auto products that cannot be found anywhere else, to repair your antique and valuable vehicles easily and quickly.” Value and quality always matter first and foremost.

2. Consider the look of the brand.

Part of a brand identity involves the visual representation of it, which includes the logo, the colors, type font, and other design aspects. Research on the effects of color has shown that color is a critical aspect of branding. Between 62 and 90 percent of the customer’s initial product assessment is based on color. For example, red represents power and energy, or passion and love, and green exemplifies nature, health, fertility, and good luck. These meanings are culturally based. Keep color consistent throughout your webpage and any social media you use so that customers associate these feelings with your brand.

Font and logos can create a great deal of emotion. Google fonts is a library of 915 fonts, most of which are available for use with an open license. Many sites demonstrate the best Google Fonts to use. The most important thing is readability and accessibility. Creativity can lead to pretty, artistic fonts, but these are not as easy to read. Studies have found that Arial is easiest to read, but harder to read fonts, are more memorable because you have to slow down to read. Again, be consistent across all sites and postings. Make sure that that your branding strategies are distinct from competitors and memorable, like the Lyft mustaches.

3. Create brand awareness.

Once you have your brand’s value proposition and image, you can use the Internet to build awareness. Know where your target market is. Know what sites they frequent online and what influencers they follow. Some of these data can be found by merely spending time browsing and doing research. For any B2B business, customers likely use LinkedIn and trade associations or organizations unique to that industry. If you are looking to start an online catering service, your customer might be frequenting wedding websites or other party idea sites. Secondary data sources like Nielsen provide much of this information for a fee.

Start producing content on your sites and as many external sites as possible that your target market might read. Produce as much different content as possible that may provide value to your customer. Give readers a reason to come back and learn more. Referring to the catering company example, discuss wedding planning topics at least weekly. Businesses that blog regularly get 97 percent more inbound business. Link to as many other social media channels that you can. Make it easy for other people to share or link to your material by using linking buttons. Press releases are especially useful and can increase your search ranking with Google. If appropriate to your company, post online videos and podcasts. The more you saturate the Internet, the more likely the customer can find your product.

4. Build trust, credibility and loyalty.

Once you begin to establish your clientele, make sure you consistently provide outstanding customer service and products. Customers will come back time after time if you provide a quality product and add value. Create a referral program. Give customers rewards to bring more customers to you. This tactic works by both bringing in more customers and keeping your current customers happy because they are receiving added benefits. Promote your product by encouraging happy customers to rate your product and provide feedback online.

As you continue to build your business, do not change your brand. Do not change the logo, slogan, or any part of your brand identity. You spent all this time and money building awareness and loyalty. Why would you intentionally throw that away? Changing the brand or re-branding will erode this value. Coca-Cola has the fifth most valuable brand in the world, and they have never changed their logo. PepsiCo is known for frequently changing their logo. While PepsiCo has the 22nd most valuable brand, its brand equity is $40 billion less than Coca-Cola. The only time it ever makes sense to rebrand is when a brand has been destroyed beyond repair (Valujet). If you think that changing your brand on a slumping product will improve your sales, you do not understand your business.

Keep your customers engaged long term. Keep your conversations active and current so that customers want to participate in your communication efforts continually. The more people are involved, the more other people will want to be included due to social proof theory. Repeat customers spend 300 percent more on average than new customers.

By

Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Akron

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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5 Things Not to Do When You’re Running a Small Business

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By Maria Rapetskaya,

I’ve been a creative entrepreneur since 2005. My first design company was a partnership with my significant other. It was largely a freestyle experiment in running a business, conducted in public over the course of five years. As a business, it was marginally successful. As a learning experience, for me it was the equivalent of a masters of business administration.

So, by the time I had started my second and current company, I had a pretty good blueprint of don’t’s for running a small business. I had been fortunate enough to make the mistakes that have yielded five valuable lessons learned — lessons that have truly paid off the second time around.

