Call me weird, but a bad question is like nails on a chalkboard to my ear drums.
What’s worse, when people have a question, that means they need help.
But if they ask a bad question, they’re not going to help they need… when they need it.
(I know you know what I’m talking about, too).
Here’s the thing though: Most people who ask bad questions don’t realize they’re doing it.
And more important, they don’t know how to ask great questions.
So I filmed a new video where I share a 3-step formula for asking great questions.
How to Ask Great Questions – 3 Step Formula
After you watch the video, here’s what I want you to do:
1. I’m getting ready to film more Social Triggers TV episodes in the studio…
So, I want you to leave a comment below the video telling me what you’d like me to cover.
(If you want to keep it private, just shoot me an email at News(at)socialtriggers.com. But make sure you watch the video first).
2. Let us start a movement together. Lets eradicate bad questions everywhere.
And if you’re in the business of helping people, I know you’ll love this.
So, pass this video along to your friends, followers, fans, whoever.
And hopefully, together, we can finally get rid of bad questions.
🙂
Derek, I believe most people can do ANYTHING. IF they want to. My business is about showing people how to do art. But I have tried giving music lessons as well. The problem is lack of passion. I get so sick of people saying they can’t do things and they have never tried. “I can’t play by ear” “Let me show you how.” “oh you can’t.”
This is not the only time I have been frustrated with people’s lack of passion. I have some ministries at my church. I go all out. I make advertisements, decorate, keep records, invest time planning, make personal visits. But my coworkers do well to just show up. They wont prepare or be excited. They can’t be excited because they’re not invested.
I have children I’m trying to school. I love school. I plan games, fun outings, I try to look for activities that accomplish more than one goal to make good use of their time. But they just don’t care. They could learn all this great stuff, but they have no passion.
I get excited about everything I do. I am all in. I LOVE life. I am even loving researching these posts on social triggers doing research for my business. I can sit and watch Ted Talks for hours. I know that other people could love life too if they will just commit task at hand and do it with all their heart.
I know that churches are dead, sermons are boring, people are depressed, people lack skills, hate their jobs, can’t use their tech efficiently, whatever, all because they lack passion. They can’t because they don’t want to. It’s so annoying.
With me I never start off motivated. The best example I can think of is doing dishes. As long as I don’t want to get my hands dirty, I hate every minute. When I decide to plunge my elbows in and make a game of it by seeing how fast I can get it done, or how well I can get it done, the time goes by fast, I do a good job, and I actually enjoy myself. The feeling of focus is exhilarating. But first you have to focus.
And it doesn’t matter the activity. I’ve experienced the same focus based passion writing blogs, doing research, organizing supplies, painting walls, building websites, designing book cases, washing the car, you name it. There is no activity that can’t be enjoyed when you’re doing it with all your heart and not begrudgingly.
My question is how can I get people to give the 100% committed focus so that they can experience the thrill of the task ie. passion?
This is why it’s often a crazy idea as a consultant or other professional to give away your time for free.
I meet a lot of companies who do free audits, assessments, reviews etc. and then moan because the prospect doesn’t develop.
If you want someone to focus get them locked in financially, that can often help channel their attention!
I have to get better at asking questions. I will be using your 3 step formula to help me get better at asking questions. Thanks for the informative post.
Tell us how to ask a great question to a CLIENT while we are on a call with a potential client. That will help us. Not how to ask a question of a consultant (like the questions you get asked).
Yeah! Kick Ass!
Loved this! And loved how you called it — YES! There is such a thing as a dumb question! And vagueness and poorly put together thoughts are maddening.
Nothing is quite as sexy as a well-thought out, intelligent question (like many of the above in the comments). Well done everyone 🙂
Hi, Derek,
I agree with you that there are too many bad questions floating around out here. It’s kind of a mixed blessing for me, however, because bad questions keep me in business. So my problem is, if you and I work together to eliminate lousy questions, I’m going to have to go back to teaching eighth grade history. Teaching knowledge workers how to do their best thinking is a lot more fun.
