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Grow Your Email List with the Help of Your Current Audience using GoViral

May 2, 2018 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, I learned about a new tool called GoViral. It’s put out by Growth Tools, which is run by Bryan Harris of Videofruit. The best part? It’s free! Don’t worry, there’s a link to get your own account at the end of this post. Or, if you’re absolutely desperate to see how it works right now, click on the button below.

The idea behind this tool is you give away a lead magnet in trade for having people give you exposure to their friends, social media followers, etc.

Yes, this is a really standard method of growing your audience. But Bryan Harris and his team have made this ridiculously easy to use, and to track.

More importantly, they’ve made it ridiculously easy for people to share your lead magnets with their networks. It’s awesome.

I decided to experiment with GoViral to see how it works and what results I got from it.

Please note: My experiments are far from scientific, or thorough. But even this little foray into playing with this tool will show you how well this tool works.

Here’s what I did…

Experiment #1: Asking My Email Subscribers to Share a Blog Post

I have a very modest email list, which I email every weekday. (Even copywriters should get time off.)

GoViral gives the option to share on several social media and blogging platforms. So, I asked my email subscribers to share one of my old blog posts on their Facebook walls.

If you’re on my email list, you’ll recognize the email I sent below. If not, you really should be. Sign up here, or subscribe via the popup box at the bottom, right corner of this window.

Subject line: Would you share this for me please?

Hi there,

I’m testing out a new tool to grow your email list. I want to see how it works for me, then I’ll report back here next week.

The best thing about this particular tool? It’s free!

The best thing about this test? I’ll give you an awesome cheat sheet to build a better relationship with your potential customers.

Here’s what I need you to do:

Click on this link and follow the instructions to share one of my blog posts with your friends on Facebook.

Collect your Customer Relationship Cheat Sheet after you’ve shared the blog post.

Tune in next Wednesday when I tell you the results of this experiment.

Thanks very much!

Tanya

https://tanyabrodycopywriter.com/

To be fair, I really wasn’t done playing around with this tool yet, so I didn’t report in the next Wednesday. Instead, I’m reporting in the following Wednesday, via this blog post.

Of the 39 people who read my email, 6 of them shared the blog post.

That may not seem like a lot, and I did mention, my email list is small.

The results were noticeable.

My Facebook post reached 298 people. (I don’t know why Facebook registers this post as having been shared 5 times instead of 6, but there you are.)

Now, compare that to my last blog post, which only reached 80 people, and wasn’t shared at all.

Or this one from last year, which only reached 22 people, with no shares.

This is why GoViral is so effective. You get more exposure by sharing with your current audience, and asking them to share with their audience, and so on and so on and so on. (Which is why it’s called GoViral.)

Personally, I’m thrilled with the results, even though they’re small so far.

Experiment #2: Sharing Facebook Live Posts

Again, if you’re on my email list, you know that I performed this past weekend at the Carleton Artist Lofts Spring St. Paul Art Crawl.

All week long, one post a day, I posted Facebook Lives of some of the songs I’d be performing at this show and asked folks to share them with GoViral to get more exposure for my performance and for the Art Crawl itself. I offered 2 different free songs as lead magnets for 4 posts during the week. (Okay, I missed a day because of unexpected scheduling conflicts.)

The first Facebook live post I shared got 3 shares via GoViral. (Looks like some folks shared without clicking on the GoViral link, which is fine by me.) This post was shared a total of 8 times (according to Facebook), reached 568 people and got 243 views.

My second Facebook Live post was only shared once by GoViral (which was probably me) but according to Facebook, it got 4 shares, which netted 107 views and reached 319 people.

The third Facebook Live post got 3 GoViral shares, 5 total on Facebook, and reached 310 people. It was viewed 96 times.

My fourth and final Facebook Live post that was shared via GoViral only once (again, probably me) but got a total of 5 shares on Facebook, had 93 views and reached 239 people.

Now, compare this to the Facebook Live I did at the show itself, which I didn’t offer a GoViral download for. That one reached 142 people and was only viewed 57 times. And I know I’m the only person who shared it.

