#SocialSkim: Twitter Tests Longer Tweets; LinkedIn User Content Preferences: 10 Stories This Week

Twitter tests longer tweets (but how long & for whom?); LinkedIn users' content preferences; Facebook retargeting of physical-store shoppers; Instagram nears 1B users; tbh tops app charts, brings positivity to teens; tools to research competitors' social strategy; more! Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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https://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2017/32886/socialskim-twitter-tests-longer-tweets-linkedin-user-content-preferences-10-stories-this-week

17 Tools Your Marketing Cannot Do Without in 2017

What marketing tools should your company be using right now? Here are 17 for 2017--some new, some tried and true, all totally useful. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2017/32871/17-tools-your-marketing-cannot-do-without-in-2017

8 Old-School Blogging Tactics That No Longer Work

You feel misguided.

When you started your blog, you thought you could just follow in the footsteps of your favorite blogger, right? Just publish great content and maybe spend some time on social media and you thought the readers would come.

But in reality, you find yourself grinding.

You stay up late after your 9-5 to write articles. You hustle for every single visitor. And you feel as if you’re spinning your wheels in a rut, not getting anywhere with your blog.

You wonder if it’s your writing. You wonder if it’s your topic. You wonder if maybe blogging just doesn’t work anymore.

But I have good news for you:

It’s not blogging that doesn’t work anymore. It’s these old-school blogging tactics that somehow still pop up online as effective methods of growing your blog.

Instead of throwing in the towel on blogging completely, throw in the towel on these outdated strategies and start upping your game (and your traffic) with what works today.

Tactic #1: Hoping “Great Content” Will Save Your Sorry Ass

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You’ve been told that “content is king” and “if you build it, they will come.”

So you’ve spent countless hours building a hub of awesome content on your topic, and you just know it’s what your target audience is looking for.

Once upon a time, that might’ve been enough. People would’ve found you and spread the word about you.

But these days, everyone is writing amazing content. There are hordes of carefully crafted, ruthlessly researched, expertly written blog posts on every topic.

Readers won’t come looking for you. You need to go looking for them. You can’t do that if all you do is write, write, write.

What to Do Instead

Instead of spending all your time writing and publishing content, you need to spend more time getting that content in front of readers.

In fact, Derek Halpern suggests you should only spend 20% of your time creating great content, and 80% of your time promoting it.

So build relationships with influencers. Develop an outreach strategy to get links and shares. Repurpose your articles for maximum exposure.  

If you don’t, it won’t matter how amazing your content is; you’ll keep struggling to build an audience.

Tactic #2: Guest Blogging on Huge Media Sites for Traffic

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It was July 2015, and I was so excited.

I had only launched Unsettle six months prior and Huffington Post accepted me as a contributor.

So I got to work. I researched Huffington Post’s business section to find the perfect topic. I stayed up late to write an article that I thought would resonate. Then I logged into my contributor dashboard, loaded the article, and pressed “publish.”

The next morning, I woke up early, excited to check my stats, and … crickets. I saw maybe 20 visitors from the article I’d worked so hard to write.

What happened?

The problem is that these huge media publications keep on growing in size and staff. And the more they grow, the less chance you have of drawing significant traffic from them. After all, it’s much harder to stand out when they publish thirty or more posts alongside yours.

Sure, if they happen to feature your post prominently on their front page, you may go viral and draw more traffic than you can handle. But you’re more likely to lose the traffic lottery than win it.

When it comes to guest blogging, you have much more reliable options.

What to Do Instead

Guest blogging is still hugely beneficial for bringing in traffic, email subscribers, and social proof.

But instead of targeting huge media sites like Huffington Post, you should target more specific, topic-based blogs. For example,if you’re a finance blogger, instead of guest blogging on MSN Money, you would target Budgets Are Sexy or The Penny Hoarder.

These blogs usually have large, engaged audiences specific to your topic.

Also, these kinds of blogs are often run by a single influencer. Guest blogging for them will help build your relationship, which can lead to them sharing your posts in the future. (This could end up sending you more traffic than the guest post itself.)