My business is teaching people how to ask sharp, focused analytical questions. I do this by teaching a kick-ass one-day workshop called Precision Questioning+Answering. Precision Q+A was developed by two brilliant people at Stanford University, Dennis Matthies and Dr. Monica Worline. In 1995 they began teaching the workshop outside academia and in Silicon Valley. Since 2005 we’ve called our merry little band Vervago, and we’ve now taught Precision Q+A to nearly 50,000 people around the world. We teach people how to ask seven categories of analytical questions, and also how to answer questions with crispness and clarity. The workshop is highly interactive and based in the participants’ work, so it is a blast to teach.
My question to you, then, is this: In the long-term, what do you think will be the likely impact on the productivity of knowledge workers if we all learn how to ask better questions?
Asking questions is selling. That’s old school, no doubt. If you want to know something all you have to do is just type the question into Google and you will find a community of web sites with different answers. If you have a list of subscribers on your mailing list feedback is important to you, right?
Wait, I must give you some background on me. In the offline world all I did was marketing and have been in the business all my working life, starting with a newspaper route when I was a little boy.
Okay, getting back to asking dumb questions. If you are running an online business you need to create products. So, you ask your list “if I created XYZ product, would you buy it” most people would say yes to that question.
But the question is a decoy question, never heard that express before? Well you just learn something.
The next question is the real one. And it goes like this. “what is the biggest challenge in your business right now” the response from the second question is correct answer. That is what they will buy!
If it works for you tell them where you got it.
Hello Derek, my problem is video related.
Do you memorize all your lines, improvise over bullet points or actually read everything from a teleprompter?
I want to be able to create more fluid, natural videos but I can’t memorize a lot and I also have never tried using a teleprompter before (I’ve heard it’s very difficult to come natural when reading from one).
If I just try to “wing it” I end up rambling everywhere and the videos end up being very long so your help is going to be really appreciated, thanks!
Sergio
Great advice Derek! Being specific helps with relationship communication too. I suggest a similar model in my book “SMART Talk: A Communication Workbook for Successful Marriage and Relationship Talk” HTTP ://CarolynFlynn.org/smarttalk
Carolyn
Hi Derek,
we recently did a promotion for our blog post “Our Journey To Empower A Thousand New Kickpreneurs”.
We drove 562 unique visitors to the site within ~4 hours. (Via posting on hackernews, reddit, facebook, twitter, LinkedIn group posts and then promoting these posts by eliciting help of friends who liked, upvoted, etc.).
But the average time on page was just 21 seconds. We got 0 blog comments, and only 4 (=0,07%) email optins.
My questions: what could we have done differently to get higher engagement (in this order of priority: 1. longer time on site, 2. more comments, 3. more opt-ins)?
Thank you,
Ramin
Ramin, I know this is really a question for Derek, but it should be obvious that what you have on your landing page is not what people who come to your website were looking for. I don’t know what’s on your page, so I can’t really say why, but in general, the people who came to your page didn’t find your offer valuable. It may be that what you advertised on your social media campaing did not match what they were expecting or they may have disliked it because it sounded salesy.
This is a good test and it may indicate that you need to tweek something or find something related to your business model that people really consider valuable. In today’s corporate world it is can be a challenge to create free offer that will hold it’s own in among spectrum of big player offers in your industry and be able to attract people who might be interested in what you are doing. Every thing is represented on the Internet these days. If your products are in the developmental stages then you need to keep an open mind.
In order to break in to a market it often takes a really big and very valuable free offer. So you migh consider taking your best product and giving it away for free. You don’t necessarily have to give the whole product away for free, but enough to make it really enticing. Then add features to it. This is a common IT business model. If your free offer is too good to refuse, then your upsells will seem like a bargain espcially if using your upsells are dependant on having your free product.
