The eBook revolution has totally empowered entrepreneurs beyond their expectations.

The question is: How Can You Take Advantage Of It?
Writing a book traditionally, with all the printing and publishing costs, just doesn’t make sense anymore. 

It’s not an investment that has a profitable return for most authors and business owners. 

Enter eBooks…If you sold just a hundred copies of your book, it could really boost your business as much as the next 12 months and beyond. 

All you have to do is to keep up the momentum, once you get started. 

Listen In As We Talk About…
- A Valuable Lesson From Some One Who’s Been There: How Morgan Started With A “Middle Of The Night” Inspiration
- How You Can Start Writing Your First Draft
- The Single Greatest Misconception About Writing A Book
- The Most Common Ways You Might Be Sabotaging Yourself
- The Incredible Benefits Of Writing A Book
- 3 Practical Strategies To Get You Started Effortlessly Writing
- How eBooks Have Changed The Publishing Industry
- Social Media Tips And Tricks For Publishing Your Book

Morgan Gist MacDonald is a writing coach and editor of nonfiction writing and the founder of Paper Raven Books. Morgan and her team help authors write, edit, and publish books that create impact.

Her latest book, Start Writing Your Book Today: A Step- by-Step Plan to Write Your Nonfiction Book, from First Draft to Finished Manuscript, is available in the Amazon kindle store. Morgan blogs about writing techniques and motivation at paperravenbooks.com

Morgan’s Middle Of The Night Inspiration

 No one wakes up at age 18 and says “I’m going to be an entrepreneur and this is going to be my target market” Morgan

Like most of us, Morgan did not wake up on her 18^th birthday with an established business. She was also unsure of what the future is going to be, until an inspiration came to her in the middle of the night…. Morgan was a good student and already a talented writer while in school, she actually went for a Phd in sociology at Vander Ville University. For a couple of years as Morgan was involved in academics, she reached a point in her life and asked herself if she really has the passion for writing, which led to huge self-doubt. During this time one fateful night, Morgan was sitting at the graduate student offices while one of her colleagues was up late working on a paper…and her friend was struggling. With a few hot cups of coffee and a dark room, they talked through the assignment.  For three-research intensive hours, Morgan stayed with her friend and accomplished what seemed to be impossible:  The huge essay was complete.  At that very moment, a realization came to Morgan:  She absolutely loved every minute. Morgan realized that she wants to help others with their writing. She knew her personal writing process could make it easy for everyone to write a book – if only they used it. She left her pursuit of a Master’s Degree to become an entrepreneur and immediately started her own Writing And Editing Business. As life goes on, it has a way of distracting even the best of us.  Morgan started her business at an early age, but quickly found excuse after excuse as to why she can’t write her book and share her incredible writing process to the world.  “Why” it wasn’t the right time, “Why” she couldn’t fit writing a book into her schedule.  Being a mother with an infant, certainly didn’t lend itself to writing.  

The 4 AM Revelation

We need to have starting point. We have to start with something that we don’t have our head wrapped around yet – Morgan

While feeding her 4 month old daughter at four o’clock in the morning, a revelation came into Morgan. “It is now or never. I will write my book”, she thought. At the time, she wasn’t even entirely sure of what kind of book to write. As she reflects in this terrific interview, Morgan said, “There is something about being up at four AM…in the middle of the night - your reasoning skills have not quite kicked in yet.  I was willing to start with something that didn’t entirely makes sense.”  She knew in her heart, starting is all she really needs- just a starting point. Sometimes we just have to start something even when we don’t have our head wrapped around it.

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The Journey Of Writing Her First Draft

Time to quit playing, time to get real, time to start.  - Morgan

Morgan was still not entirely sure what her book was going to look like and that kind of uncertainty kept her from really starting.  She had one thing going for her that wouldn’t occur to most people:  She was totally exhausted. Morgan turned it into an advantage.  Being exhausted and up at four AM allowed her to give up her doubts and really start on something amazing. She didn’t know exactly what she is was going do to, but Morgan committed to herself that THIS time, big things are going to happen. Morgan started with free writing.  She made it a habit that whenever an idea came to her, she would write it all out on paper.  Morgan started writing for 30 minutes each day. After 2 months of 30 minute writing sessions, she had a good first draft.  She quickly moved on to editing.

Morgan’s Edge

What separates Morgan from the pack? It is her crazy writing experiences. What has helped her communicate well to her clients and with coaching them, is her understanding of the writing process. Morgan said, “You might know you want to write a book, you just don’t know how”. She helps her clients understand the process first, then she’ll show them what awaits them:  An incredible journey and amazing process of discovery.

The Great Misconception About Writing A Book

When someone says “BOOK”, people are sometimes intimidated by the term. Why? Because most of us think of Barnes and Noble and that a book should have 200 or 300 pages with research involved, etc. Nowadays, we can write an eBook with 20,000-30,000 words and about 100 pages in length and you can quickly get your story and your message across to countless readers and better yet, prospects.

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Are You Sabotaging Yourself Out Of Starting Your Book?

Morgan shares some insights about how people most commonly sabotage themselves:

• Sitting in a room and thinking about your book all day – is not the same as writing your book.
• Waiting too long to start – If you’re waiting for life to get easier, it’s never going to happen! You might as well start today.
• Keeping your book a secret – If you tell absolutely no one that you are writing a book, then the book is never going to happen. Morgan said, we need to have accountability and others will provide that to us.

What Are The Benefits Of Writing A Book?

Morgan shares some incredible benefits of writing a book:

• You can write a book about your business.
• You can be a coach
• Ideal clients can be reached
• You can be an expert in your chosen field which in turn, can land you lucrative speaking gigs

3 Practical Strategies To Get Yourself Into Writing

Here are Morgan’s Top 3 practical strategies to get yourself motivated for writing:

1. 1. Write against a timer - Even if it’s a timer on your mobile device, set the timer for 25 minutes and start writing as soon as the timer starts…and stop as soon as the timer goes off. This strategy will give you a nice, intense focus while you’re writing.
2. Track your progress - Every time you write, write down the date and the number of minutes that you wrote, along with your word count. The proof of your accomplishment will help keep you motivated.
3. Schedule three to five hours per week, every week, for writing – Writing a book may not be super easy, but it also doesn’t have to be hard. Spend some quality, focused time on it.

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How eBooks Are Changing The Publishing Industry

The eBook revolution has totally empowered entrepreneurs beyond their expectations. Are you taking advantage of it? As an entrepreneur, one of Morgan’s goals is to get clients. Writing a book traditionally, with all the printing and publishing costs, just doesn’t make sense.  It’s not an investment that has a profitable return for most authors and business owners.  However, with eBooks, if you sold a thousand copies it might boost your business for the next 12 months.  All you have to do is to keep up your momentum.  After your book is written, get it out there in eBook format and you’ll get a quicker turn around with much less invested. Once your eBook is ready, you can create a small, targeted campaign that gets you clients, speaking gigs and great connections with industry leaders.  Doing this can really help to boost your business. Morgan also offers us that while writing your book, you really need to crystalize your mission. Really narrow in your goals for the book. Crystalizing what you mission is and what your purpose is will make everything involved in your business come together. Once again, just get your book out there and you will start seeing other benefits, the greatest of them for most entrepreneurs is, you’ll start bringing in new clients which will eventually become regular clients.  You just can’t beat having a dependable revenue stream!

Social Media Tips And Tricks For Publishing Your Book

Social Media is a great platform to promote and launch your book. It allows you to be engaged and converse with your network even before the book comes out.  Even better, you get to take charge of the conversation on any social media platform you desire. Here are Morgan’s Social Media Tips and Tricks:

• Periscope - Morgan’s most recent favorite social media platform is Periscope. Through its live video streaming, (you’re just using your phone), you can start broadcasting and anyone in the world who is signed up on Periscope can see what you’re broadcasting, what you’re saying and can hop on and watch you live. They can even join the discussion.
• Amazon – Another favorite of Morgan’s is Amazon. When they like your book, Amazon offers you the functionality to make your customer’s online shopping experience simple. This means, if your prospect wants your book, Amazon makes it easy for them to buy it!

Another great feature of Amazon is it allows you to give your book away for free every 90 days. Morgan says, this is a great way to promote your book. One of her favorite strategies is to put a Facebook ad with just the picture of the book and a little tag that says “Available For Free on Amazon”. Run the campaign for 5 to 7 days, encourage the people to get your book while it’s free and in return, it will boost your Amazon ranking.

• Google Search – If you’re set on the traditional way to publish your book, you can search blogs and google for accumulated lists of literary agents. Just search “Literary Agents” and the “Genre” in google, and you’ll find blogs that list what you are looking for. Follow them on Twitter and start a conversation. Along way, these agents might just help you get traditionally published.

Website: http://paperravenbooks.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaperRavenBooks Twitter: @morgangmac LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/morgan-gist-macdonald/27/79/704

Have you ever thought about writing a book? You are in the right place! 

To all listeners of The Social Media Business Hour, Morgan is giving away a special free gift just for you. It is 12-step checklist on how to write your eBook. If you want to write an eBook that brings in clients, lands you speaking gigs and gets you known as an expert, then follow Morgan’s 12 step process. It is super easy to follow…and it’s FREE! Download Morgan's free quick start guide: "12 Steps to Write a Book That Boosts Your Business and Builds Your Platform" right ~ HERE ~!        

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You can't create a podcast without the proper gear.

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Join us and learn all about how you can start your own, professional sounding podcast for just $200 or less.
Spend a few minutes with us and you’ll also get:
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- Expert recommendations for what microphone you should have to start with
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Twitter Handle: @ellorywells

Most Entrepreneurs think branding just means what their logo looks like.  Fortunately, we’re not most entrepreneurs, because we know nothing could be farther from the truth!

Although it can be overwhelming to really understand all the things branding touches in your business, our guest, Mimika Cooney is here to help.

Join us on this great interview and you’ll get…

- Four Proven Tips For Any Company To Create A Successful Brand
- Why “Branding” Is Absolutely Critical For Your Success
- How “Branding” Should Be Defined And Implemented

"Crushing On Camera Confidence" Video course with Mimika Cooney. Click on the link: ConfidentVideo.com      

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South African born Mimika Cooney is an international award winning photographer, TV Host, published author, speaker and business branding, video and marketing expert. Mimika has run four successful businesses in three countries. She is the host of MimikaTV, a web show that inspires passionate entrepreneurs to build a business around doing what they love.

Mimika has been an award-winning photographer for 12 years in two countries, she has authored two books on the business of photography, is a public speaker, and has experience as a live television broadcaster. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Mimika's passion is helping entrepreneurs attract their perfect clients and build a brilliant business brand. As a digital marketing, branding and video specialist; Mimika teaches her signature courses and offers executive coaching on branding, online marketing and video skills.