As for those huge media sites, the only reason to write for them is if you’d like to add your logo to your “featured on” list. You may not get a ton of traffic, but having written for these big websites does lend you credibility in the minds of many readers.

Tactic #3: Asking Readers to “Subscribe for Free Updates.” (Is It 2009?)

---

Listen, you can no longer expect people to give you their email in return for “free updates” or your “free newsletter.”

Yes, you’re supposed to grow your email list, but if you’re asking for emails without giving anything in return, you’re ignoring an important psychological societal norm: reciprocity.

This tactic may have worked in the past, but everybody knows the power of email marketing today, so every blog, website, and shop is vying for your visitor’s email address. You’ll see pathetic opt-in rates if you’re not offering anything concrete.

What to Do Instead

Instead of just asking outright for email addresses and hoping your readers are generous enough to cough them up, you need to give them something valuable in return.

That means creating an opt-in offer your visitors can’t refuse.

An opt-in offer is a free resource you provide related to your topic that you give away in exchange for an email address to incentivize email subscriptions (and rapidly grow your email list).

With the right opt-in offer, you’ll see your subscription rate go from a measly 1%–2% to an encouraging 5% or more.

Tactic #4: Trying to Build an Ad-Driven Media Empire

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Back before the days of affiliate marketing and product creation, there were the days of advertising — one of the only ways bloggers of yesteryear could begin to monetize.

The idea was that you’d build a huge site with lots of pages ranking in Google, slap ads on them, and you’d see profit.

Now, even back in the day, the gains you’d get from ads were modest. Even then, you’d need a whole lot of people clicking your ads to make a decent living. But if you had enough pages ranking for profitable keywords, you could make it work.

These days, it’s even harder than it was before. Not only do you face a lot more competition, but most people have developed “banner blindness,” which means they pay so little attention to the ads on a page that they don’t even notice them.

Advertising is an ineffective (and unprofitable) means of monetizing your blog. Fortunately, you have much better options.

What to Do Instead

Blogging is more of a viable career than ever before.

But now, instead of relying on tacky display ads to earn you pennies for the hard work you do, you can earn much more by creating products, offering services, or selling online resources and courses.

Turn toward treating your blog as an actual business, and away from scammy monetization practices like advertising.

Tactic #5: Lurking in Comments Sections Looking for Traffic

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Back in the day, the way to guarantee traffic was to leave comments on articles posted on other blogs in your niche.

If you left your comments in enough places, they could bring you significant amount of traffic. You’d just leave a link in the URL section of your comment, and wait for the traffic to roll in.

Why do you think you still see so much spam in comment sections? Because this used to work like gangbusters.

But now this no longer works. Nobody has time to comb through the comments section of an article and click the links to see if commenters have a blog they might want to follow.

What to Do Instead

Commenting on other people’s blogs is still an effective way to build relationships with other bloggers. If you connect with other bloggers in their comment sections enough, they learn your name and will recognize you.

Then, if you want to send them a pitch, or a link or share request, they will already have warmed to you. They will be a lot more receptive.

Of course, leaving half-hearted comments (“Nice article!” “I totally agree with your fifth point!”) isn’t the way to do it. You’ll actually have to read their articles and share which insights you gained from it, and if you have any additional ones to offer, mention those too. (Just make sure you don’t outright contradict them, if you want to build up your relationship with them.)

You want to be more like this:

Tactic #6: Writing Y.A.R.P (Yet Another Roundup Post)

---

It seems as if every time you open your browser, you see another headline like this:

“32 Productivity Experts Reveal Their Morning Routines!”

This type of post is called a roundup post, where the blogger has reached out to several influencers and bloggers, asking them the same question to use their answers in an article.

This used to be an excellent strategy for getting your blog on the map. The influencers who contributed would get a backlink and a feature on your blog, and in turn they’d share the article with their social media followers.

But because they worked so well, everybody started doing them. So influencers’ inboxes are now flooded with the same old roundup questions from everybody and their dog. If they even respond with an answer (because a link is a link), they’re far less likely to share it today.

