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Behind the “Seens” – Podcasting Advice from Phyllis Nichols

Phyllis Nichols of SoundAdvice Sales and Marketing is an amazing master of messaging and crafter of content. We’ve worked together on all things digital marketing and helping people get their message out for the past several years. On the heels of a record-breaking year launching podcasts for clients, Phyllis shares her advice about why you should consider podcasting and how to get started.  

Nancy: What is the difference you’re seeing in the type of client work you’re doing and in terms of content marketing in general?

Phyllis: Podcasting has been a game changer for us and the business obviously. It’s also been a game changer in how people can think about putting content together. Content marketing has a place and when it’s done well you get a good return but it’s a long game.

For some people depending on their team and their bandwidth and the way they like to communicate, creating content can be hard. Podcasting makes it easier. Most of us communicate much better verbally. We’re much more comfortable with that. We also come across better and more interesting than we might in written form. I could write an article with this information, but you and I having this conversation is ultimately much more interesting than anything I could ever write.

Nancy: What do you say to the person who’s says “I could never podcast because there is too much tech and investment involved.”?

Phyllis: The technology part was a legitimate issue a couple of years ago when podcasting was newer. In the early days of podcasting that was kind of true. You had to have some decent equipment and you had to understand some technology but today that is not true. You can start podcasting with your phone or with your laptop and a web-based app that doesn’t cost anything. Financially you don’t have to spend anything.

Nancy: Can people get into podcasting without having years of voice lessons or speaking lessons?

Phyllis: Podcasting is a really forgiving medium because it’s not live. You can sit down and record and you can pause, you can stop. You can redo it or you can edit it. Editing also takes out um’s and ah’s and pauses and background noise. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to say everything just right because it’s not a one take situation.  I could do it two or three times until it sounded just the way I wanted.

Nancy: How do you help your podcast clients look professional or how do you help them go from recording a podcast to showing up on iTunes?

Phyllis: I started podcasting a couple years ago and I figured it all out on my own. We’ve figured out all the steps you have to do in the very beginning. There are a lot of things you have to do once. There are a few steps that aren’t complicated but have to be done right – in a specific order. It’s about getting your foundation set up right. Most people don’t have the expertise because it’s just a one-time thing. We help people get all that set up done.

(Ninja note!) Here’s something else I want I mention. iTunes is the biggest platform but it’s not the only one anymore. There are almost 30 when I last researched it. We put people get on multiple platforms. There’s a specific process to follow to get your podcast on iTunes etc. It’s not hard but it has to be done they way they want it. It’s the same Stitcher and Spotify and Google. Once you have that set up then every new podcast in the feed automatically gets uploaded to all of those places.

Nancy: People are already doing social media and blog posts so they wonder why do I need to do a podcast?  But as we learned from Laura Vanderkam, one of our mutual author clients, she attracted a completely different audience than she was capturing on all of those other platforms. It’s become a new way to meet people who process information differently.

Phyllis: There are people who will listen to podcasts who would never read a blog post and may never read your book. There’s also a really cool connection factor too. It’s a singular experience. When I’m listening to somebody on a podcast it’s just me and them.

One of our podcasters went to an event not related to her podcast. Somebody behind her heard her talking and recognized her voice. That level of relationship building is powerful. It can be done in other ways, but it would be much harder and certainly much more expensive. Think about what it would take to speak in front of 20 intimate groups. It would require a lot more money and time and energy.

Nancy: What do you say to people who say it’s too late – everybody has a podcast?

Phyllis: It’s just not true and this isn’t me saying this. It’s industry people and people who track trends. Recently, Spotify announced they are planning to invest five hundred million dollars in podcasting in 2019. They want to be the place to go for all audio content. Adweek is tracking marketing dollars and comparing it to early stage internet advertising. They think this is just the beginning. So it’s not too late.

Nancy: What are the trends in podcasting and audio content?

Phyllis: One of the big drivers are the home devices like Alexa and Google Home. You can listen to podcasts there now too. You don’t even have to own one of the devices. You can use the app on your phone.

Amazon announced that over a hundred million of the devices have been purchased and are being used. That doesn’t count the people just using the app. That’s 100 million new people and these devices are in our home. Audience potential is crazy big and keeps growing.

