Westchester Networking for Professionals

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Networking Emails Are Tricky. Here Are 3 Easy Steps to Make the Right Introduction

At the foundation of business, no matter what industry you work in, are people and connections. Introductions and facilitating connections are a core part of the corporate world. We would all be nowhere without our business relationships.

Whether you are on the receiving end or you are the one facilitating a business introduction, there are some very-easy-to-implement guidelines that will make the whole process more effective and more pleasant for all parties.

1. The Thank-You Response

File this under "things that should be common sense." If you are the recipient of a business intro, think about how you respond to that initial email. Stephanie introduces you to David; if you are like most people, you probably respond with something along the lines of "Thanks, Stephanie, for the introduction. David, nice to connect. Tell me more."

That is OK, but it doesn't do anything for Stephanie or David. Now, imagine if you had responded with something like "Stephanie, appreciate the introduction. David, any friend of Stephanie's is a friend of mine" or "David, if Stephanie says I need to meet you, then I need to meet you" or "David, I have heard wonderful things. Stephanie speaks highly of you."

Think about what that one sentence, which took you 12 seconds to write, does to the entire dynamic of the conversation henceforth.

Stephanie feels great, as you just put her on a pedestal in front of her colleague or friend David. David feels great, as he now feels that you are as interested in talking to him as he is to you.

One simple sentence that changes the whole DNA of the introduction from cold to warm.

2. When to Say Goodbye

Back to Stephanie and David. Stephanie sends that intro; you write the thank-you note and CC Stephanie on the email. David then responds by Replying All to the email, and the conversation continues. This is when BCC is your friend, or more accurately, it is Stephanie's friend. Say goodbye to Stephanie.

Stephanie made the intro most likely because David asked her to. She did not agree to be bombarded with all the follow-up emails that result from her intro. Spare her and her inbox the scheduling emails and BCC her as soon as you can.

The truth is, this is something David should do after the first email, but if he does not, then you should. Let Stephanie out.

3. The Art of the Follow-up

Making an introduction is fairly easy, but what is not easy, and what most people neglect, is the follow-up.

Whether you're the one being introduced or making the introduction, set yourself a reminder in a few weeks to follow-up and see the introduction through.
A simple example

I will tell you a story about what happened to me last week. A few months ago, I connected a startup to a large tech company because the startup wanted to explore collaboration opportunities with the larger company. I made the intro, and eventually found myself in BCC where I belonged.

As far as I was concerned, my work there was done. Well, I waited a few months and sent an email last week to the startup asking if the intro went anywhere. Turns out, the startup's email got buried in the inbox of the large tech company's exec and he had never replied.

Now, that startup founder, had he followed my advice here, would have followed up with the exec, and if he still received no response, he would have looped me back in to tell me.

He didn't follow up, but I did. After I checked with the founder and was told that he received no response from the exec, I emailed the exec again, saying "Just circling back on this to make sure you connected." That resurfaced the whole thread, and the two of them ended up connecting.

That opportunity, which might be mutually beneficial, would have gotten totally lost had I not followed up, all because of email overload.

To summarize, a lot has been said about how to make business intros but not enough has been said about what to do following those intros. Hence this post. Follow these three steps to bring your intros to the next level.

Source: https://www.inc.com

Image Credit: Getty Images

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Make New Friends and Business Connections With These 7 Networking Icebreakers

Sweaty palms, dry mouth, and a light case of the shakes. Is it the onset of the flu? Nope. It's networking time. Networking can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially when you don't know anyone at the event. But it's a necessary part of an entrepreneur's work.

Polishing your networking skills is easy to let fall by the wayside in favor of other items in your burgeoning workload. But take the time, because networking does more than just build your business. It can also be a way to bounce back from burnout if you're feeling discouraged and reinvigorate your creativity if you're feeling tapped.

The thing about networking is that we're all there to widen our professional circles. We rely on each other for sales and referrals. And the number one factor in sales is relationships. That's why the best questions to ask are the ones that help you get to know the other person. Even though I am naturally shy, networking has helped me make new friends, close amazing deals, and learn new skills.

Here's a list of my favorite questions that break the icy awkwardness of solo networking events.

1. What brought you to this event?

The answer might reveal if your potential new friend came with a colleague, to support a friend, or to represent a company. This question can help you see what you common interests you share and ease you into the conversation.

2. Do you know anyone else here tonight?

This is good way to see if your fellow networker is alone and in need an event buddy. Often, when people learn that I'm flying solo, they'll take me under their wing even if they're attending with friends.

3.How long have you lived in [whatever city you're in]?

This helps you get to know other attendees a little more personally. Some follow up questions might include what they like about their city or how they decided to move there (if they are not native to that city).

4. I'm headed to the bar, what should I get?

You can't do all that talking without something to wet your whistle. Make a graceful transition to the bar with a lighthearted question about what drinks they recommend.

5. What are you working on right now?

Infinitely better than "what do you do?" is asking what they're currently doing. We tend to prioritize our time based on what we most enjoy doing. So asking about the project of the moment almost guarantees they'll be talking about something they're passionate about.

6. Do you have any fun weekend plans?

This is a great question for events taking place Wednesday to Friday. Weekend plans can get you chatting about common interests. Who knows, you might even find a new hiking buddy or friend to add to your weekly poker matches.