If You Think That Branding Is All About Your Company Logo And Name, Then Mimika Cooney Will Tell You - That You Have It All WRONG.

When someone asks you about branding, what exactly comes to mind? As an entrepreneur, do you really know what branding is? And, why is it so important to your business?  If you think that branding is all just about your company logo and having a catchy name or tagline -- then Mimika will tell you that you have it all WRONG. Mimika says in this interview, that branding goes way past a logo…and it is not about having an appealing organization name. She advises us that when you're thinking about your company  image, you have to consider the whole client experience. That is everything from your logo, to your site, your online networking encounters, the way you answer clients questions over telephone, email and even clients visiting your office and the way they encounter your staff. When you take a look at the expansive meaning of branding, it can be overpowering to consider what is included in your brand. To put it plainly, your brand is the way your client sees you. A decent brand doesn't simply just happen. It is a well thought out, heavily considered and deliberately arranged experience.

How Should “Branding” Be Defined Exactly?

Many small organizations and start-ups neglect spending the necessary time to intellectually think about their brand in a broader sense and the impact it will have on their business. Mimika tells us that branding is very important as it represents you and your company, especially with the following aspects:

• How you walk
• How you talk
• How your website looks.
• How you engage and give your support to your prospects.
• How you introduce and behave publicly.
• How you treat your customers.  (Does you company have a really good turnaround time or do you make people wait to hear from you?)
• How you think of yourself as the brand ambassador of your business.
• How you make an emotional connection with someone - even without meeting them in person.
• How your products and services provide a good experience for your customers or subscribers.

Mimika’s Four Proven Tips About Having A Successful Brand For Your Company.

The best branding is always built on a strong idea. An idea that you and your staff can hold onto, can commit to, and can deliver upon. Your brand needs to permeate your entire organization. When your organization is clear on the brand and can deliver on the promise of the brand, you will see tremendous results while building brand loyalty with your customer base. Below are Mimika’s Four Proven Tips On How You Can Elevate Your Brand To The Next Level.

1. Develop Your Story

   Mimika’s “Spot On” advice includes developing your story. She says, it always starts with, knowing yourself first. It is essential that you know who you are, your history, your triumphs and failures, your skills and expertise, etc. If you don’t consider who you are first, then building a consistent and powerful brand will be almost impossible.

If you don’t know who you are and what you stand for, then people won't genuinely connect with you. Mimika says, your story, skills and experiences can be used to find great connections with prospects and customers.  Especially with people who have been through similar circumstances as you. Creating an instant connection with your prospects and customers a great way of elevating your brand…and often absolutely necessary to create a connection.

2. Create A Video.

   Branding your products through emails is good. It is a very good way of warming up your customers about how amazing you and your products/services are. However, all of the important messages that you are trying to communicate through emails can actually be combined in one, well-done video. Be comfortable sharing your story and telling people the parts of your story that relates to your product or services. Being comfortable in sharing your story is a vital component of connecting effectively.

3. Know Your Customers.

   Taking the time to understand who your clients are will make your business more successful because there is no point of giving information to prospects and customers that do not relate to them. Knowing your audience puts you in a terrific position to get their attention. Understanding the demographics of your clients allows you to better market your business to them. This will establish a strong business/client relationship and creates an environment of trust and comfort for mutual success. Always bear in mind that

   “People will always do business with people they Know, Like and Trust”

4. Create A Good Strategy

   Mimika shares some of the ways she creates a terrific strategy in this interview.  She calls her time-proven strategy “reverse engineering”.

It is because she knows and following her client's and their background before figuring out a working strategy that will bring her clients to where they want to be.

Why Is “Branding” Absolutely Critical For Your Business Success?