What to Do Instead

Featuring influencers in your niche is still a good way to put your blog on the map. Instead of asking a generic question and making a list post out of the answers, you can take one of two other approaches:

1. Using influencers as case-study-style examples (without bothering them for their input). This is what I did with my Buffer guest post that ended up being one of the top pieces of content on the Buffer blog that year.
2. Getting extremely creative and interesting with your question. Instead of just asking what the influencer’s favorite superfood is, get more creative to capture their interest and rise above the rest of the roundup questions in their inboxes. Bonus: this also appeals to more readers.

Both of these options allow you to reap the benefits of a roundup post without ending up on influencers’ hit lists (or being completely ignored).  

Tactic #7: Writing for Rankings (Rather Than Readers)

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Not that long ago, bloggers could “game” the search engines.

You could write short, keyword-rich articles for your blog and actually rank. The more content you published, the more keywords you had the opportunity to rank for.

In fact, I wrote a blog called Suburban Finance, and because I wrote several articles about buying a house, I ranked in the top 50 for the search term “house.”

True story.

But since then, Google’s algorithm has become much more savvy.

See, Google’s business model relies on its users getting the search results they want — relevant, valuable content about whatever topic they’re searching for. So instead of valuing content based on quantity, Google uses measures of quality.

That means that it looks at factors like:

• “Dwell time” (how long a user will spend on the page)
• Bounce rate (the percentage of users who leave your site after visiting one page)
• Content richness (the length and depth of the search result)

These factors all show Google (and other search engines, not that they matter) that the result they displayed to their user was relevant and valuable.

What to Do Instead

Cranking out five 300-word blog posts per week so you can rank does not lead to relevant or valuable content.

Instead of becoming a content mill, hoping to rank for keywords, focus on creating quality content for the keywords you’re looking to rank for.

You must write for people. And people are looking for answers. When you write detailed, long-form content, it is more likely to have the answers they seek.

Tactic #8: Being a “Jack” of All Social Platforms (Instead of a Master of One)

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It used to be standard practice to have a social media presence on every platform possible to cover your bases. But that’s no longer effective.

With the introduction of algorithms for many social platforms, your posts reach fewer of your followers than ever before, so blasting your blog posts to every social media platform won’t bring you much traffic at all.

If you have 1,000 likes and follows on your Facebook page, that used to mean you promote your blog posts in front of most of those followers, but now only 6% (and often far less) of your fans will even see your posts in their newsfeeds.

Facebook isn’t the only social platform that has taken this approach. Instagram is the latest platform to follow suit.

To get your posts in front of more people on these platforms, you need to drum up engagement so the platform trusts that your followers want to see your posts.

But that’s nearly impossible to do unless you know the platform intimately and build up a strong presence. And it’s tough to do so if you are spreading yourself across every social network out there.

What to Do Instead

Focus on just one social media platform and promote your articles more heavily.

The only way to get more people to see and like your posts on social media  is to develop a deeper understanding of each platform and post on a regular basis so you can conquer those prohibitive algorithms.

How regularly?

CoSchedule says that it depends on the social platform, but here’s a quick breakdown:

• Post to Facebook 1–2 times per day
• Tweet 15 times per day
• Instagram 2–3 times per day

Develop a deeper, more intimate knowledge of the social platform to truly benefit from social media marketing.

Wake Up and Ditch the Outdated Blogging Advice  

I bet you’ve thought it.

I know I have.

“If only I’d started sooner.”

You know, back when professional blogging wasn’t so popular. Back when the blogosphere wasn’t more competitive than the restaurant industry. Back when all you had to do to get traffic was post on Facebook every time you published a new post.

It’s tempting to write blogging off as one of those things you had to start back before it became popular.

But I have good news …

You can still make in the blogosphere. You just have to ditch the old-school blogging tactics that no longer work and lean into the new strategies.

And sit back and watch the traffic, readers, and subscribers roll in.

About the Author: Sarah Peterson writes insanely useful guides on marketing and entrepreneurship at Unsettle.org.  Get her report, 10 Free Tools That Reveal the Product Your Audience Is Begging For to finally start making money from your blog… the right way.