7. I'm tired, what number coffee are you on today?

Chances are 9 out of 10 people at your event are also tired. Make a joke about caffeine intake and get them talking.

It's natural for people to ask the same question they've just answered in conversation. So don't ask any questions you don't want to answer!

Being a good networker takes practice so don't get discouraged if your first few events feel a bit rocky. Ask open-ended questions that help keep the conversation going and invite a little personality into the responses. You'll get to know more about their work and what they might be like to work with, too. See what events are happening near you and get to an event this week!

Source: https://www.inc.com

Monday, April 9, 2018

[VIDEO] 3 Simple Things You Can Do to Grow Your Business

After talking to hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners, like financial advisors, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, business coaches, startup founders and more, Entrepreneur Network partner Greg Rollet has identified three simple things you can do to get more clients.

Now, these three things are not an exhaustive list, and there are a million different ways you can achieve them. But, they are at least a starting point you can use to develop your business and get more clients. For example, Rollett advises that you need to have a plan for your media.

This can take form in different ways. You might provide editorial content, meant to entertain readers and grow your audience. Or, you could create advertising, which would hopefully drive that audience toward an action -- particularly making a purchase or investing in you.

But, that's just one decision. You also need to decide on whether you want to make written media, photos or videos. Do you want it to be a digital media or something physical? Should it be long or short and what are your goals for the project?

This isn't about a one-size-fits-all solution -- each business will have different media needs. But, media is vital if you want to grow your business, because in the end, it's just a medium you can use for your message.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Never Use this Dumb Technique in Your Emails

I haven't written about email marketing in a while, so here goes. Earlier today, a reader forwarded a cold email that illustrates a emailing technique that seems effective but which actually reduces the likelihood that you'll get a response.

Here's the beginning of the cold email with names changed:

From: Kat Jones [mailto:kjones.mktg@outlook.com]
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2018 12:15 AM
To: Jon Dee jdee@deeco.com
Subject: Phone Meeting on Monday, Jdee

Hello Jdee,

I'm trying to get in touch with you to see if there is a mutual fit between our company expertise and your goals around sales prospecting strategies...

The most obvious problem with this cold email is that the email marketing app is grabbing the first part of the prospect's email and treating it as the prospect's first name. This flags the email as SPAM and almost guarantees a delete.

However, even if that programming error is fixed, this cold email would still get a chilly reception. The reason? The subject line tries to trick the prospect into opening the email by disguising itself as part of an ongoing conversation.

This is called a "bait and switch" subject line.

In this case, the "bait" implies that the prospect has already committed to a meeting and even identifies a specific day when that meeting was supposed to take place. Seeing this, prospects might easily think they've forgotten an appointment and thus open the email.

The "switch" is a sales pitch.

While I don't have specific statistics on this specific subject line, I've seen a couple of studies showing that a similar technique--using just the subject line "RE:"--has a very high open rate. Marketers use bait and switch to get their open rates up.

However, the true measurement of the effectiveness of a cold email isn't how many prospects open an email, but how many prospects read and respond to the email.

In my experience, "bait and switch" subject lines do indeed get relatively high open rates (compared to the number of emails sent) but they also get correspondingly low response rates (compared to the number of emails opened).

There are three reasons for the poor performance of such emails.

First, prospects get annoyed and resentful when they think they're opening an email that contains something relevant and instead get a sales pitch.

Case in point: the reader who sent me the cold email was so annoyed that he wrote a detailed complaint which I'll include in the next issue of my free newsletter. For now, here's how he started his response:

"Your email below is the most frustrating one I've received in quite some time."

So, while the cold email in question did get a response in this case, it wasn't at all the response that the marketer wanted.

Second, pulling "bait and switch" is starting the relationship with a lie. Most prospects are predisposed to mistrust salespeople anyway. They aren't likely to respond to (much less by from) somebody they now mistrust even more.

Third and finally, sending one-size-fits-all cold emails to a list of prospects is SPAMming, plain and simple. People hate being SPAMmed and resent people and companies who SPAM them.

Which leads us to the two overriding rules of email marketing:

Only send mass emails to people who have subscribed to your list.
If you must send cold emails, carefully customize each email to match each individual recipient.

Source: https://www.inc.com/
Image Credit: Getty Images

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Friday, April 6, 2018

11 First Sentences That Guarantee the Rest of Your Email Won't Get Read

Imagine you get this email. You don't know the sender, but you open it anyway. How long would you keep reading?

Dear Jeff,

I hope you're having a great President's Day! I definitely am. Even though I'm spending a little time at work right now, I plan to spend at least part of the day having fun with friends. We're going snowboarding. I can't wait!"

"I am writing to ask if you would be interested in...

Would you keep reading? Generally speaking, would you even have made it to the second paragraph? I know: The sender was trying to establish rapport. But still -- do you care about the President's Day plans of someone you don't know?

Nope. Instead you were thinking, "Clearly you want something. Can you please get to it?"

Now imagine you get this email:

We would love to have you on our show to talk about your book. Our podcast regularly appears in the top 10 of 'What's Hot' in the Business category of Apple Podcasts...

Would you keep reading? I know I did.