Mimika tells us that your brand should reside within the hearts and minds of your customers, clients, and prospects. Always remember that branding is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot. Having a strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It's vital that you spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all, your brand is the source of promise to your consumer. It's a foundational piece of your marketing communication and one aspect of your business that you do not want to be without. [content_toggle style="undefined" label="Click%20Here%20To%20Read%20The%20Entire%20Transcript%20Of%20The%20Show" hide_label="Hide"] Mimika:           Welcome to social media business hour with Nile and Jordan. My name’s Mimika Cooney and today I’m going to share with you three tips for building your business brand. Woman:          In business and know the way forward most include social media. Perhaps you find it a bit confusing. Even frustrating. Well, you have no idea how to make it work for your business. Fear not. We interview some of the best social media experts in business who will share their experiences, ideas and knowledge. Plus offer tips and tricks to make using social media a breeze. Leverage the power of social media and grow your business now. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 Hey Jordan, I’m really excited about social media business hour. We’ve got a lot of listeners around the world now. Jordan:            Yes we do, don’t we? Nile:                 We do and I’m really finding that amazing and something new. You know I do Linked In focus. I can now say I’m an international provider because I contracted with some European clients now if I could say that. I know. It will get better before the show’s over. Jordan:            Well, that’s great. So we can say that you are now internationally known. Nile:                 Renown. Jordan:            Internationally renowned Nile Nickel. Nile:                 Well, you know why I say that? Because we’ve got a good southern girl on the show tonight. Jordan:            Really southern. Nile:                 Really southern. In fact, could you hear that southern twang in her laugh there? I heard it. Mimika:           Well, you all I’m not southern. I’m southern African. Nile:                 Well, that’s still southern, right? Mimika:           It confuses -- exactly. When people say what part of the south are you from? I’ll go I’m south but way south like Africa, South Africa south. So yes. That’s where we are from but I’m talking to you from Charlotte, North Carolina and we mentioned this earlier. Back in March I got my American citizenship so I’m officially African American. Jordan:            Hey, congratulations. Mimika:           Thank you. Nile:                 And you can truly claim that title. Mimika:           Exactly. Nile:                 I love it. I love it. well, obviously people already know you’re south African born but you’re an international award winning photographer, a TV host, a published author, speaker and business branding video and marketing expert. You’re sort of the everything girl. Mimika:           And that’s been a bit of a problem. As you can tell I think I talk really fast and I suffer from the shiny object syndrome. There’s always something like oh, swell. Something shiny and I get to figure out things that I like to learn and then I start being all over the place but what I’ve learned over the years is that I do have to use the F word a lot which is focus. I’m reminding myself every day I’ve got to focus, focus, focus. So yes. But through all of that we can definitely have a lot of school of hard knocks and lessons we’ve learned along the way. I’m excited to share that with everyone today. Nile:                 That is outstanding. When you said the F word I thought I was going to hear some French. Oh, that’s an F word too. Jordan:            No. I thought you were going to use -- Mimika:           Exactly. Parlez-vous Francais? Jordan:            That’s right. Nile:                 Oui, oui mademoiselle. Now we just picked up some French audience. Mimika:           Exactly. But hey, if we really want to get this party started I could start explaining things in Greek because my dad is Greek but then it’ll just be Greek to you, right? Nile:                 Yeah. It’d be all Greek to me. I love you already. It’s determined early in the show here. Mimika:           Oh, yeah. Thank you. I should’ve put my bright lipstick on just for the occasion. I know no one can actually see it but a girl’s got to look good even though when she’s talking so there you go. You could just imagine. Nile:                 Just the mention of it made me feel better. Mimika:           Oh, good. There you go. Nile:                 You talk about focus though but with all of those things that you’ve done -- you’ve ran four successful businesses in three countries. Now, we know South Africa, we know that you’re in Americas so where else are we talking? Mimika:           In the land of tea and cupcakes darling. That was in England you see. Well, the story goes is that I like airplane rides a whole lot and people always ask me oh, well how did you get to America. And I always say well, airplane duh. But via England you see. My mom and my sister live in England and my husband and I being South African born we started our business in South Africa. But the rest of the world ignored us for years and south Africa was considered the butt end of the world so trying to get a more international flavor and reach with our business we really had to become -- well, establish ourselves in a first world country which was in our -- England in our instance because we had family there already so yeah. We spent six years in England. Nile:                 So what prompted the move to the States just out of curiosity? Mimika:           The weather. No. not really. Well, again, it really came down to business. When we started our business in South Africa it was the days of Google -- not Google. The days of internet dialup so it was really trying to do business overseas. People are like where? South Africa? Where? Everything from time zones to money tree. Trying to take money from people overseas, there were all of these exchange problems and we really felt we wanted to be able to move towards being having a reach in England and Europe and my husband has a British passport so naturally we went there in the time. I would not advise this to people. But we immigrated and within six months we had a baby and started a business. So it’s not the ideal way of doing things but I’m always into just throwing myself into things head first. Nile:                 You sound a little crazy to me though. I mean, starting a business and having a baby in that period of time, that’s insanity. Mimika:           Yeah. Pretty much so. But I don’t take the easy route. Nile:                 I take that. I take that. Well, you’re the host of Mika TV, a web show that inspires passionate entrepreneurs to build a business around doing what they love. I love that because the saying goes if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life and so many people, they just -- they don’t learn to work in the area that they really love, that they’re passionate about a lot of times until later in life. Mimika:           Yeah. And I think it’s really got do with the way society is tailoring -- especially now I have two kids that are in high school and it just annoys the snot out of me when I have to see how these teachers are pushing them towards following the status quo about going to college. I’m not saying college is bad. I didn’t have a chance to go to college but I was always able to make success out of life thinking a little differently. But where there’s a will there’s a way, right? Nile:                 There absolutely is. Well, as we talk about these four successful businesses -- I’m going to come back to that because one of the things that I know is you’re also an award winning photographer for 12 years in two countries. Mimika:           Yeah. Well, this is what happens when you make your passion into a business, right. So the whole story goes is I -- working with my husband, we were in the internet business and then I really loved taking pictures of my kids. It’s the typical mom with a camera. Always in their face taking pictures. And eventually I was like I really love doing this. I wonder if I could make this a career. And in England things work a little differently. It’s a boy’s club to say the least. And back in those -- it was like 2003 on the cusp of when digital cameras came out. I actually learned how to shoot on film and actual fact slide film which is very unforgiving which basically means it’s probably the hardest way to actually learn. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me so I really felt this could be a really good business but coming from the business side, then becoming a photographer really helped a lot and a lot of creatives have it the other way around. They’re creative and then try to make a business or you’re not even a creative -- you have an idea for a business and because you love it so much you will actually do what you love for free because you just love doing what it is. But there comes a time when we have to really put our big girl panties on and start to think of this like a real business. So yeah. There were some really great lessons I learned along the way taking my knowledge about business and branding and marketing and turning it into a photography business which we then moved again from England to the USA. My husband stayed in business, internet marketing. He started getting a lot more clients here in the US and this is some way we really wanted to be. So we eventually made the move after living in England for six years and we’ve now settled in Charlotte, North Carolina and we’ve been here for nine years. So yeah. It’s been a little bit of a roundabout way but that’s where we are now. Nile:                 Serious question. I mean, it’s going to sound funny and I’m making a bit of a joke about it but I’m also serious. I couldn’t imagine -- I have difficulty understanding all of the laws in this country. All of the tax laws, business laws, internet laws, what you can and can't do. You haven’t had to learn that once. You’ve had to learn it three times. I mean, again, this sounds like it’s back to insanity to me. Mimika:           I know. Really is crazy. Sometimes I’m like what the heck are we doing this for, right? But it has -- I think it’s got to go back to when I think about the way I grew up in South Africa. I had -- my father has always been a serial entrepreneur and he’s always been -- we lived through that feast and famine. Like when he did well he did really well. And then he became a millionaire in South African terms when he was 25 but he lost it several times over. And for me, I was always used to that sort of risk. You work really hard, you put your mind to it, you do what the -- and failure is just one of those things. It’s fine if you dust yourself off, you get on to the next thing. It’s like being a horse rider. You fall of the horse, you don’t sit and boohoo. You basically pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get back on and teach that horse a lesson. So for me it wasn’t like -- I’ve never seen failure as a stumbling block. It’s more like just a learning exercise because there’s nothing like failure to really teach you what not to do, right. But for us it’s always also been about just having this really determined desire to do something and we’ve been thrown several sort of obstacles and had to jump through so many hoops and even now we’ve been here nine years. We’re still not over that. In actual fact, my 16 year old was having a hissy fit earlier because she wants to get her driver’s license. But to get a driver’s license you have to be a citizen. And to be -- and to get a social security number you need to be having American citizenship so before that we had to be green card holders and before that we had to be Visa card holders and before that we had to prove that we could live here. So it’s been a very long process but I can tell you I know we’ve done it completely legally. It costs us a fortune but knowing the way -- the rules of the land has really helped us to take advantage of what we feel are the opportunities. Nile:                 We haven’t got in the good parts of the -- what you’re promising to tell everybody and I’m really interested in that but I’m fascinated by this international experience and all of that. I have to ask a question just for my own interest but you mentioned you’d become a citizen. What does -- how does that apply to your children? What do they have to go through? Mimika:           Well, let me tell you this. Let’s back it up. So my eldest daughter was two when we lived in South Africa so she has a South African passport. We then moved to England. My husband is on a British passport. I then had my son who then acquired British citizenship. And then I then applied for my daughter and myself to become British citizens so again, that was our first example of going through the citizenship process in another country so we did that for five years and then once we were all on British passports, then we came to the US and then I had another baby. So she’s American. So we are a real colorful family. But now, nine years later, we all are American so depending on what our mood is, what kind of passport _____22:16 way that immigration Mimika in and out so it’s -- yeah. Kind of bizarre. Nile:                 Well that could absolutely be handy in traveling today. That is certain. But I only know one other person that has three passports. Mimika:           Oh, there you go. You know another one. In actual fact, I have four. Don’t tell anybody. I have a Green as well but I haven’t bothered renewing that once so you can imagine I have a bag under my bed that is like all the -- my cash, passports, new identities. I could be like an international spy. Nile:                 I think we’re talking to a spy here Jordan. Little did I know. Mimika:           Exactly. You don’t really know, do you? Nile:                 She’s going to give us a lot of secret knowledge. Mimika:           Exactly. Nile:                 But to get that secret knowledge -- you know what? You’re going to have to listen to our second segment on the social media business hour and we can't wait to get back and get into it. We’ll be right back. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 Jordan our first segment was so interesting. You always have a plan when we get ready to sit down and talk with somebody. And so many times now I sit down to talk with somebody and you end up learning all sorts of things through that talking process that you never sometimes get to the questions you’ve got. Jordan:            Your plan goes right out the window. Nile:                 It does. And our South African -- I’m sorry. Now she is a African American. Jordan:            Yes. Yes. Nile:                 From North Carolina so that would make the south there. Anyway, I’m just totally blown away. How about you? Jordan:            Me too. This is absolutely fascinating and you were asking in the first segment all the questions that I would’ve asked. All the things that I wanted to know. Nile:                 So Mimika, what did we miss? Mimika:           The stress, the tears, the tantrums, the throwing my tiara out the window. Do you want all that too? No? It’s okay. We’ll skip past that and just say we survived, we are excited to be here in the USA but I tell you. I definitely need to write a story about all of this one day. About the whole travels and the whole -- how to actually get here and what we’ve had to travel in order to prove ourselves to be legal citizens to be able to make use of this American dream. Nile:                 Well, again I’m fascinated because I’m adopted and I’ve been on an adoption search recently. Recently found my adopted mother and found that I had a sister and some things like that. But now that I’ve got a bit to study and learn about my family tree -- trying to trace people and things like that is very, very difficult. I can't imagine if you were my birth mother and I was trying to track you because it would be virtually impossible. Mimika:           And if we really want to get technical, back on my father’s side two generations ago they had to change their name to avoid being -- during the Greek Turkish war they actually changed our Greek family name to avoid being thrown in jail so ha-ha. It gets even more interesting. Nile:                 It does. You find out many fascinating things when you tend to look in somebody’s sort of family tree and where they’re from and all of that. Mimika:           Oh, yeah. I love that stuff. Nile:                 One of the things that I know that you do is you help people brand their business and design that brand. Now I’d imagine based on your experience that gives you really a pretty wide berth of experience to bring to bear there. So when somebody comes and they say hey, I need to brand my business. How do you start that process? Mimika:           Well, that’s a very good question. So really, for me, anything that I ever teach people is usually after having learnt it myself and for me, I really fell in love with this concept of branding because I was doing it unconsciously but not realizing that I was doing it anyway along the different ways of -- whenever we started our business because back when I was in south Africa, when my husband and I first got married I actually started a web design company when the internet first came out and at the same time I was always thinking what kind of clients do I want to have, how do I want to be perceived in the market and how am I going to be competitive compared to the competition. And how it evolved is every time I had a chance to restart or rebrand my business I’ve always had to go back to that but the thing that got me in love with branding is it’s often not the first thing people ask me. It’s -- it goes back to with some -- the coaching that I do. People will come to me and say I’m not getting any clients, I’m spending a lot of money on Facebook ads while I’m trying this social media thing and that social media thing or spending on this and spending on that and I’m not getting any traction. And what I’ve realized is that’s just a symptom. We need to sort of backtrack ourselves and start to look at -- that is just a result of previous efforts and having done cold sales as well I realized it’s usually like a three to six month turnaround. The effort you do now is eventually going to come out in three to six months and then you’ll start to see results. But of course everyone wants a quick fix. So they come to me and the first thing I have to realize is I have to say to them you might be struggling with clients but that’s actually the wrong question. What we need to start doing is start to look internal first and then realize who we are as business owners. Who we are personally does translate to our business because actually I totally believe this. Business is personal. Especially in today’s society. People want to do business with people they know, like and trust and no one wants to do business with something that’s sleazy or cheesy and slimy. So at the end of the days, if your marketing tactics aren’t working we need to reverse engineer things and start to look at how have you positioned your business and your brand because maybe you’re swimming in the wrong waters and this is something I learned personally was that even in my photography business I was really getting annoyed that I have clients that wouldn’t give me the creative freedom, they would argue with me about price and then I realized and started to look at this backwards and realized I was marketing in the wrong area. I was attracting the wrong client. Because if you attract a cheap -- low bill client you’re never going to be able to make high end dollars. So it really becomes part of the process and I’ve got it down to a fine art and taking somebody through the process is almost deconstructing what they have and deciding can we move forward with what you have and do some tweaks or do you require a completely new rebrand. And that’s what’s exciting about it. There’s always the restart button, there’s always a chance to do over. Nile:                 As you’re talking about branding there I realized that we probably -- and I think I’m pretty comfortable with branding. Jordan, what about you? Jordan:            I wish I was more comfortable with branding. Nile:                 But I’m not sure that everybody that we’re talking to understands branding so we might want to take a step back and say give us your definition of branding if you don’t mind. Mimika:           Yeah. Sure. And that’s a good question because  a lot of the times I see that people don’t know that perhaps the problem is with their brand because they’re not even sure what a brand is. Now, the first thing is when you say the word branding we think of logo, company name, tagline, right. Based on all the big companies like Apple and Coca Cola and all these things. But really what branding is it’s how people feel about you. it’s those subliminal things that -- those sort of choices we make about a brand based on things we can't put our finger on and once you start to look at it and realize everything -- your brand is how you walk, how you talk, how your website looks. It is your logo but it’s not only your logo. It’s how you answer your social media posts, it’s the layout of your website, it’s how you introduce yourself at a networking