Don’t rush into a partnership.

It was only after my original partner and I parted ways that I recognized that we should never have had a professional partnership in the first place. Just because someone is your best friend, long-time coworker and / or significant other hardly qualifies that person as the perfect candidate for maintaining a business. I say “maintaining” because it’s far easier to get excited about the prospect of starting a company than being able to handle the day-to-day reality of running it efficiently.

The best partner is typically someone whose skills and approach are the polar opposite of yours. The first ensures that you are able to cover a lot more ground without additional employees. The second may create conflict, but it will force you both to defend your business instincts and weed out lesser ideas before you waste resources.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

Feature Image Credit: 10’000 Hours | Getty Images

By Maria Rapetskaya

Founder and Creative Director of Undefined Creative

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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How I Went From Consultant To Coach And Others Can Too

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By Sheryl Lyons

My entrepreneurial experience as a consultant has been quite a wild ride with many ups and downs, both financially and emotionally. I have learned by now that business is cyclical with ebbs and flows. So how can other consultants like me make the best use of their excess capacity when business is not as strong as they would like? Personally, the answer was “invest in yourself.”

For the past four years, I have run my own consulting business that focuses on helping leaders to manage their workplace culture. Last year, I had an increasing number of clients and colleagues ask if I could provide individual coaching services. As a leader and entrepreneur with a background in human resources and leadership development, their requests seemed logical and in alignment with my skills and talents. However, I have hired my share of coaches in my own career with mixed results. I knew that whatever I chose to do, I wanted to do it with the right knowledge, credentials and credibility. My journey to coaching and my advice to others can be summed up in five essential steps:

1. Find a coaching course.

In an initial online search, I learned that demand for coaching was growing faster than supply. That gave me confidence in my timing. To ensure I was doing it properly, I researched coaching certification providers and enrolled in an online class. There were many certification classes available, so I selected one that fit all of my criteria: It was accredited by the International Coach Federation, had positive student reviews and offered courses online with a feasible class schedule. I loved it so much that when the first class ended, I immediately signed up for the next one. These courses commanded a good chunk of my time for two months, but because my client count was manageable, I had the time and energy to commit.

As I progressed through each class, I also rediscovered a love of learning. This was the first investment I had made in myself since completing my MBA some 12 years ago, and I had forgotten how fulfilling and rewarding it was to venture into something new. At the end of the courses, I became a Certified Master Coach (CMC), thereby taking the first step in creating a completely separate business line to complement consulting.

2. Define your target market.

In addition to learning the ethics and proper techniques of effective coaching, the courses helped me define my target market, which was different for nearly every student in the class. Coaches specialized in health and wellness, marriage and relationships, career transition and — my specialty — business leadership and executive coaching. Knowing your target market will help inform your overall marketing strategy and approach.

3. Create a coaching agreement.

Next, it was time to establish packages and pricing and create my coaching agreement. I conducted my own anecdotal research in my hometown of Houston, Texas by polling my network on whether they had ever hired a coach and at what price point. That data, coupled with my own experience of previously hiring two coaches, solidified my pricing structure. The coaching course also allowed participants to review and compare one another’s agreements. From that exercise, I streamlined and reduced my lengthy legal document and took pieces from several in our cohort to include clauses I hadn’t considered, such as cancellation, refund and record retention policies.

4. Market yourself as a coach.

Once I had those components solidified, I strategized with my marketing team on how to showcase our new coaching offering and build a client base. We began with an email campaign announcing coaching opportunities and my new coaching credential. We then updated all sales documents and my website to include the coaching option as a complement to consulting. I also worked coaching into the conversation with existing and prospective clients to practice and hone the messaging.

5. Encourage others to invest in themselves.

This journey has served as a reminder that our employees desire to be invested in as well. That feeling I had rediscovering a love of learning is not unique to me, and it inspired me to be more intentional in supporting my clients and my employees in their ongoing development. I was reminded that, as leaders, we have the privilege of setting the example and showing our employees that you’re never too old or too established in your career to try something new.