Here's the thing. We all get cold emails, and we're all incredibly good at sniffing out boilerplate openings and forced friendliness. Even if we do keep reading, canned openings negatively impact our impression of what is to come -- and make it much less likely we'll respond positively to the actual message of the email.

Think I'm wrong? Tell me how many times you've seen the following opening lines in an email and still kept reading.

"I thought I would circle back ..."

Yes, because I didn't respond the first time you emailed. But why will I respond this time... especially when the rest of your email is just copied and pasted from your original email?

In the same vein, this won't work either:

"In case you missed this ..."

Maybe I did miss this.

Or maybe I wasn't interested.

Occasionally the recipient may have missed your original email. But know the person you're targeting. If it's someone who gets dozens of unsolicited emails a day, like, say, Tim Ferriss, then his lack of response doesn't mean he missed it. He didn't respond because he gets too many emails to respond to each one individually. If he's interested, he'll respond.

And just in case he really did miss it, find a more creative way to send another email. "In case you missed this" only ensures that even if he does see your second email, he's not going to read it.

And that's also true for:

"I'm just following up ..."

Occasionally a follow-up is warranted. If I said I would do something, and I haven't, by all means, please follow up. It's embarrassing to admit, but I sometimes do forget.

But if you're just "following up," or "circling back," or finding out if the recipient "missed this," find a more creative opening line.

Look at what you wrote in the first email. In all likelihood it was benefit-driven -- for you. Find a way to benefit the recipient. Always give, long before you hope to receive.

"I hope this finds you well."

I get this one at least four times a day. While I appreciate the sentiment, I immediately think two things. I first wonder when Dickensian greetings came back into vogue. But more important, "I hope this finds you well" screams "We don't know each other."

And while every new friendship has to start somewhere, "I hope this finds you well" is unlikely to be the place.

That's also true for:

"I hope you had a great weekend."

Fine if it comes from a friend (even though none of my friends ever open an email that way). Otherwise it's just forced friendliness. Asking "How was the Rolex 24?" shows you know me personally. Asking "How is your next book coming?" shows you know me professionally.

Granted, "I hope you had a great weekend" is an attempt to be friendly. But really: Do you expect people to respond? Do you really want to know about their weekend? Nah. What you really care about is how they respond to the meat of your email.

In time, some professional relationships do also become personal. But when the initial contact is through email, the relationships always starts as a professional one. Work to establish that first. Then a friendship might follow.

But not if you pretend that we're already friends.

"You might be surprised to learn ..."

No, I won't be, because I won't read the rest of your email. Like fake friendliness, interest-starters feel canned and forced. If I might be surprised, shoot, go ahead and surprise me with your opening line.

The same is true for:

"Did you know ...?"

Granted, asking a question can be a way to engage readers. But not in the opening line of an email since what we all do know is that whatever you claim we don't know is something you will then solve for us, probably for a fee.

"Did you know" and, "You might be surprised to learn" are clear signals that a sales pitch is coming. Maybe that's not your intent -- but we'll assume it is.

And a couple quick ones:

"My name is ..."

I already knew that. Your name appears in the sender field.

"I would like to introduce myself ..."

Sometimes introducing yourself first is OK, but in most cases the best approach is to say what you can do for the recipient (or what you want) first.

Then, if we're interested, we'll be willing to check out whether you're the right person to provide it (or are someone we want to help).

"I know you're really busy ..."

This is always followed by "but ..." (which is a lot like saying, "I know this is going to hurt your feelings, but ..."), Acknowledging a situation and then choosing to ignore that situation is an off-putting way to start.

Instead, respect the recipient's time by getting to the point: The less fluff, the better.

"I want to ask a quick favor."

At least in my experience, a "quick favor" never turns out to be quick. And neither does the ask itself.

Here's a better way to do it. I recently received this one-line email:

Daniel Coyle's new book is about high performance teams, I would love to have him on my podcast, and I'm hoping you can connect us.

He clearly knows I know Dan, and the name of the podcast was in the sender's sig. Easy ask, and I always try to help out people I know, so I forwarded his email to Dan with one line: "Want me to connect you guys?" (I don't share people's email addresses without asking.)

Dan said yes. That's the kind of favor I'm happy to do.

But if the email had led with something like, "I am hoping you will do a quick favor for me. My name is John Doe, and in addition to running Acme Industries I am also the host of ..."

Nope. Probably not -- because I probably wouldn't have stuck with it long enough to get to the good stuff.

And that, ultimately, is the point. Your may have great intentions. You may mean extremely well. You may only be trying to be friendly, courteous, and professional.

But if you start your emails with opening lines like the ones above, most people will assume the worst -- not the best.

Find a different way to be friendly, courteous, and professional -- especially if you want your emails to actually be read.

Source: https://www.inc.com

Image Credit: Getty Images

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Thursday, April 5, 2018

How to Network by Reconnecting to Old Friends

When looking for a new job or when we need new information, we know we need to work our networks. And we know that often the fringes and edges of network yield the most beneficial information compared to just surveying a few friends. But getting to the edge can be an awkward process. Reaching back out to the former colleagues and forgotten friends who populate the fringes can be uncomfortable, and there's a strong temptation to just stop trying.