Nancy: What if a person wants to test the water first, and be interviewed on a podcast? How does one get on a podcast as a guest?

Phyllis: With new podcasts being started come opportunities for conversations. Look for podcasts that are going to cover topics that you would like to talk about with an audience that’s similar to your target audience. Not competing interests but overlapping interests. Listen to the podcast to make sure you’re a good fit. Then pitch them an idea. Many podcasters have a form on their website for you to fill out if you want to be a guest.

A lot of podcasters are actively looking for interesting guests to talk to and most will appreciate a well thought out idea. You could take one or two hours once a month and identify four or five podcasts you’d like to be on and either fill out the forms or send a nice email. Think how cool it is to expand your network. It’s a really great way to expand how we’re connecting with people.

Nancy: And how often should people create and post their podcast? Also, is there an ideal time length?

Phyllis: Frequency and consistency help, so once a week is a good place to start.  As for length of podcast it should be however long it takes for you to be interesting and get your point across in a good way. Also be aware of your audience and where and how they listen.

Nancy: What’s the best way to find you? What’s the best way to learn more about getting started with podcasting?

Phyllis: If anyone is interested and want to find out a little more information you can go to the website SoundAdvice Sales and Marketing and download the Getting Started Guide. It will walk you through all the things related to getting started. Feel free to reach out to me there or on Facebook

If you know you want to do a podcast, I would encourage you to start recording. You can share info on your own or start having a few good conversations and hit the record button. The more you do it the better you get at it. The more fun you have and the more you do it, the easier it’s going to feel to you.

Nancy: Ultimately, it’s great advice to just get started. I want to see more people creating these conversations in more intimate ways and podcasting is a good way to go. Thank you for helping people do that.

Phyllis: Thank you Nancy! Someday, I hope that I’m going to be able to hear your podcast!

Nancy: Watch this space . . .

 

Are you interested in podcasting? Have you already started or been a guest? Want to learn more or plan out your content? Let’s connect and figure out how you can take your expertise to the next level with new audiences.

Behind the “Seens” with Jenn Grace of Publish Your Purpose Press

Jenn Grace is the founder of Publish Your Purpose Press. She and her independent publishing team serve authors that are looking to make a difference in the world. They are CEOs, entrepreneurs, and others that have an important message to share. Publish Your Purpose Press helps these authors amplify that message by independently publishing their books.

Jenn and her PYP team (of which I was happy to be a part this year) help people find a way to integrate their book, and their message into their business model. It’s always interesting to figure out how to help get an author’s message out using the book as part of what they do as their career or calling.

In this Behind the Seens conversation, you will learn all about the types of writers and authors that are suited to the independent publishing model and how Jenn and her team are strategic and supportive throughout the entire process.

 

What does a budding author need to know or bring to you to begin the project? What is the catalyst? Is it the same every time or are there variations?

There are usually 2 camps or types of authors that come to us. One is a person who is already a speaker or consultant. They have been doing their work and are often asked about their book, or if they are going to write a book. They don’t see themselves as writers, but they realize that getting a book written and out to the world will increase the number of people they can serve and impact.

That person may not be a writer, but they still have amazing content and information that can truly be transformational – they just do it other ways. They are often speakers and are already an expert in their field. They have content that they’ve created and developed as part of their work.

We’ve seen that once you have a book, it really takes the business to the next level no matter what type of business you are in. We see speakers raise their fees once they have a book, or someone who has never been paid to speak can now get a nice fee for speaking.

Share with us the profile of the other type of author. What do they look like? Can you give us an example of that? I feel like it’s not as common or harder to see.

Someone who is looking to write a book in a new space to change their path. They might be working in a field that no longer fits them. They know that by being a published author they can break into a new field and be recognized as an expert much more quickly.

For example one of our authors does trainings for automotive companies. She travels 40 weeks a year, training at dealerships and she’s great at it. She loves it but it’s not what she’s most passionate about.

She wrote a book in the law of attraction genre and we are helping her transition out of this very corporate training type of job into something else. Her new focus is more about healing and it’s very different and she’s not known in that area.

She knows that having the book means she can share her story and articulate her thoughts and expertise to help her gain credibility faster in her new field.