There’s a saying that goes like this: What you choose to do when you have nothing else to do reveals your true character. Today, I have as many coaching clients as I have consulting clients. It is my hope that other professionals can learn from my experience and use a slow season to master a new skill that can propel you forward.

By Sheryl Lyons

Founder & President, Culture Spark, LLC. Culture Spark helps leaders build culture as competitive advantage and turns managers into leaders. Read Sheryl Lyons’ full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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When Your Startup Should Pivot (and When it Shouldn’t)

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“Pivot” may be the one word that entrepreneurs and the television show “Friends” have in common. In either case, you hear it all the time. But a pivot isn’t always the best choice for your startup. How can you tell?

pivot

I’m going to share with you how to know when your startup should pivot. I’ll touch on the battles I went through with my own company when deciding whether or not to pivot, and cover:

  • What is a pivot?
  • What are signs telling you to pivot?
  • What other options do you have instead of a pivot?

What is a pivot?

A “pivot” is a massive change in what you do as a business

Instagram is a great example.

The company started off as Burbn, a social check-in app. Over time, its founders saw that their users didn’t care much about telling friends where they went – but they did constantly share photos of those places and what they did there. So Burbn pivoted to focus on that one feature (social image sharing) and rebranded as Instagram.

But you don’t have to rebrand to pivot. Take Text Request, for example.

We’re an online business text messaging software (SaaS). We started as a customer service tool for the hospitality industry. We thought, “If I’m a customer, I’d much rather text your business than call for help.”

But texting for customer service was not a big need for these particular businesses at the time, so the sales process was difficult and lengthy. What we found, though, was that other types of businesses really needed a texting solution to make sales and schedule appointments.

So we made a pivot. We went from a customer service tool for hospitality to a sales and marketing tool for home service businesses. We changed our product to meet the needs of home service businesses. We changed our messaging, and our sales and marketing strategies.

That’s the only pivot we’ve made, but we’ve since done a lot of refining.

“Refining” is changing how you do something as a business

You can refine your sales strategy, your product design or feature offerings, how you target your market, and more, but it doesn’t change the direction of your business.

A pivot changes direction, while a refinement improves how you get there.Is a pivot right for your startup?

Your startup is constantly looking for traction. You’re looking for a target market, product, channel, etc. to start performing well.

An indicator of if and when your startup should pivot is when you’ve given the above segments time and effort to work, and you’re seeing no traction from any of them. That can tell you:

  • You have a product people don’t want
  • You’re targeting the wrong people
  • Or that you’re using the wrong avenue to find customers

Myth #1

Slow growth does not mean you should pivot. We often hear new startups saying they’ll get to a half million in sales and be profitable in year one, or something similarly bold. That’s probably not going to happen.

The average successful startup begins seeing exponential growth around year four. Until then, most are stair-stepping their way to growth. And in most cases, this is also a good and sustainable path.

If you know you can reliably get customers doing XYZ, you probably do not need to pivot. You should keep doing what you’re doing, and work toward more effective ways of doing XYZ. In that case, you’re in a good place to refine.

Myth #2

I often hear new entrepreneurs say something to the effect of, “I just need to get this product in front of more people for them to see how great it is.”

There’s a lot wrong with this mentality, but the main issue is that it normally leads founders to think a pivot is necessary. They’ll spend a ton of money on trade shows, press releases, or advertising, get nothing in return, and then decide they have to pivot to survive.

But that’s not necessary. What is necessary is working slowly with one customer to give them the product and experience they need to make their life better. Then, do that with another customer in the same market. Then again.

It’s a slow process in the beginning, but it consistently builds startups into sustainable and profitable businesses.What should my startup do instead of pivoting?