Since Mark Granovetter's pivotal research paper "The Strength of Weak Ties," we've known that close friends are rarely as valuable a source of new information, including new career information, as are those long-lost friends and former colleagues that comprise "weak ties." In another study, researchers found that "dormant ties"--literally friends and colleagues for whom you once had a strong relationship but it has since lapsed--are a potent source of all sorts of new information.

In addition to being a common source of job leads, working your network to get referrals though weak ties and friends of friends can also pay off in raw dollars. In a recent Payscale survey of 53,000 employees, those who applied for their job through a referral from a business contact (like a former colleagues and friends) or through their extended personal network (friends of friends) also received thousands of dollars more in average salary offers than those who relied on family members or close friends for a referral.

But how do you get in touch with those old colleagues and friends of friends? Here's a few tips to make reaching out and reconnecting significantly less awkward:

Drop the agenda. It's okay to be on the job hunt or to need information, but it's best to approach any reconnection without the goal of getting something (like a job referral) from other people. So, drop the agenda for the first few interactions and focus on getting to know them again. (This is also the reason behind the old networking adage "dig your well before your thirsty.")

Start with email. Social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat (if you're under 30) are great for finding a friend or colleague lost to history, but not so great at reconnecting. Everyone uses these services differently and everyone has different rules for reconnecting. A connection request might get rejected if others have different criteria for which requests they accept. But email is still an acceptable, professional medium. So if you've got it or can find it, start with email.

Seek out a call. In that email, don't ask for anything (see "drop the agenda") other than a phone call. We often default to "let's do lunch" or "let's grab coffee" but these invitations are time consuming and more prone to being declined (or politely excused away). They're also not feasible if geography is a factor. So, start small with a 15-minute phone call or, if the relationship was warm enough before it went cold perhaps a video chat through Skype, Zoom, or WebEx.

Look for ways to help. It's always better to be giving into a relationship before trying to withdraw something from it, so look for ways to help. It's tempting here to openly ask "what can I do for you?" but the truth is this question puts people on the spot--they just reconnected with you, how would they know what help you can provide? Instead, be thinking during and after the conversation for ways you can help with an introduction, a resource, or something else.

Make it a habit. The easiest way to get over the awkwardness of reconnecting is to do it often. It's best to make a habit of reaching back out regularly, say with one person per week or per month. There are software services like Contactually that can even send you a reminder if you haven't communicated with someone for too long. My personal favorite trick is to use social media to stay on top of what old colleagues or friends are doing or achieving, but then use a more personal medium like email, text message or phone call to say congratulations or offer help.

In addition, if you make it a habit to regularly reach back out to old colleagues and former friends by doing the above, you'll have rebuilt a part of your network and provided enough value to it to where you may not even have to ask for help when the time comes.

Your old...new friends may be eager to give it.

Source: https://www.inc.com

Image Credit: Getty Images

How to Write an Email Newsletter Your Audience Will Actually Read

Don't believe everything you hear, email is far from dead. In fact, it's one of the few forms of online communication we can say, with relative certainty, will be around a decade from now. While social media platforms are extremely powerful tools, one only needs to look as far back as Vine or Myspace to see how unpredictable they can be.

Here's the thing though, while many entrepreneurs are aware of the importance of email marketing, most email newsletters just plain suck. They're boring, repetitive, over-promotional or all three. Here's how you can be different and create an email newsletter your audience will actually read.

1. Embed videos in your newsletter.

Videos in your newsletter will provide your subscribers with fresh content relative to the standard text-only format they're used to seeing. If you use an email marketing platform like MailChimp or Constant Contact, you'll be able to embed YouTube or Vimeo videos directly into the body of your email.

2. Don't overwhelm your audience with too much content.

Scarcity creates value. Unless your email newsletter is "Daily Health Tips" or "Daily Digital Marketing Updates", sending a newsletter out every single day could cause your audience to become bored or numb to your content, which will cause open rates to decline. Instead, think critically about what your particular audience would like to see, then decide on a reasonable frequency based on that.

3. Create a style guide.

Creating a style guide is one of the easiest and fastest ways to establish yourself as a reputable, easily identifiable brand. To do this, simply decide which font (or fonts) along with the color palette you will using in every newsletter. Then plug this information into a template on MailChimp or whichever email marketing platform you use.

Seth Godin frequently points out that humans are pattern-recognizing machines, and when it comes to branding, we're no different. Consistency will subconsciously speak to your customers and potential customers by making your company more memorable.

4. Photos, photos, photos.

How many newsletters are you subscribed to that only use text? For me, it's a lot of them. Sure, there are plenty of great, text-only newsletters out there, but even the best newsletters need to constantly be innovating. One of the simplest ways to "spice things up" is by adding high-quality images to all your newsletters.

To find high quality stock photos, search on Pexels.com or Unsplash.com. These sites also allow you to use an unlimited amount of photos royalty-free and watermark-free.

5. Pick a theme.

Tim Ferriss has one of the largest email newsletters on the planet: Five Bullet Friday, where he provides subscribers with five quick facts or things he found interesting during that particular week. In a world of inconsistent newsletters, a newsletter like Five Bullet Friday provides subscribers with succinct, consistent value week after week. What's a theme you could integrate into your newsletter?