It also seems obvious that you are not reaching your target market. You may need to better understand who your target market is and how you can gain access to them. In other words what social media groups will they be in and what keywords will they search for. Keep in mind that one of your target markets may be people who are interested in what you do, but have no background. The total beginner will have no idea what the competition is doing, so it’s not as hard to impress them. If you can figure out how to get in front of the total beginner who has is just beginning to consider using the type of service you offer and educate them, then you have a good chance of winning their favor by crating real value for them.
Finally, test, test, test and when you’re done with that, do some more testing. Many people don’t realize it, but all the big companies test their offers before they create them. I am on a few facebook group of my peers. I have a specialty and a skill level far above most of my peers. On those facebook groups I asked people if they would be interested in something that I could create. There was an overwhelming positive response. So now I have confirmed that the market will support what my product. I am now in the process of creating this product. I already know it will have success even before I created it. At first I am just going to give it away for free, well not entirely for free, but for the insignifican price of signing up to my email list. My product has a vast array of upsell potential and ways that I can monetize. These are all really general ideas, but I hope they can help.
Good luck!
Paul
Derek: Love your videos and blog but I just wanted to comment on your write up on this subject.
(But if they ask a bad question, they’re not going to help they need… when they need it.)
I think you meant to add in the sentence “get the “.
“Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.”
Your friend Bill
Derek,
Here is the Problem: I have the desire the passion and most of the ambition to build the lifestyle I want of Freedom and Value. I desire to help the financially strapped with my Financial Consulting and Life Coaching. I am seeking to serve Young Adults 22-30 yrs old. The creative types. The ones who want more than the status Quo and who want to build a life around Fatih, Family, and then Finances. However, as I am newer Coach in this game I am overwhelmed with the resources and information I am trying to consume. (Micheal Hyatt, Jon Acuff, Jeff Goins, Kimanzi Constable, Dan Miller, and the rest.) It’s massive.
Question then: How should I focus my time and energy into the correct resources to allow me enough info to take definite action on my own plans without comparison and self doubt? The fact that I need Survival, Save and then Serve makes things tough because my mindset is on Auto Pilot of Serving. How do I manage the steps in order and build the client base and my target audience to my blog so that I can stress free engage fully with my creative mind to make products, articles, podcasts, videos, and other items of value for my local community and the world at large?
Hey Derek,
I’m wondering about what you’ve said repeatedly about becoming an expert in one thing and then branching out from there and how if a person is doing everything then it’s too much and how can they be that good at what they’re doing…
I wrote an e-book about improving my eyesight naturally after learning how to throw away my glasses and re-train my mind and body to see and eventually passed the driver’s test without glasses. I had a -4 prescription at first which is like 20/400 and the driver’s test tests at 20/40…
Anyway, I feel like my biggest barrier is that people are skeptical of whether this is possible in the first place… I’ve sold around 120 copies of my e-book which sells for $20.20 over the last two years… which is clearly not that much money but is that enough for proof of concept?
I’m also a nutrition writer/researcher/web journalist and feel like my findings in nutrition would be more easily digested by the masses so do you think I should perhaps just abandon the eyesight thing and focus on nutrition?
Thanks,
David
Yeah, I agree Megan, it’s not as bad as it appears, it’s worse,. 150 years ago people were able to stike out into the wilderness, build a home and grow their own food, but there was a danger of attack from Indians. These people were self reliant, but they couldn’t do everything on their own. They had to band together for security and safety. People banded together and even helped each other even to build their barns. People need each other.
This condition continues to be true today. I have seen multitudes of poeple in facebook groups who are self reliant and continually struggling with perserverence. I have seen them make comments on those groups for years. They are just eeking out a living, but continually working hard. No one values them enough to give them work. We don’t value our fellow average citizens. What is your answer to them? They are self reliant. They are hard working. They even believe in what they are doing and never give up. Many of them are always helping people. What will you tell the parents of the children we see on tv commercials with their stomachs bloated out from starvation? Just become self reliant and all your problems will be solved?