“Pivot” is not a bad word. It can be a helpful choice that leads to a very successful business. But too many startups are often pivot-happy. They try something for a few months, see no results, change everything, and repeat.

In any case, these massive and constant changes can be bad for business. If this sounds like you, take a step back and hone in on the goal of your business, as well as your target audience. Who do you serve? Why and how do you serve them?

Instead of pivoting multiple times, look to refine. Startups often know who their target customer is, they just don’t know how to sell to them. So try different methods, such as:

  • If email blast marketing isn’t working, try emailing individual targets
  • If networking events aren’t yielding, try one-on-one meetings
  • If your website isn’t bringing in targeted traffic, change up your message and content approach
  • If there’s interest but nobody’s buying, target different positions within an organization
  • If customers don’t use some of your features, ask them what would be most helpful

Examples like these are limitless. The main point underscoring all of them is that something in your business has to remain constant for you find footing and grow.

Multiple pivots keep you from grounding who you are and what you do. Once you find your base (i.e. your target market, ideal use case, etc.), you should no longer consider pivoting at all. Any change thereafter should be refining a process or strategy.

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Can You Start an Online Business with No Money? Yes, You Can! (Here’s How)

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By Lilian Chifley, 

Starting an online business is just like preparing a dish. If you follow a proven recipe, the dish will be delicious. It does not matter who is doing the cooking. With an online business, all you have to do is follow the five steps outlined above. This system works until proven otherwise and it will not fail you.

Starting a Business

Starting a business is every person’s dream. The excitement you get when you think of becoming your own boss is propelling you to start your business. But then, there are several obstacles that are keeping you from doing it. Among this is the lack of capital or money to run the business.

Before you start a business, there are several areas you need to analyze. Your business has to be perfect on paper before you start actually working on it. A business, just like the mind can be the biggest asset or liability you have. You need to plan. Creating a business plan is important as it will enhance your clarity and take you through all the important aspects of your business. When it comes to an online business, planning is everything.

Whether you have money or not, your plan will hugely determine the success or failure of your business. When you plan, always use strategies that have been proven to work. Do not be the one reinventing the wheel. Learn from the mistakes that others have made in the past.

Will you launch the business alone or will you have a partner? It is important to consider finding a potential partner to help you start your business. If you are a lone wolf it will be better if you just do it alone. If you want to have a partner, go for someone who is as ambitious as you are. Just like employees on ResumesPlanet, Essayassistant.org, essaymama.com, or even freeessaywriters.net your goal should be to take the business to the next level.

Ensure that you have common goals. Get to know what your partner will expect in the end. A perfect partner can greatly improve your chances of success. And the relationship will always get better.

So you already have a business idea in mind, but you just don’t have the cash you need to start it up. Guess what, you are not alone! Most people across the globe find themselves in such a situation at one point in their lives. But they do it anyway. As the saying goes, there is always an excuse but never a good reason.

Today, I am going to share with you five detailed steps that every successful entrepreneur with an online business followed to reach where they are today. Most of them started with no money, followers or even email lists. They just followed these five steps.

The Broke Entrepreneur

It is important for me to share a short story about an entrepreneur from Singapore who wanted to start an online business but he did not have money. Just a year ago, Tommy started his online business that dealt with educating entrepreneurs with online businesses.

Today he has more than eight thousand people who attend his online conferences. Before he started his online business, he was a co-founder of two different companies in Singapore. And they both failed. He was totally broken.

So when he started his online business, he had very little money for marketing and other essential business expenses. He had to come up with a way to start and grow the business without money, employees, fame or following. Majority of people find themselves stuck in this position. They have mortgages to pay, bank loans, children’s education; the list is endless.

A great thing about an online business is that you get to save a lot of money as compared to the traditional business which requires you to pay office rent, part-time and full-time employees, equipment, insurance, and furniture. Similar to writers on top essay writing services, like cheap essay service or essayhave review, it is possible for you to start your online business with no money if you follow the five steps below.

