You can have a business card that’s useless or one that gets you clients. Which do you want? Your business card should be considered a serious sales tool, something that someone will look at and get a very good idea not only at what you do, but what you can do for them.

If you’ve got just one chance to make an impression (in person or not) and you’ve got the space, use it well. Make sure people know what you do, really DO, when they read your business card. Give them a compelling reason to call you to talk about working together. Or perhaps you want them to visit your website or sign up for your ezine (e-mail newsletter). The idea is to get prospects in ACTION, just by using your card.

Here’s an example for you: I got a call from a prospect a while back, saying she was ready to work with me to help her attract new paying clients. She wanted to talk to me because she needed to see exactly how I worked and what my rates were. She had her credit card in hand and was ready to start.

The funny thing is, we’d never met. She wasn’t referred by any of my clients or colleagues. Instead, she had found my card in a doctor’s office close to 50 miles away. Now, I can ASSURE you I had never been to that doctor’s office and I hadn’t gone to that part of the state in over a year, but somehow my card found her and compelled her to want to work with me. That card probably cost me no more than 10 cents. Not bad for a return on investment on a marketing piece and the fact that I wasn’t even there in the first place!

OK, so what should you put on your business card to make it Client Attractive in a networking situation? It should obviously have your phone number(s), every way to reach you, and can even have a set of PULL marketing questions on the back that invite the reader of the card to consider working with you. It’s recommended that you add your tagline to the card. And use the back of it if you can!

My business card also prompts colleagues to refer potential clients to me even though we’d only met once at a workshop I’ve given or at a networking meeting. The information on the back allows the people holding the card to self-qualify or screen themselves as to whether or not they are an ideal client for me. It gives referral sources ways of describing what you do clearly and effectively when talking to others about you. It has an invitation to call, which can make all the difference between getting new clients from your card and not.

The objective should be to have a business card that has your ideal prospect say, “Wow! I need you!”when they’ve read your card. The key is to keep it legible, but to have real Client Attractive information there, so that it works as part of your sales force, even when you’re not there to sell for yourself. (By the way, there’s also a copy of my own business card with all the text, front and back, in the Client Attraction Home Study System™. Why reinvent the wheel when you can model what I have on my own card?)

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Ask yourself: What does my business card say to my prospects? How do I differentiate myself from all of my competitors with my business card alone? Am I actually attracting new business because of it? Is there a call to action, an invitation to do something specific, a compelling offer, or a point of differentiation that makes me stand out?

Also ask yourself: What are people I network with REALLY doing with my business card once they go home from where they met me? Is it going in the circular file (i.e., the garbage) because they can’t tell what I really do for a living and what I can do for them?

Business cards are an underestimated marketing tool, one that you will use most often to get new business. Instead of using a basic (boring) card that’s essentially useless, it’s time to create one that gets clients to call YOU.

While you’re at it, start optimizing more of your marketing materials so they actually work to get you more clients.Follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

If you want to grow your business, hands-down, you need an assistant. And by “grow,” I really mean “make more money.” Oh, I know what you’re thinking! “I don’t make enough money to hire an assistant yet. That’s just not something that I can do right now.”

I know you’re thinking this because I thought the same thing too, at first. I resisted working with a Virtual Assistant (VA) for over a year. Then I tried it because I didn’t have any other choice. I was so busy working on client projects and actually seeing clients that I didn’t have time to market my business.

But once I hired a VA, I nearly doubled my revenues. I finally had time to work on getting more clients and taking care of the aspects of the business that actually MAKE me money.

Here’s the deal about Virtual Assistance. You can have someone work for YOU out of their OWN office, on their OWN computer on YOUR stuff, at a drastic fraction of what it would cost you to hire an assistant full time, or even a part-time college student. Here’s why: VA’s are highly experienced professionals who have been executive assistants in corporations and have chosen to go out on their own and work from home (can you blame them?)

They work with several clients at the same time and have an hourly rate. The best part is they only charge you for the actual time worked, keeping track of the time they spend on your work. Which means that, if they only spend 64 minutes working on a project for you, then they pro-rate the hourly rate to just those 64 minutes and that’s all you pay.

Because they are highly experienced and own their own businesses, you can expect a much higher level of quality than you would with a student who generally doesn’t have any experience in the business world. Because of this, VA’s often become PARTNERS in the growth of your business, rather than simply someone you delegate work to.

They care, and it’s in their best interest that you grow your business. The more successful YOU are, the more work you’ll be giving THEM (win-win situation). So, it’s almost like they’re INVESTED in your success…

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Isn’t it time you thought about focusing on what matters most (the money-producing part of your business) and start to delegate the other details to a real professional?