6. Add value before you ask for favors.

If you only reach out to your email list when you want their money is one of the biggest rookie mistakes in the world of email marketing. Before you ask your audience for a favor, add value to their lives. Give them an immense amount of high quality information. According to Hubspot, a healthy email newsletter should be 90 percent educational and 10 percent promotional.

What is your current ratio for your newsletter? Are you asking too much from your audience before adding enough value to earn their trust?

7. Include the sender's name in the email.

In a case study with the Boston Red Sox, Hubspot found that open rates increased from two to seven percent when the baseball team included the first name of the newsletter recipient. Most email marketing platforms allow their users to add a recipient's name pretty easily. Give it a try in your next newsletter.

Email marketing is powerful. More importantly, it isn't going anywhere. Despite this, the quality of newsletters is something certainly lacking across the business landscape. To separate yourself from your competitors, begin utilizing the tips discussed in this article to take your email newsletter from boring to memorable. Best of luck.

Source: https://www.inc.com

Image Credit: Getty Images

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

How Can LinkedIn Help My Business?

On Thursday, April 12, 2018, Westchester Networking for Professionals will be hosting their Business Lunch & Learn Networking Event series on "How to Embrace the Power of LinkedIn". Register here.

According to a blog posting, we found on Walsworth.com, if you're not actively using LinkedIn for your company's marketing, you're missing out on a huge potential audience.

LinkedIn is the third-most popular social networking site behind Twitter and Facebook in terms of unique monthly visitors. Some 255 million people visit the site each month, ranging from individual employees to leaders of business.

Now, what if you could learn how to utilize LinkedIn connections for your company marketing to reach and engage your audience in an effective way to boost your LinkedIn profile visibility.

Whether you have an account on LinkedIn or not, it is a crucial business social media tool for attracting customers and building your company brand awareness.

Our guest speaker, Bruce Segall will be here to answer any questions you may have to gain a better understanding of this business networking database.

Please feel free to invite a colleague or potential customer.

Online registration is open until April 6, 2018.

To register or view event details, click here.

-->#linkedin #workshop #networking #events #westchester #business #lunchandlearn

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

4 Content Marketing Tools to Try in 2018 (And How to Use Them)

Looking to streamline your content marketing process in 2018? Content marketing is often time-consuming and tedious. But with the right tools, you can make your workflow streamlined and focused.

Let’s take a look at four different content marketing tools you need to give a try in this year and how to use them for the best results.

Creating Engaging Headlines

In 2018, if your goal is to create more engaging content, it’s imperative to create compelling headlines. Without a doubt, your headlines can make or break your content. They are the most important engagement factor. We use Headline Analyzer by CoSchedule to create captivating headlines that drive traffic, shares and engagement. Backed by data, it lets you optimize your headline with the right word balance and character length to boost engagement.

Start by entering your text into the tool to begin your headline analysis. The tool will then show you your headline type, analyze the phrases used in it and generate a preview of what it will look like in Google search for you. We use this tool to help us brainstorm headlines for our blogs. Before we write an article, we'll brainstorm titles and assign them to the corresponding writer in our project management tool.

Streamlining Project Management

Asana is a project management tool that capitalizes on convenience. What makes Asana a unique tool for content management is that it lets you see the progress of your content marketing tasks at just a glance. We organize our content marketing tasks into calendar view or list format, depending on the project. You can quickly dive into the details by commenting on tasks and adding attachments into your assignments.

Streamline your content marketing efforts by either using it as a to-do list manager or as a fully-fledged editorial calendar. By using it as a to-do list manager, you can operate your day-to-day tasks effectively and schedule them based on priority. Using it as an editorial calendar enables you to easily organize your workflow from researching topics, crafting and assigning content to the corresponding writer.

We use Asana as an editorial calendar for our content marketing. We subdivide our editorial calendar into the following sections: "Topic Ideas," "New Assignments," "In Progress," "Pending Review" and "Ready to Submit."

Increasing Traffic to Your Site

If you want to create content that people read, you need to increase the traffic and conversions to your website. The more traffic to your site, the higher Google will rank you for specific keywords.

Email outreach is one of the best ways to increase traffic and build white hat links to your site. Find sites that will potentially link to you and send emails to the site owner requesting backlinks, PR pitches, guest article pitches and so on.

Before you start the outreach program, use a tool like BuzzSumo to find out who is already mentioning you in the press. BuzzSumo allows you to figure out who is mentioning you, find popular posts and discover what people are asking in your industry. For example, we find out who has mentioned us in the press but hasn't linked to us using the "no link" feature. We'll then reach out to those specific bloggers and ask for a link to help increase our domain authority.

Identifying Popular Keyword Searches

Once you have brainstormed some topic ideas for your blog post based on questions people are asking, start typing in keywords in Google's Keyword Planner. This will help you identify which keywords get more searches and how competitive they are. The goal is to try to pick keywords that are not very competitive and get a lot of searches. You'll want to include your keywords in the title of your article, body and URL.

Content marketing is a time-consuming task. If you want to amplify your results in 2018 with content marketing, it’s crucial that you include the best tools in your toolbox. You can start by trying out the tools one by one and create a content strategy that perfectly adapts to your workflow.

