Shared Visions Unlimited

Help with Video, Marketing, Publishing, and Story Productions

Category: Marketing (Page 1 of 2)

7 Essential Elements For Sales Success

November 18, 2024 /
7 Essential Elements For Sales Success

Do you want better sales than what you are getting now?

Is there room to improve in these 7 elements of your marketing?

1) You Offer Something People Need Or Want

Are you presenting an offer that people will seek and buy?

It is much easier if your products and services solve a problem or fill a desire.

You may need to adjust or change your offer to appeal.

2) Compelling Offer Presentation

Do you have a landing page that presents your offer in a way that compels the visitor to say, ‘This is for me!’ and take action?

Make sure your offer page is effective before sending people there to buy.

3) Effective Online Profiles

Do your LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and other profiles reflect you and your offers in a magnetic way?

Do you have easy links to your offers from your profile?

Small improvements can have a big impact.

4) Searchable Articles and Posts with Links to Your Offers

One of the keys to online sales success is to be well-listed in the search engines so that people can find your offers.

Posting often with topics related to your offer will build your authority and increase the likelihood that they will find your solution.

You will ALWAYS have links to your offer or next step in everything you post. Right?

Otherwise, as the Bruce Springsteen song goes, you are just dancing in the dark.

5) Capture Contact Information

One of the most effective marketing tools you can use is list building.

Some people will take months or years to decide to become your client or customer.

Entice them to join your mailing list when they visit your landing page so you can keep them engaged.

6) Engage Your Contacts Regularly

Send emails, publish posts, and create video clips regularly to keep your leads engaged.

You do not always need to be selling, though much of the content can be related to your offers with links for them to learn more and consider buying.

7) Expand Your Reach and Engagement

There are many ways to expand your reach to get in front of potential customers and clients such as:

  • Attending Networking Events
  • Being a Guest Speaker
  • Paid Advertising
  • Press Releases
  • Offering Webinars
  • Creating Challenges or Summits
  • Offer a Course
  • Publish a Book
  • Have a Podcast
  • …

Have fun exploring!

My Special Offer

I can help you improve your marketing presence in all of the areas described above within an affordable monthly retainer.

We review where you are now and add or improve the elements for your sales success.

Kartra and Cloudways for Your Complete Content and Marketing Success

June 13, 2024 /

The Kartra All-In-One business platform combined with WordPress sites hosted on the Cloudways cloud hosting program.

This article explains why I use this combination for many of our publishing and marketing clients and why you would consider these platforms for your projects.

What Kartra Brings to the Table

I was part of the Kartra Beta Test program and customer since 2018.

It was good from the start and keeps getting better.

Similar programs that I have looked at include ClickFunnels, Keap (InfusionSoft), New Zenler, SamCart, Kajabi, and others. Each has its strengths, though my clients who try them usually come back to Kartra.

I can help clients who use other platforms, though I will always recommend Kartra first. I am likely one of the top Kartra experts in the world and call myself The Kartra Whisperer.

While Kartra is relatively easy to manage for individual steps, it is like a cargo container load of Lego parts that can be combined in many ways.

Kartra also has a rich set of design options for a tremendous range of branding possibilities.

Typical Uses For Kartra

Here are the things I use Kartra for:

  • Sales Pages. A simple sales page with some text, image, video or audio, and a buy button is all that is needed for things like concert tickets, theatre tickets, or goods and services people want.
  • Payments. I joke that ‘Kartra’ is an exotic Asian goddess of commerce. There are tons of options for flexible and creative payment options and also self-management for your clients.
  • Funnel Campaigns. The simplest funnel is a landing page with an opt-in form, thank-you page that subscribes the person to one or more email.
  • Marketing Automation. Kartra can chain together a lot of things to happen automatically to generate sales, including evergreen webinars.
  • Email Marketing. Send broadcasts or sequences to people selected by lists, tags, or behaviours.
  • Video and Other Media. Video, audio, images, and files can be used in Kartra assets or shared on their own.
  • Membership Sites. One of the reasons I chose Kartra in the first place was to host courses and memberships in a multimedia portal that can contain almost anything and connect with other Kartra tools. This is the Digital Experience Edition included with my Golden Publishing Sales Machine.
  • Calendar. Kartra provides a good and very sophisticated Calendar system.
  • Quizzes and Surveys. The quiz and survey tool took years to release and was worth the wait. Good for marketing and courses.
  • Integrations. Kartra has native implementations for many services like payment processors, SMS, Google Calendar, and more. It also integrates with Zapier, which can connect Kartra to almost anything.
  • Affiliate Program. Much of marketing success is based on referrals and affiliate promotions.

Kartra provides embed codes to use on websites and other places for flexibility.

Kartra Swiss Army Knife

What Cloudways Provides

I am a prolific writer and something of a Zen Master for getting things in searches.

WordPress is by far the best platform for writing and blogging a lot of content.

Also easy to have the clients and team members collaborate on creating and publishing content.

While WordPress can integrate almost anything through plugins and use different themes for different looks, I stick to the fast and attractive Hemingway theme with a lot of emphasis on blogging.

Most of the many hosting platforms I have used in the past were good until they were not anymore. And many were slow and expensive.

Cloudways allows me to register a name in Namecheap and have a fast, secure, and managed WordPress website up in a few hours.

I have not needed to call customer support yet.

As an Agency, Cloadways allows me to add new sites for little more than the cost of registering the domain.

Namecheap has enough options for domain management and email formatting to provide the necessary services.