I think your statement about self reliance is conditioning. You have heard so many people say it that you have bought into their erroneous philosophy. The problem with self reliance is the SELF part. It promotes selfishness. If someone is self reliant then that removes all responsibility to help others. It’s selfishness and like I said it’s much worse than it appears because everyone is promoting it as a good thing. If you think selfishness is good, then how can you ever see that it’s bad? Everyone needs help. If someone has money, then they can buy all the help they need. They are not self reliant. They are cash reliant. If someone does not have money, does that mean they are not worthy of help?
Paul, it seems you focused on the self-reliance part alone. Of course people need each other – but all the time?? You can neither work in isolation as an introvert, ‘all’ the time; nor can you work in groups ‘all’ the time – balance is imperative – solitude brings perspective/creativity and team work brings a renewed purpose and enhanced zeal. It’s the reduced dependency on a support system that allows you take a stand, lead a group and tell them to come together as self established individuals enthusiastic to collaborate, as Vevek suggested (which is a brilliant way of driving the value of reciprocity).
Take a look at this link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html
Megan, your comment has nothing to do whith what I’m saying. I never said we should work in groups all the time nor in isolation. There’s really no point in trying to explain my point to you since you totally missed it. I don’t think that you will understand what I’m saying no matter how I restate it. Your willful ignorance of what I am saying strongly supports the validityof my point. It is the symptom of a state of denial. It is proof that the problem is much worse than it seems.
I think the inability to ask questions is an interesting topic itself. Why do we ask stupid questions? It’s not like Einstein has always asked the right question, the first time, perfectly.
“Only stupid people ask stupid questions” — said lots of people, everywhere. Too bad stupid is only relative to the idiot talking.
You are crafty, Derek
For decades I have been telling customers that once they have properly described the problem and how it failed to provide the desired outcome, the solution will be obvious.
Under the disguise of getting us to ask great questions, you are actually encouraging us to become better thinkers
“Write that Down” – Van Wilder
What macbook pro spec are you using please?
Is that the machine you use for editing the video for Social Triggers?
Actually, yes it is.
That’s my laptop.
Adam?
My question is.. what macbook pro’s spec is it that Derek is using?
I’m in the process of getting a new one and want to handle the video editing as much as he does.
Hey Derek,
My Question is how do i get crystal clear on who my customer is exactly,
im a personal trainer and i sell online diet books, coaching and software all aimed to help people lose weight, my target market is 25-45 old women who are interested in cooking and health wellness
i have some survey info explaining what fears, frustrations and desires my target market has, but my problem is coming up with a crystal clear USP that resonates with my target audience, and on top of that a crystal clear message / benefit that will encourage my target audience to take action an buy from me
Oh man — I don’t even have a question, but I *love* your energy! I was slumping at my desk before watching it, and now I’m super alert and ready to get stuff done.
I get stupid questions all the time. I’ll send this video across next time 😉
You can ask the wrong questions to the wrong people
You can ask the right questions to the wrong people
OR
You can ask the right questions to the right people
;0)
Great video, Derek!
I really like #3. Ask the question you want answered, as beating the bush really ends up wasting everyone’s time. Frustrating to assist.
As an Internet Marketing, I come across 100’s of people who ask questions with no substance. People, do your research & value the opportunity.
I have to disagree with your title.
Questions show which level of understanding does this person have at that moment in time.
With understanding comes more questions and with that level of understanding comes more questions.
Questions are signs that someone is actually thinking..not regurgitating something they read or heard.
Maybe a title that asks…Is the question asked the real question..or can the question be reformulated to achieve more precision.
Derek,
I’ve analyzed y business relationships and they seem to be one sided: I give and give, sometimes to the point of exhaustion, but no one seems to want to help me when I ask.
How can I build a successful, professional business network with people who understand reciprocity? People who understand giving and receiving?
Thanks!
I came to this page with a related question! How do you network or build relationships with people who are not on the same wavelength as you?
In your previous article – ‘How to Meet New People Who Want To Help Your Business and Career’..discussion centered around listening to people, or talking about what you do, and being natural and spontaneous. But I find that while it’s a cakewalk to strike an instant chord with someone who just gets you, as opposed to someone who is ignorant or simply different. My guess is – get on their side!? Again, how.