Now granted, the longer a post is out in circulation, the more it will be viewed and shared. The first post had a full week from the day this blog post was written to get more views, shares and reach more people, compared to the last post, which I apparently forgot to share myself until today.

By the way, if you want to hear any of these, visit my music Facebook page.

There are a lot of things that will affect how much exposure any given Facebook post will get, including how many people know you and/or like what you’re doing, so they view or share your post for those reasons, versus just sharing a post because they thought it was cool.

But the fact remains that the posts that were shared via GoViral did much better than the one that wasn’t, for this test.

Again, I do not claim that this test was scientific, accurate or precise. It is me playing around with a new tool. But it’s a really fun new tool!

What Can You Share with GoViral and Where?

So, here’s the cool thing. You can share pretty much any digital lead magnet, including:

Checklists
Coupons
Infographics
Buyer’s Guides
Spreadsheets
Resource Guides
MP3s

You do need a place to store your downloads online, GoViral doesn’t store them for you. But that’s pretty easy to set up. To be candid, I’ve got mine in a Google Drive folder. You can also use your website or other online storage like Dropbox.

Here is the list of places you can share lead magnets with GoViral.

You’ll notice at the bottom you can have someone email a friend or send them to a specific URL, which is a great way to share sales announcements, landing pages, your website and more.

Personally, I can see dozens of uses for this tool, for my clients’ businesses and for my own.

How to Set Up a GoViral Campaign

Once you’ve signed up for your free account, you do have to add a tracking script to your website. That way you can see how many people share a lead magnet or landing page on your site. Instructions for doing that are on the GoViral website.

Next, you click on the bright orange button on the main page that says Create Campaign.

Now, choose your goal for this campaign from the list.

You customize the landing page for your visitors and add the name of the bonus (or bonuses) they’ll receive for sharing.

Click on “more options” to add your own background image and change the overlay color to your preference. You can also create a “No Thanks” message and link to another page to give people a way to decline to share and still get another message, if you want to take them to a final Thank You page or another page on your website.

Next, you’ll choose the call to action you want to use, as per the dropdown menu above. You’ll link to the page or post you want to share and (depending on your CTA) choose the advanced settings to verify that someone has shared your post.

Finally, you’ll customize your download page by adding the link to your downloadable item(s). You can even add a special “Ghost Item” as an extra bonus.

Once you click “Next,” you’ll have the link to your GoViral campaign. You get the option of a standard link, which you can hide behind text or a button, or a “pretty link” which you can leave exposed. FYI, I used the “pretty link” option for all of my Facebook Live posts.

Add that link wherever you need to, including:

In an email asking your subscribers to share your post, landing page, etc.
As a Thank You page (or just before a Thank You page) after someone subscribes to your email list.
On another social media post.
On your homepage.

You can create multiple campaigns, depending on what you want to share and how you want to share it. You can duplicate a campaign, which makes it easy if you want to share the same lead magnet with different CTAs (so you can share it on different social media platforms, for example.)

By the way, the customer support folks at Growth Tools are fantastic and will help you get up and running ASAP.

Download Your GoViral Setup Checklist and Get Started Now

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t give you a content upgrade for this post. So I’ll give you a checklist of steps and marketing collateral you’ll need to set up a GoViral campaign.

After you opt-in for this content upgrade, you will be asked to share this post with your audience to get another lead magnet, my Lead Magnet Idea List. So, you’ll see how this works in the real world.

Finally, you’ll be taken to the GoViral website, so you can sign up for your own free account.

Click on the button below to get your free setup checklist and see GoViral in action.

Share the results from your GoViral campaigns in the comments below.

How Well Do You Adapt to Change in Your Small Business?

March 8, 2018 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

The only true constant is change.

This is one thing I’ve learned over and over again in my life, and especially in my businesses.

Having some ability to adapt to change is necessary for every small business owner.

Maybe one of your suppliers runs out of, or stops making, a part you need for your product.

Maybe federal regulations change your ability to import a necessary ingredient.