Start writing down the things you want to start delegating and what your business goals are. You can also do a search on Google.com for “Virtual Assistant” and you will get leads for different organizations. Once you start collaborating with an eager-to-take-stuff-off-your-desk professional, you’ll start seeing results soon thereafter.

I hear this a lot: You may not be sure how to use ALL the time you’ll gain once you hire a VA. My advice? Marketing! But many solo-entrepreneurs aren’t sure what to focus on first: ezine? Teleseminars? Talks? Networking? articles? No worries, I was there once too. The step-by-step Client Attraction Home Study System™ will show you everything you need to do first.

Follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

Video is getting hotter than ever and with good reason. This medium let’s people see who you are and leverages the Know Like and Trust Factor that helps people get comfortable with you.

But, where do you use video in your marketing and your website? Here are three ways to use video to help market your business.

1. Your Website’s Home Page

A video greeting that uses your elevator pitch is perfect for your home page. Introduce yourself and tell a little about who you are and what you do – but focus your video around the visitor and their needs. Easily wrap up by offering viewers irresistible Free Offer so you can capture their contact information.

2. Your Ezine

I send out a video blog every Friday with a variety of Client Attraction strategies. This is a longer video (about 5 minutes) delivering fresh content every week. People have different preferences for how they like to get their information. Some of your subscribers will prefer to read while others might enjoy watching video. This is a great way to stay top-of-mind and share a helpful tip your subscribers can put into action that week.

3.  Sales Pages on Your Website

Once your visitors make it to a sales page offering one of your programs, products or services, video works to build trust. Use the video to highlight the viewer’s problem or struggle and how you have the solution. Combined with well-written text that hits on the benefits of whatever you are offering, you now have strong marketing to help prospects make the decision to buy from you today.

4. Google loves video! When you use videos, the Google spiders will find them, which in turn positively impacts your search engine ranking.

 Your Client Attraction Assignment

Start thinking about video for your business! Many smart Phones have video cameras or get an inexpensive video camera. Give yourself permission to simply play with the process to get more comfortable with it. Initially, this can take some of the pressure off the process.

Next write a script or two and then shoot them! You can do this on your own and then edit out the beginning and end on Youtube which has its own free video editing software. Then post it to your website or paste it into your ezine!

If you’re ready to write your ezine more regularly but don’t know where you’ll fit it in your schedule,then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

 

We can also connect together on Pinterest here.

[youtube width=”600″ height=”352″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bvG0tNfDKw&amp[/youtube]

You’ve got to get clear on your clients’ biggest issues. Why? Very simple—the more you know what your ideal clients are struggling with, the more you can position yourself as their problem solver.

Talking about your process or your results is really good when it comes to marketing but results are based on your clients’ biggest issues and struggles. I find that too many entrepreneurs skip over the fact-finding mission that is required to get to know exactly who your ideal client is, but especially what they struggle with the most.

So what I would like for you to work on this week is really getting to the core of what your ideal clients’ biggest problems are. What are they struggling with? What are the biggest obstacles in their way? What is keeping them from where they want to be?

When you know that, you can position yourself as the problem solver. You can create the solutions that they need the most and you can deliver the results that they’re waking up in the middle of the night wanting to find.

So the questions I have for you today are what are your clients’ biggest problems and obstacles? What are they most frustrated by? What is that one thing that they most want to figure out? And what would they ‘do anything’ and ‘pay anything’ to get? What is it that they would love to have in their life that they don’t have now?

You see, when you get clear on their biggest issues and what they want to work on the most—what they would do anything and pay anything to have—you are positioned in a way that makes them say, “My gosh, you’re exactly what I need. I’ve got to start working with you right away.”

It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out in your business or ramping it up or looking to get more leverage because you already have a full practice. It’s time for you to get clearer on what your clients need so that you can clearly position yourself as the only one that they should be working with.

Your Video Assignment

Get clear on your clients’ issues. Drill down even deeper and don’t try to apply this in a way that appeals to too many people. We’re only talking about the person who is your ideal client. Do some fact finding. Think back to all your best clients and really look at the common denominators around what their biggest issues, obstacles and hot buttons are and focus on that in your marketing. Start weaving it into everything that you do and you will attract more clients, you will sell more products and you will build your list so much faster, which equals making more money in your business.

Many people who are trying to get a new business rolling, struggle with what needs to get done first. Some will say that establishing branding is the most important step, with the name and tagline all flushed out. Others will lean towards figuring out the content. I hear this question a lot from clients who are getting started and I can tell you that the experts don’t necessarily agree.