 

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https://smartblogger.com/old-school-blogging-tactics/

Why Consumers Call Out Brands on Social Media

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How to Avoid Disappointing Your Social Media Followers and Keep Them Happy and Loyal

A loyal base of followers is key to your marketing--to bring in steady website traffic and ensure positive word-of-mouth that helps your business gain traction. To avoid ruining your relationship with your social following, use these three strategies. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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The Content Preferences of LinkedIn Members [Infographic]

LinkedIn members most prefer to see content on the platform that is both educational/informative and relevant to their specific interests, according to recent research from the social network. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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#SocialSkim: Facebook Nixes a B2B Feature, Governments Grow Weary of Social: 10 Stories This Week

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Hubcast 152: #INBOUND17 Travels, Massive Updates, & Things We Love

The Hubcast: HubSpot Tips, Tricks, Inbound & Content Marketing News & Sales Info every week. Are you a HubSpotter looking to take your Inbound Marketing ...

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How Americans Use Social Media to Access News in 2017

Most Americans now use social media to get at least some of their news, according to a recent report from The Pew Research Center. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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Three New Facebook Ad Features to Boost Your ROI

Facebook recently introduced new features that help advertisers garner more return on their social media advertising investments. These three features, especially, are worth a try. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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YouTube Monetization Updates: How it can Impact Your Business Channel

YouTube has made some significant changes to their platform. How will they affect your business YouTube channel. It's actually very beneficial to go ahead..

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#SocialSkim: Snap's College Play, Facebook's Tinder Test, LinkedIn's ProFinder: 11 Stories This Week

Snapchat again courts college audience; Facebook tests a Tinder-like feature, to spend $1 billion on original programming for "Watch"; Twitter's new account-sharing feature; a year into LinkedIn ProFinder; Facebook's ad format for print catalogs; Apple partners with Snapchat for AR; much more! Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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60+ Boutique Hotels, 1 Unique Brand: Kathleen Reidenbach of Kimpton on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]

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#SocialSkim: Snap's College Play, Facebook's Tinder Test, LinkedIn's ProFinder: 11 Stories This Week

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#SocialSkim: Snap's College Play, Facebook's Tinder Test, LinkedIn's ProFinder: 11 Stories This Week

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10 Tried and True Tactics for Getting Your First Coaching Client

You’ve seen their posts on social media …

Bloggers boasting about their multiple six-figure coaching businesses, telling you how much they love their work, their clients, and their lives.

They tell the tales of their premium coaching packages and the waiting list of clients eager to whip out their credit card.

It seems like an awesome gig, and you’d love a coaching business of your own, but these posts frustrate the hell out of you. Because you’re nowhere near where those guys are.

They have built their blogs. They have built their brands. They have built their audiences. All they need to do to get clients is send an email to their thousands of subscribers.

But you? You’re just getting started.

Nobody knows who you are, you barely have an audience and, frankly, you barely have a blog. You’re nowhere near ready to launch into coaching … right?

Wrong. And here’s why …

You Don’t Need Thousands of Subscribers to Start Your Coaching Biz

Yes, having an established blog with a huge audience is a major boon to anyone’s coaching business. People will recognize you as a credible expert, and you’ll have hordes of potential clients to pick from.

It makes the whole process of getting clients a whole lot easier and less time-consuming.

But that doesn’t mean you need to wait until you’ve amassed 5,000, 1,000, or even 500 subscribers before you start coaching.

You can start coaching right now, even if you don’t have ten subscribers on your list yet.

And you should start right now.

You know blogging will boost your coaching biz, but what you may not know is that coaching will boost your blogging efforts as well.

It will provide insights into your audience that you wouldn’t have had otherwise. This will position you to create more relevant content that connects with them on a deeper level.

Even if you need to give your first few sessions for free, the sooner you get in touch with your audience, the better.

You won’t just get to know them better, you’ll also get the case studies and testimonials that will help sell your coaching down the line. (Not to mention the confidence.)

Convinced yet?

Good. Then you must be wondering how you’re supposed to get clients.

Let’s dig in…

10 Proven Ways to Get Your First Coaching Client (Even if You’re Starting from Scratch)

Getting your first coaching client may seem like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be. Others who have stood in your shoes have already tried and tested numerous methods and learned which ones work best.