Maybe the partner or spouse of a person who is critical to the functioning of your business gets an offer to work somewhere fantastic, but that offer requires them to move, taking your critical person with them. (And that “critical person” could be you.)

There are all sorts of situations that cause change in your small business. The real question is, how quickly can you adapt, so you can keep moving forward?

This is one of those weird situations that you can’t really “plan” for but you do need a “backup” in place when it occurs. However, you rarely know what that backup may be, because typically, you have no idea what change is coming your way.

Knowing This, How Do You Adapt to Change in Your Business?

For a business that creates a product of some sort, you either find a new supplier, or you learn to make that part yourself. Sometimes, you have to create that new supplier, by going to a company that already makes something similar and asking them to modify their process to make your part.

If an ingredient in a recipe becomes unavailable, you either find a new place to get that ingredient, or you find a new ingredient. Sometimes you have to go as far as changing your menu.

When you’re a freelancer, change usually involves a sudden increase or drop in your work. This is either because of an increase or decrease in the number of clients you have, or in the amount of work they’re sending you.

(By the way, the following is also true for businesses that produce products, just change clients to customers and work to sales.)

If you suddenly have more work than expected, you spend a lot more time working than you had intended. Sometimes this involves pushing back other clients’ projects, or your own work. Times like these are great in terms of income, but they can be frustrating with regards to your personal life.

The alternative is to find another freelancer you trust to do the work for you. Then you review the work before it goes back to your client to make sure it’s done to your standard. Sometimes this works, sometimes you end up redoing the entire project, and you have to pay someone else for work that isn’t up to snuff.

Again, if you have enough work (and therefore money) coming in, it’s usually worth it.

When you suddenly discover that you don’t have enough work coming in, you have to hope you’ve put the right systems in place to make up for that.

The first place you typically turn when you’re a freelancer is to your email list.

You do have an email list, right?

If not, you should.

Here’s a post on why you should have an email list, how to set one up, grow it, and what to write about.

Using Your Email List as Part of Your Adaptation Strategy

Why do I encourage you to use your email list first?

These people all know you (hopefully because you’ve been emailing them on a regular basis). More importantly, at some point they’ve all said “yes” to something you’ve offered them. They’ve opted into your email list and expressed interest in your product or service.

Everyone on your email list is what’s referred to as a “warm lead” in the sales world. They know your name (or your business’s name) and they have some inkling of what you do. They may have worked with you before or bought your products.

This is the best place to start when you need to increase your workload.

And you can do it with a simple email that looks something like this:

Hey Samantha,

Tanya Brody here, you contacted me a while back, asking about my availability for an upcoming project. Unfortunately, I had to turn you down at the time. But things have changed since then, so I’m writing to let you know some time has opened up in my schedule in the next couple of months.

If you’d like to discuss that project, or different one, please schedule an appointment with me by clicking on this link. It will take you to my Calendly page, where you can choose a time at your convenience.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you in the near future.

Cheers,

Tanya

Obviously, if you’re a business making a product, you’d adapt this email to invite someone to try your product (or to buy another one, or an additional product).

If you’re a service-oriented business, you can offer a coupon for a discount on the price of the first service. If you’re courting customers who haven’t come in lately, you can do the same thing, but phrase the email so you’re offering them the discount for their next service.

What I’m trying to say here is, your email list is a very valuable asset, so make sure you use it when you need to increase your business.

Get the Word Out on Social Media

Social media is a great way to let the world know that you suddenly have time on your hands and you’re looking for clients. One quick post and you can reach hundreds of potential clients.

Ideally, you have a Facebook page, a LinkedIn profile, an Instagram account and a Twitter account for your business. (In the interest of full disclosure, I only have the Facebook page and the LinkedIn profile. I was going to make a business-only Twitter account, I just never got around to it. And I don’t do Instagram.)

If you don’t it’s still an effective way to spread the word via friends, family and those people you only know in the digital world.

Most people post about their daily lives. That includes changes in their work status. I’ve seen hundreds of people successfully land new jobs shortly after losing theirs. I’ve also seen freelancers fill up their schedules quickly by announcing they have time available.