Coming back to Amandah’s question – It seems you’re feeling taken for granted. And it’s a natural consequence of being over available in certain situations. I support the idea of giving and giving without expecting, but maybe sometimes you could say no if you’re busy or politely ask to get back to them later. You’re not being rude, just respectful of your own time – and there’s a chance that seeing that attitude, others would respect your needs too when the time arises. It’s happened with me; I applied the law of demand and supply and voila, it worked.
I came to this page with a related question! How do you network or build relationships with people who are not on the same wavelength as you?
In your previous article – ‘How to Meet New People Who Want To Help Your Business and Career’..discussion centered around listening to people, or talking about what you do, and being natural and spontaneous. But I find that while it’s a cakewalk to strike an instant chord with someone who just gets you, as opposed to someone who is ignorant or simply different. My guess is – get on their side!? Again, how.
Coming back to Amandah’s question – It seems you’re feeling taken for granted. And it’s a natural consequence of being over available in certain situations. I support the idea of giving and giving without expecting, but maybe sometimes you could say no if you’re busy or politely ask to get back to them later. You’re not being rude, just respectful of your own time – and there’s a chance that seeing that attitude, others would respect your needs too when the time arises. It’s happened with me; I applied the law of demand and supply and voila, it worked.
And Paul, the world is not as bad as it appears. I would say that people who do think of themselves first or appear selfish are ignorant and they don’t know any better. But with self reliance you stop expecting, with humor you show them where they’re headed with a self absorbed attitude and with example you lead the way to a more grateful and helpful ecosystem. My 2 bits 🙂
Hi Amandah,
This was exactly same happening with me 3 years back no one understood the value of Reciprocity ! where l extended my help to the point of self combustion. But then l realize these people dont know when to reciprocate.
So, l started to ground them in the 1st meeting / conversation itself by telling them that we are all sitting in the same ship and need to row together as a team in each others business, we reach no were if any one of us STOPS rowing this boat so its better to row it together towards a common direction. For us which is of course “SUCCESS” in our own business by helping each other through a term called “Reciprocity”. Hmmm…… now they have understood when to reciprocate 🙂
And this worked with me so well because l use to give first to show and make them feel like friend fighting for him in his own battle and so it has always reciprocated back to me as always 🙂
Hope that helps Amandah
P.S.
Make sure during your 1st givers mode (Reciprocity) try to have Big wins in small project rather than small success on Bigger project in order to make sure they see the value in your reciprocity (What you are doing for them to build the initial Confidence, trust and rapport with them) so that you dont have to go to the point of exhaustion.
And thus you can judge whether to reciprocate him further or Not. This will save your time, energy and resources which you are putting it into the play for reciprocity a kind of Litmus test.
Great comment Vevek. When I wrote my first comment I would have said the same thing, but I wanted to keep it short or people won’t read it. I do the same thing. I pick individuals to help and let them know that we should work together to support one another. It has worked for me too. I have a little theory of my own. Big corporations try to scoop up all the business they can just because it’s the nature of the beast. Corporations are able to hire many individuals so that those people can in turn specialize. In the Internet Marketing business there are a hundred if not hundreds of specialties. It is hard for the individual to compete with corporations because they are not able to develop each of the skill to a high level because they are spread out across multiple skills.
That is the problem behind my theory. This is one solution I have contemplated. People,or small business, need to learn how to work together so that they can specialize. This is a process that I have wanted to fascilitate. That way they can become specialized and develop their skillset. The can provide the quality of workmanship and results that people expect from corporations. I have been wanting to create a website along these lines, but creating the business model, terms and conditions and licenced agreement could be very difficult for anyone other than an Internet business lawyer. Then again there would have to be some kind of vetting process and a way to ensure that every individual who provides assistance receives assistance in an equitable fashion. Hopefully some day I will be able to work this out.