If we fast forward through the writing and editing of the book, what are the mindsets around marketing the book? There is no one size fits everyone, so what are the directions you give for marketing?

I have a masters in marketing. I’ve been eating and sleeping marketing and I don’t think it’s a dirty word. But many people do, even those who are in business. I want people to know that marketing your book isn’t sleazy and doesn’t have to feel that way, ever. It can be very authentic.

With that understanding, we have some authors who are natural-born marketers. Everything they say and do is in alignment with their brand and it’s just how they show up, so we don’t have to worry about mind-set. We just tell them what they need to do. Essentially give them a checklist and they get it, they run with it.

Then there are others who are on the other end of the spectrum. They have some resistance to the idea of marketing so it’s a bit harder for them. Most of our authors fall somewhere in the middle.

Every strategy for marketing is tweaked depending on the author and what they are comfortable with and what they feel good about doing. We do that because we don’t want any of our authors to feel tenuous about marketing their book.

Many book marketers have a list that they use. You do A, then B and so on without variations. But there are now cookie cutter approaches or one-size fits all plans that work for everyone.

Here’s what we know. The average book sells 250 copies in its lifetime. That’s including traditional publishing, self-published – all of it.

Our authors sell an average of 410 copies per year. Some sell much more, and some don’t sell many at all but that is our average with all of the authors we’ve worked with.

We see greater success with our marketing efforts because we do tailor them to the authors. We also pay attention to what’s working, and review strategies with each new author we work with because things change.

Let’s talk about publishing options. We know there’s a big difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing. What would you point out to those who are looking into independent publishing?

I will talk to anyone who is interested in non-fiction or memoir publishing. That’s what I know. Fiction isn’t in my area of expertise.  I talk to anyone and advise them as best I can, even if they aren’t a fit for us. Many people who come to us feel that they can get a traditional book deal. I try to help re-frame that conversation with them.

We know that there is a lot of work that goes into getting a book deal. More than there has ever been and the advance on royalties is lower than ever. The financial considerations are usually where I start the conversation. I let them know that they will likely pay the same amount of money if they self-publish, work with a publisher like us, or go the traditional book-publishing route.

I try to let people know what to expect financially. I want them to understand so they know up front not matter what they decide to do. I also try to make them aware of mistakes that can happen, like choosing the wrong editor, or the wrong cover designer and things that can add to the costs because the process is much more complicated than people realize.

I explain that we are beholden (best word I can think of) to our authors because from the very beginning we want to be sure we know how the book is going to support them. We understand what are the goals and how can we help them get there. If you self-publish, no one is looking out for you and if you go with a traditional publisher, they have no interest in your business, or other goals outside of getting the book published.

We choose to focus on this because we don’t want people to get misled. We want them to accomplish their goals as it relates to their business.

It sounds like you are thinking much longer term – beyond the marketing and publishing of the book alone.

Right. In our world publishing the book isn’t the finale, it’s just the beginning. Once the book is out there, we are focused on consumer marketing. Selling books to individual consumers.

If our client is a business owner, we are also looking at events months in advance to support them in a business environment. How can we help them sell their books and advance their other priorities?

A traditional publisher is all about the initial push to get on a best-seller list. That’s the game for them. Our push is way beyond that and for a much more sustained time frame.

I’m not saying our authors can’t get on a best seller list. Many of our authors do hit Amazon best seller lists, which is nice. But we don’t stop there. We have a much longer view for our clients.

What do you see happening in the next year for your business and for your authors? What is on the horizon?

I’m not sure I should say this but you asked – you’re hearing it here first. One of the things we see our authors struggle with is the speaking side of things, so we will be testing some additional support services for our authors around this. I don’t know how it’s going to look, but we know our authors so well, we want to help them get additional exposure and new ways to support them from the speaking side of things.

Publishing the book is just the beginning. We know that a well-written book can have a long shelf life and we want to keep helping to find ways for our authors to understand how to keep promoting their book and their work.

For those who aren’t familiar with independent publishing and with you how can people find you and learn more about Publish Your Purpose Press?

You can go to meetwithpyp.com and that will take you to my calendar where anyone can schedule a call with me personally and I will happily chat with you about your non-fiction or memoir book or you can go to the website link: http://publishyourpurposepress.com/ and all our contact info is there as well.