Source: https://www.inc.com
Image Credit: Getty Images

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Monday, April 2, 2018

WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN THE SMALL BUSINESS EXCHANGE PROGRAM

As a sole-entrepreneur, I am convinced that every entrepreneur should join a group of their peers to help them grow their business.

If you are an entrepreneur seeking to surround yourself with individual who understand the challenges, strengths and weakness of running a business. The Westchester Networking for Professionals Small Business Exchange Program is for you.

Are you familiar with the term “MasterMind Group”?

The Small Business Exchange Program is an online interactive meeting for solo-entrepreneurs, the same format as a mastermind group. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s a small group of individuals aiming for a similar target, who come together to mentor, solve problems, give input and advise to help each other reach that target.

The target of the Small Business Exchange Program members is to help each other succeed in business.

Member of the group meets twice a month virtually for an hour and a half for six weeks. If you’re serious about reaching your goals for a successful business you would secure your spot for six weeks. But you do have the option to secure your seat for one meeting.

The group will focus on 5 essentials of a successful business:

New client acquisitions
Improving business strategies
Marketing and promoting your business
Connecting you with needed resources
Providing help and guidance to your business.

If you analyze your business situation now, can you use help and guidance in any of these areas?

There are many benefits for you and your business when joining the Small Business Exchange Program 1) it’s an opportunity for you to let go of the feeling of working alone to reach your goals, 2) gain the advice you need to meet objectives, 3) work with you very own support team who will motivate, inspire and uplift you while running your business.

HOW DO YOU SIGN UP?

The Small Business Exchange Program is limited to 12 people. To sign up, visit Westchester Networking for Professionals events page for April 17, 2018 scheduled meeting.

7 Steps to Maximize Your Branding

Running a successful business is all about making smart investments. From newfangled technologies to whip-smart new hires, every decision involving the investment of your business’s capital should be carefully considered against short and long-term returns.

So of all the myriad assets you can invest in, from marketing to automation to supplies, why invest in branding? It’s a reasonable question and one that most of the business owners I work with have to ask themselves at some point.

The short answer is: Your brand is your company’s most valuable asset.

Your brand is the way your stakeholders perceive your business. Shaping these perceptions allows you to foster customer loyalty and cultivate brand equity. And it is customer loyalty and brand equity that ultimately determine the financial performance of your company.

This endeavor includes thorough research to assess your competitive landscape and identify opportunities for meaningful differentiation, careful positioning to capitalize on those opportunities, expert design and expression of an authentic brand identity and the alignment and maintenance of your brand.

It's no small undertaking, but when done well, it can lead your company in the direction you want it to grow. Whether you partner with an agency or rely on the efforts of an in-house team, branding is the most effective way to shape customer perceptions and influence behavior, but it doesn't end with establishing an identity. Here are seven ways you can get the most out of great branding.

1. Attract Ideal Customers

Sales and marketing can be a lot more efficient when you're able to attract not only customers but ideal customers. By leveraging the power of brand research, branding enables you to identify precisely which types of audiences are aligned with your company’s distinct culture and values. Not only are these individuals more likely to convert, they are also more likely to become loyal brand advocates, providing you invaluable (and free) promotion through social media and word of mouth.

2. Deliver on Your Brand Promise

A solemn pledge to deliver on your defining value proposition, your brand promise is no small thing. Think of Volvo and its promise of safety that has spanned generations. Articulating a brand promise that is authentic, compelling and unique -- and, more importantly, delivering on that promise -- can mean the difference between fly-by-night success and a legacy that lasts decades.

3. Solidify Your Brand Authority

Something interesting happens when you position your brand as a niche industry leader: People listen. Branding gives you the power to do just that. By narrowing the focus of your brand’s expertise to the thing or things it does best, you amplify your brand’s authority. Leveraging that authority commands the attention of customers and competitors alike.

4. Render the Competition Irrelevant

Solidifying your brand authority leads to another valuable phenomenon: Your competition is no longer relevant. Branding lets you radically differentiate your company by positioning it as the only provider of its unique value proposition. When your brand is highly specialized at providing a premium product or service, you effectively have no competition.

5. Command a Premium Price

You’ve heard it before, but it’s worth repeating: Customers don’t buy products; they buy brands. And customers will always be willing to pay a premium price for a premium brand. Branding gives you the power to position your company’s offerings as not just premium, but industry leading. This type of meaningful differentiation justifies the worth of your brand, enabling you to command higher prices for your products or services.

6. Boost Your Brand Equity

Only by investing in branding can you hope to increase your brand equity. And brand equity is a powerful thing. It is the tangible value of your brand derived from intangible yet influential factors like customer perception. Over the long term, increased brand equity translates into a higher valuation when the time comes to sell your company.

7. Attract Top Talent

It will come as no surprise that the best candidates want to work for the best brands. Branding involves clearly articulating your company’s values and culture. By doing so, you can be sure to attract industry talent that is aligned with these important principles. The best candidate is one who will fit seamlessly into the company culture you’ve worked so hard to build.

Investing in your company's branding and capitalizing on its potential can lead to various, tangible returns for years to come. It gives you the power to attract better customers, with more authority and to command higher prices for your offerings, to boot. And acquiring customer loyalty, industry authority and brand equity are invaluable to any brand's long-term success.