1. Get to Understand What Your Business Will Be About

What are you interested in? This is the first question you need to answer to discover what you are good at. Are you experienced in marketing? Sales? Software development? Maybe e-commerce? Most successful entrepreneurs earn a living from what they love to do.

Starting a business that deals with something you do not love will just lead to failure. In Tommy’s case, he had over seven years’ experience in marketing and four years’ experience in running his businesses. He loves anything related to marketing and being a successful entrepreneur. And so he created an online educational business for entrepreneurs.

2. Going Niche

After figuring out what you love doing, it is now the ideal time to start thinking about niche. So, let’s say you love teaching people how to attract and retain more clients. In your mind, you may be having the thought that every person who is in the business of providing service wants to have more clients and therefore you should be targeting everyone who may be interested in the service you provide such as a lawyer, coach and teacher right? Absolutely not!

A major mistake that most entrepreneurs make is targeting a very broad market. Do not join the herd! Go for a niche market instead. Just as a writer from AssignmentMasters understands who he or she is writing for, you should understand clearly the small group of people that you will be targeting.

So, instead of teaching everyone how to attract and retain clients, you can be more specific by teaching for example female trainers in New York, how to get and retain more clients.

Since you have a clear idea who your target is, you can now focus your time and energy on discovering where your target is located and how they can grow their businesses exponentially. You can now start creating content that specifically targets this small group of interest. Later, when your business has grown bigger, you can broaden your target audience. But for now, focus on a small group.

3. Choosing Your Products

Any online business falls under two categories namely online services and informative or digital products.

Online Services

An online service simply involves you providing a type of service or doing a job for your clients. It could be providing software development services or social media marketing. In our example, it could be providing a specific service to help fitness coaches attract and retain clients. Many online businesses which offer online services succeed because of the determination of the entrepreneur.

Digital Products

You can think of digital products as things such as e-books, online memberships, videos and online courses. There are those digital products that are quite easy to create such as videos, audio files and e-books and there are those that are more complicated and may require a huge amount of money especially if you do not have an idea on how to code or use WordPress.

So if you are going to teach other people how to attract and retain clients, you can write an e-book about attracting fitness clients or you can teach an online course about it. You can write the whole book in Google Docs or Microsoft Word and then design the cover with Canva.

Starting an online course is quite easier than you think. What you have to do is record videos and prepare a few notes. You also need a good camera and microphone. The camera does not need to be professional. You can start by using your phone camera. You can also watch videos on YouTube on how to prepare and sell your online courses easily.

4. Making People Aware that Your Business Exists

After creating your digital product or defining your service, it is now time to move to another crucial section: Marketing. Your marketing strategies will determine your success or failure. It is important to ensure that every strategy you use has been well thought about and has proven to work in the past. Marketing is very expensive. Have you noticed how big organizations spend a lot of money on marketing?

And just because you have completed your online course or e-book does not automatically mean that people will start buying from you or paying for the services you offer. You need to take some time to make your target market aware that your business exists. You also need to make them trust you.

When it comes to your marketing strategy, the first thing you need to find out is which medium will reach your target market best. Are you going to use a website? YouTube channel? Facebook? Instagram? LinkedIn?

Choose a marketing channel that your target market loves to visit on a regular basis. Do not waste time marketing your business on Instagram if your target market does not exist there. Most entrepreneurs reach their target audiences easily using YouTube because any person can find all the answers he or she wants. Most people also visit YouTube for entertainment.

YouTube is currently the second largest search engine in the world. Why should you not use it to market your business? It is cheap, easily accessible and easy to use.

5. Give Your Target Audience Free Useful Content

After figuring out which medium you will be using to reach your target market, you will need to create free content that your audience can read or watch. There are some people who never give free content to their target market because they are afraid no one will actually buy their products or services. But is this true?