No need to recreate the wheel or waste energy trying to discover it on your own.

I checked in with a number of successful coaches from a variety of industries on what they did to win their first coaching clients. I also asked them, if they had to start all over again, what they would do today to win their first client based upon everything they’ve learned.

Their responses were overwhelmingly similar. In fact, most felt so strongly about how well their method worked, they would use it again if they had to start from scratch.

Some of their methods are online, but others are old-school and will require you to leverage offline tactics. (Imagine that!)

Pick one or two options that make sense for your personality, your situation, and your ideal customer. And then go get that client!

#1. Put Yourself on a Stage

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A smart way to get people to recognize your expertise is to put it on a stage where they can see it in plain view.

It doesn’t matter how much experience you have. Anytime you put yourself in front of a group of people, either as the host of an event or as a presenter, you position yourself as an expert.

The stage makes it easy for people to see you as someone they would like to learn more from. Especially if you share valuable information about a problem they want to have solved.

And setting up a live event isn’t as hard as you think. I’ve done it in on three different continents thus far. It’s just a matter of choosing a topic, finding a venue, and spreading the word about it.

Don’t have a budget? No problem.

Use resources such as Meetup or Eventbrite to help you organize and promote your event for free.

If you’re a little squeamish about running your own event, become a speaker at one that’s already happening in your field. Local chambers of commerce, Rotary Clubs, or even WordCamps are always on the hunt for speakers to address their membership base.

You could even consider partnering with a related business in your area, to come in and talk to their customers about a complementary topic.

How to make this work for you:

1. Decide what you want to give a talk about. Make sure it is something you can easily transition into a package you could offer attendees for coaching if they want additional assistance.
2. Select a venue. If you decide to present at an event that someone else is sponsoring, such as a chamber of commerce, this part is easy, because often they will have done that work for you. You’ll just need to reach out and pitch them your idea. And if these options don’t immediately work for your type of coaching, get ideas for how to find free venues to host your workshop here,  here and here.
3. Promote your event. You can use free sites like Canva to help you create high-quality promotion materials. These will help you spread the word and capture interest on social media and other distribution channels. Go here to find lots of other cool ideas for getting people to show up.
4. Go for the close. At the end of your event, give a clear call to action that lets your attendees know exactly what you want them to do, such as schedule a complimentary coaching session with you.

#2. Rub Shoulders at Relevant Events

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Before you balk at the idea of having to leave your house and talk to people at networking events, pause, take a deep breath, and consider this:

It works.

When you go to the right type of networking events (with people who match the profile of your ideal coaching client) then you can absolutely come away from the event with a number of clients, or at the very least, high-quality leads.

Why does this work so well?

Because people like to buy from those they know, like, and trust. And building that know, like, and trust is a helluva lot easier when you’re face to face with someone, listening as they pour their heart out to you about their problems. .

How to make this work for you:

1. Identify your target customer. Get clear about who would be ideal for the type of coaching you want to offer, and the particular problem you will solve for her.
2. Evaluate networking events or conferences in your area. You want to target the ones that your ideal clients will likely attend. All networking events are not created equal. Be selective in which ones you go to, so you’ll get an adequate return on the time you invest.
3. Clarify your message in advance. That way, when you do see an opportunity to talk about your services, you will communicate effectively about how you can help.
4. Prepare a success plan before you go. When you know what you would like to accomplish at the event, it makes it easier for you to identify the right opportunities and the right people to talk to. Here’s a useful guide on how to meet people at events that will help you make the most of your networking opportunities.

#3. Woo Potential Clients on the Phone

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People who have an interest in what you have to offer will rarely just whip out their credit cards on the spot.

Often enough, they will want to get on the phone with you to feel you out, get their specific questions answered, evaluate your style, and see if you are a good fit for them.

A discovery call is an excellent way to do this, and it’s easy to set up. Most of the time these calls are free, and they can range anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour.