When I started my freelance copywriting business, I wrote a post about how supportive my community was as I was starting. It all started with a “vaguebooking” post I put on Facebook and turned into an incredibly long and amazing post of people saying, “I’m so sorry to hear this” or “you can do this” or “hey, these folks are looking for a copywriter.” Check it out at the link above.

If you reach out to your social media community, you’re sure to get a positive response. You may not get work immediately, but word travels fast and you may have new clients knocking on your virtual door, saying “Hey, such and such person mentioned that you have time available to take on a new project…”

Again, for those of you with more traditional businesses, you can also announce your special, discount or other exciting news on social media to get customers in the door.

Update All the Online Profiles

This is a tactic particular to freelancers.

Because there are so many freelance job boards, bidding services and places to promote yourself as a freelancer, you need to go update your profiles. Yes, all of them. At least the profiles where you’ve gotten work in the recent past.

This is just another way of letting your clients know you’re available to take on more work.

For some of these services, you’ll just have to go in and change your status to available or post something saying you’re taking new clients. For others, you’ll need to look through the long lists of jobs available, make bids on those jobs and hope yours gets accepted.

These freelance websites are not my favorite way to get work, but they are effective when it comes to making sure the bills are paid.

Continue to Make Sure You Have the Ability to Adapt to Change

You will always encounter changes in your business. The more prepared you are to weather them, the better off you’ll be. And to be completely candid, if you can’t handle change, you may not want to run your own business.

That’s why you’re better off preparing for it whenever you can. When you can’t, make sure your business is agile and adaptable enough to survive whatever comes your way and thrive, once the crisis is past.

If you haven’t guessed yet, all of this is a very long-winded way of me announcing that I suddenly have time in my schedule. I am still working for FunnelDash, but my position has been reduced to part-time. I work for them on Tuesdays and Wednesdays now. The rest of my week is up for grabs.

I am looking for clients to fill in that gap.

If you have a copywriting project coming up in the next few months, please schedule an appointment with me by clicking on the button below.

I am also offering a new business development and marketing consultation service. We meet weekly or monthly and I walk you through the process of setting up and marketing your business. I’ve done this for a few people now and they’ve found it very helpful. More about this service in next week’s blog post. (You’re welcome to make an appointment to find out more about it in the meantime.)

For those of you on my email list, you’ll be getting an email similar to the one I wrote above.

For those of you who are friends with or follow me on social media, you’ll be seeing posts soon.

And yes, I’m going to go update all the online profiles.

As always, thanks for following along on this crazy journey of mine.

How Do You Handle Change in Your Business?

Tell me about it in the comments. I’m always interested in how business owners weather the ups and downs of their industries.

My Top 5 Reasons Why I Love Leadpages and Use It Every Week as a Copywriter

February 7, 2017 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

Okay, I’ll confess, this post is a bit off the beaten track. My friend and former colleague, Kat Von Rohr, gave me the idea for this post. She mentioned that she did a Google search for “Leadpages copywriter” and my listing as a Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certified Professional came up on the first page.

Yeah, that’s pretty cool.

At last check, I am one of two people on that list who use the word “copy” in their title, and the only person who uses the word “copywriter.” I guess that explains that. Thanks, Google.

For those of you who may not know, I come by the title of “Leadpages copywriter” legitimately. I used to work for Leadpages, as a copywriter. I’m now going to rave about why I love Leadpages and why you should be using it in your own business.

Yes, this is a crass, commercial blog post, but I get to do those every once in a while.

So, here are the 5 top reasons (in my humble opinion) that all of you should be using Leadpages as one of your primary online business tools.

1. Thank You Pages

I know it seems silly to start with what is normally the end of a lead or sales funnel, but I probably make more Thank You pages than any other type of landing page.

Why?

Because I use them for every content upgrade I put on my blog. If you’ve ever downloaded a checklist or a cheat sheet from one of my blog posts, you’ve seen my Thank You pages. They look like this:

Honestly, this is very similar to how the original template looks. I think I added my logo, changed the text, removed one of the “speaker” sections and added my own picture and comment.