Take a moment and remember the last time you were surfing and you came across something interesting such as a book or an audio recording. You tried to get a summary or something related to the product for you to review but the site only insisted that you buy. No free content. Would you go ahead and buy such a product? Personally, no! Who wants to spend money on something he or she is not really familiar with?

Take another scenario. You are surfing the web and you come across a book that interests you. When you try to get a short summary, you are given a free e-book, a short video for you to watch and the summary you had requested. Would you go ahead and buy the book? Personally, I would purchase it because I now understand what I am buying and what I expect to see in the book.

People are curious. They want to get to know you better before investing their time and money on your products or services. If you fail to give them free useful information, your product or service is dead!

My friend Tommy gives away two free sessions on average for every online conference he runs. He gives away videos, articles and interviews as free content and in return, he gets to build the awareness of his brand, trust and personally connect with his audience.

You do not need to spend your money on creating content. You can use your phone, so long as its camera is in good working condition, a mic and video or movie software. Most phones have these software nowadays.

You also do not need to spend your money shooting pictures for your Instagram or writing articles on your blog. Other types of free useful content include free e-books, guides, workbooks, email, worksheets and infographics.

Does Creating a Website or Paid Ads Cost Money?

You have definitely heard that creating websites cost a lot money, right? Or Paid Ads like those we come across on Facebook. Thanks to advancement in technology, we have several options to choose from. If you currently have no money to start your online business, all you need to do is invest more time in it and work harder.

You can create your website for free using WordPress. So if you do not know how to create a website using WordPress, you should be ready to invest your time to learn how to use it. As the saying goes, there is no thing such as something for nothing in this world. Take your time and watch YouTube videos. Get to learn how to create your website using WordPress so that you do not have to spend your hard earned cash paying a website developer or designer.

You should always keep in mind that simplicity is key to success. It is better to create a website with few pages. The website should be so simple that it can be used by a seven-year-old child. Spending a lot of time creating a very attractive and complicated website will lead to disaster. Before making it too fancy, get several clients first. If you desire something that is easier to create than a website, go for a landing page.

If you have a digital product that you want to sell, you can look for platforms that do not charge monthly fees. With the internet, you can find anything you want. If you have online courses, you can host and sell them on platforms such as Teachable. FetchApp is also great platform for your e-book.

Do not start using paid ads at the moment. There are very many ways in which you can promote your service or digital product at no cost. Don’t think of using paid ads now because you have no money. As an entrepreneur, you only use what you have right now. Focus on free but effective marketing strategies now.

ConclusionSo there you have the five simple steps to start your online business with no cash. It all starts with you thinking about what you enjoy doing and what you are good at. Secondly, you think of a small group of people who will be interested in buying from you, that is your target market. Thirdly, you choose what you are going to sell, either a service, digital product or both.

Fourth, you decide which marketing channel you will use to reach your target market easily. And fifth, you create free useful content which you will give away. Remember, when you stop giving away free useful content, your business starts to die at that very moment. Your customers want to know who you are and what they are buying. If you refuse to share with them what you have, they will also refuse giving you their money.

Get to understand what works and what does not work for you and your business. You can only do this by practicing what you learn. Do not waste your time on strategies that you find them difficult to understand. There is always an alternative way to making something happen.

You will definitely reach a point where you will feel like giving up. Maybe your customers will not buy your products or services as fast as you anticipated or you might find it difficult working on a job while creating your business. Do not give up. Do what you can every day to the best of your abilities. Be patient. As an entrepreneur, you will definitely need to be patient most of the time to reap the rewards. As the saying goes, patience pays.

Starting an online business is just like preparing a dish. If you follow a proven recipe, the dish will be delicious. It does not matter who is doing the cooking. With an online business, all you have to do is follow the five steps outlined above. This system works until proven otherwise and it will not fail you.

By Lilian Chifley

Business Adviser, Professional Content Writer, Lilian Chifley is an IT specialist, teacher, and blogger from Sydney. She loves to talk about artificial intelligence and modern education.