event. It’s how you treat your customers. So do you answer -- do you have a really good turnaround or do you make people wait really long. I mean, it’s like any restaurant, right. Let’s compare two Italian restaurants in a nice area. What makes one really busy and one like crickets where nobody is there? It’s how they’ve positioned themselves in the market. They might offer the same product, they might use the same ingredients but if they haven’t positioned their brand properly they don’t have that sort of stickiness that attracts people to their business. So you really need to think about -- and especially as solopreneurs or entrepreneurs who are building a business from themselves -- I’m not talking about people who have preps. They just buy a product, you slap on a price tag and you’re just reselling a product. I’m particularly talking about -- especially when you’re providing a service like whether you’re a coach or you’re a speaker or you’re a author, you’re selling something that you create or something that involves a lot of your time and investment. It’s really how -- we need to think of ourselves as brand ambassadors for our business. So just like -- not that I care to pay attention to like the Kardashians. You have all these beauty brands coming at them, paying them millions of dollars just to be able to wear their clothes or use their makeup. It’s that association with them and that’s what makes them really high paying brand ambassadors. So yeah. That’s -- I would probably say is a roundabout way of saying you are your brand. Nile:                 That makes sense. There’s a lot of different things. But one of the things you mentioned is -- it’s not just buying a product and slapping some sticker on it and that’s branding. But I like to differentiate here and when you were talking about that what came to mind for me was Amazon because Amazon doesn’t really create anything. They collect a lot of things and they make it easy for people to go to one place to buy those things. Whatever that may be. But part of that brand becomes how they engage with the customers, how they deliver things, how they communicate, how the website’s organized to find things. So it may not be your product but your brand can influence sales of the products that you’re reselling. Mimika:           Definitely and I think that’s -- even though Amazon -- you’re right. Does sell other people’s products and I’m not dissing products. All I’m saying is they’ve created the way -- they’ve positioned their brand that you know that if you want something really fast you can order it on Amazon and within a couple of days -- especially if you’re a prime member like two days. You can have that product. And you are spoiled for choice. And it’s really -- a lot of the brands separate themselves and differentiate themselves for owning something and being really good at that one thing like -- we could even compare like say -- Blockbuster was a really well known brand and business that did well. They never even thought that they would be out of business one day but you have the likes of Netflix has now changed the game. It’s changed the way we do business. So a lot of things are constantly changing and we have to learn to adapt and for this -- personally I’ve been through a rebrand process twice with my business. Once when I moved from England to the US and then after five years of running my business I realized I positioned myself wrong, attracting the wrong clients. I really had to start off the clean slate and totally threw out the old branding and did a complete new one so I was attracting the right clients from everything. From the look in the field to the product selection to the service. Everything had to be different. Nile:                 That’s a golden nugget there and I know that’s inspiring and that had to be a hard decision to make after five years or so to say okay. I’m doing this wrong. I’ve got to do resent and do it right. Mimika:           Oh, definitely. And I think that’s a lot of the time is -- and for me personally the whole story goes is that I could see the signs but I was -- I didn’t want to see, I didn’t want to deal with it. I was almost like no, no. I’ll get to it later. But the problem is unless we admit defeat when we need to admit defeat we can't move forward and a lot of us as I say, we see failure as a huge major catastrophe but sometimes it’s a good sign that something’s not working and you need to pivot and change. And for me personally I built my brand on -- my photography business on who I was and what I delivered and then when clients just -- I wasn’t getting good referrals because I was delivering late or my -- I wasn’t delivering on the promise because I couldn’t keep up with the way that I had to build the business. I really realized that I had to look within and say what do I stand for, what do I value and how do I want people to treat me? So once I realized I was not going to deal with these people who just want to fight with me on price, who were just these coupon shoppers. I can't extent the effort anymore. And once I started valuing what I have to give the world and realizing that my value is not based on a number. It’s based on how my experience, the products and service that I’m offering and how I want the world to see me. Then I was able to look internally and decide. Okay. How do I want to redo this? And there is -- I mean, a lot of people don’t talk about this. They think oh, yeah. We just changed it. but they’re missing a key element is that it’s almost like a loss and for me I felt like I went through a period of mourning where I realized I have to let this business go, I have to let it die and it was really like I got depressed. For four months I was like why am I such a failure, having these little pity parties and -- where am I going to go and I don’t know what to do next and this isn't working. I’m almost feeling like you can't see the wood for the trees. But once I started to be -- to listen to my own voice and what it is that I had been screaming at me for years to do but I kept ignoring it then I could sort of turn up the volume on what it is that I wanted to do and then started to think okay. How do I want the world to see me and who do I want to service. And then it started to evolve from there. Nile:                 There is so much gold in there for people and -- Jordan, I haven’t talked to you about this but I recently had a steakhouse experience in Fort Worth. Jordan:            That’s right. In Texas. Nile:                 And I think it ties in so well to what we’re talking about here. I think we’ll talk about that in the next segment because we’ve got a lot more to come but we’ll be back in the next segment. Please join us there. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 Hey, welcome back. I have enjoyed learning about branding and it’s not all we’ve got to talk about. So man, this is great. But I told you about a steakhouse that I wanted to talk about in the last segment. And because we’re talking about branding and what you -- what would make a steakhouse different? I mean, a steak is a steak, right? You could cook it differently. Maybe you’ve got a great chef, maybe you’ve got great sides. Jordan:            Well, in some areas of the country just having a steakhouse is special but you went to Texas. There’s a steakhouse on every corner in Texas. Nile:                 Sometimes on all four corners. Jordan:            And sometimes on all four corners. Nile:                 But I went to the steakhouse and it wasn’t overly expensive. It certainly wasn’t cheap. But we went in and we were treated like royalty as soon as we walked in the door. Pretty impressive. And the service was outstanding. And the food was outstanding. So we get home and I get a letter -- a note, handwritten, hand addressed from Del Frisco’s, the double eagle steakhouse in Fort Worth, Texas. I believe they deserve a call out here. But so I get this nice note. Is that a nice note? Jordan:            Yeah. Nile:                 And it says simple. It’s says dear mister Nickel and family, thank you for dining with us at Del Frisco’s, Fort Worth. It was a great pleasure and privilege serving you and your lovely family. We look forward to your return visit soon. Wishing you all the best, Amy who was our waitress. Jordan:            Really? Nile:                 So -- and you know, did the manager come around? Yeah, absolutely. The hostess. All of that was perfect. But -- Jordan:            Wow. Nile:                 Is this branding Mimika? Mimika:           Oh, for sure. How did you feel about that experience compared to some other experiences you’ve had at steakhouses? Nile:                 Well, I thought it was a good steakhouse like I said and I thought about the food a couple of times, my wife and I talked about it so they did a good job on that. but when I got this today -- if I’m back in the Fort Worth area I’ll be there and you know who I’ll ask to see? I’ll ask to see Amy. Mimika:           Exactly. So that’s exactly branding done right even though they’re a steakhouse and maybe the steak is the same as the one down the road. How they treated you and how you felt about your experience is completely branding done well. And that’s what’s great about branding. It doesn’t have to be this huge, major makeover where you completely have to spend a ton of money to change the way you do things. Sometimes it’s the little things. And for me in my photography, I like to do hand written notes too and to -- every time someone spends and invests money with me I want to make sure that they know that they feel taken care of and it’s at time that I haven’t been consistent with my brand way -- maybe I see a client three times in a year. The first time it’s all great and the second time I forget to do a handwritten note. Even though the first time was great, if you go -- if you lack that brand consistency you go and shoot yourself in the foot. So you really need to think about who it is you are and what you want to stand for even if it’s just customer service. Or just the pretty packaging or the quality of the food or -- you can pick something and really put your name on it and say this is what -- how we want our brand to stand for. Nile:                 Well, I look at this as a branding differentiator and all told and maybe this cost between the card, the postage and the time investment maybe it cost two dollars. Is that fair? Jordan:            Sounds about right. Mimika:           Yeah. I would say. I mean, a little extra time and look how much more it’s done for their business. Neil:                 Well, yeah. I mean, they get a call out on the show. Okay. Great. I know that that’s why they did. Not. But the thing is doing this with every customer they’ve got they’re building relationships. They’re not a steakhouse. They were -- you come home and you feel like you’re family. and it really was outstanding so I love what you’re talking about in the way you’ve approached branding that we did in segment two so -- to segment three here. there’s a lot of things that we could talk about branding but I know one of the things that you do to build your audience, grow your list, attract clients, even part of your branding I know is video marketing so I am dyeing for you to tell us how you got into video marketing and I know that you do some neat video marketing products. We’ll talk about that in a little bit. But in the meantime I would like to talk about your video marketing. Can you tell us how you got into that? Mimika:           Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, for me, I’ve always loved the visual format and in South Africa before we moved out and before we started our internet business I worked for two years in a TV production company and totally fell in love with the medium. And then when we went to England I had an opportunity to actually be a TV host or a broadcaster for a live morning breakfast magazine show that had no budget so we had no wardrobe and no styling and we would arrive at places like -- it was one day it was an underground cave and then there was a hanging war place and there was a ski place and then there was one that was like a racing car track and literally we would arrive, the director would say here’s the information love. Read up about it and we’re on in 10. And I’d be like okay. So I have to read what the thing is about and  come up and just add lib and entertain and ask questions and interview people so kind of thinking on my feet. It really helped with that. But telling a story with visual format especially video is so -- it goes a long, long, long way because seeing a picture of me is great. It’s better than not seeing a picture of me, right. But seeing me talk and when you can hear my accent and you can see me waving my hands around like a lunatic and just you get to see somebody’s nuances. You connect with people on a much deeper level when you use video. But let me tell you this. I’ve heard several times over. A lot of people get stumped and hold themselves back from putting themselves in front of the camera because they don’t know where to start or they feel totally shy about being on camera. And these are the things I like to adjust or deal within my courses that I do and training people and it doesn’t have to be that hard. You just need to put yourself out there. But why I feel this all ties into branding is that if you were making an emotional connection with somebody other than meeting them in person video is the next best thing because they can see you, they can hear you and that’s part of the tips that we talked about in the beginning is that giving you these three tips that I want to share with you about branding. Number one is to develop your story. If you don’t know who you are and you can't share what you’re about and what you stand for people won't connect with you. so using a story and looking back at your skills and your experiences and using that to find those connections like if somebody else has been through the same position as you they then feel that connection with you and then that’s another notch up the ladder to liking your brand. So using video I really feel is going to totally change the way people do business in terms of getting that connection and really shortening the sales cycle because if you have the  same copy of the copy and you’ve got these sales funnels and I mean, I have them myself set up in Infusion Soft. You want people to read them and you’re basically trying to warm up what you would probably do in four, five emails you could probably do in one video. But being able to be comfortable sharing your story and telling people the parts of your story that relate and would connect with them is vital. And then knowing -- the other tip is knowing who you’re talking to. It’s having your client avatar. If you don’t know who you’re aiming it at -- like before we started recording I asked you about your client avatar for the show because there’s no point in me telling you information that doesn’t relate to your audience. They’re not going to find it useful. So the same thing with any author and speaker and coach. If you’re wanting to position yourself and you want people to connect with you you need to be able to share your story and talk to one person. Like this is Susie, she’s 30 to 45, she has kids in school, she drives an Audi, she likes to -- goes to yoga on a Friday. I mean, all those little particular things. You are describing a person and that’s how you develop your avatar. And then thirdly the other tip is once you know who you are, who your audience is then you can use strategies. Because going back to what we said in segment one was people ask me well, my Facebook marketing isn't working or Google Ads isn't working. And I always say that’s the wrong question. Once we’ve figured out and reverse engineered your story followed by your avatar, then we can figure out your strategy of where you want to be and then tactics and how you measure those tactics fall into place so it’s definitely -- there is an art and a science to it. Nile:                 I have to go back and let Susie know that I really didn’t tell her everything about you Susie. Honest. I didn’t. Just wanted Susie to know that. No. I couldn’t agree more and I think those tips are invaluable and I know that you’ve got so much more but time is not always on our side as we talk about this. What I’d like to do is I know that you’ve got some really great video products and courses and tips and information that you share. Tell us a little bit about what you have and where people could find it. And of course, everybody knows that listens to the social media business hour on a regular basis, we have all these tips for you on the social media business hour page on show notes. This is episode 122. Makes it easy for you so if you’re running, you’re working out or whatever don’t worry about stopping and grabbing a pencil. We have all the links for you. But share some of that information if you would. Mimika:           Sure. Well, I like to keep things simple so any social media platform is my name Mimika Cooney but where you want to get the good stuff is on my website so you go to mimikacooney.com and you will be able to access -- I have a free video series which is "Three Tips of Building your Business Brand so really we sort of fast tracked through the tips but I go into it in more detail and you can grab that at MimikaCooney.com and then once you’re on my email list I like to share a lot of good stuff. As we mentioned earlier I also have my own video podcast where I interview other people who then help with the whole branding and marketing strategies. And then the course that I’m known for is Confident video so you go to ConfidentVideo.com you can get another three free videos that will help give you some really actionable tips for you to get started with video because it doesn’t have to be that hard. We cover everything from lighting to sound to performance, how to speak nicely on camera, how to get your -- put your -- or edit your videos and even social media ideas for using video for like Facebook. And my latest favorite thing is Periscope. Are you on Periscope Nile and Jordan? Nile:                 Absolutely. Absolutely positively. As a matter a fact we haven’t Periscoped our show in a while or scoped our show to use the terminology. Jordan:            The slang. Nile:                 The slang. Mimika:           Scope you out. Nile:                 Yeah. We haven’t scoped in a while but we typically scope the show. Mimika:           Well, there you go so people can get a little bit of the behind the scenes skin on what you’re doing, right? Nile:                 Absolutely. Yeah. The biggest channels we had -- but for those that don’t know it’s mobile platform based so you’ve got to be a mobile platform. The biggest challenge that we had is making sure that we’ve got all the sides of the audio on the scope because we’re not using monitors in the room here. We’re on headsets and so that made it a little bit more difficult to do that but after a while we figured it out and it worked out fine. Mimika:           Oh, good. Well, I’ll definitely be checking you out on Periscope so if anyone wants to see -- I’ve been challenging myself to do it more often. I’ve been doing it once a week but I definitely -- I’m stepping it up now but I’d love to be able to cover things that I like to talk about and in actual fact the one I did yesterday was -- it’s on my blog. I figured out how to actually reuse the content and save it on my blog. Nile:                 Oh, yeah. Mimika:           And using cash.me which is a great little app and I went through all the takes so if you want to know like what -- ideas for sound and making yourself look good and I’m going to be covering a lot of that in the scope. So yeah. Definitely check me out there. Nile:                 They’ll definitely want to check you out because there’s a lot of good information you could find that way. I would love to talk more and as a matter of fact I think that -- Jordan, I don’t know if you agree with me. We’ve got to have Mimika back. Jordan :           Oh, absolutely. Nile:                 One is she’s fun. Two, she’s beautiful but not everybody gets to see that. But three, and probably most importantly she’s got great information. Jordan:            Oh, yeah. Great golden nuggets. Mimika:           Oh, I’d be delighted to. We’ve got loads we can talk about darling. Nile:                 Oh, absolutely. I want to thank you Mimika for joining us on the social media business hour and to you, our listener, I want to thank you as well. You make this show. Hopefully you learned a few ideas or concepts. Maybe you were just reminded of a few things you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business. Our desire is that you take just one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today and you apply it to your business this week. We know that a small change could make a big difference. I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week. I know today -- I don’t know about you Jordan but I got about four or five new ideas. Jordan:            Absolutely. Nile:                 And all I have to do is take one of those. Just one small change and implement it and find out what a big difference it will make for my business this week. Your business as well. So thank you for joining us. Till next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen. Woman:          Social media business hour is powered by linkedinfocus.com. For show notes, updates and to pick up the latest tips and tricks head over to socialmediabusinesshour.com. Until next time. Thanks for listening. [/content_toggle]