But now that I’ve got it set up, I duplicate it every time I need a new Thank You page, change the text and social media links, and I’m done. I attach it to the Leadbox for the week’s content upgrade, and it’s ready to go. (Don’t worry, I’ll rave about Leadboxes further down in this post.)

Thank You pages are useful, because they can lead to another action, even after someone has opted into your email list or made a purchase. The Thank You page above encourages my subscribers to share my blog posts with their friends, which helps grow my list.

By the way, if you click on the content upgrade at the end of this post, you’ll see the newest Thank You page in my collection.

2. Leadpages Makes It Easier to Write Your Copy

This is true. Leadpages wants you to be successful. They’ve made it easier for you to write good copy, even if you’re not a trained, persuasive copywriter, like me.

The great thing about Leadpages templates is, you know exactly how much copy you need for any given space. You don’t have to stick to the amount of text in the template. But generally speaking, you have a pretty good idea of how much copy to add, because every template is already optimized for conversion.

By the way, this idea was given to me by the fabulous (and aforementioned) Kat Von Rohr.

Every Leadpages template comes complete with some form of advertising copy. (I wrote several of these when I was there, so I know it’s good copy.) Even if you have no earthly idea what to write, you can find a template that is designed for your industry and customize what is there to your business.

I don’t recommend using the Leadpages template copy verbatim, that’s bad for SEO and will ultimately reflect poorly on your business. But you can look at what is in the template and craft your own message around that.

For those of you who are copywriters, having these templates can be very freeing. You can delete whatever is there and insert your own text, or you can adapt and improve the text to your needs.

3. Create Your Own Website

Yes, you can build a website entirely out of Leadpages templates. I’ve done it. As an example, here’s the Home page for my music website:

I am not a designer or a developer. I learned HTML when rocks were new, and I’m not very good at it. But I managed to build this website, despite that fact. I’ve done it for other businesses as well.

Leadpages templates are incredibly versatile. You can turn sections on and off in the Standard builder. The Drag-and-Drop builder lets you move sections around to customize the look. You can change images, colors, logos, add sections, whatever you want to do.

There are several template sets that go together to create category and detail pages. There are also templates that can work as one long website. So, if you’ve been frustrated by the fact that you need a new website and you don’t want to pay a huge amount of money to build one, use Leadpages templates.

There are several ways to get your new pages onto your website, including the Leadpages WordPress plugin and exporting the HTML.

4. Automatic Lead Magnet Delivery

A lot of email service providers (ESPs) let you upload your lead magnet to their system and deliver it as part of your automation sequence. But if you use a free version of these ESPs, or your ESP doesn’t offer this service, how do you get your Lead Magnet to the people who requested it?

Leadpages lets you upload your lead magnet to their system and they will deliver it automatically, as soon as someone opts into your email list. You can customize the email and add links to your website, sales landing page, or wherever you want to send people next.

You can send just about any file type, including Word documents, PDFs, images, ZIP files and MP3s. If you’re sending something like an entire course, with video, audio and document files, it’s probably better for your lead magnet to be a PDF with links to these items. (FYI, this is what Leadpages does for their courses.)

This feature saves me a lot of time and dithering when it comes to sending my lead magnets. I just upload the file, write my email and click “save.” They send the lead magnet every time someone enters an email address in one of my Leadboxes.

Speaking of which, I saved the best reason for last…

5. Leadboxes

A Leadbox is the Leadpages proprietary, 2-step opt-in form. They’re built into every landing page template. You can also make stand-alone Leadboxes and add them to any web page you have control of. (I’ve even added them to LinkedIn Pulse articles.)

I use Leadboxes every time I offer a content upgrade. In fact, if you look below, you’ll see a bright red button. If you click on it, that’s your example of a Leadbox. It’s a very simple, attractive opt-in form.

You can connect a Leadbox with a text link (like that), use a pre-generated button, like the one below, or link it to the image of your choice. Put these anywhere on a web page, and you’re ready to collect names, email addresses and anything other information you want to gather.