Source: https://www.inc.com

7 Real-Life Business Lessons You Can Learn From Billionaires

The “three-comma club” consists of those in industry, art and commerce who have achieved the exclusive honor of reaching a net worth of more than one billion dollars. From Rockefeller to Gates, members of the club include people who have truly altered the world. To achieve this level of success requires hard work, dedication and a little bit of luck.

Fortunately for the rest of us, these men and women have shared some of the techniques that helped them achieve membership in the exclusive billionaires’ club.

Whether your goal is to make a billion dollars or bring clean water to a billion people, the techniques of how to envision and achieve goals can be used by anyone. Here are 7 of those techniques, straight from the mouths of billionaires.

1. Look failure in the eyes.

Failure is not something that you expect the most successful entrepreneurs to have experienced much of. However, all billionaires have experienced failure, sometimes catastrophically. The difference between those who thrive and those who don’t is that those who thrive failed better. As Bill Gates said, “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

Gates is a prime example of why learning from failure is key. While at his first company, Traf-O-Data, Gates, the future richest man in the world, saw his life’s work fail completely. When Traf-O-Data went out of business in the late 1970s, Gates watched his dream of success start to crumble. However, according to him and his co-founder and fellow billionaire Paul Allen, the lesson they learned from the failure of Traf-O-Data helped Microsoft succeed.

Many ambitious people, when faced with failure, want to forget it quickly and move on. However, something that is key for success is being able to face failures and understand the lessons they offer. The most successful people recognize that failures can be stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks.

2. Insist on excellence.

Excellence for the most successful among us is a habit. Take the words of advice from Mohammad Dewji, CEO of the METL Group and Africa’s youngest billionaire at 42. He says, “Always strive for excellence in life and never make room for mediocrity. Set your standards high and your efforts shall be rewarded.”

Long-term goals can seem daunting or abstract. However, waking up every day and being consistent with one’s standards is key. A billion dollars starts with a million, which starts with a thousand, which starts with one … and that first dollar is only earned by demanding one’s best.

The most successful entrepreneurs create the right goals and achieve them daily. With time, these become the right habits. And finally, these become the right accomplishments. Insist on excellence, and maybe you could end up in the three-comma club.

3. Vision is key.

The other aspect of becoming a billionaire is setting the right goals. Coming up with those ideas that are worth pursuing means thinking outside the box and seeing value where others do not. The ideas that created billionaires have been those that pushed the boundaries. This means pursuing one’s idea and having faith in a vision when others are skeptical or even hostile.

For example, when billionaire Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines to compete with air-travel giants like TWA and American Airlines, he was mocked. Others scoffed at him for even attempting to challenge the existing airline companies. However, Branson saw there was a need for a cheaper airline, and one with customer service in mind.

He had faith in his vision, and even though Virgin Airlines struggled in its first few years, it eventually took off for Branson. When Branson sold his 31 percent stake of Virgin America to KLM-France in 2017 for $286 million dollars, his vision was vindicated.

Branson knew that others were skeptical of his idea, but he trusted his judgment and pursued a vision that few others had the will to follow. Billionaires constantly seek to see what others don’t. The fact that others don’t share the vision means only one thing: it’s a great idea.

4. Health is important.

No billion-dollar effort gets off the ground without a healthy and willing personality behind it. As fitness expert and personal trainer to billionaires Samir Becic says, “I truly believe that in the 21st century, in order to excel in the world, you have to be fit and healthy.” Billionaires from the founder of Under Armour to 86-year-old George Soros all emphasize how important personal health is to them.

Your idea won’t get off the ground if you feel sluggish and unfit. You won’t have the energy to do all the things on your list. Stress-reduction strategies, a healthy diet and consistent exercise will do wonders for your motivation and mental capacity. Remember that even in pursuing your dreams, health is key to keeping you in tip-top shape.

5. Opportunity plus preparation equals luck.

You may be surprised that luck is embraced by these hard-working, motivated people; however, it absolutely plays a factor in becoming a member of the billionaires’ club. As Mark Cuban, who sold his company Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in the 1990s, openly admits, “Being a billionaire requires a lot of luck, a lot of great timing.”

Now, it’s obviously foolish to depend on luck for success. However, the ability to quickly and correctly recognize opportunity when it is presented to you, the flexibility to change course if required and the preparation to rise to the occasion all are vital in taking advantage of what would be considered “luck.”

Learning to take the appropriate chances and having faith in yourself are keys to finding the opportunities that can help you along the way.

6. Keep your priorities in order.

Health, happiness and financial security, in that order, were the three top priorities of millionaires, according to a 2015 US Trust Survey of 640 high-net-worth individuals with at least $3 million in investable assets.

While the financial and professional goals we set for ourselves are crucial to success, it is also important to remember why we are pursuing them. A billion dollars will achieve financial security, and possibly fame, but you should remember the other things in life that money can’t buy.

Warren Buffet often discusses the importance of his children growing up with “normal” childhoods that would teach them self-sufficiency and family values. Even when working hard and making sacrifices in pursuing financial success, remember to think about what you’ll do what you get there, and what you’ll need to have in order to truly be happy.

7. Work, work, work.

The Chairman of Nissan-Renault flies more than 150,000 miles a year. Serena and Venus Williams began hitting tennis balls at 6:00 a.m. when they were 8-years old. Marissa Mayer worked brutal 130-hour weeks while at Google. These stories of grit and work ethic define the journey to becoming a billionaire.

