When you have a product launch, what size list should you have? Do you need a big list to launch your product?

I love this question. If you watch any of the latest gurus sells their internet marketing courses and “Secrets to 6 figure business” programmes, it becomes easy to feel overwhelmed by the thought of several thousand people all signing up to their 3 part video series or webinar training or whatever free entry training at the start of their product launch.

It sets a high – if not impossible – standard if you just starting out and creating your first products, doesn’t it?

The more realistic situation is that you will be lucky to get a hundred – or even a couple of dozen – to a product launch. And I promise you that this is a GOOD thing.

There is absolutely no reason why you can’t have a successful product launch with a list as few as 100. I’ve done it before and I will do it again because if you focus on quality first before quantity, you’ll have a stronger foundation to build your long term success.

Making 10 sales to a list of 100 targeted people is ALWAYS going to have more success that trying to make 10 sales from the street corner of your local High Street, which is exactly what you’d be doing if you are focusing on quantity rather than quality.

And if your product launch starts with a free giveaway – such as a webinar or video course – then you have a great excuse to go out and build your list whilst launching your product.

So don’t worry about how big your list is. Focus your energies on reaching out to the right people.

And if your marketing efforts can include picking up the phone, sending personalised messages on Facebook or LinkedIn or even posting a piece of direct mail out to them, then you’ll have far greater success getting your product launched.

Remember, the big gurus who attract thousands of people to their launches never started out at this level. They were all beginners, just like you. They all hustled and focused on making sales on smaller lists. So there’s no need to give up before you’ve even begun.

Less is definitely more.

You all know that asking for business referrals is good thing, don’t you?  But how to go about asking for them can be an entirely different kettle of fish.

One of the most simplest, yet most effective, ways of increasing the number of referrals from existing clients is to stop asking:

“Do you know of anyone who may be interested in what I offer?”

and start asking:

“Who do you know who may be interested in what I offer?”

The simple change of emphasis on the word “who” opens the person’s mind up and they start searching for an answer.  “Do you know” is a classic closed question which only gives you two answers:  yes or no.

“Who do you” is an open question which allows the person to think about an answer.

And if they can’t think of anyone at the time, there is a greater chance of them thinking of a name at a later date.

One of the easiest ways of making your business more profitable is to stop offering lots of choice and put your prices up.

Offer “affordable” and “low-cost” solutions to your clients and it is easy to get caught in the trap of constant promotions.  You can see this happening on the High Street at the moment.  Big retailers are offering pre-christmas sales and slashing their prices.  But the low margins mean that they have to get large numbers of customers through their doors to hit their sales targets.

When you run your own business, this is a strategy that rarely works.  It’s hard to attract the high numbers of clients you need to make the profits you want.

Here is a simple example using workshops to show you what I mean.

Half-day workshop tickets sell at £45
Delegate rate & room hire cost you £10 per person
Gross Profit per person £35

To make a total gross profit (and remember you still need to take in to account all the cost of promoting the event, work book printing, admin support, etc) of £500, you need a minimum of 15 tickets sold.

Full-day workshop tickets sell at £195
Delegate rate & room hire cost you £40 per person
Gross Profit per person £155

To make the same £500 gross profit, you only need to sell 4 tickets.  If you sold 15 tickets, you would make a gross profit of £2325.

You would have to run at least 4 half day workshops to make the same gross profit as running one full day workshop.

Which workshop programme do you think will take less of your time to make £2,000?

(Please note, these calculations are highly simplified.  Do make sure you work out your net profit carefully when running events and don’t get caught out by focusing on your gross profit per person!)

Most business owners find it incredibly difficult to put down in words why they are so great to work with.  Writing can be one of the most challenging skills to learn and master and it’s certainly not high on the list when you first start out.

All the focus in the first few months is around financing, cash flows, business planning and marketing strategy.  But one of the most beneficial skills to have as a business owner is often the written word.

Contracting writing out to copywriters can be expensive and often time-consuming. So when small business owners decide to get on with the writing themselves, without thinking about how to write effectively, they are can be costing themselves dearly.

And writing copy for your brochure, your website and your blog all need different styles and approaches.