Sourced from Thrive Global

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Six Reasons Why Video is The Most Persuasive Form of Content Marketing

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There are several reasons video marketing is a very effective content marketing strategy to relay your business story and messaging.

Highly Engaging

One of the most powerful advantages of video marketing is the fact that it is highly engaging. The human brain is programmed to pay more attention to moving images and sound.

Have you noticed times when you are talking to someone and think they are paying attention, but they aren’t? Instead, they are actually looking straight past you at a television screen behind you?

Even if the sound is off, the moving images on the screen still draw in their attention away from you.

They usually aren’t doing this on purpose; it is just human nature to look at moving images.

Think back to your youth when you were in school. Remember those days when the teacher would show a movie or video in conjunction with a lesson?

Even when the topic wasn’t something particularly interesting to you, just the fact that you were able to watch it, drew in your attention.

This is a powerful reminder to business owners to utilize this advantage of video marketing to attract the attention of their target audience.

It’s Passive

Watching videos doesn’t require the viewer to do anything and requires no effort. This means it is a passive act of receiving information.

Once exposed to a video, especially those that play automatically, you are immediately drawn to look at it.

How long a viewer stays and watches the video, depends upon how engaging and compelling it is.

It is up to the business to make sure that once they grab the attention of their target, they can keep them watching long enough to see or hear your message.

Establishes Your Authority and Creates Relationships

Using videos is an excellent opportunity for your business to create a relationship with and develop your authority with your target market.

Even though it is common knowledge that videos are a powerful marketing initiative, not all businesses utilize them.

There are many reasons why not all companies use videos, including not having the time, money, or expertise to create them.

Put your brand in front of your competitor’s by making sure that you are doing video marketing.

Stand out from the crowd in your niche by including videos on your website and sharing them on the social web.

Cost-Effective

Not all videos are created equal. Simply throwing anything on your website is not going to help you.

In fact, poor quality videos can actually hurt your brand by making you look unprofessional and sloppy.

Creating videos doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. If your company has a large budget and can afford to hire a professional videographer to come to your office and take live footage and use professional narration, go for it.

If, however, you have a limited budget, there are numerous ways to create quality videos. You can use high-resolution imagery or video animations to deliver your business message.

Highly Persuasive

Your first job is to capture your audience’s attention and impressed them with your professional videos. However, the onus is on the business to make sure their message is persuasive enough to keep them watching.

Remember, you are talking directly to your target market. It is your chance to explain to them. Whether you are speaking your message or letting animations do the talking for you, why you are the answer to their problem.

Use your brand’s personality in any video you create. Some companies choose to use humor as part of their brand, while others prefer to be more business-like.

Many Ways to Use Video

Another use of videos in marketing is to educate. Not all videos should be about selling your products or services. Doing so can turn off your audience.

Some other ways your business can use videos are:

  • Messaging: Blogs are abundant on the web. Try creating a video that relays the same type of helpful or relevant information as a blog post. You can even re-purpose blog content into a video.
  • Culture Videos: This is a great way to show your companies personality by showing videos of events in your office. Some examples are:
    • Employee interviews
    • Office pranks
    • Birthday parties
  • Interviews: Conduct interviews with others who are either in your niche or a complementary one. You can leverage their knowledge to provide value for your target audience and create content for you.
  • Tutorials: Showing your target market how to do or use something that they find helpful, will keep them coming back for more.
  • Events: Take a video at your next holiday party and share it with your potential and current customers. The next time you go to or exhibit at a trade show or conference, take candid video shots and share them.

Don’t forget about the power of music in eliciting emotional responses. Adding music to your videos will draw in the viewer even more and will appeal to their human side via emotions.

Any message delivered in the video format is received better than plain text. Provide value in the form of helpful information, tips and tricks, or any other relevant message that will contribute to your target market seeing you as a trustworthy source and an authority in your niche.