Weblinks:

Website: www.mimikacooney.com Facebook Handle: www.facebook.com/mimikacooney Twitter Handle: @mimikacooney   

The birth of social media massively affected the way online marketing works nowadays.

Our special guest, “One-Click Lindsey” shares with us her “Perfect Traffic Strategy”, what it takes to convert site visitors to customers And…
- The Single Greatest Benefit Of Having A Solid Social Media Campaign
- The Difference Between Your Website And Your Landing Page?
-How To Convert Site Visitors From Skeptical Strangers To Great Leads
- How To Make A “Rock-Star” Landing Page
- 5 Proven Tactics To Generate A Never Ending Cycle Of High Quality Traffic And Leads

One-Click Lindsey is a web strategy expert working with small business owners to help them utilize the web to produce more website traffic and leads. Lindsey is the founder and CEO TrafficAndLeads.com that specializes in driving traffic, getting leads and the art of nurturing leads to become lifelong clients. One-Click Lindsey is an expert in landing pages, email sequences, search engine ranking, newsletters, analytics, social media, pay-per-click ads, websites, blogging the list goes on. She knows how to utilize the myriad of online marketing options to generate more traffic and leads which produced more paying clients.

Social Media:  The Cornerstone Of The BEST Type Of Traffic And Leads

Lindsey definitely agrees with the fact that the birth of social media massively affects the way online marketing works nowadays. She mentioned that it is now considered the cornerstone of effective marketing. Unlike any other marketing method like, SEO (search engine optimization) where you have to wait three to five months to see the results, social media will give you the quickest way to generate high quality traffic, where leads can be produced and results are often gained effortlessly and sometimes, you can even get results in real time.

The Single Greatest Benefit Of Having A Solid Social Media Campaign

If you have a great social media campaign, then you can drive leads from your social media channels directly to your landing page and easily get people on your list.

The Perfect Traffic

Social media is a great starting point in building relationships and targeting people through the area of interests that you’re after. Lindsey says in this terrific interview, that your main objective is to catch your target's interest and attention.  Once your targets are hooked, that is the best time for you to start marketing your products and services. When your audience is hooked on something they are interested in, they will almost always “buy in” to some degree - this is where your opportunity is….and that is what she calls “the perfect traffic”.

Is Your Website The Same As Your Landing Page? If You Answered Yes, One Click Lindsey Says, Think Again.

Another great tip from Lindsey:

You have to always be mindful as an entrepreneur that your website MUST always be different from your landing page.

What Is The Difference Between A Website And A Landing Page?

A website is where people can visit and find out about you and your company. It should showcase your past, present and forthcoming excellent projects. It should have a myriad of subpages and each subpage must have a specific goal. On the other hand, a landing page can look identical to your website. The difference is, it is focused on a very specific topic. It is sometimes known as a "lead capture page" or a "lander". The landing page is usually the extension of your advertisement, search result or direct link. Lindsey says, that landing pages are also often linked from social media, email or SEO campaigns, all to enhance the effectiveness of your advertisement or the product that you’re selling on that landing page.

How Is Your Landing Page Performing?

The main goal of your landing page is to convert site visitors into sales or at least great leads, it should also include a method for the visitor to get into  contact with you. A great way to execute this, is by having a subscribe button or a contact form where your visitors can share their information.

**WARNING** Never make your subscription page complicated.

Asking for your visitors to share their Email address and Name is already enough.

How To Make A Rock-Star Landing Page

Below are Lindsey’s proven strategies for making your Landing page rock-star quality:

• Make your Headline beautiful, big and bold

  Address IMMEDIATELY HOW you can help them and WHY they need to subscribe and buy your product.

• Invest in making a video

   In making the video, sell the idea and the benefits of your product. Be a Superhero! What you offer is going to help your customers SO much, they’ll think you’re a Superhero for it.

• Create a bulleted list

  If you don’t feel like doing a video then you want to do a nice bulleted list of how your product can help them.

• Create an enticing and beautiful form

  Convenience is the key here, always make it a “one-click” process.

Tip Directly From Lindsey: Your form should only ask for minimal information. Focus just on these three items- first name, email address, submit button. Add a picture of your free offer in return for their email address – Always remember, FREE items are always up for grab.

• Make your landing page mobile friendly

  Always remember that almost everyone now has a smartphone. If your site is not mobile friendly and optimized then they will not spend time on your website.

How Do You Effectively Generate High Quality Web Traffic and Leads?

Lindsey knows that generating traffic and leads from the internet is very important and knowing HOW to create this traffic and leads are two different things. She mentioned that though it is challenging, there are virtually limitless amounts of resources and techniques available to make big things happen for you. As a matter of fact, Lindsey reminds us on this interview that if you want absolutely the highest quality web traffic and leads, then you need to focus on only one main thing, and that is to be transparent and keep your customers happy...and not forcing them to through the waters of online marketing options.  

Lindsey’s Top 5 Proven Tactics To Generate A Never Ending Cycle Of High Quality Traffic And Leads

Lindsey has 5 proven tactics to generate a never ending cycle of new faces for your small business. If you start implementing these in your business now, you’ll launch yourself ahead of your competition.

1. Invest In Having A Killer Website

Your main website is the central part of all your online activities. It is absolutely essential that your website is super easy to understand, crystal clear and straightforward.   Invest in making your website’s design beautiful. Your website should also be responsive and interactive.

2. Have A Great Marketing Plan That Will Result In Generating Traffic

What good is a website without traffic? Lindsey advises, after you have setup an awesome-killer website, you now need to focus on marketing your website. The best way to do this is by utilizing the social media channels and search engine optimization. This will funnel huge amounts of traffic to your site.

3. Catch Your Target Audience’s Attention

Now this is where you need to create a targeted landing page. Having a landing page will not just increase your sales conversion rate, it will also give your visitors precisely what they are looking for.  

4. Email Marketing Is Not Dead

Lindsey tells us that “Email marketing is NOT dead”. It is actually the powerhouse for generating leads online - if used wisely.  Her best piece of advice? Make it simple. Don’t ask for a lot of information. Their email address is the only information that you REALLY need. Your goal should be for your targeted audience to deeply desire your irresistible offer and subscribe to your mailing list with just “one-click”.