Let’s take them one by one.

Writing for your brochure. Your brochure and leaflets are going to be printed so design and layout can be just as important considerations as the words you write.  Your headline needs to be eye-catching and stop readers in their tracks.  This is the time to be selling, to be focusing on what problem the potential client has and how you can make it all better.

Your style has to be strong, punchy and to the point as you’ve usually got limited space.  But you’ve also got to get all the facts in to enable your potential client to make a decision.

Writing for your website. Again, this is the time to be selling.  But just because you may have unlimited space and pages, doesn’t mean you can ramble on aimlessly.

Strong headlines are essential.  Use questions to stop your online visitor in their tracks quickly (you’ve got less than a second to make an impact!)  And sharp, clear benefit-driven copy to outline how it is you may be the answer to your potential client’s problems.

People read differently on a screen than they do from print so use short sentences, 2 to 3 word paragraphs and bullet points where appropriate.

Writing for your blog. Whilst your brochure and website is there to sell your business, your blog is there is to build relationships.  It is here you need to stop selling and focus on giving value, content and useful information.

Your blog is place to showcase your expertise, to share tips and ideas with your readers and build up a useful resource for potential clients to come back to again and again.

Your blog is one of the doorways to your business so welcome your readers and invite them to check out what is inside, linking relevant pages to your website where the selling can take place.  If you try to sell hard at the doorstep, your potential client won’t think about crossing the threshold.

So when thinking about writing, consider the different platforms for your writing.  Know when to sell and when to give value.  And a blog is place where you will sell more but selling less!

What have you done differently in your brochure, website and blog copy writing?

If there is one question that comes up time and time again with clients who want their website reviewed, it’s this: “Do I display my prices?”

My answer time and time again is YES! Of course! Why wouldn’t you?

“Oh, because I don’t want my competitors knowing what I charge.”

“I don’t want to put people off from contacting me.”

“I want to be flexible so I can charge more if I feel I can get away with it.”

Rubbish. Rubbish. Rubbish. And here are my reasons why:

Perception of being too expensive. I was checking out a new webinar system earlier this week and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t find the page called “Prices” or “Packages”. All I could do was to either sign up for a free 30 day trial or fill in a form for someone to contact me.

I know they wanted my contact details first. They wanted to pull me in to their marketing system so they could follow up and wear me down until I decided to buy. But I wanted to know whether the product was within my budget.

By not having the price on their website easily accessible, my only thoughts were “bet they are too expensive!” (Note: this is a good strategy to take for luxury, top end products if you do actually want to create the image of being expensive in your marketing.)

Wasted time on enquiries. If you want people to contact you for a price, you have to have the systems and spend the time to respond to these enquires. Coaches, you are the worst at this! You offer a free consultation – up to an hour of your time – only for the potential client to say “thanks, but I’ll have to go away and think about it”. Translated: “Thanks but it’s more than I thought.  I can’t afford your services but I don’t want to say this to you directly”

My conversion rate when I first started out went from 30% to 60% as soon as I put my prices on my website. If the prices put people off before contacting me, great. It saved me that consultation hour and I was able to get on with other stuff that did make me money.

If you have created the right product/service to provide a solution for your client’s problems, be confident about your pricing.  If you are not overcharging or under selling yourself, charging the “right” price is a good business decision!  It’s nothing to be ashamed of ;o)

Makes the sale easier. If someone knows what you charge before they start talking to you, the whole sales process becomes so much smoother. There is no need for you to stumble over the question “What do you charge?” They already know, so you don’t need to feel embarrassed or awkward discussing it. (We really don’t like talking money, do we?!)

If you do a lot of bespoke work and have to quote per client, then make sure you publicize a starter package, for example. Or quote a price range, highlighting what they would get for that package.

Stuff the competition. So what if your competitors know your price. If you don’t put it on your website, I am pretty sure – if they really wanted to – they would find a way of getting your price lists. You don’t have time to be getting in to petty price wars with other businesses.

So be bold. Be brave. Clearly state your prices or packages so your potential clients know exactly what they are in for, so that when you get to speak to them or they click the order button, they are ready to make the decision to buy.