How to make this work for you:

1. Set up a conferencing service. You can use either video or audio. For example, you could use Skype, Zoom, or even the good old-fashioned telephone.
2. Use a scheduling service for booking appointments. Scheduling services allow people to find a time slot on your calendar based upon mutual availabilities. It is no fun having to go back and forth over five emails with proposed times to find one that works. There are both free and paid services that offer this, such as Calendly and Schedule Once. You could even set up a web page on your site that allows people to book their discovery calls with you at their leisure.
3. Map out a basic structure for the call. You should know in advance how you want the discovery call to flow. Whether or not your potential customer decides to work with you, they should feel like they received value out of the time they spent talking with you. (You can find resources on running an effective discovery call here and here.)
4. Ask for the business at the end of the call. The goal of getting on the phone with your potential client is to turn them into an actual client. So you must ensure that you explain how you can help them even further through your paid coaching.

#4. Enlist Friends and Family as Wingmen

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This is the low-hanging fruit. I talked to so many people who said they got their first clients by discussing their services with people they knew.

Here’s what I mean:

Since the people within your network already know, like, and trust you, they are easier to convince to give you a shot. And if they’re not interested, they might put you in contact with other folks in their networks who might be a good fit for you.

How to make this work for you:

1. Make a list of the people within your circle. You know a lot more people than you may realize. This could be friends, family, classmates, your hairdresser, or even people you casually banter with at the gym. Give yourself a target number of people to reach out to.
2. Get clear on the specific problem you solve. The better your network understands what you do, the more they can visualize people in their world you might be able to help.
3. Communicate how they can help you. If you would like your friends and family to make introductions for you to potential clients, ask them to do so. If you would like them to participate in your program so you can practice, be clear about that. Never assume your loved ones will know how they can help when you let them know about your new coaching venture.
4. Start reaching out! Don’t be scared. The people in your circle care about you, and most people are more than willing to help if they can. Remember, you are offering something of value that helps other people. Don’t overthink this.

To illustrate, here is someone announcing their coaching services in a WhatsApp group I’m in with a group of women here in Buenos Aires.

#5. Tap into Your Business Network

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Just as you’ve built up a number of people within your personal circle over the years, you also likely have a number of professional contacts who are familiar with you and your work.

For some people, this is easier than telling your personal network about your coaching services, because these people already know you in a business sense.

How to make this work for you:

1. Follow the same recommendations as given in the previous point.
2. Don’t limit yourself only to close ties.  The professional contacts you’ve been in touch with more recently make a great starting point. But feel free to reach way back into your rolodex to people you may have worked with years ago. If you left a good enough impression, most folks are happy to hear from you. Peruse your LinkedIn connections as a starting point for building your list.
3. Personalize your communications. You don’t want to appear like you’re just sending a mass email to everyone within your network. Here’s an email I recently sent to someone I connected with a few years ago.  A few short weeks after this initial correspondence, he became a client.
   
   
4. Follow up.  If you haven’t heard anything after about a week, reach out again. People’s email inboxes can be a nightmare, so a friendly follow-up email to bump the message back up to the top of someone’s inbox can be super-helpful.

#6. Email Your List (Even if it’s Tiny)

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If you do already have an email list, even if it is tiny, you should leverage it.

These people have already raised their hands and said they value your expertise. They said they wanted to learn more from you. Why wait until you have a giant list before making an offer?

When you have a big list, you have more chance of finding paying clients, and you can largely automate the process. But a smaller list has its benefits too.

For instance, you can be a lot more personal in your approach. When your list becomes massive, it’s impossible to connect with each subscriber individually. When your list is small, you can hone in on the individual issues each subscriber is experiencing.

How to make this work for you:

1. Send out a “biggest pain” email. Ask your subscribers what their biggest challenge is as it relates to your topic area. Keep your email short and sweet. Make the “biggest pain” question the  sole focus of your communication.
2. Ask respondents to hop on a call. Tell them you’d like to learn more about their particular situation and see if you could help. You can do it on the phone, on Skype, or live in person over coffee (if your audience is local). You’ll gain clarity on the details of what they are struggling with, and what they’ve already tried to fix the issue.
3. Make an offer. Don’t assume that your reader will ask if you can help her. After you’ve spent time listening to your potential client, let her know you can help her with your coaching. Make an offer based on what she has told you. Lay out briefly the outcome you will help her achieve, how the process of working together will flow, and of course, your price.