5. Build A Long Lasting Relationship

Let’s face it, most of our website visitors are not really ready to purchase just yet. Therefore, Lindsey gives us another great piece of advice: Nurture your leads through a “Know, Like and Trust autopilot email sequence”. This will ensure that when they are ready to spend and subscribe, it will be with you. [content_toggle style="1" label="Click%20Here%20To%20Read%20The%20Full%20Transcript%20Of%20The%20Show" hide_label="Hide"] Lindsay:           This is one click Lindsey and I’m social media business hour with Nile and Jordan and today you’re going to learn how to leverage social media and generate more traffic and leads for your small business. Woman:          In business and know the way forward most include social media. Perhaps you find it a bit confusing. Even frustrating. Well, you have no idea how to make it work for your business. Fear not. We interview some of the best social media experts in business who will share their experiences, ideas and knowledge. Plus offer tips and tricks to make using social media a breeze. Leverage the power of social media and grow your business now. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 Hey, welcome back and we’ve got one click Lindsay on tonight Jordan. Jordan:            One click Lindsay. Nile:                 Isn't that a name? Lindsay:           That’s right. That’s right. Jordan:            I like that. Lindsay:           Thank you. Nile:                 I have to ask Lindsay, where did you get that name? Lindsay:           Well, essentially I was a web developer and there’s a difference between a website that just kind of sits there and a website that actually generates traffic and leads for your small business which is what we all need. And so I had a client of mine and we were constantly working on this landing page and for every conversation that I was having with them I was constantly referring to we have to get them to click that button, we have to get them to click. And eventually we got that landing page to work really well and he came back to me and said you’re one click Lindsay. You got them to click the big subscribe now button so from then on I thought it was kind of catchy and that’s really what everyone’s goal should be is to get people to make that one click and actually get enough people to your website to make that click so it kind of -- that’s what I’m going with. Jordan:            That’s awesome. Nile:                 I have to say I think that’s bold. Lindsay:           Thank you. Bold. Nile:                 Because I don’t know that I can be that bold. Can you imagine one click Nile? Lindsay:           Yes, I can. But you can't steal it. Can we come up with something else? No. I’m going to let you keep one click. Trust me. Jordan:            We could call you Linked In Nickel. How’s that? Lindsay:           Yeah. That’s cute. Nile:                 Linked In Nickel. Jordan:            Linked In Nickel. Nile:                 Well, as you probably gathered one click Lindsay is a web strategy expert. She works with small business owners to help them utilize the web, to produce -- that’s key. To produce. You like that Jordan? Jordan:            I do. It sounds much better than branding or getting your image out there. No. produce. Nile:                 Yeah. Produce more website traffic and leads because traffic in of itself isn't important unless you get leads from it so she’s got those married together. I love that Lindsay. And she’s -- Lindsay:           Yeah. I mean, I could send a bunch of spammers to your website but that really wouldn’t help you get phone calls now would it? Nile:                 No. That just messes up everything for the people that really want to get on there so we don’t like traffic without leads. Lindsay:           That’s right. Nile:                 Traffic with leads, great thing. And Lindsay’s a founder and CEO of trafficandleads.com Bit catchy, don’t you think? Jordan:            I think so too. Nile:                 Goes with one click Lindsay. I mean, she’s all about that. Lindsay:           I like you guys. I like you guys a lot. Nile:                 Well, she specializes in driving traffic, getting leads and the -- I love this. The art of nurturing leads to become lifelong clients. Lindsay:           Which all starts with social media by the way. Nile:                 Oh, I like it. But I like the art of nurturing. I’ve got this gourmet one click traffic and leads strategy in my head now. Lindsay:           Well, I guess I can sign off for the day. No, I’m kidding. Nile:                 And one click Lindsay is an expert in landing pages, email sequences, search engine ranking, newsletters, analytics, social media, pay per click ads, websites, blogging and the list goes on and on and on and on. I bet you like to talk a lot too, don’t you Lindsay? Lindsay:           I do but I’ve been doing this for a very long time and there’s so many myths and everyone gets so confused and overwhelmed that I do tend to know a lot about what’s going on out there. Nile:                 Well, one thing that I know about one click Lindsay, she knows how to utilize the myriad of online marketing options to get what we all want and that is not traffic but traffic with leads and produce more paying clients. That is -- I mean, that’s what you want at the end of the day. Jordan:            That’s solid. Nile:                 I think we’re done here. Jordan:            Yeah. Lindsay:           Enjoy. Nile:                 Hey, great show today. Jordan:            Lindsay has left the building. Nile:                 Well, I know that you talked about how social media is really the corner stone to this process so tease us with that. Tell us a little bit about it. Lindsay:           I will. I will definitely call it the cornerstone and the reason why I like social media so much and the birth of social media recently is because it’s the quickest way to generate that high quality traffic that actually produces leads where if you were to run a search engine optimization campaign, that can take three, four, five months. Where if you do a good social media campaign you can drive those leads from your social media channels to a very nice landing page and get people on your list. So social media’s great because you can start building those relationships, you can target the people in the area with the interests that you’re after and really target market them to get that very perfect traffic to come to your website. Nile:                 As we’re talking about this here I figure that we have a problem Jordan. Jordan:            Uh-oh. Nile:                 Well, we probably need to understand what a landing page is. We’re talking about websites and landing pages on it so -- Jordan:            You mean, it’s not a website? Nile:                 Lindsay, we need your help. We need your help. Lindsay:           Nile and Jordan, you have so much -- I’m kidding. Okay. Well, so there is a difference between your website, your like main website where people go to find out about you and your company and all of your wonderful projects and everything that you’ve ever done. That is what we’re going to call just like your regular corporate website. Well, a corporate website should have a myriad of subpages and these pages should all have very specific goals to them. So for example, let’s take a chiropractor. I have a chiropractor client. He has a corporate website all about mister chiropractor but we also created a very specific landing page for those experiencing back pain only. So I have this website. It’s about back pain. If I am a person with back pain and I go to this website I can see he is the man for me because this website has a guy grabbing his back and that’s exactly how I feel and it has a whole bunch of pain points about how much that hurts your life because you have back pain and how this guy is going to fix it and all these testimonials about everybody’s back pain that mister chiropractor has ever fixed and so I know he is the guy for me. So I am going to have more of a likelihood to actually click that button, right. So that is the difference between a main website and a landing page. A landing page is about a very specific topic. It’s going to be kind of duplicated a lot on your website. Now, from your website you’re not going to be able to get to all these landing pages. They’re just kind of hanging out there ready for an SEO campaign or a very dedicated social media campaign to drive those individuals with back pain to this landing page to let them know that you are the man for them. Nile:                 So if I’m mister chiropractor I probably have people with back pain and neck pain and foot pain and that are pain in the -- oh, that’s another one. Hold on. But what you’re saying is you’re going to have different landing pages for each one of those little niches that the chiropractor may deal with? Lindsay:           Yes. And don’t get overwhelmed by it because they’re pretty much a carbon copy of each other except you’re going to change those key words or those key pain points because essentially when people -- if you were to drive people to just a generic website they’re going to kind of look all over and be like, oh I don’t know if this guy really does back pain but you kind of want to make it look like you’re a specialist. The other thing about a landing page is you don’t want it to have a menu. You don’t want them to be like my two year old and kind of like wanting to click around. You want -- this is the information, I want you to fill out this form and schedule an appointment, get on my list, whatever and go from there. That’s why lead pages is so popular. We’ve probably all heard of lead pages and they’re very good at this and if you ever make a lead page you’ll notice that it has nothing really to do with your website but it’s basically a video or a bold list of items and a nice form and a big red button. And that is a landing page and they work and that’s why lead pages are so popular and work so well. Jordan:            Yeah. I think that’s a really good point Lindsay. We actually use lead pages as one of the tools that we use and just to give everyone an idea of what it is give lead pages a little bit of free exposure here. When we build our websites and our landing pages we have a myriad of ways that we can do that. We can do that with Word Press, we can do it with Drupal. Lead pages really just specializes in kind of a drag and drop -- you see what you get, no coding involved, super easy way of just building your landing page and man, it’s really a dream. It’s a nice, nice website. Nile:                 So I’m -- I need help here. I need clarification. Jordan:            Okay. Nile:                 So we’re talking about the function of lead pages and what they are but now we also just switched in your conversation and question Jordan to lead pages, the company. Jordan:            Okay. Nile:                 There’s a difference there. Jordan:            Yeah. That’s true. Nile:                 Do you use lead pages, the company to create the lead pages on your website or is that something you do on your website yourself? Lindsay:           No, no, no, no. I was totally talking about lead pages, the company. Jordan:            I knew it. I knew it. Senile? Nile:                 I am see Nile. What are you talking about? Okay. Good. We’re talking about lead pages, the company. Our folks like Tim Page and Bob and those beloved that we’re talking about lead pages, the company. Jordan:            Yeah. Nile:                 So Lindsay. Lindsay:           Yeah. Nile:                 Tell us more about that. Lindsay:           About utilizing lead pages, the company? Nile:                 The lead pages, the company. Jordan:            The tool. Nile:                 We’re now doing an advertisement for lead pages even though they didn’t know it. Lindsay:           I know. But I mean, it’s a super useful tool and they were very revolutionary because -- in coming up with that because it’s such an important tool for small business owners. Yeah, you can get a Word Press plugin to create the lead pages and all of that but you do have to have a bit of HTML and CSS hand to be able to do those and make them look decent. So lead pages came out, there’s these beautiful templates, they’re proven to word so it’s an excellent option for any small business owner to create these exact lead pages that I’m talking about. Nile:                 Now, Jordan I understand that on one of our lead page processes that are going on right now you found a recent problem. Jordan:            Oh, yeah. Yeah. We’ve been using the lead pages here for a while and now we’ve got a Facebook can. Nile:                 A Facebook can? I’m glad that you have problems like I do every so often. Jordan:            That’s right. By the end of the show I’ll be spot on. We’re running a Facebook campaign to a lead pages page that is hosted by lead pages but as far as anyone is concerned, it’s our page and on that page we can open it up for Facebook comments. So we’ve got a bunch of Facebook comments from our Facebook ad showing up on our lead pages page. If you follow me. Nile:                 I’m confused already but I think I’m there. Jordan:            So the end result is a new prospect gets to our lead pages page, they see our offer and then they see all of these great comments that people have left from Facebook. Oh, wow. This is great stuff, thanks so much. Nile:                 That sounds super. Jordan:            Yeah, absolutely. Lindsay:           Yeah. Social proof. It’s powerful. Jordan:            Yeah. With tiny little exception. Nile:                 Oh, here it comes. Jordan:            A lot of those people may be fake profiles but a lot of those people are leaving spam in our comments as well. So they’re saying here, check this fitness thing out. Nile:                 Oh, so we just need to delete those. Jordan:            Yeah. I would love to just delete those but so far it looks like lead pages only allows me to turn on or off the whole section of comments. I can't get rid of any particular comment through lead pages. I think. I’m about 80 percent sure at this point that I cannot. Nile:                 You know what? We have an expert here. We have one click Lindsay. Lindsay:           Yeah. One click Lindsay -- see, I don’t use -- I don’t personally use lead pages for my company. I help clients with it a lot but I actually -- I kind of specialize in making custom lead pages so I have not run into that problem so I can't help you. Jordan:            It’s all my problem. Lindsay:           I’m sorry. Shoot. Jordan:            That’s alright. Lindsay:           But it doesn’t sound like a great problem unfortunately. Nile:                 Can you pass me the tissue? Lindsay:           It’s time to hang up now. Nile:                 Well listen, we’ve about wrapped up our time in our first segment today so we will be jumping out to our next segment and we ask that you just join us there. We’ll be right back. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 So now we’ve talked about lead pages and how we’re going to use social media and all of that good stuff and so I’m jazzed and I’m excited. Now Lindsay, I’ve got people going to my lead pages and they like what they see and they’re taking some action. What typically do you get them to do? Lindsay:           Well, the easiest thing for them to do is subscribe to your list and return for an awesome, super mega irresistible offer that you’re giving them like a pdf or a free video series. That’s the easiest thing to do because it’s very difficult to convince people to call you or to fill out a boring contact us form or do something for you without you doing something back for them. let me press this -- that whole sentence by social media is a super awesome way to drive people to your lead pages and I’m sure -- and I know you’ve covered this on your show before but it’s worth repeating as Facebook owns all of your fans, Facebook owns all of that, it could change at any moment so we want to try to grab all those fans and all those people that we worked so hard to nurture through social media and get them on an email list where we can actually market to them and we own those names. So that’s the whole point is if you can get people to make that one click and get on your list then you can actually like start nurturing them and selling to them. Jordan:            That’s a really good point and I’d like to just point out one thing real quick and this is just something that just sticks in my -- I know it bothers you Nile but Facebook’s so arbitrary about how they do things that one day we’re going to go to try to communicate with our fans and Facebook’s going to say no. we’re not going to let you do that. Or now we don’t like that kind of communication and it could be something that we thing is relatively harmless. Nile:                 No. I totally agree and that’s -- unfortunately it’s not our sandbox, we don’t get to make the rules. If we want to play in the sandbox, the sandbox owner in this case Facebook gets to make the rules and we could either play in the sandbox or not. Jordan:            Yeah. I like what you’re saying Lindsay. Facebook’s a great place to make friends but to keep them you want to get them on your list. Lindsay:           Yeah. I mean, and what you’re saying is not untrue. I have literally had a client who logged into their page. They had -- let’s see how much. Did they have 25000 fans. And they could not login because Facebook kind of deactivated their account. We had spent a fair amount on running ads for them and it was because they had put some like weight loss stuff on their fan page or running some ads for that in the wrong way so Facebook just -- one morning they couldn’t login which -- let me give your fans a little -- or your listeners a little hint. Is to make someone else also an admin of your page so if your personal account gets shut down someone else can manage that page as well. Nile:                 Yeah. we always use -- and I know -- we talk about all the time that you want to do that not only on Facebook but literally all of the social media platforms that you have pages or groups or things like that set up on. Lindsay:           Yeah. Nile:                 You absolutely positively want to do that so yeah. I agree. Or it could be something as minor and I say as minor. It’s not necessarily minor when it happens to you but your account gets hacked and now your account’s hacked and they’ve got to shut your account down for a period of time. Sometimes you don’t get the same account back. And like you said Lindsay, you sort of passed over that really quickly but you spend a lot of money getting that built and it’s like sorry about that. Lindsay:           Yeah. And they don’t have to apologize. Jordan:            Oh, no. yeah. I was going to say -- Lindsay:           It’s their cross form. They can do whatever they want. Jordan:            I’ve never heard them apologize to anybody. Lindsay:           No. Nile:                 I’m apologizing for them. Jordan:            Oh, okay. Nile:                 But that’s what they say. Sorry about that. It doesn’t matter. It’s done. Jordan:            That’s right. I think the listeners are getting the impression that we have a love hate relationship with Facebook and that’s -- Nile:                 Well, that would be true. Jordan:            I was going to say it’s not inaccurate. Nile:                 Yeah. That would be true. Lindsay:           Yeah. I mean, everybody screamed and hollered when everybody’s reach dropped earlier last year but again you’re kind of using their platform so you can pay a few dollars a day to boost your posts so your fans can see it, right. And they’re actually kind of like doing you -- and I’m going off on another tangent but they’re doing us a favor because your fans don’t want to see a bunch of ads anyway. Otherwise they’ll never come back to Facebook. Nile:                 Yeah. It’s a balancing act and I get the balancing act but I also get that if they want to take your money for ads that -- yeah. so anyway, we’ll leave that alone because now we’ve just become -- we’re crying in our beer and the big problem is I don’t have a beer right now so that’s not going to work. Lindsay:           And this is an evening show. What a crock. Nile:                 Great. Well, normally I drink the bourbon on the evening show. I don’t even have my bourbon here tonight. What’s up with that? Jordan:            So you’ve got 99 problems and having no bourbon is one of them. Nile:                 Yeah. That’s the big one. Big one. So  help us out here. Can you give us an idea of -- or a description -- maybe some of the qualities of a good landing page? Lindsay:           Sure. Absolutely. There’s a few main components to a landing page. First one is a beautiful, big, bold headline that basically addresses their pain point. Back to the chiropractor example. It’s going to say having back pain? I can solve that. Big, bold. Okay? Typically left hand side you’re going to have a video which -- you had a lovely guest on talking about the importance of video but nobody ever wants to do video but have a video of you saying how you can cure back pain and how you’re the super hero of all back pain problems. If you don’t feel like doing video then you want to do a nice bulleted list of how you can address these back pain issues. On the right hand side you’re going to have this beautiful form that I was talking about asking for very minimal information. First name, email, submit. And a picture of your free offer or whatever you’re going to give them in return for their email address. Bellow that, you’re going to want to have this wonderful social proof. You guys were talking about that with that Facebook plugin. And that is about all there is to a landing page. Obviously, it needs to look super nice, it needs to look really great on mobile and it needs to have some nice imagery to make the person feel like you can solve their problem. Jordan:            That’s great and not to beat a great horse but you covered an awful lot very quickly and it’s all such good, good information. Let’s just take a half a step back here. When you’re writing a headline and you’re off -- you’re creating your irresistible free offer, we don’t want to go milli-mouth on it, we don’t want to just go yeah. We can probably do this for you. No. we want to make it bold, right. Lindsay:           Yes. Bold. You are the super hero, you are the man of their back pain dreams and the five bullet points as to why and what you can fix. Jordan:            That’s great. And with every one of those things and correct me if I’m wrong here. With every one of those things we just simply see a boost in conversions, right. Lindsay:           Right. Jordan:            So if you do one thing you’re going to get a certain number of conversions meaning people who are interested and sign up. and if you keep on kicking it up a notch you’re just going to continue to increase those conversions and from what I’m to understand video really is the best so it does take the longest to kind of map it out and really think through a good video but that’s really important, isn't it? Lindsay:           Video is super duper important and that’s why you guys dedicated one of your last episodes to it but I would say even though I tell clients that’s going to convert more people, seriously though, it’s not a big deal if you’ve got your cell phone, take a nice 30 second video of yourself. Like five percent of my clients will ever do it. And it’s a pain but it totally converts. Jordan:            So in other words, if 95 percent of the people are not doing it and you’re one of the five percent who is you get to stand out. Lindsay:           That’s right. You’ll make the most money, you’ll get the most leads, you’ll get the most options. It’s true. Jordan:            You know it helps if you un-mute yourself when you want to go talking to us. Just an idea. Lindsay:           Unless we’re having connection problems. Nile:                 I was. I was having problems connecting with my mic. See, that’s because somebody -- I complain so much about not having the bourbon. I know how bourbon sounds. This is a good thing. This is an adult show. It is the -- Lindsay:           This is officially the best podcast I’ve ever been on. Nile:                 Hey, we like to hear that. One of the things that we glossed over very quickly too was mobile and how critically important mobile is today and so many people don’t think about that. Do you have clients that you have to really work through that process with to explain the importance? Lindsay:           Earlier this year I did and obviously as a web designer you’re kind of on the up and front. Like you know what’s coming so maybe two or three years ago you’re like telling people your website’s got to be mobile friendly. Please, please, please. And like nobody will do it but then at the beginning of the year when I finally had Google backing me meaning on April 15^th of this year Google came out and said we’re going to start considering mobile friendliness in who we rank. So that actually pushed the majority of my clients over the edge for them to be like oh, so yeah. Mobile is friendly. But especially for like Facebook ads and social media, people are constantly checking social on their phone. So it’s so important that when they’re redirected from an ad or anything at all even if they want to just -- if you put a post and they want to like follow your blog post to your website that they see a nice mobile friendly version of it because then they’re just like turned away. Most of my clients are well over 50 percent of all their website traffic happen on a mobile device so you cannot ignore it. You cannot ignore it. Jordan:            So that to me, right off the top of my head sounds like there are two major things to consider, right. One is technology. You’ve got to make sure that whatever you’re using, whatever platform you’re using supports mobile, right. Lindsay:           Right. Jordan:            So like lead pages is automatically mobile friendly. There are Word Press themes out there that are automatically Word Press friendly. They call it responsive, right. Lindsay:           Yes. Jordan:            So if you see something says responsive, that’s mobile friendly. But the other thing is kind of the bane of my existence as of recently and that’s short form copy. Nile:                 I was worried for a minute it was going to be me. Okay. Good. It’s short form copy. Jordan:            That’s right. The bane of my existence, Nile Nickel. That’s right. Nile:                 I'm here. Jordan:            The booze hound, bourbon drinking Nile Nickel. Nile:                 Hey, I want Bullet as my sponsor. But let’s get back to short form copy. Jordan:            Let’s hurry and get that shout out going. Yeah. So short form copy. You can't have a super long page anymore, can you? Lindsay:           No, you cannot. No. especially on a mobile device and I know you had a copywriter on a previous episode. Those words, small amount to convince people to do it. Not only because it’s on a mobile and people don’t want to scroll. People love micro content. That’s why Twitter is so popular. You’ve got to keep it short and to the point and do that one, two punch and get them on your list. Then you can kind of like talk their ear off a bit. Nile:                 She’s called one click Lindsay but she’s been clicking our podcast. She’s been listening some. Lindsay:           Oh, I have. Nile:                 So one click Lindsay -- Lindsay:           It’s a great podcast. What can I say? Nile:                 One click Lindsay’s given us a number of clicks. So let me ask a question because we’ve only got a few minutes left in our segment here. So you’ve listened to a few of our segments so what do you think of our different news, different views or as my wife calls it our weird ass news segment. Lindsay:           I really, really like it. I think -- it’s one of my favorites. It’s what keeps me remembering your podcast so keep it up. Nile:                 Oh, wow. Listen to that. Jordan:            Yeah. You just keep fishing Nile. You just keep fishing. Lindsay:           But then again I am one click Lindsay so I mean, as far as trying to stand out and stuff I totally support that. Nile:                 Yeah. We just can't get better than that. That’s perfect. Actually we tried to -- Lindsay:           So does your wife like it? Is that what she’s trying to say? Nile:                 She does like it. She just doesn’t like the name different news, different views. Of course, we did officially just a couple of episodes ago, officially renamed it weird ass news. Lindsay:           I heard that. Nile:                 That was a good story to rename it on, wasn’t it? Lindsay:           Yeah, it was awesome. Nile:                 People will have to go back and listen to that. Well listen, we’ve exhausted this segment. We know that we’ve got a lot coming up. Listen to us in segment three. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 And Jordan this has been a power packed series. Jordan:            Yes. Lots of golden nuggets. Nile:                 And we’re in the third segment of the series. We’ve got one click Lindsay. Love the name. Lindsay:           Thank you. Nile:                 I just get excited about that. That is such a big, bold name. Lindsay:           Well, you’re going to remember it, right? Like you’re not going to remember my real name which is Lindsay boring Anderson, right? One click Lindsay. And by the way, you can get to my website by spelling Lindsay in any myriad of ways your heart’s desire because I bought every domain name. Jordan:            That’s great. Nile:                 Smart tactic. Jordan:            That is smart. Nile:                 Smart tactic. No, I won't forget one click Lindsay and there’s one thing that I guarantee you has never went with your name and that is boring. I guarantee you. In fact, in your high school yearbook, what was the little subtitle under your name? Lindsay:           Most boring. No, I'm kidding. Nile:                 You just had to try to throw that in, didn’t you. Jordan:            Most likely to bore. Lindsay:           I don’t think I had one. Nile:                 Miss congeniality. Lindsay:           I’m sure that’s what it was. I’m sure that’s what it was. Nile:                 It had to be. Absolutely. So we’ve talked a lot about how to convert or how to get traffic, how to convert that traffic into leads, some social media strategies and tactics to do that. One of the things that I’m really interested in and this is not scripted, not prompted and I can't wait to hear the answer and that is -- Lindsay:           Oh, I hope it’s another question I can't answer. That’s going to be awesome. Nile:                 Okay. Good, good, good, good. Well, we’ll see. Here, I’ll give you some thinking time. But I haven’t asked you the question yet. So the question is this. What do you think is the most difficult obstacle that you fight on a regular basis getting those conversions? See? I need to give the pause. Jordan:            Get some Jeopardy music going. Lindsay:           It would definitely be -- if you want something super specific it’s going to be the wording or that irresistible offer. You need to make that something that the user doesn’t feel like they can just go Google the answer for. You need to make it extremely appealing. I’ve gone through different versions of those irresistible offers with clients until we finally had a winner. You can't just stick something up there like -- I couldn’t just stick one up like 10 places you need to list your website. No one’s going to opt into that. You have to make it special, you have to make it something super unique that they’re actually going to give you their email address for. Nile:                 I think that’s a great golden nugget. Jordan:            That is a great golden nugget. Lindsay:           And you have to put your time into it. Let me add one more thing. Nile:                 Absolutely. Lindsay:           You have to put your time into it and please know -- I’ve had clients just kind of throw -- be like oh, here is my irresistible offer. Maybe the first chapter of my book or what not. But you have to remember this irresistible offer is like the first piece of service or of your representation that they’re going to get from you so you need to pour a bit of heart and soul into that because that’s their initial impression. Don’t just get their email address and send them some piece of garbage. Like make it thought out so that it -- use it as a sales tool. Don’t just use it as ha-ha, I got your email address. See you later suckers. Nile:                 See? I’m telling you. Boring does not go with one click Lindsay. Just doesn’t happen. Jordan:            Congratulations. You’ve just been bait and switched. Lindsay:           Yeah. You know what I’m saying boys. You do. Nile:                 I’m enjoying this because now we’re boys. I get bourbon, get called boy. We’re doing good. I love it, love it, love it. So you mentioned another thing on there too besides not having this boring offer if you will or your irresistible content. You mentioned copy as another critical thing. So I suspect that you probably go through revisions on both of those. Lindsay:           Yes. Now I’m going to get into the part that stresses everybody out which is AB test thing. Quite literally you can change a word, change a color of a button, add an image with an arrow pointing and it can increase your conversion rates. But I get a lot of people stressed out about that because you don’t even know where to start. It’s like okay. Everything I’m going to put on here is garbage because I can just make it all better. Just -- you’ve got to start with something and then you’re going to want to -- maybe you see something that catches your eye then go and reword your button. Maybe a certain button on a landing page you visit caught your eye so go try that. Try it for a few days and see if it improves. If you talk to someone about AB testing it can be super overwhelming. I get overwhelmed and I’m in the business. But just know it’s just like life and as a person you can always constantly improve but be happy getting what you’re getting and just kind of test it out. Don’t get overwhelmed by it. But yes. One piece of copy can increase your conversion rates by a certain percentage which sucks. Nile:                 I think we should call it BA testing anyway. Lindsay:           Yeah. Nile:                 Well, there’s a reason for that. You see, because we’re always trying to improve our grade so if we start out with a B we’re trying to get an A. Lindsay:           That’s very true. Nile:                 So everybody says AB testing. I think it should be BA testing. Just personally. Lindsay:           You know what? Let’s go ahead. Let’s start an internet marketing movement and start that way and we will know it started on the social media business hour. Nile:                 It started right here. Lindsay:           On this evening. Yes. Nile:                 You heard it here the first. It was bourbon inspired. Bullet I might mention. No, really, I have a friend that has a program. He calls -- and it’s a sales training program. But I think it’s applicable here. It’s beat your best. And what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to create your best but you’re trying to then beat it. So you really put your best foot out there. You’re trying to do something you think is good but then you’re trying to make it better. Lindsay:           Yeah. That’s really awesome and I think -- yeah. That’s a really good way of going about it. Don’t try to get overwhelmed by should this be green or red and what should the caps all say or whatever. Just put something out and like you said beat your previous score. It’s like playing Pac-man when you were a kid. You always just wanted to beat the previous score, right. Nile:                 Yeah. Absolutely. And imperfect action I should say. Lindsay:           Love it. Nile:                 Is better than perfect inaction. Lindsay:           Love it. Nile:                 Do something even if it’s wrong and then get better. Lindsay:           True. Nile:                 So I love it. Jordan:            Lindsay, I’ve got a quick question for you and I’d really like to hear if you’ve seen the same results but all the guys that I’ve talked to who’ve really maximized split AB testing have said I just changed this one word or I just changed the picture or -- it’s just -- it was such a minor change and then they boosted their -- it’s not like they rewrote the whole page to get better results. Do you find the same thing? Lindsay:           Yes. Absolutely. And that’s actually the key to AB testing is you don’t want to have like version A and then version B being something completely different. Like I literally was running a Facebook ad and I changed the word amazing to awesome and I kid you not, my cost per like went down about 50 cents. No clue why. I was pretty happy about it and it stayed around but you just want to make very subtle changes so you actually know what made the difference. Nile:                 Okay. Lindsay:           Because actually you could redo your whole page and it could get way crappier results and we don’t want that. Nile:                 So I am now -- my mind is spinning and it’s not from the bourbon I might add. Lindsay:           Yet. Nile:                 You changed -- what was it? Amazing to -- Lindsay:           Awesome. Yeah. Awesome to amazing. Nile:                 Awesome to amazing. Lindsay:           Or was it -- now I’m all backwards. Maybe I’m drinking too. One or the other. Nile:                 But that one word changed. You mentioned -- I assume it changed your results but it also changed your ad cost and it lowered it. Lindsay:           Yes. Jordan:            Which means that people were engaging more because of that one word, right. Nile:                 Man isn't that just so totally amazing though? Not only are you getting better results, you’re getting lower ad cost. Jordan:            Well, I think it’s awesome. Lindsay:           And amazing. Nile:                 I think it’s amazingly awesome. That’s the next BA test. I’m sorry. Lindsay:           And like I said, I -- it can get really overwhelming to do that but as a starting point you guys can do some like Googling, like best color for buttons, best -- all the best things because people kind of know like really if you have a blue button versus a green button on the get my free offer now button, that all important, one click button, it can totally change. And so there’s tons of articles on Google about the best colors for everything and all of that and again it’s another good reason to use lead pages, the company because they have tested all that out and that’s why they have this format that we’re all used to seeing because it works. Nile:                 I’m thinking that we need to go to a light golden brand. As in color. Jordan:            You mean the color of the bourbon in your glass right now? Lindsay:           Have I not taught you anything? Nile:                 That’s exactly what I was thinking. So listen, we’ve been talking about this. You get asked this all the time so what’s your canned answer for how can I make my website more effective? Lindsay:           Let me pull up my beauty pageant answer for this one. Nile:                 Oh, I like it. This is exciting. Lindsay:           World peace. Nile:                 World peace. Lindsay:           I’m kidding. Nile:                 Hey, that just went with Miss Congeniality. I’m just saying. Lindsay:           Yes, I did. Right, right? In fact, my high school mascot was a potato so Miss Rosti right here. So anyway -- Jordan:            I’ve got nothing. Lindsay:           To make your website better -- listeners please stay with us. Anyway, to make your website better we’ve kind of discussed that. My number one, two and three things. Have a video on the home page. Number one. Number two, make sure it’s super duper mobile friendly. Pretty please. Number three, spend some time on copy. Don’t just do some throw away website. Literally spend some time on copy and address the pain points of the people coming to your site and let them know you can address their issues. Nile:                 Hey, that’s worth the cost of admission right there. Jordan:            Yeah. Everybody got a seminar for this podcast. Nile:                 They really did and they got to enjoy some humor, some bourbon. Jordan:            No. That was just you. Nile:                 They didn’t. Just me. Yeah. I’m sorry. I did. So I have to be thankful for that but Lindsay you have given just awesome information. One click Lindsay in a completely non boring way. I know that there are people that are clamoring right now. I know our listeners. They’re clamoring to say we want to get more from this exciting one click Lindsay person. How do we find out more about her? Lindsay:           Well, you can visit my website where I do tons of video and tons of ways where you can improve your conversion rate and get more traffic and leads to your website at oneclicklindsay.com and you can spell that however you want. You’ll find me. Nile:                 I like that. That is also a powerful piece of advice. Using the common misspellings. Lindsay:           Yes. Well, my original company -- anyway, my original company name was webimpakt with a K and I swore I didn’t want to ever tell someone how to spell something ever again. So I learned my lesson. Nile:                 Makes absolutely perfect sense to me. Jordan:            That’s a good lesson to learn. Very good lesson to learn. And most people don’t know that they can do that. They can relatively cheaply go and get all the different domain spellings and make sure that they do redirects to the right website and all that good stuff. Lindsay:           Yeah. Nile:                 And so again, that’s worth the cost of admission. So just remember you heard BA testing first here on social media business hour tonight with Nile and Jordan and one click Lindsay and to give everybody your name again it’s Lindsay Anderson but Lindsay not boring Anderson. One click Lindsay. Jordan:            Lindsay awesome Anderson. Lindsay:           That’s better. Thank you. Nile:                 Lindsay awesome amazing Anderson. My daughter has three names or two middle names so we could do the same thing here. Lindsay:           That will totally work. I love it. Nile:                 Yeah, yeah. So there you go. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on the social media business hour. Lindsay:           Thanks boys. I really appreciate it. It was super fun. Nile:                 Oh, thank you so much and to our listeners, thank you as well. We love all the comments and feedback we get on our Facebook page at social media business hour as well as socialmediabusinesshour.com where you could listen to the episode again because I know you’ll want to. You can find all the links. This is social media business hour episode 121. But I want to thank you again and hopefully you learned a few new ideas or concepts. Maybe you were just reminded of a few things you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business. You know that our desire is that you take one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today, you apply it to your business this week. Not next week. This week. We know that a small change can make a big difference and I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week that you could implement. So go back and listen, identify just one small change that you could make to your business this week and see what a big difference it will make for you. So until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen. Woman:          Social media business hour is powered by linkedinfocus.com. For show notes, updates and to pick up the latest tips and tricks head over to socialmediabusinesshour.com. Until next time. Thanks for listening. [/content_toggle]

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