I think it has a lot to do with the people you are associating with. On the other hand, I think that it’s probably a situation that is hard to avoid. Why is that? Because it is a dominant trait in our society to be lazy, greedy, ungrateful and selfish. That says a lot about our society. Characterising people around you as one of the lower bodily orifices has become the norm. People look around and say, “he’s not so bad,” but that’s because they are comparing them with themselves. America is going down the toilet because peoople are selfish, lazy and greedy. It is going to continue to spiral down because everyone is happy to pay money to the big corporations, but they not consider paying the average citizen. The bottom line is that it will continue to get harder and harder to find people who appreciate you
How do you monetize your business? Many bloggers look up to you but you have no ads on your site, don’t send email offers and aren’t pitching coaching services. I do know that you did a conference recently. Do you get paid to speak or do you speak to promote your blog? Would you share your revenue model with your readers? How do you “bring home the bacon?” (for some reason bacon seems to be a hot topic right now). If you don’t want to give out specific dollars then perhaps you could just give percentages of all your revenue. Hopefully that is a specific enough question and I believe others would like to know – it would be helpful to have realistic expectations when launching a blog or business like yours.
Hey Derek,
Simple video! Its amazing how many useful things are so simple. Apart from getting answers/suggestions, questions can also help in persuasion. Don’t tell, ask their opinion. It works brilliantly.
Cheers!
Derek, how do I make a million dollars? (Had to do it.)
No, what do I do when the niche that has supplied the most income (business copywriting for tech companies) is no longer interesting, but the niche that I find interesting (freelancing for magazines and other publications) can’t pay the bills? I can’t fully say that I really HAVE a niche, since I edit novels and business books too and write marketing collateral, but the question above gets to the heart of it: love or money.
You could also explain what Lynda’s comment above REALLY means.
I think that comment was supposed to be in response to John.
What awesome timing considering I won your consultation for the Liz Strauss auction. I’m going to work on putting together some great questions with context! 🙂
John,
You are in a state of transition, bonds form between those who share similar passions. Drifting apart takes place when your views, goals and passions no longer match those of the people in your life. It takes time and energy to keep any relationship alive. Your focus and interested are changing, you prefer to have conversations around these new endeavors because they interest you. But in actually, you no longer have anything to talk about with your friend, you no longer share the same interest.
If the relationship is important to you, then you need to focus on the things you do have in common when you are spending time together. You will be drawn to others that have the similar interest; you can cultivate new friends without leaving those behind that have mattered to you.
Hey Derek,
I’m an entrepreneur who co founded Sensory Swim a swim program that teaches swim lessons exclusively to children & adults with special needs.
First of all thanks for the all the research you do. I always find gems in each & every video and then go out and apply it.
I’ve figured out how to kill it in Facebook ads but I know most people still struggle on how to use them and it’s costing them a fortune.
So I know that if you answer the following question your readers would love it.
How do I specifically target people on Facebook via Facebook ads so that I make tons of $$$ on Facebook instead of losing it.
I’d more than willing to discuss what I’ve found with you.
All the best Derek.
Hm… Derek, as ever you make me re-think stuff that I do automatically and look at how I can do it better.
My problem:
I am a health coach specialising in helping busy career women with chronic fatigue, high stress and digestive problems to overcome their conditions and live the life they want.
Most of my audience are drawn to me because online I offer a lot of free content around eating healthy foods that support their health goals WITHOUT spending all their time in the kitchen.
But my coaching program includes so much more than just food solutions.
I made a conscious effort to write blog articles and newsletters around topics such as stress relief, body image, goal setting, etc.
But my response rates are lower on these subjects than when I showcase food ideas.
My question is, should I just concentrate on giving my audience what they want, even though it does not communicate all of my work as a health coach?
Or should I continue with my more holistic message and hope that it’s a slow-burner that will eventually get noticed?
Thanks as always Derek!
Andrea
Here’s my business challenge. I have a multi therapist massage practice and I have been struggling getting clients for the therapists I have in the office! It is such a problem that I have therapists that have empty calenders that I have a high turn over rate.