Note: You can set up your welcome email to ask the “biggest pain” question. That way, any time you gain a subscriber and they respond, you can follow this same process to get new clients.

 

#7. Write the “Ultimate” Ultimate Guide

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There’s a line in the movie Love Jones that says, “Let me break it down so it could forever and consistently be broke.”

That’s the goal of publishing an ultimate guide. You cover a topic in so much depth that there’s almost nothing left for anyone else to say on it.

As a result, your piece of epic content will position you as the expert your potential clients want to work with, because you will have clearly demonstrated that you know more than enough to help them be successful with what they are trying to achieve.

How to make this work for you:

1. Pick a topic that solves a common burning pain of your audience. The more relevant the topic, the more likely your audience will be to invest the time in reading your work and sharing it with others they feel can benefit.
2. Research existing content on the topic. Remember, your goal is to create the most complete piece of content on a particular subject area. And to do that, you’ve got to know what material is already available, and then you’ve got to study it to identify weaknesses and opportunities for your guide to go deeper. (This infographic provides insights on how to do this.)
3. Develop a promotional strategy. “Publish and pray” is not a strategy. Make sure you create a simple plan to get the people who could benefit most from your guide to see it and read it. You could publish your guide on your own website, as a guest post on a high-traffic site, or post it in relevant forums or social media groups that allow such things.
4. Invest in creating a user-friendly design. Making your content visually appealing is an essential characteristic in making it remarkable. And the longer a piece of content is, the more important a user-friendly design becomes. You need to ensure your audience’s eyes don’t glaze over after they are only 15% of the way through. As you are designing your guide, consider adding calls to action throughout it to prime your audience to take the next step with you (such as setting up a discovery call for more information).

#8. Show Your Expertise in Relevant Facebook Groups

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Groups on social media are kind of like big targeted networking groups. And since there are people in them from all over the world, at all times of the day, sharing their problems, and asking questions, it is a prime opportunity for you to slide in with the answers they need.

Over time, as you keep showing up and proactively providing value, you’ll be seen as the go-to person for your area of expertise.

How to make it work for you:

1. Make a list of relevant Facebook groups.  Choose where your ideal customer hangs out. Focus on the groups that have high member engagement. If nobody is talking within the group, move on.
2. Schedule a standard time in your calendar to participate. You could block time each day or possibly once a week where you will go into these groups and be an active participant. It could be as little as 15 or 30 minutes a day. It is important to schedule it so you don’t end up spending half the day on social media! No bueno.
3. Add value consistently. Answer people’s questions. Be active. Be generous. Proactively offer tips to help others accomplish their goals. The more you do it, the more opportunities will present themselves to move the discussion beyond the group and into a private exchange. Here’s an example of how someone did it in the Millennial Entrepreneur Community on Facebook:
   
   

   And here are some additional ideas from this group’s owner on the right way to get clients from the group:

   
4. Seize opportunities to move the the conversation along outside the group. This could be via a private message where you can chat more in-depth on an issue, or even on a discovery call. A smart way to induce this is to mention that the advice you are providing is exactly the kind of thing you help clients with on a 1:1 basis.

#9. Step in Front of the Camera

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Next to meeting someone in person, video is one of the best ways to get other people to know, like, and trust you quickly.

That’s because video is kind of like being there in person. It allows people to hear your voice, see your mannerisms, and get a good sense of your style and approach.

And there is plenty of media  you can use to distribute your video content.

Facebook loves video, and live video in particular. In fact, its algorithm gives Facebook Live videos a boost within newsfeeds, so your friends and followers are more likely to see it.

Post the videos on your own wall, on the wall of your business page, or in a group you own. And if any Facebook groups you are a part of allow it, post relevant and useful video content on those as well.

Twitter, Instagram, and now LinkedIn are also on the video bandwagon. They’re encouraging users to utilize their respective video-sharing platforms as a means to stand out and connect with your audience.

