Ezine, Blog, or Social Media? Wrong Question

For non-writers, all this talk of having a website, then doing an ezine, and writing a blog, and sending bursts of info out on social media can feel overwhelming and confusing.

Anyone out there feeling that? Yep, thought so.

The question is not which one should you do, but why and when will you want to do one or more of these forms of writing.

From my perspective as a web-presence marketing mentor-coach, I always say that a website is your home-base. It anchors all the rest of your marketing. This is the most important more or less permanent piece of writing you'll have to do.

The purpose of your website is to tell your potential clients what they are waiting to hear in order for them to know you are the right provider for them.

Blogs seem to work better these days than ezines for getting people interested in you and your services, and getting a little taste of what it would be like to work with you. So when you are starting out and needing to generate enough clients to fill your practice, a blog is a good addition to a website.

Ezines seem to work best to keep in touch with current and former clients, generating repeat business, providing targeted help on topics your clients have expressed an interest in, and reminding people you haven't seen for a while that you are still in business. This is a different purpose than a blog, so the writing should be different as well.

Social media work best to spark interest in something specific in the moment. They can be good for sending the curious and the prospective client to your blog or website for more extensive information, or to make an appointment. But for solopreneurs in the healing arts, they don't really directly generate a lot of new clients.

So, website, ezine, blog, and social media -- which will you work on today?

Are You Time Rich and Cash Stingy? Perfect!

For some reason -- whether it's because of hefty student loan repayments, poverty consciousness, self-sabotaging distaste for marketing, fear of doing the wrong thing and wasting money, etc -- counselors are notoriously risk averse when it comes to investing in their business.

I've noticed that many life coaches and some NDs are similarly reluctant to spend money to make money.

So here's the good news: it's possible to spend very little to get maximum impact. Here are my top 5 recommendations:

1. Get a do-it-yourself website -- it's THE best time and money saving strategy you can take.
Costs: from about $8-$16 annually for your own domain name, and from about $5-$30 per month for hosting
(online website builder programs are usually free with a hosting package)

2. Start a blog -- it's THE best fresh connection to your client niche you can continually & easily produce.
Costs: Nothing if using sites like Blogger or WordPress

3. Host tele-groups / workshops --it's so much easier than you think to reach many people at once.
Costs: Nothing if you have an unlimited long distance phone plan.

4. Do signature talks -- it's THE better, more comfortable way to do personal networking.
Costs: ranges from nothing if you are invited into a group or find a free location, up to $300+ to pay for a room.

5. Build your mailing list with free give-aways -- it's THE best way to get email addresses.
Costs: Nothing but your time.

Something here sound do-able to you? Not sure where to start? Check out the tips on my website.

9 Turn Offs About Our Websites

Does your website suffer from any of these client turn offs?

1. Pop ups that block what they're trying to read in order to pry their email address from them or goad them into buying something.

2. Flash graphic intro pages that look cool but provide no information, and load very slowly.

3. Music or audio greetings that automatically start when arriving at the website -- too startling or creepy.

4. Pages that are too busy with too many graphics, different fonts, different sizes, different colors, things that flash or move and distract and compete so they don't know where to look first, and start feeling motion sickness.

5. Sites that require too much reading to figure out if you're the person they are looking for, or to find what they want -- usually because there are no paragraph breaks, bullet points, subheads, or questions addressed to them.

6. Sites that don't have enough information -- nothing that's quickly helpful, or relevant to their immediate need.

7. Sites that don't work properly -- broken links especially on navigation bar, forms don't download, have to scroll left to right to read the page, sound on video is barely audible,

8. Have to hunt for phone number or email link, making obstacles to contacting for appointment.

9. Sites that don't seem to have anything to do with the locator directory link they just used to get to your site.

Did you find something in this list that is keeping prospective clients from staying on your website long enough to know what an incredible person you are?

Is your website working against you? Time for a web-presence critique? I'd like to help.

Is Networking Just Pushing, Competing, Persuading?

Are you networking-phobic? Hate pushing yourself on others, competing for attention, straining to persuade someone to hire you?

Makes you feel like a used car salesman? (no offense to my high school buddy who's now a car dealer)

Me too. So don't do it that way. Unless you're an uber-confident extrovert, that approach isn't going to work for most counselors and personal coaches anyway, and probably not for NDs either -- it's too much like snake oil huckstering.

Everyone says networking is essential to building a private practice. I disagree.

Being of service -- what I call help-working instead of networking -- is more effective for solopreneurs in the healing arts. Our clients don't like to be manipulated and sold. They like to feel heard, cared about, and helped.

Think about the difference it could make for you if the next time a "networking" event comes up you go with the intention to listen deeply, connect caringly, and offer help selflessly.

You're trained to do these exact things. You have a wealth of skills to draw on. You're even confident about and comfortable with being able to do this. That training and those skills can be just as useful in marketing your practice as they are in working with clients in your office.

Now from the practical perspective, I'd also recommend being ready with 3 things when you help-work:

• a client attracting elevator speech
• a business card with some help tips on the back
• an article or report you can email as a follow up

The elevator speech describes who you work with, what they want, what they get as a result of working with you, and sends listeners to your website for more details.

The tips on the back of a business card shows you to be knowledgeable and helpful, and has more chance of being kept than a card with a blank backside, or with next appointment time reminder.

An email follow up furthers the relationship that gets started at the event, helps your name and services to be remembered, and subtly promotes you as the go-to person for the types of issues you can solve.

Networking works best when it's help-working. Try it. It's much more comfortable than pushing, competing and persuading.