Our next Authors Academy starts in January and that gives you the whole landscape about how to publish. It teaches you what you need to know if you want to get your book published.

Here are all of the other links to connect: Publish Your Purpose Press website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

 

If you are interested in another conversation with Jenn and me, you can catch this quick video where we talk about how to use to your compelling content for marketing and building your platform.

Check it out:

 

If you want to learn more about how to be seen, be found, be heard, please connect with me on the socials or let’s set up a call to chat.

Get brand clarity in 5 steps

Get Brand Clarity Now in 5 Easy Steps

As we’re halfway through 2018, now is a perfect time to take inventory of your brand and gain the clarity you need to make any needed shifts to ensure you end this year on top with focused and successful marketing.

I’ve recently been working on some projects with Vicky Vitarelli of V dot V Marketing, and we wanted to share what we think is a basic and practical approach to branding and marketing. We did a Facebook LIVE video to break down the 5 steps or elements to clearly defining your brand.

 

What is a brand?

VV: It’s how you tell the story about your product and/or services to your customers. It’s how you differentiate yourself from your competitors or entice people to engage with your brand and become clients.

NS: I’ll add that it’s important to figure this out because when you have your brand elements clearly defined, it’s much easier to put your marketing plan in place. You aren’t guessing, and you can be much more consistent in all areas of your marketing.

VV: As we jump into these 5 elements I want people to think about this as a lens that they use to see their brand. You know when you go to the eye doctor and they have you look through the lens and say better/worse? Use that approach to hone it on what parts of these elements are already great and what needs changing or updating.

 

Brand element No. 1: The physical attributes.

What does it look like? It will include your logo, your colors and fonts used on your materials. All of the things that you use to visually represent your brand identity.

NS: Many people stop right here, but this is just one element of your brand.

 

Brand element No. 2: Your communication style.

What to do you sound like? Are you a leader, a guide or authority? What type of vocabulary do you use in your messaging? What is the tone? How do you want others to hear you? Soft and nurturing or empowering and bold?

NS: How do your customers experience the way you communicate? How do they hear you?

VV: Right! It’s important to remember that every touch point that your customer has with you is significant. Brand voice shows up everywhere. In your invoices, your web copy, your blog posts. Each part of what a client experiences should have the same voice.

NS: Yes! It’s important not to let some areas become boiler-plate. If you outsource copy and writing it’s important that they understand as well. It’s not just about the facts and figures, they also need to understand the voice and how you want to sound so you stay consistent.

 

Brand element No. 3: What is your brand promise?

You may be selling a service, or a physical product or a book or a combination of those things. Let’s say people are selling consulting services. That’s not really what your clients are buying. They are buying the solution. An author is selling a book, but they are also selling the messaging in the book. The solution is what your client is buying.

This is also a great place to get clear on why people are buying from you or not buying? Often, digging in to find out why your message is different is a good way to really get clear your unique brand promise.

VV: A great example is the Mastercard “Priceless” campaign. At the time this was conceived, Mastercard was number 2 in their industry. We decided to use that and say Mastercard is for those special purchases, the ones that have to happen, the ones that are not every day. And it worked!

NS: Your brand promise are the benefits around what you are selling and what your clients are looking for.

 

Brand element No. 4: Who are you selling to?

I often hear people say “Everyone can use my product or service.” And that might be true, but everyone isn’t looking for it and everyone isn’t necessarily going to purchase. If you want to market to everyone it requires a massive budget to reach everybody.

Instead, let’s focus in on who will get the most benefit of what you are selling and really clarify that. Demographics are one part. Men or women? What age? Sometimes a geographic component might be important.

Even more important, what is the mindset? What are they thinking? If everyone can use what you’re selling why don’t they have it already?

NS: When you’re clear on this it then makes brand voice so much easier to define as well. When you know exactly who you’re “talking to” you can use tone and vocabulary that fits them specifically and will resonate with them. Writing for “everybody” means generic communications that aren’t going to resonate with anyone.

Who are your people, your tribe? When you get really clear here and it makes everything much easier.

 

Brand element No. 5: How do you know what your clients really want?

Do client research. Talk to them and ask them to share their experience with your company. Not just the product, but all aspects. The buying experience, customer service, ease of use etc. How did the product or service impact their life? Why did they choose you? How did they find you? What else did they consider before buying from you? Did you meet their expectations?

