did you know that "testimonials & word of mouth are the driving force behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions, and yet only about ⅓ of businesses are actively seeking & collecting customer reviews on an ongoing basis"?furthermore, testimonials serve to (1) build trust, (2) are a non-salesy way of marketing the good work you're doing, and (3) help buyers to overcome their buying hesitation.
so, why aren't more yoga professionals collecting and using testimonials to grow their businesses?
probably because we feel awkward asking for them, aren't sure how to go about collecting them, don't recognize the awesome power of word or mouth, or don't know what to do with them once we have them!
in today's teaching, i cover it all...
1) why testimonials are one of the most powerful business tools you're probably NOT using
2) why they are so effective
3) 6+ ways to gather them
4) and, where and how to use them
listen to today's teaching now & start using this powerful yoga biz tool for yourself.
now, i want to hear from you!
in the comments below, share your biggest ah-ha or takeaway from this teaching...and maybe i'll give you a shout out with a testimonial of your very own on my site with a link to your website :-)
You likely know Rach as the founder of The Yogipreneur, and for the entire month of April, she's organized an awesome blog tour. This tour features the wisdom of 30 innovative, successful bloggers and entrepreneurs all with one mission: to help YOU grow your community!
Each day of the blog you'll be introduced to someone new who will share their secrets, tips and strategies for building a loving, supportive, and lucrative community around doing what you love most! Very cool, right?!
You're going to love this blog tour if...
you want a behind-the-scenes peak into how top bloggers, entrepreneurs & yoga teachers grow their communities
you want to draw the RIGHT people into your community, but don't know how to find or reach them
you're not sure what community-building strategies are worth your time, and which ones aren't
you struggle to find your voice in the content you create
you're not sure what style of content creation is right for you or your community (blogging, podcasts, videos, etc.)
you want to know what platforms and software are the best options for your business
you feel like you're doing a lot of work but aren't seeing the results
you wish you had someone to just tell you what to do!
For those of you who are here for the first time, Hello! and Welcome!
I'm Cailen -- a marketing maven & yoga entrepreneur and founder of CALM biz and the popular online training Become a Yoga Brand.
I am so honored to be in the company of all the talented bloggers, entrepreneurs and yoga teachers who've contributed their time and know-how to this unique event so that you, too, can totally <3 Your Community.
So, without further ado, onto today's topic: "I wrote a blog post...now what?!"
Ok, you've written a beautiful, heart-felt, informative blog post that you KNOW your ideal students will love. But, there's a little problem.
You have no idea how to reach them or get them to read your blog post.
Sound familiar?
The thing is, content creation (i.e. blog writing, video making, or podcast recording) is just the first baby step of the community building process. Next, comes the leg work.
Most people avoid the leg work because it's not as fun or glamorous as the content creation. Content creation draws on your creativity, your uniqueness and your gifts -- and that's why it can be so much fun!
But it's the leg work that grows your community. It's the leg work that will enable the right people to find you so that when you sell your next workshop, program or course, you have people who cannot wait to sign-up. The leg work is what separates the yoga biz amateurs from the pros.
So, I guess the question is...are you ready to go pro?
If your answer is "yes" (and I have a creeping suspicion it is since you're hanging out with the blog tour crew), I want to share with you some of the biggest pitfalls new entrepreneurs face when it comes to community building (so you can avoid them!), as well as some of my personal favorite strategies for spreading great content far and wide in order to grow your community and draw the right people to you and your business.
1. Don't fall prey to couch potato content.
Can you guess what couch potato content is? It's content that sits -- on your blog, on your Youtube channel, etc. -- and, well, just continues to sit there, doing nothing. This is one of the BIGGEST mistakes I see bloggers and budding entrepreneurs make, they don't put their content to work!
Instead of letting it just sit there gathering cyber-dust, send it out & share it. Be proactive (not pushy). Pass it along via email to your students, send it to fellow professionals in your industry or complementary ones, share it on your Facebook Page and Twitter feed, or simply talk about it to people and invite them to visit your site and read it.
Do something (anything!) to get it out there in front of more eyes! You'll be doing yourself, and your soon-to-be thriving community a big favor.
2. Leverage your content.
Every piece of great content that you create should be squeezed for as much juice as you can get from it.
What does that mean? It means that you should use and reuse (and reuse) every piece of content that you create, 'cause let's face it, content creation, though fun and creative, can also be extremely draining and time consuming.
So, instead of developing unique content for your blog, newsletter, next Youtube vid, and webinar, allow the same teaching to inspire it all.
I've, personally, done this numerous times, and not only does it save you a lot of leg work (yippee!), it also allows your teaching of the topic to deepen and develop. And, by the time you're done re-churning your content, you may realize that you, too, have a much better understanding of what you were sharing in the first place.
Needless to say, leveraging your content saves you time and energy, makes the same amount of content go much, much further, and also gives people more "doorways" in to learning from you since some people enjoy reading, others watching, others listening.
A simple way to get started with this method is my 3-prong approach -- (1) write a blog post, (2) send it out via a newsletter service (like Mailchimp, which is FREE!), and (3) post a link to it on your Facebook Page or Twitter account. Rinse and repeat!
3. Schedule it in advance.
If one of the things that holds you back from sharing and spreading your content on a regular basis is that posting on social media takes so much darn time, I hear ya.
Facebook and Twitter can be a major time suck as we try to schedule in time every single day (several times a day, mind you) to post relevant, interesting and witty info to our social accounts.
Instead of letting social media control you, take back the reigns and sign-up for a FREE sites like Hootsuite.com or Bufferapp.com. Both these platforms are user-friendly and let you schedule social posts in advance so you don't have to constantly worry about sharing timely info.
So, what should you share? Links to your past (totally awesome!) content of course! Think published blog posts, Youtube videos, webinars that you hosted, or any other piece of great content that deserves to be shared again.
4. Ask people to share it.
One of the simplest ways to grow your community is to ask people to share your content. Simply put, when you send out your newsletter or share a link to your latest online teaching, ask your current community to share it with 1 or 2 people that they think would benefit from the info, too.
Remember, people like sharing stuff that they enjoy and find valuable -- which is why Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. are in business, right?! So, you needn't feel "pushy" by suggesting that they share. Sometimes a simple reminder to pass along your great content is all that your community will need to become brand ambassadors for you.
5. Share your content on other people's sites.
This is a goodie :-)
Guest posting is one of my absolute favorite ways to invite new people to join my CALM biz community.
Now, keep in mind, most sites that accept guest posts will want original content, but a little extra leg worth is well worth it in this case.
When you write a guest post, you expose yourself to someone else's audience that they've taken the time to curate and build. And, if their readers like what you have to say (and you've included a clear link to sign-up for your email list in your guest author bio), you'll have a flood of new, excited community members buzzing over to join you.
Not sure who to guest post for? The most important factor to consider is where your ideal clients are hanging out. What blogs do they read? What newsletters are they signed-up for? What sites do they frequent?
Once you have a sense of where new, soon-to-be community members are spending their time, submit a pitch for a guest post. Again, keep in mind that particular blog's audience -- it's often a good idea to read some of their current content to get a sense of their content structure, style and voice. (Want some ideas about where to guest post? Check out my portfolio here.)
When your pitch gets the go-ahead, whip up a fabulous, teachable piece of content that you know will add value to your (potential) ideal clients' lives, and (this bears repeating!) always include a call-to-action in your author bio that invites interested readers to join your community!