You should also post your videos on YouTube. There’s a whole different and rather large audience of people there (more than 30 million a day!) searching for content on how to solve their particular issues.

How to make this work for you:

1. Don’t stress over the tech. The camera on your smartphone or your laptop is likely perfect to get started. And just in case you would like to jazz up your videos with some good lighting, this down and dirty lighting kit from Wistia works wonders. You can get it all for less than $100.
2. Know what you want to accomplish with your video series. Be clear about what you want to guide people through with the training, and the outcome you want them to achieve.
3. Outline what you want to say. You don’t have to be scripted, but you do want to make sure that you cover all the key points you want to address for each session.
4. Publish consistently. I cringe when I go back and look at the first videos I made years ago. But you’ve got to power through the first ones so you’re able to get better at it over time. The more videos you produce, the better you will get. The goal isn’t to be a perfectionist here. It’s to take action and get that first client! You’ll get better with time.

#10. Run a Lottery for Freebie Sessions

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When people are reading your articles, you have a captive audience. And when someone is engaged enough to read your article all the way to the end, they must have a strong interest in solving the particular issue you covered in your article.

So you might take this opportunity to offer an option to work with you 1:1 via your coaching.

You can run a lottery where a select number of readers can win a free session.

Then, for the people who don’t win one, you can offer them a discount for participating in the contest. They have already expressed interest in your help. They might be willing to pay for it.

You can do this with articles you publish on your own website, but you may also consider doing this on a guest post for a larger blog. If you do the latter, you need to have a strong enough relationship with the owner of the blog first. Jon recommends having written at least three posts on the site before making such a proposal.

How to make this work for you:

1. Focus your offer on the outcome. To convert a reader into a paying customer, they have to believe you will help them get to the state they desire. They aren’t buying coaching from you, they are buying the transformation you will create for them. Help them visualize what life will be like for them as a result of working with you. So if you’re a fitness coach, the outcome you’re helping your clients achieve could be to get to their goal weight.
2. Put a limit on the number of free sessions you offer. Your goal is to get your first paying coaching clients. Free clients can pave the way to helping you get there, but there is a limit to how much free work you can allow into your schedule. You don’t want to be so busy with free activities that you don’t have time to do the work that will earn you money.
3. Make the offer on your most valuable posts. You don’t want to try this technique on every post you publish. Your audience will learn to tune it out. Instead, test this out on an article that is truly remarkable, on a topic that is top-of-mind for your audience.
4. Let your audience know what makes you qualified to help them. This isn’t the time to be modest. If people are going to trust you to help them reach their goals, they need to feel comfortable that you know what you are doing. Incorporating social proof somewhere in your post is helpful. You could talk about results you’ve gotten in the past for yourself. And it could be as simple as teaching with such depth and authority that it is clear you know your stuff.Here’s how Jon laid out his social proof on that guest post that got him his first coaching clients way back when.

Now Go Out and Get Your First Coaching Client

There’s no need to wait.

You don’t need your blog to gather an audience. You don’t need any more expertise. And you don’t need any additional certifications or sources of proof.

You know enough right now to help someone else create a transformation for the better in their life.

So don’t keep them waiting any longer.

Choose one of the methods above (or combine some) and go get your first coaching client. Then get another. And then another.

Soon enough, you’ll start to gain momentum. Your confidence will build. And then you’ll be the one with a full roster of clients who are more than eager to work with you.

But it all starts with getting the first one.

Go get ‘em.

*Note: Because Smart Blogger has been such an essential part of my blogging-for-business journey, I want to give back to the community. I’m setting aside time in my calendar to do ten free 30-minute work sessions, where you and I will roll up our sleeves and build your simple plan to book your first paid coaching client in no time. Answer this simple question to be considered.  I’ll pick ten people, and we’ll schedule a time to chat.*

About the Author: Sonia Thompson is a content marketing strategist, coach, and founder of TRY Business School, which is all about helping you get the customers you want and keep them coming back for more. She’s also a bit obsessed with roaming the streets of Buenos Aires and dancing tango. Join the free 5-Day Get Your 1st Coaching Client Challenge, so you can start building your thriving coaching business today.

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