You can customize your image and headline, as well as your form fields. If you can add the form field in your ESP, you can add it to a Leadbox. Leadpages integrates with several different ESPs and CRMs, so you’ll have plenty of options.

Since we’re talking about Leadboxes, I recommend you click on the button below (or one of the links above) to download my current lead magnet, “The Top 5 Reasons to Use Leadpages for Your Business.” I’ll also send you a free email course on how to build your mailing list. You don’t need a Leadpages account to use this course, but it sure will help.

No, Really, You Should Get a Leadpages Account for Your Business

As I mentioned above, I am a Leadpages copywriter. I use my Leadpages account at least 3-4 times a week for myself and for clients. If you don’t want to get your own account, but want me to create landing pages for you, I’m happy to do that. Contact me and we can discuss what you need.

If you are a copywriter and want to be able to make landing pages for yourself and for clients quickly and easily, get a Leadpages account.

If you run your own business and want to grow your email list, build an easy website and promote your products and services, get a Leadpages account.

If you work for a company that wants to do anything listed above, talk to your boss about getting a Leadpages account.

If you’re worried about committing to Leadpages, they offer a 30-day, money back, no questions asked guarantee. Try it for 30 days. If you don’t like it, they’ll give you a full refund.

I’ll Give You an Extra Incentive to Get Your Own Leadpages Account

Yes, I’m pushing Leadpages hard. Yes, I am an affiliate, so I will benefit if you click on any of the Leadpages links in this post. But I wouldn’t recommend this service if I didn’t believe in it. I do. I know it will help you grow your business, because it’s helped me grow mine.

So, here’s a little extra incentive to get, and use, your own account.

Purchase your Leadpages annual account by clicking on one of the links on this page, between now and May 1^st, then send me your purchase confirmation receipt. I’ll review the first 3 landing pages or Leadboxes you make. Or, if you build a website, I’ll review up to 5 pages.

I am a trained persuasive copywriter, a Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certified Professional and I used to work for the company. I know what I’m talking about, and I can help you succeed with your marketing.

By the way, Leadpages used to offer reviews as one of their incentives, but they don’t anymore. If you sign up for an account through me, you’ll get a valuable service that the company no longer offers.

Get your Leadpages annual account now to start building your list and growing your company.

How to Create Your Elevator Speech in 4 Easy Steps

January 19, 2017 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever been in a business course or a course on learning how to ace your next interview, you’ve probably heard of the elevator speech. It’s that 2 to 3 sentence speech that you rattle off to someone you meet, that explains what you do.

Ideally, it’s a concise speech that you can rattle off to a fellow passenger during a short elevator ride. Thus, the name, “elevator speech.” And it should give some reason for what you do, some benefit to the activity. That way, whoever you’re talking to is engaged and asks for more information.

For many small business owners, this can be a major hurdle. A lot of people never get around to doing the simple exercise of creating their elevator speech, because adding that benefit can feel overwhelming.

It’s easy to say “I’m Bob and I make widgets for woodworkers.” It’s a lot harder to explain what benefit the woodworkers get from those widgets in less than 20 words.

Today, I’m going to show you a simple method you can use to drill down from a full explanation of what you do and why you do it, to a one-sentence elevator speech. I learned this method from the amazing Pat Flynn at last year’s Converted conference.

Step 1: Figure Out What You Do and Why You Do It

The first part should be pretty simple for most people. Generally speaking, you know what you do for a living, whether you own a small business or you work for someone else. The “why” part is where many people get hung up, especially small business owners.

Is the “why” supposed to be about why you started your own business? Is it supposed to be about what your product does? Is it supposed to be about why people should use your product or service?

Technically, it’s the third one. But it goes a bit beyond that. It’s what benefit does your product or service give the end user.

If you haven’t figured that out yet, I recommend reading my “Finding Your Why” blog post. It will help you figure that “why” part out.

Step 2: Write It Down

Take between 5 and 20 minutes and write down what you do and why. Be as descriptive as you want, but make it 1 page or less.