No matter the weather, day or time, for billionaires the only thing on their mind is the task at hand. It is this willingness to work that sets those in the three-comma club apart and defines those who can achieve their dreams, no matter what it is. Luckily, with the right work ethic, all the other steps become easy. As Mark Cuban says,“Companies don’t fail for a lack of cash or attitude. Companies fail for a lack … of effort.”

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Image Credit: Lou Rocco | Getty Images

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!

Friday, March 30, 2018

6 Keys to Email Marketing Success

Run-of-the-mill advertisers have little respect for the personal nature of email. But smart email marketers know how to talk to their customer as individuals. Here are six ways to do just that.

1. A “From” Field That Shows You’re a Real Person

Consider the different impressions these “from” lines create:

Bill Kastl
William Kastl
William D. Kastl, Nakatomi Corporation
Nakatomi Sales Department
Bill Kastl, Nakatomi Sales

You want your email to be warm and personal without looking like spam. The key is to say something that’s so specific to readers’ particular interests, they know no spammer would ever come up with it. Pick a “from” field that your customers will understand, and stick with it.

2. A Provocative Subject Line

The most important thing about email is that its success or failure is all about context. Email subject lines work not because they follow standard copywriting formulas but because they tap into what specific people are interested in at a particular time.

Here are some subject lines of some successful emails I’ve sent out to my Google AdWords customer list:

When Google is NOT the Best Way to Get a CustomerAre Google Employees Spying on You?Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” and All That5 Insidious Lies About Selling on the WebFistfight at the Board of Directors Meeting

These headlines don’t assault the reader with cheesy-sounding promos -- they hint very strongly at a story. They provoke curiosity rather than scaring people off.

3. Everybody Loves a Good Story

B&B Electronics sells industrial communication hardware—a “boring” geek business if there ever were one. But when Perry Marshall writes its monthly newsletter, he turns that dull, geek image on its head and interrupts a dreary day of engineering with wry humor.

The method? Storytelling.

Subject: ZIGBEE AND THE GEEKS’ REVENGE

Leslye was the girl who made my heart go pitter-patter in junior high school.

I was always sure to take the long way to Social Studies, down the stairs to first floor, past her locker, then back up to second. Just checkin’ up.

I wasn’t the boy who made her heart go pitter-patter. She liked Sam. And she never discovered that I liked her. It was my little secret.

Now maybe you didn’t run the sound system in Junior High like I did. Maybe you ran the film projector instead. Maybe you programmed Apple II computers in BASIC and belonged to Chess Club.

Still, you and I were geeks, and the pretty girls took no notice of us.

But now we geeks rule the world. All the pretty boys and their material girls have viruses on their computers, and they can’t function without us. They’re at our mercy.

And the latest Geek Revenge these days is . . .

ZigBee.

ZigBee is sort of like wireless instant messaging for sensors and smart devices. You drop ZigBee nodes wherever you want, no cables necessary, and the more nodes you have, the more communication paths there are and the more reliable your system is . . .

The story doesn’t surrender to the stereotype that engineers are dull, lifeless geeks who only understand ones and zeros. No. It celebrates it. It turns it into the central message.

More importantly, though, it smashes the engineer stereotype to pieces: Engineers make buying decisions on emotion no differently than the rest of us do. Storytelling works when marketing to them, no differently than people in any other profession.

4. People Can’t Forget You When They Hear from You Often

Get an autoresponder series going, and you can win the hearts of customers for life:

We like prime-number sequences, so three, five, and seven days are good.

After that sequence is done, keep in touch at a slower rate, maybe every few days or every week.

Your unsubscribe rate should be between 3 to 10 percent. If it’s more than that, your message isn’t matching your market. (If it’s less, you may not be edgy enough.)

Want to squash refunds and returns? After people buy from you, send them a series of messages that show them how to use your product more effectively and share features they might have missed.

When people complain that they’ve missed a day or two from you, it’s a sign your content is good and that the spam filters are doing their job.

5. If You Violate the Expectation of Relevance, You Damage Your List

Let’s say you’re a chiropractor who’s just launched a new herbal remedy that you want to tell your customers about. Should you blast your entire list with it?

Odds are, you could maximize your sales that day, but you’re going to pay a price. All the people who aren’t interested in herbal stuff are now going to be less responsive to everything else you do—even if they don’t unsubscribe. You’ve just taught them that you like to send out emails about stuff they’re not interested in.

The typical marketer will treat everyone the same. The smart marketer will not. The smart marketer will have different lists for each topic—different sublists.

So if you’re the chiropractor, you build an herbal sublist and then sell the herbal remedies just to those folks. That way, you maximize the value of every single list you have.

6. The Human Touch Sells

Don’t hide behind your email. Use it to express more of yourself. You’re not a faceless corporation; you’re a person. Show that side of you, and people will remember you, buy from you, and tell others about you.

Express a personality that people instantly recognize. This is free branding. When you introduce new products or make changes in your marketing program or message, now you can attach those to a name—your name or another person that your business is known for—and that name has even more meaning and credibility.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Image Credit: Hero Images | Getty Images

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!