It drive me nuts that I see a lot of empty slots for the other therapists in my office and I have a full calender, but I am finding the more I advertising my business and I try to take the focus off myself as much as possible the more new clients want to book with me the owner.
I need help with my marketing so new clients will want to see the other massage therapists in my office and help reduce my turn over rate for staff.
BTW I love your blog (-:
Derek,
Per your example and advice from James Wedmore I’m going to hire a videographer to batch produce my videos.
I’d love to hear your top 1, 2 or 3 things you’ve learned in hiring and working a videographer and how you batch produce your videos.
Thanks Derek! Loved today’s video as always.
Derek, I’d love to hear about what Ryan suggested, too.
I’m a psychotherapist and spiritual teacher wanting to reach more people interested in spiritual growth and have more of an online presence, and I think video is the way to go.
But I’m not sure how to begin producing videos and would like some guidance on how to start, what is most effective, and who to work with. Thanks!
Hi Derek,
Regarding videos, I would like to start selling videos from my website too. They would be educational videos on how to practice mindfulness. I haven’t tried to do this yet but….
Aside from the whole production side, I am wondering if you can give any advice on the best way to sell videos from a website (software, hosting etc). For example, would you just host them somewhere like google and password protect them, or is there some kind of software specifically designed for this that you could recommend.
Being a bit paranoid, I also would like to know how to protect my videos from being downloaded and shared. Or if I were to password protect them, how could I allocate individual passwords to stop them being publicized/shared.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Hi Derek,
My question is : How do I begin to network online to build rapport, help others in a similar field as a part of growing a list/following?
Specifically, when reaching out to others. How do I reach out when it seems like looking in a phone book, touching base and maybe getting a reply.
The Doctor’s, experts and masters in my field I have met, and continue to do so, yet they are not know online as much (people with a big following) and do not have a world wide presence online either.
My problem is paralysis and not knowing the best strategies to reach out, as I feel some fields may be different than others.
I am in fitness and have a website for trainers/coaches and athletes (lay people as well) to learn how to lift and train properly. I will be selling info products in a field that is saturated with a mix of knowledge.
Thank you Derek,
Aaron
Hi Aaron,
If you’re a “nobody” on the Internet, put valuable comments on “influencers”‘bogs of your domain, I mean: those who have already a strong audience. Try to reach those who are not “direct competitors” but in a similar domain with intersections with your area of expertise.
Then, once you’ve made valuable comments (and got noticed by the influencers) contact them directly and (1) make reference to your valuable comments, (2) tell that you acknowledge how big authorities they are in their domain (to show that you are aware about their strengths), then (3) propose them to make “guest blog posts” related to the intersection between their topics and your area of expertise.
When putting guest blog posts on their media, bloggers also put a link to yours so that you get traffic.
If possible, make a squeeze page so that people don’t land on your homepage but on a page where you capture e-mail addresses in exchange of a valuable piece of content. The e-mail address they gave comes in your autoresponder and the first e-mail of a sequence if delivered in which they have a link to your piece of content.
Then, your sequence must contain pure valuable content and offers, so that you (new) audience know: (A) that you are also a (wannabe an) authority on your domain (B) you have offers (products & services) if they want to go beyond free content.
Don’t fear to give away hyper-valuable content for free: it will prove how much value you are ready to share, whether for free or for money. Eben Pagan calls it: “moving the free line”. The higher value you give away for free, the more value people will feel you are able to give them for money (later). If you don’t give anything, people won’t ever guess that you have high value to offer…
Don’t forget to keep prospects addresses in your autoresponder, since they will certainly not come again later otherwise! It’s a matter of Permission Marketing (as wrote Seth Godin in his book): they give you the right to contact them whenever you want, but they can unsubscribe as soon as you don’t keep delivering interesting stuff.
The web is a “pull” media (visitors decide where and when they go to a site); on the opposite E-mail is a “push” media: the sender decides when he/she wants to send messages to whoever he/she wants.
a
Hi R.
Thank you for the information, that is very kind of you to write so much and point me in the right direction to get me more knowledge.
Much appreciated!