If you are new and don’t have clients, interview your prospects and find out from them why and how they go about making the decision to buy from you.

You will be able to understand their pain points and then you can shape your messaging to speak to that in a well-defined way.

NS: Remember that anyone can do this too. You don’t have to have access to a research firm. You can track these things from reviews, comments online, responses to your emails, as well making it a practice to ask customers for their feedback. Make it easy for them to let you know and they will be happy to share that with you.

VV: Creating ways to listen to your readers, clients and customers on a regular basis will help you create marketing strategies that stay relevant and resonate.

Summary: The Five Steps To Do Your Own Brand Audit

  1. What do you look like?
  2. What do you sound like?
  3. What is your brand promise?
  4. Who are you selling to?
  5. Listen, ask and stay mindful of comments of customers to continue to guide you.

Branding means different things depending on our background and where you are in your business. This approach is meant to keep it simple and focused, so you can identify what you want to say, who you want to say it to, and how to best communicate the way you serve your clients or customers.

Are you clear with all of the elements of your brand? Where are you stuck? Where do you need help? Leave a comment below or connect on Facebook and share!

Want to schedule time with Nancy? Click here for a free consultation call!

GDPR compliant ready website USA

Is Your Website GDPR-Ready? 4 Questions to Ask Yourself

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force May 25th, 2018. It is intended to affect data privacy laws across the European Union and Great Britain. Even businesses run outside of the EU may have users within the GDPR’s jurisdiction, so this new regulation affects just about anyone with a website online (I mean, it IS called the world-wide web, after all!). Understanding GDPR and how it will impact your website and your business may be a bit overwhelming at first (with a whopping 88 pages of legal language), but thankfully, there are many resources available online to help website owners figure out how to ensure their site is operating within the new regulations.

The best way to start

Perform an audit of your entire website to see what aspects of your site need to be declared as far as what you collect, and to be transparent to all visitors accordingly.
The following guide is not an end-all, be-all to GDPR compliance for your website, but is a general condensed overview meant to help you to go through what items on your site need to be addressed. Ask yourself the following questions about your website, and follow the suggestions under each.

1) What data is my site capturing? 

The following list of examples of data collecting you will want to audit includes, but is not limited to:
  • Personally identifiable information: Obviously, names, addresses, and email addresses are identifiable information. If your site allows comments, that’s collecting identifiable information. Same with contact forms. Someone fills it out and hits “Submit.”  You need to find out where is that data stored, and where does it go to?  Some contact forms don’t store the data in your site’s database, some do. Which option do you have set? Don’t forget I.P. addresses. In the United States, Visitor I.P. addresses are not necessarily considered identifiable information, but in the EU, they are. If your site tracks or collects any users’ IP addresses, you will need to know this, as well.
  • Cookies: Most websites send a small file to each user’s computer or phone, called a cookie. Most of the time, a cookie’s file contains just a timestamp of the user’s visit to a site, but can also store many other personally identifiable data, such as an email address or password.
  • Selling of products or services: Does your site sell products and/or services using ecommerce or payment tools (PayPal, WooCommerce, Stripe, Amazon Seller, etc.)?
  • 3rd party site tools: Such as live chat tools, marketing tools. If your site uses a live customer chat or any marketing tools, such as funnel services (LeadPages, ClickFunnels, WishList Member, etc.), you need to visit these service providers to see what they are doing to be compliant

Any other ways not listed here, in which your site collects a user’s data, you will want to mark down.

 

2) How long is the data on my site kept for?

Any tools mentioned above, or others, that your site uses to capture a user’s data must be investigated by you to find out how long a record is stored on your website’s database or in some cases, on a cloud connected to or provided by the service or tool in question. Follow up with your website designer/developer or investigate each tool on your own by visiting its provider’s website and either search for their updated privacy policy that clearly indicates that they are GDPR compliant, or contact them to ask how they are planning to meet the regulations, then be sure to get the information in writing.
In many cases (if your site is running WordPress, for example), the above-mentioned tools and aspects of your site may be handled by a script called a WordPress plugin, and those are typically written and managed by third-party developers. Visit your WordPress plugins page and then visit each plugin’s respective website or plugin listing to investigate the way the data is collected. Here is also a resource on WordPress and GDPR compliance.
Once you find the information that each provider outlines which indicates how they compliantly handle data, you can link to the language that each service provides, within a Privacy Policy page (addressed further in this post).