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How To Use Strategic Partnerships For Faster Growth

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By Stephanie Burns

When my business partner, Jody Greene and I were in the infancy of creating Chic CEO, we found out very quickly that when we leveraged partnerships – things moved a lot faster. I credit Jody for this growth strategy, as she was a master in creating partnerships.

Organically, we’d meet lots of people who had their own following and offerings, most of them synergistic to the female entrepreneurship space we were in. Jody was able to spot that synergy quickly and propose a partnership plan that helped grow all of our businesses. By partnering up with like-minded entrepreneurs, we could use our collective networks to fill events, gain subscribers and offer new products. Our email list grew faster and our events were easily filled.

We created so many partnerships that we developed a framework of how we selected partners and how we proposed our partnerships would work.

Aligned Target Markets

When we proposed a partnership, or were evaluating a partnership proposal that was pitched to us, the first thing we needed to assess was target market. Making sure that it made sense to the people we were serving. For example, we partnered with Dress for Success, Inc. to collect workwear for women at our networking events. In turn, Dress For Success promoted our event. We both served professional women in different ways. Our networking event brought together their women to connect, and look for new opportunities, while our network of women brought donations they very much needed. They helped us fill our event, and we helped them get more donations. Win win.

Getting a partnership proposal from a company that builds backyard swimming pools wouldn’t make sense. It doesn’t have anything to do with female entrepreneurship or the professional world for women. So we would wish them well, but pass.

Assess the target market to see if it aligns with yours, otherwise, you may end up confusing your community and customers. The purpose of a strategic partnership is to help get your business in front of more potential customers, so be diligent here. Putting in the effort to create a partnership just to have your message/product/event placed in front of people who aren’t your potential customers is a waste.

WIN WIN WIN

When we considered a partnership, we assessed it to make sure it benefitted everyone. Benefitted Chic CEO, benefitted our partner, and benefitted the Chic CEO community. Any offer of partnership that came through must benefit everyone. Conversely, if we were proposing a partnership, we only did so if we could make it a win win win for everyone.

If a potential partner wanted us to promote an offer for a discount on their product to our community of 100,000 entrepreneurs, we considered that a win win lose. The partner wins by getting their product promoted, the community wins by getting a discount, and Chic CEO lost due to dedicating time and resources without being compensated. Everyone needs to win.

Exchange of Value

Every partnership should have an exchange of value. It doesn’t have to be money, but something that you both find valuable to your business. There are lots of ways partners can be valuable to each other. For example, an email swap with another business that isn’t a direct competitor, but has the same target market. Fresh eyes that may not have heard of your business is quite valuable to you both.

We never proposed a partnership without adding value first. If you are proposing a partnership, it’s important to address what’s in it for your partner before ever asking for anything. The value exchanged should be balanced, fair and benefit you both.

Memo of Understanding

Lastly, if a partner agreed, we created a Memo of Understanding. This isn’t a contract or something legally binding, it was simply a document that outlined what we’ve both agreed to so everyone is clear on action items, due dates and responsible parties. It keeps everyone on the same page so all details are clear and documented.

Everyone appreciated this level of clarity and it kept our team organized. We never wanted to drop the ball on what we promised a strategic partner. Our partners were very important to us.

Working with partners helped us rapidly grow Chic CEO. We loved helping other like-minded businesses and creating creative ways to work together. Identify a few strategic partners in your space and develop a way to work together where everyone wins and value is exchanged. You’ll see a big difference!

By Stephanie Burns

My company, Chic-CEO.com, is an online resource for over 100,000 female entrepreneurs. As a startup, we had to get scrappy in order to hit our goals and make an impact. When we started asking for the impossible and getting the green light, I knew we had stumbled on something magical – something I call ‘Unreasonable Requests.’ I write about female entrepreneurship and how to brand yourself. I live in beautiful Ozark country with my amazing husband and two brilliant children. Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

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