Month: June 2016

Are You Cheap or Are You Exceptional? How to Price Your Services

The success of your service-based business will be built on the bedrock of how you answer this one simple question:
Do I want my services to be perceived as economical — or exceptional?
It seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? I mean, of course we want to be perceived as exceptional.
But positioning your offerings as exceptional is more difficult than it sounds. It takes guts, unwavering faith in your abilities, and an unflagging devotion to producing quality work.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve sat down with a fellow creative person and said, “Look, you have to start charging more money. Just do it!”
In today’s post, I’m going to have that little chat with you, right here on Copyblogger. If you’re a writer, designer, or any type of service provider, this article is for you.
Why is it so tough to charge what you’re worth?
It seems like it should be easy. You want to charge more? Just charge more!
But in reality, being more expensive than the average service provider means:

You’ll lose out on some business.
You’ll have to keep a straight face while people overreact to your prices.
You’ll have to continue to believe in yourself even when people look you in the eye and tell you you’re being unreasonable.
You’ll need to navigate through potentially uncomfortable negotiation sessions.

The first “marketing tactic” many new service providers try is, “I’ll be cheaper than everyone else!”
Bad idea.
Positioning yourself as the bargain service provider sets you up for problems that are

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7 Reasons Your Content Marketing Efforts are Failing

Have you been trying to improve your business’s digital footprint, but haven’t found any success with content marketing? It can be hard enough for a business to turn away from the traditional means of marketing, and work towards attracting new prospects with incredible content online. And It can be very disheartening when their new direction…
The post 7 Reasons Your Content Marketing Efforts are Failing appeared first on The Sales Lion by Marcus Sheridan.

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Mad Marketing 97: Customer Experience, Dumb Mission Statements, and Speaking Gifts w/ Joey Coleman

  About 4 years ago, I attended a small workshop on personal branding. Upon arrival, I’d never heard of the speaker, but within minutes of starting the session, I knew I was listening to someone very, very special. He was, without question, one of the best speakers and teachers I’d ever witnessed. Well, it turns…
The post Mad Marketing 97: Customer Experience, Dumb Mission Statements, and Speaking Gifts w/ Joey Coleman appeared first on The Sales Lion by Marcus Sheridan.

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Rainmaker Rewind: A Process for Content Marketing Success

Rainmaker Digital’s Chief Content Officer Sonia Simone knows a thing or two about content marketing.
Tune in to this week’s episode of Copyblogger FM as Sonia navigates the best ways to organize your time and energy so you’re able to consistently produce effective marketing materials.
And be sure to check out the other great episodes that aired on Rainmaker FM during the past week in this edition of Rainmaker Rewind.

Confessions of a Pink-haired Marketer. Sonia Simone unpacks a four-part process to help content marketers consistently produce great content: A Process for Content Marketing Success
The Digital Entrepreneur. Brian Clark and Jerod Morris welcome Sonia Simone to the show to share her secrets about digital entrepreneurship: Sonia Simone’s Secret to Starting the 1,000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle of Building a Successful Business
Unemployable. Brian Clark chats with Gary Vaynerchuk about setting the stage for bigger and better things down the road: Gary Vaynerchuk on Playing the Long Game
Zero to Book. Pamela Wilson and Jeff Goins interview Chantel Hamilton, the first editor to work on Pamela’s upcoming book. Chantel shares her “four circles of book editing hell,” a tongue-in-cheek look at the stages any great book goes through in order to come alive: The 4 Circles of Book Editing Hell (and How to Get Through Them)
The Missing Link. Jabez Lebret chats with JD Gershbein about the principles of thought leadership on LinkedIn and how you can find your own competitive advantage: Find Your Competitive Advantage on LinkedIn Through Thought Leadership
Youpreneur. Chris

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Marketing Automation Defined in 60 Seconds [Animated Video]

Ever find yourself in a conversation with your boss or a client and she mentions implementing marketing automation?
Did you understand her request, or did the conversation grind to a halt because you’re not familiar with the term?
If you fall into the second category, you’re not alone.
Marketing automation is a hot topic these days, and its popularity has grown rapidly since 2013, but it can be tricky to define.
What exactly is marketing automation?
Watch our 60-second video about marketing automation
With help from our friends at The Draw Shop, we whipped up 12 definitions from our new Content Marketing Glossary into short, fun whiteboard animated videos.
Here’s our video for the definition of marketing automation:
Animation by The Draw Shop
And for those of you who would prefer to read, here’s the transcript:
Marketing automation refers to software used by people and companies to streamline, automate, and measure marketing workflows by automating repetitive marketing tasks.
In other words, it performs certain manual marketing tasks for you. Night and day. Rain or shine.
Here’s an example of how it works:
Imagine someone downloads one of your ebooks. Marketing automation software will capture the contact information from the form, segment that lead based upon the information it gathered, and then send them an appropriate series of emails over a prescribed time.
Share this video
Click here to check out this definition on YouTube and share it with your audience. You’ll also find 11 additional Content Marketing Glossary videos.
Learn more from the Content Marketing Glossary
We’ll feature the rest of

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Multiple Streams of Income from Your Digital Business: Meet Joanna Penn, Creative Entrepreneur

Joanna Penn is known for being an unusually multifaceted author.
Not only does she write thriller novels under the name J.F. Penn, she’s also a nonfiction writer, copywriter, teacher, and content creator … and she’s the “chief marketing officer” for her own career.
And her marketing superpower? Being able to see the myriad business possibilities that a single book can unlock … even for fiction (which most people mistakenly believe is the least profitable form of writing).
Joanna has sold books in 74 countries, as well as created courses, audiobooks, and other profitable models for writers.
“As a creative, you’re creating intellectual property assets that can earn you money for the rest of your life and 70 years after you die.” – Joanna Penn

Business skill … or creativity?
In a recent interview with Rainmaker Digital CEO Brian Clark, Joanna revealed that she has no patience with the myth that creativity and profitability are mutually exclusive:
“I got really annoyed by the fact that I’d wasted 13 years not being creative because people said to me, ‘You can’t make a living out of this.’”
(You can pick up the full interview here: Inside the Lucrative World of Self-Published Ebooks)
Joanna knows that business itself is creative — and that business skills can help creative folks like writers earn a good living from their work:
“If you learn the business as a separate skill — as you also have to learn the craft — you can actually do both … Business is creative.”
Joanna isn’t just

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