I’ll model that here:

I am a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant. I help my clients by taking care of their marketing, so they don’t have to think about it. I offer a wide range of services, including:

Website copy
Landing pages
Squeeze pages
Online sales letters
Content marketing
Blogs
Articles
E-Newsletters
Emails
Autoresponder series
Case studies
White papers
Direct response packages
Press releases
SEO copywriting optimization for websites, blogs and articles
Keyword research
Site audits
AB testing and analysis
Refining and improving your sales funnel
Email list building
Customer conversion – the art of turning website visitors into repeat customers

I work closely with my clients to capture their company voice and work with their overall brand. If they haven’t established those, I help them create their voice and brand, then use them throughout their marketing.

I set up email list building and sales funnels to convert website browsers into life-long customers. I help my clients grow their businesses through well-written content and strategic marketing practices.

Okay, that’s a lot to tell someone in an elevator. Even if you had 40 floors to tell someone all of this, they’d have tuned out a long time ago. The next step is to hone this down to something reasonable.

Step 3: Reduce Your One Page Down to One Paragraph

Yes, editing is hard. All those precious words you just worked laboriously to create, how can you let them go?

Once you get going, it’s easy.

First, take out anything a total stranger doesn’t need to know. A lot of this information may be great for your website, but for a succinct one-paragraph description, it’s too much. As you’re doing this, feel free to change what you wrote originally so you’re happier with the way it sounds.

My single paragraph would look something like this:

I am a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant. I take the burden of marketing off the shoulders of small business owners so they can do what they love best, run their businesses and make their products or perform their services. I offer a wide range of copywriting services to my clients, from website copy and landing page creation to lead and sales funnels. I help my clients grow their businesses through well-written content and strategic marketing practices.

Well, that would be a lot easier for someone to get through during an elevator ride, but there’s not a lot of room for conversation. By the time I finished all of that, whoever was riding with me would want to get off a floor early and take the stairs.

Now, I’ll reduce this down even further.

Step 4: Reduce Your One Paragraph Down to One Sentence

“One sentence?” I hear you cry. “My business is far too complicated to explain in one sentence.”

No, not really. Most people explain what they do in one sentence. If you ask someone “What do you do?” They usually answer with about 3-5 words:

I’m a copywriter.
I’m a lawyer.
I work at a grocery store.

When you add the “why” into that sentence, things can get complicated. The “why” is usually where all the extra words come in.

Take a moment and think about your “why.” If you’ve done the “So What Method” exercise, you should have a pretty good idea of why you do what you do.

My “why” is, I genuinely want to help small business owners grow their businesses. I do that by helping them with their marketing.

I could say something like: “I’m a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant, I help small business owners grow their businesses.” That is what I do, and even a little of why I do it. But there’s not a lot of end-user benefit there.

And honestly, I don’t have to tell people I’m a copywriter. Half the people I meet assume I work for the government in the Copyright Office, which I don’t. I usually say “I’m the kind that writes words for advertising” when I get that response.

I’m going to take the word “copywriter” out of my elevator speech entirely. Instead, I’m going to tell people what I do. Here’s my final elevator speech:

“I help small business owners grow their businesses by writing advertising copy that converts website visitors and leads into customers.”

This sentence tells you who I serve, what I do and the benefit my clients receive from my services.

See, easy.

Thank you, Pat Flynn.

Does this still seem overwhelming to you? Download my Pat Flynn’s Guide to Creating Your Elevator Speech checklist, so you can reference every step as you create your own elevator speech.

DOWNLOAD PAT FLYNN’S GUIDE TO CREATING YOUR ELEVATOR SPEECH NOW

You Need to Use Video Marketing to Promote Your Business – Now!

September 14, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

I have a secret identity. (Shhhh. I’ll tell you, but don’t tell anyone else!)

Along with being a professional copywriter and marketing consultant, I’m also a professional musician. I play the harp (yes, the kind that angels play) and I used to tour with a Celtic band called The Muses. I don’t play anywhere near as much as I used to, but I still do shows a few times a year.