3) How does my site address consent and explicit consent?

After collecting all the above answers for the first two questions, write out what needs to be addressed, and how you want to present and disclose what it is your site does with any information it captures (you will need to make sure none of it is personally identifiable because there’s an issue of consent. All visitors need to not only consent to give you access to their data, you need to allow them to do so.

You can prepare a Terms page on your site to outline that by using the site, each visitor has agreed to give their consent for you to collect their data. Then you can add a button or check that says “I agree” next to a link to this Terms page.

4) How does my site allow users to access and control their data?

The next concern your site needs to address is the prove your site has the ability to deliver all data to each user in the EU that you have collected on them. The GDPR outlines that one thing they require for all EU website users, is that each EU citizen has the right to access and opt-out of or remove any or all of this identifiable data upon request. 

Some data compliance efforts may not be required on your part

If your site deals with health or medical information, you need to know that explicit consent is required for the processing of certain special types of personal data. Examples would include things like racial or ethnic background, political, religious, or philosophical beliefs, data concerning health information, sexual health, and sexual orientation. This is outlined in more detail in the GPDR’s Article 9. If your site does not use or request such data, you should be OK, but be sure to read through the GDPR text to make sure.

Bottom line: Transparency

Setting up a clear disclosure that explains in plain English what data you collect, what the data is used for, who can see the data, and where and how long it is stored, should be done via a Privacy Policy page. A good idea would be to check out a reputable legal website which provides privacy and terms page templates, use and customize what they have available, and then, for each service your site uses to collect data from users, provide a link to their page that outlines their GDPR compliant practices language.
If your site collects no personal identifiable information whatsoever, and your site is in the US and does not cater to users in the EU, you probably have nothing to worry about, but in the spirit of transparency, it’s still a good practice to just make sure there is a site disclosure easily accessible to all users of your site, even if you do not collect anything.

Next steps:

Whether or not you are within the EU or have customers in the EU, there are fines and penalties that can be imposed if your site is not compliant with the GDPR law. How these fines or penalties can be collected or enforced is still unclear, and many parts of what has been written so far have been presented in a very ambiguous way, so the practical effects and results on non-compliance have yet to be tested in a court of law.
You will want to share this with your legal team and/or website developer so you can work together to get GDPR-ready!

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This was a guest post by Bobbi Jo Woods

Ultimate Social Media Checklist for Events

The Ultimate Social Media Checklist for Events

Hosting an event? Want to make sure it is a big success for the organizer, attendees, presenters, and event sponsors. Using social media as part of your event marketing strategy, you have a terrific opportunity to create significant momentum and interaction.

You can increase engagement and overall awareness of your events with a solid social media plan. Here’s how:

(Download Social Media Checklist for Events here.)

Social media is a great way to promote your event to your target attendees, but it doesn’t stop there. During your event, social media provides a great opportunity to interact with your audience in real time. It also allows attendees, presenters as well as organizers to share and amplify the event presentations and overall messaging.

Post event, a social media strategy means you can use crowd-sourced photos, presentation comments, reviews, blogs, recaps, podcasts and videos about your event. If you have a regular event schedule, seeing the great comments, videos and photos is a great way to bring in new people to your next event. It’s a great after-event list building tool as well.

You also have a great way to continue the conversation. You can use feedback surveys to create a graphic about the most valued presenter, or the most commented keynote. If your presenters agree (and they will) you can share slides and commentary after the fact and compile a few of the real-time comments for a great way to generate interest in your next event.

Using social media before, during, and after your event is no longer optional.

Organizers, attendees, and presenters now rely on social media for event updates and to connect with others. Sponsors will also appreciate the chance to raise their profile at the event, and increase their visibility to those who can’t attend live via social media posting and sharing.

To help make sure an effective social media strategy is part of your next event, I’ve created a Social Media Event Checklist. It provides the plan for a smart strategy and allows you to make sure your social presence before, during and after your event supports you, your event and your attendees.

Download Social Media Checklist for Events