In every issue of the Teachers Newsletter we explore practical and inspiring ways for you to engage your practice and expand your business. In April we launched a special 10-part series that will guide you in the most important actions you can take to ground, stabilize, build, and develop a thriving teaching practice. Last month we looked at Step Four: Building Your Marketing Database.
This month we are moving on to Step Five: Develop Specific Marketing Campaigns
10 Easy Steps to Sharing the Light
As you begin to build your database of students, interested people, friends, like-minded folks, and relatives, you should regularly ask them to share your emails with their circle. Place a “forward to a friend” button in your online newsletter and on all correspondence. Over time, simply from the power of leverage, your database will double. The bigger the database, the higher the impact of your marketing campaigns.
What is a marketing campaign? A campaign is designed to be a series of connections with your constituents to communicate and perhaps reinforce a message you want to get across. It takes into account that one touch isn’t enough to gain your target market’s attention and turn it into action. It’s been said that you need between three to five touches to cut through all the sales noise and marketing clutter that we are exposed to every day.
Marketing campaigns often are multi-channel and multimedia. Multi-channel means you use multiple channels to touch someone in several different ways . . . going beyond a simple email, using such mechanisms as advertising, postcards, publicity, trade shows, radio, blogging, your web site, and telemarketing. Print costs a lot – print ads, postcards, postage and other materials can quickly eat up your marketing budget. In general, print marketing is more effective for established companies with larger teams and larger budgets.
But don’t despair. For the entrepreneur who is just starting out, or even an experienced business person with a small budget, rather than going multi-channel, go multi-touch. Use the internet and email and reach out several times to the same people, reminding them of the value you provide and encouraging them to interact with your message through polls, videos, audio recordings, and quizzes to help them determine why they need what you offer. Give your readers useful information and engage them. For instance, the Dosha Quiz is a popular interactive tool that you can share (the simplest way is to link them to the quiz on the Chopra Center’s web site).
How to Create a Multi-touch Campaign A perfect example of a multi-touch campaign can be sending five emails every day for five days clustered around a single theme, such as “The 5 Steps to . . . Better Eating” (Perfect Health), “The 5 Keys to Stress Management”(Meditation), or “5 Steps to Pain Relief” (Yoga). This kind of multi-touch campaign translates into a wave of contacts through email in which each message carries one of the steps. Each day, your newsletter subscribers will be looking forward to your daily emails and you can hone your message very clearly.
What you accomplish in this process is that your market starts seeing you as a solutions-oriented service rather than someone trying to get them to “buy” something. Getting their attention is the most powerful step you can take. Give them something they care about . . . and they will pay attention.
You can run weekly campaigns or monthly campaigns; the former is easier and will show results more quickly; the latter will provide a longer window for you to reach out to those who respond but will take longer. Whichever method you choose to implement, there are ten key steps I’ve outlined that can help you more effectively share the light with your universe.
1) Set clear goals. Determine what you hope to accomplish. Do you want to collect leads? Generate immediate sales? Fill a workshop? Be known as the expert? Set quantifiable goals. Determine what you want to achieve and stay the course. 2) Develop campaign ideas and strategies. Plan your campaigns to meet your annual revenue and volume goals. For example, if you’re trying to generate twenty new students, figure out how many leads you need to generate one student. Do one out of fifty people become your students or one out of five? How long does it take for someone to become a student? Does it happen at your free workshop or only after you reach out to them after the fact? Do you want to craft a campaign to generate and nurture prospects, enroll them directly to your classes, or market to existing students?
3) Target your audience so you can speak directly to people with specific needs. For example don’t cast the net so wide that you end up diluting your message. The more direct you are with your target, the better your response rate. Who are you speaking to? Co-workers? Your community at large? Friends? Those in need of a particular solution? Don’t provide five solutions – provide one. Those who care will respond; those who don’t will wait until they are touched more deeply.
4) Discuss benefits rather than features of the discipline you are teaching. If you are sharing the magic and power of meditation, then speak specifically to the physical benefits such as better sleep, reduced stress, or less anxiety; if you are sharing Ayurveda, then rather than telling them you can determine their dosha, tell them they will learn the seven steps to releasing emotional turbulence; if you are sharing yoga, speak to physical healing and emotional calming.
5) Less is more. You have just a few moments for someone to be attracted to your message. Don’t feel the need to share every single aspect of your business or your life story. Select one key message, two messages AT MOST . . . and no more. Keep that message clear and visible in each email.
6) Be clear regarding your call to action. Are you inviting people to a free workshop? A series of classes? Do you want them to sign up? Or show up? Or do you want them simply to come to your website? This doesn’t mean to tell them five days in a row to come to your workshop. Each day, give them another reason to trust you, or believe you, or test you, or interact with you. This happens when you provide value in each email such as “The 5 Steps to . . . ” Of course, you can have an ad in the email or a compelling reason they should also attend your workshop BUT YOU MUST provide value. Make sure you put links to your website and make sure that your website mirrors the same message. This uniformity will help your potential student see your brand as seamless. Don’t cloud your message by including lots of things you’d like them to do. Instead, pick one and follow through.
7) Prepare to quantify the response. You’ll be looking at how many people looked at your email; how many opened it; how many replied to you; how many forwarded it; how many were bad emails addresses. Affordable email campaign software solutions such as iContact, Constant Contact, and Aweber can help you manage the campaign. Built into their tools are reporting tools, metrics analysis, and detailed statistics on who opened and who did not open the email.
8) Include a video. Include a video. Include a video. Put videos (thirty seconds to two minutes) in every email you send out. You can get started by buying a hi-def flip camera for $100 and begin filming yourself and your students’ responses to your classes. Later you can expand your budget to work with a videographer. Consider calling the local colleges or even high schools to find an intern who may exchange their videography talent for real work experience.
9) Include testimonials. Great comments about the success of your teachings on your students can be the most powerful component on your website and in your emails–whether they are written or video testimonials. Make sure you ask for permission and get it in writing to include the testimonial in your campaign. I am a big fan of video testimonials.
10) Keep the contact flowing. No one wants to be spammed, but as long as you are providing value, people will appreciate your emails. Those who don’t appreciate multiple emails from you will unsubscribe; those who want to stay connected will.
Perform a post mortem on every phase of your campaign; review what worked and what didn’t; and take note of which aspects of your campaign generated the best responses. Even on a small campaign, assess the colors you used, what time of day you sent out the email, the testimonials, your copy, the tone, look and feel, and your call to action. Ask close friends to review your efforts and be immune to criticism and open to feedback.
By incorporating these ten steps into your campaign development, you will increase the odds of your very first few campaigns delivering results. CCU is here to help you build your practice and build your business. So keep meditating, keep attending our teleseminars, and keep sharing the light.