Last Thursday, I performed as part of something called 5 to 10 on Hennepin. It’s an event put on by Hennepin Theater Trust, one of our local arts organizations here in Minnesota. They’ve started bringing in performers and musicians every Thursday evening to highlight the arts scene in downtown Minneapolis.

Well, during my stint, I decided to record a couple of Facebook Live videos to my Tanya Brody – Words and Music page, just to see how it worked and if they’d get any traction. I had a friend of mine record while I was playing. No crazy cameras or extra tech. Just my smartphone and a person holding it.

I was incredibly pleased with the results.

One of the videos reached 354 people and got 88 views. The other reached 1,641 people and got 646 views. That was without boosting the posts. I didn’t have to pay Facebook for exposure for either of these videos, and they got a great response. (Well, for me, anyway.)

Why does this matter?

Consider this. As of my writing this article, my Tanya Brody – Copywriter page has 233 likes. That means any post I put on that page should show up in the feeds of 233 people. (So long as Facebook doesn’t change its algorithm.)

My Tanya Brody – Words and Music page has 120 likes. So those videos only showed up in the feeds of 120 people. Yet those two videos got far more views than anything I’ve posted on my copywriting page in the last month and a half.

I only put up my copywriting Facebook page recently. I’ve had my music page for years. And it’s gotten more exposure in the last week than anything I’ve ever posted on there before.

Why am I telling you this story?

It’s a really roundabout way of showing you that video marketing is the current (and future) trend.

2016: The Year of Video

Actually, people have been using video in marketing for years, on and off line. But it’s become so popular that many of the social media platforms are giving it preference in people’s feeds.

But a lot of major companies, like Red Bull, Netflix, GoPro and Amazon, are using a lot more video to engage with their audiences. YouTube reports that mobile video consumption is rising by 100% every year. Right now, 1/3 (yes, that’s one third, desktop and mobile,) of all online activity is spent watching videos.

And, most people spend 1 to 2 minutes watching a video. That means more time spent engaged with your company, product or service.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that when a friend of yours is using Facebook Live, they show up at the top of your feed. Their post will even show up at or toward the top of your feed for several hours after they posted it.

It turns out that native video uploads to Facebook (meaning not linked from somewhere else) have 10 times the reach of those posted on YouTube. Facebook is definitely on the video bandwagon.

That’s a lot of video. And it’s a great opportunity for you to get more exposure for your business.

Think about it. If my little Facebook Live videos got as much engagement as they did, without any additional work on my part, imagine how much video could increase your bottom line. According to Aberdeen Group, businesses using video marketing grow their company revenue 49% faster, year after year, compared to companies that don’t use video marketing.

How to Add Video Marketing to Your Marketing Plan

Yes, like me, you’re a small business. You don’t have a lot of money to make fancy, expensive videos showing off your products or services. Fortunately, you don’t need them. All you really need is a cellphone with video capability and a way to keep it stable while you record.

As an example, here’s a short video I recorded with my smartphone and a little tripod. It’s a list of topic ideas for videos:

I’m seeing an increase in people recording videos for their businesses in their cars, or while they’re putting together their products. Yes, you want your video to look as “good” or “professional” as possible. But the real goal is to insert your personality into the video so you (and your video) stand out from your competition.

“Hey, Why Are You, a Copywriter, Talking About Video?”

Because I’m also a marketing consultant. My job is to help you find the best ways to market your business. Video is quickly becoming one of those “best ways.” So, yeah, I’m going to talk about it.

Besides. You’ll still need me to write the landing pages you’re going to stick these videos on, and the scripts for the videos, or the video sales letters (VSL) you’re going to use to sell your products or services. So I’ve got plenty of job security.

Speaking of that whole marketing consultant thing, click on the button below to download my Video Topic Stimulus List so you have ideas for your videos going forward.

Download the Video Topic Stimulus List

I added a few more ideas than I mentioned in the video above, so you’ll have even more fodder for your new video marketing series.

How do You Use Video in Your Marketing?

What kinds of videos do you make? Do you use video at all? If not, why not? Tell me about it in the comments.