Aaron
I’m a social media, blogging and online marketing designer. Most social media “experts,” I’ve found, know how to tweet for themselves & for clients. But often know squat about design.
I can design for them (and/or their clients) *OR* I can teach them what to do. I’m putting together basic design training if they can’t/won’t (or don’t think they can afford to) hire a designer and/or aren’t ready to outsource design work.
How can I reach more (the best?) social media marketers to share my products and services?
Bad Question NoNos
1) If you can Google the darn thing, don’t ask!
2) Specificity! Yes! ..and if it pertains to your website, how about including the url??
~ darlene
@darlene Google only answers well to good questions, otherwise gives dumb answers to dumb questions.
The good thing with Google (for those who ask bad questions) is that Google doesn’t get bored, doesn’t laugh at them & doesn’t kick them out 🙂
Hey Derek,
Here is a recent scenario I was in, I’d like to know how you might handle it.
I brought my laptop to a friend’s place to nerd out for a bit and play some computer games for an afternoon, while waiting around for something in game I started reading social triggers and watching one of your videos. My friends got “annoyed” because they think anything to do with online marketing is dumb and a waste of time, I immediately got a response “You gotta stop this obsession with all this online stuff”.
As of recently I’ve had a few friends express how much disbelief they have in my online marketing and blogging efforts, so much so one of my best friends is hardly talking to me at all because I tend to talk about topics I’m excited about. Would you start working to find new friends and people who believe in what you’re doing or work to re-kindle friendships of those you’ve known for 10+ years despite their negative attitude towards marketing and blogging online? Have you had to deal with this and how would you handle it?
Hi John
I’ve had this a few times in the past.
I think the trick is to segment your friends, if they don’t share your passion – so what? You have other passions with them so just focus on those.
What you need is to develop your online passion with other people. For example, on the Blog That Converts course I was surprised to find the Facebook forum was chock full of people just like me, they love blogging and business building and can talk for hours about it.
I’ve since formed some great friendships and set up things like mastermind groups so I can develop those ties even closer.
If I was you I wouldn’t bin your friends, they’re just not into marketing but just develop new circles that align more closely with your passion.
Reach out to other bloggers in your niche or even different niches who are at the same stage as you and see if they want to share tactics and experiences. I regularly post tips and ideas into my mastermind group and ask people if they need help, others do the same, that’s how new friendships develop and everyone wins.
– Dylan
Hi John,
I totally feel you there, but my situation is a little different, although I’m also in the web design/marketing industry. It’s my family and relatives that are unable to understand the work I do. And you just can’t get rid of them. It is very taxing and stressful to be around people who have a negative view of you and the thing you have interest in. All I can say is that all these people have never done something outside their comfort zone. And they express strong disapproval for anything that is “outside” of the norm. Their mindset is just, “Get a job or you will fail in life”.
My solution is similar to @Paige. I have started to reach out to new interest groups that are doing what I want to excel at. The funny thing is, how much more motivated and inspired I’ve felt, by being around people who “believe in what I believe”. The new friendships built are something that is very refreshing! I have also limited my exposure to anyone who don’t get what I’m doing. This really helps in weeding out the energy drainers.
On the topic of asking great questions, I have found the following to be really useful in helping me filter people I meet.
“What has inspired/motivated you to do XXX?”
“What is your biggest take away/insight into XXX?”
“How do you feel about comparing XXX to YYY in ZZZ industry?”
Now usually most people would not go very deep with you on the get-go. I introduce some small talk to get people comfortable before diving in. It also helps me filter out people who have no interest in me so I can move on and talk to better people.
New friends who share your passions (especially those who have already had some level of success in what you’re doing) will light your fire, motivate you to do more than you thought you could do, boost your self-esteem, move you closer to whatever you define success to be and basically help you to be a better person. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Look at those 5 people in your life now. Do you want to be just like them? If the answer is no, it’s time to find new friends/mentors/supporters. Everyone who has come into your life over the past 10 years doesn’t have to stay there. That includes family.