To be honest, the answer depends on whom you ask. If you ask the branding experts, they will be up in arms if you don’t nail down the name, feeling that branding should be the first order of business. But if you ask me, I am more of a content gal and feel that it’s better to know what you are offering and get that all worked out as your first priority. In my practice over the years, I find too many people get into perfection paralysis around their business name, their tagline, their website, and so on.

I’d rather see you get started now, rather than wait for the perfect branding. As an example, my company started out as Self-Employed Success, then it moved on to The Ideal LIfe and next was Rainmaker Coach . That lead me to where I am now with ClientAttraction.com. The branding has evolved as my business and material has evolved, becoming more encompassing of everything I offer.

If you can come up with something that’s good for now, that is what I’d go with. Just know that it will evolve  along with your whole marketing message over time. And that is totally acceptable and to be expected. Focus on coming up with your proprietary system and your content, which is how you will be earning your money.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe branding is important, just not at the expense of holding off on getting started. Spend some time with your branding, but after a while, decide on something and start using it. The more you work with your new business format and model, the more evident the name will be. And it will likely change and grow over time as the work does.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

Have you allowed branding perfectionism to keep you from getting started with your business? Here’s my suggestion if this has happened to you. Work on your branding to come up with one to three names that you like.

Next, talk to people about them to help you narrow them down. Pay attention to see if there are any patterns in the feedback. Sometimes you can get as many opinions as the people you ask, which might not be that helpful. Other times a favorite name will emerge.

Either way, don’t let too much time slip by before you select a name that works for now. Then get started building your business. Being of service is what it’s all about and you can’t do that if your progress is hindered by worrying about your branding.

If you’re ready to write your ezine more regularly but don’t know where you’ll fit it in your schedule,then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

Whether you are a start up or still at the beginning phase of your business, getting initial consultations is a huge concern. This is one of the most frequent questions I hear from my clients. Your consultation is the gateway to signing new clients and the fastest way to make money for a start up or relatively new business.

So how can you fill your calendar with enough consultations to convert a good percentage to clients? Here are eight ways to attract plenty of initial consultations and keep them flowing.

1. Grow your contact list and send out a weekly ezine. Your ezine sets you up as an expert and helps you to establish relationships and build trust over time. Of course you will offer your consultation in the ezine with a specific call to action.

2. During your weekly speaking gig, send around a signup sheet for your initial consultation. This list also adds to your database simultaneously.

3. Create a special report for your Irresistible Free Offer and then offer your initial consultation at the end.

4. Develop, promote and conduct a free teleclass and offer your free consultation at the end to the participants.

5. Write and send out your warm introduction letter and offer the consultation as part of this marketing tool.

6. Find joint venture partners and conduct a free teleclass together. At the close, offer your free consultation, which is directed at this new audience.

7. Put your free consultation offer on the back of your business card, so new contacts will see this opportunity when they flip over your card.

8. Have a live, once a month program where you can meet new prospects and offer your initial consultation.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

If you need more initial consultations, review the list above and choose the two or three methods that will work best for you. Then begin to set things up and implement these choices to fill your calendar with new prospects who will learn about your services and sign on.

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

There are many ways to set up your packages, but I recommend building levels that entice clients to go for the high end. This not only serves you, but it truly serves your clients as well.

First of all, when clients stay with you for extended periods, they get that much more value, content and support to help them achieve their goals.

Second, you can be there to support them as new situations crop up, which always do in business.

Third, the longer clients stay with you, the fewer overall clients you’ll need to reach your monetary goals. This frees up your time to work on leveraged and passive income projects.

For example, when I offered private coaching in the beginning, I had three programs. One was the basic program that included three 30-minute calls per month for six months. Then I had two VIP versions. The smaller one included three hour-long calls per month for five months.

However, I made the top VIP program really juicy. It started with the same three hour-long calls per month, but I also included the two home-study systems free of charge. Next I added in a three-hour in-person session at my office free of charge, which had a very high perceived value. But that wasn’t all – it also included access to all the recordings and the Q&A calls too. The value was tremendous.

Given the way these programs lay out, you can see why the top VIP level was extremely appealing to potential clients. They knew they would not only have access to me and the one-on-one coaching, but they could meet with me in person, plus have all the incredible information from my home study courses and listen to all the recordings which added so much value. It was really hard to resist.

This is a great way to also break free from trading hours for dollars. Your top package offers so much value there is really no way to separate the content from the coaching regarding your price. All the add-ons cost you nothing to provide to VIPs because you are already delivering them to work with different levels of clients.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

Have you created your packages yet? If you have done so, great! You might want to take time this week to review your offerings to see if you can make your top level even more enticing.

If you haven’t established your packages yet, now is the time to get started. Think about everything you have to offer and see how you can build a VIP package that seems so valuable it becomes practically irresistible to your prospects.

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

Clients ask me every week, “Fabienne, HOW do you come up with new content for your ezines every single week!? I can barely make the time to write one newsletter a month and I just don’t know what I’d talk about if I wrote it weekly or every other week! I’m busy enough networking, following up on prospects, setting up speaking gigs, and seeing clients that I just don’t have the time to create a brand new article each week!”

I don’t blame them. I used to think the exact same thing. When I first started with my ezine (“enewsletter” was the common term when I started doing one 7 or 8 years ago). I wrote it monthly, at best! Sometimes, MONTHS would go by without me working on one. And when I had my first child, I took an entire year of hiatus from my ezine.

To tell you the real honest truth, it wasn’t because I had a new baby that I didn’t want to write an ezine more often. The real story was that I knew writing one worked so well in attracting clients to me that I was afraid I would attract MORE clients than I could handle. I already had the clients I could handle, and I just didn’t want to be overwhelmed and feel I didn’t know if I couldn’t handle what new ones came my way. (Ever feel that?)

But since I rarely admitted that to others, I used the excuse that coming up with content each week was too hard; I just didn’t have the time that I needed to work on it. I imagined it taking hours and hours to work on one issue and I thought once a month would satisfy my subscribers. But I noticed one thing.

I was utterly FORGETTABLE when I wrote to my subscribers only once a month or every two months. My list wasn’t growing fast and I certainly wasn’t turning more prospects into paying clients with it. I realized that if I wanted to make this ezine thing WORK, then I had to commit to providing high-value, high-content credible ezines on a regular basis and more often.

Today, my ezine is responsible for bringing me the largest majority of my private clients, group clients and purchasers of my home study manuals. I believe it’s a combination of a lot of little things. 1) Creating the Know-Like-Trust factor; 2) being authentic about the struggles I have or have experienced and 3) hands-down, it’s deciding to send it bi-weekly at first, and then after a few months, taking the plunge and going weekly.

So, writing so often meant I had to figure out SYSTEMS for coming up with content and doing it every single week, because NOTHING is worse than sitting there, in front of your computer screen, being on deadline and not knowing what to write about.

With my many clients who are first-timers to writing articles more often, I ask them to make a list of topics for the ENTIRE year. So, if they’re writing bi-weekly, that means coming up with 26 topics by our next session, all in one fell swoop. Then, each time they sit down to write the article, all they have to do is pull out the list and write it, not have to futz around wondering what to write about. Much easier.

This gets them in the habit of writing regularly and we all know that once a habit is formed, it’s hard to break. (I actually look forward to writing my ezine each week. It feels like I’m talking directly to you and that feels like I’m creating that relationship even further each week.)

To be honest, I actually don’t write out a formal list for the year any more. That worked in the beginning for me. Instead, I keep a running list of possible ezine topics on my desk. Some months it’s an actual list on a piece of paper. Right now, I’m into these colorful sticky notes and I have a series of them posted to the right of my computer, each with a topic idea. When I use one idea, like today’s; I simply take the sticky note and throw it in the trash. One down!

The ideas come from a few different places, mostly from my work with private clients. For example, today’s topic came to me because I talked to several clients last week about finding content for their own ezines. If it’s something that they ask me about in private sessions, and it’s coming up often, then it’s probably something my readers who aren’t clients yet are interested in too.

Another source for content is more personal. I find that if I’m learning something new, working on a particular project, or encountering a specific obstacle in marketing, then you probably are too. So I write about that. I talk about the struggle or challenge, and then I share what my process was for solving it. Readers really seem to enjoy that and can relate more to me, even if we haven’t met in person yet.

The idea is to get over the fact that coming up with content is a struggle. Whether you write the list ahead of time for the entire year or you keep a running list of ideas that you add to each time you get inspired in the moment, it doesn’t matter. The key is to write it down and then create the article later.

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Commit to reaching out to your subscribers more often. And once you do, start writing down some topics ahead of time, so that you don’t ever have to stare at a blank page, wondering what to write about, as the deadline looms. Create systems for this each week, using my ideas above or your own. Whatever’s going to work for you, as long as you systematize it. When you do, you’ll attract just the clients you need, without much effort at all. That’s what happened to me. 🙂

If you’re ready to write your ezine more regularly but don’t know where you’ll fit it in your schedule,then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

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