I am only hosting WordPress sites on Cloudways at the moment. The platform also supports:

  • Laraval
  • Magneto
  • WooCommerce
  • PHP
  • DataOcean
  • Linode
  • Vultr
  • AWS
  • Google Compute Engine

Why Combine Them

WordPress provides the fastest and easiest way to get an online presence with fabulous support for blogging and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Embedding landing pages and other Kartra assets on the WordPress website takes advantage of all Kartra has to offer from the client’s Kartra account or from my Kartra account.

It is an unbeatable combination.

Let’s Discuss Your Project

Our Publishing Sales Machine for Authors and Course Creators ~ Publishing and Marketing

May 7, 2024 /

The Publishing Sales Machine is a great way for authors and course creators to leverage their golden content and make sales.

Greg Dixon can help forge your content into published books, multimedia courses, and membership programs. Includes marketing using blogging, social media, email, and video.

Publish Everywhere. Market Everywhere.

Greg Dixon has a special deal on the Publishing Sales Machine. 

Special Offer on Video Clips for Marketing, Online Courses, or Story Productions

March 5, 2024 /
Computer image and various idea icons

Video can be immensely effective for marketing and communicating almost anything.

I often help clients create video clips for many purposes, including:

  • Personal introductions.
  • Business introductions.
  • Product and service introductions.
  • Evergreen webinars.
  • Training videos for online courses, memberships, or to build authority,
  • Personal and family stories.
  • Special offers.
  • Landing page and thank you page videos.
  • Much much more.

My special offer is to create five videos with you for $188.

We can use StreamYard recordings, create videos with your phone, or edit existing videos and presentations together to help with your messaging.

A Holistic Approach to Selling Darn Near Anything!

February 29, 2024 /
Greg Dixon Holistic Marketing

Over the years people have asked me to help them sell a lot of different things, in concerts, theatre productions, products, services, books, courses, memberships, and events.

I have acquired many skills, strategies, and tools for promotions and sales and combine them for your benefit.

I will explore some of the many elements and strategies for success.

By the way, I am available to review where you at and make recommendations.

I can also help you implement everything suggested in this article.

Be Ready to Receive

What I mean by this is you need to offer something that people want in a way that makes it easy for you to purchase from you.

This could be an effective website, landing page, or ticket purchase page.

Without a great offer and a smooth sales system, your marketing strategies will not be as effective as they could be.

Comprehensive Marketing Framework

Whether you are a brick-and-mortar operation or sell products and services online, here are the fundamental components for your online effectiveness:

  • A fast, search engine-friendly (SEO) website focused on selling your products and services.
  • A blogging component to feature your services and create an online presence in searches.
  • Mailing List. A mailing list is by far your best marketing tool and a concerted effort to build and use your list will pay dividends.
  • Google and Apple business profiles for physical stores to appear on maps with features of your business.
  • A social media presence with LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TicToc, and others. Pick the ones where your ideal clients hang out.
  • Create a LinkedIn Newsletter.
  • YouTube Channel. Video is a great tool for building expertise and selling products. Videos are posted to your YouTube channel, blog posts, and social media channels.

Coherent Messaging

Things change. We evolve. Our business focus changes.

Clarify your messaging for what you are offering today and make sure that your website, social media platforms, blog posts, and YouTube channel all effectively communicate a consistent and coherent message.

Make sure all of your oars are rowing in the same direction.

Content Marketing

Now it is time to leverage your marketing framework.

Here is an approach that is very effective at establishing your authority and boosting your online presence for searches and people connected with you.

  1. Create a piece of content such as this blog post.
  2. Optimize for searches with an effective splash image, title, and meta description so that your post is compelling on search listings and when posted on social media.
  3. Submit the post for indexing to Google Search Console.
  4. Consider posting the entire article for your LinkedIn Newsletter.
  5. Use the splash image to post out a description and link to the post on your social media channels. Meet Edgar and Hootsuite are good for this.
  6. Create a video for your YouTube channel and social media platforms. StreamYard is fabulous for this.

Publicity and Networking

Book launches, course launches, product launches, and the like are all great for getting publicity.

Press releases to all local and appropriate media outlets can be a very cost-effective way of getting the word out.

I can help you write a press release and find places to send it. There are also soon good paid press release services if you have things for a wide audience.

Other places to spread the word are networking groups, podcasts, and speaking engagements.

Landing Page and Sales Funnels

This can be as simple as creating an effective landing page and driving traffic to the page with your content marketing.

Or it could involve webinars, a series of videos, an email sequence, and other sales strategies.

For some, it is booking an appointment for a sales call.

Books, Courses, and Memberships

If you are already an author or course creator, I would use the holistic approach above to sell your stuff with the Publishing Sales Machine.

If not, I suggest you consider publishing to increase you reach, build authority, and make sales.

We can take you from concept to publication.

My Comprehensive Services

In addition to creating a roadmap for your success, here is a list of comprehensive services I offer:

  • Optimize your website or create a new one for marketing.
  • Create landing pages, sales funnels, memberships, mailing campaigns, affiliate offers, surveys, and more with Kartra.
  • Create video content and stream to many platforms with StreamYard.
  • Repurpose or write content for comprehensive content marketing.
  • Write articles and press releases.
  • Create digital and print assets.
  • Help optimize your brick-and-mortar presence.
  • Help with podcasts and audiobooks.
  • Create, format, and publish books on Amazon, IngramSpark, flipbooks, and my own Digital Experience Editions.
  • Create professional videos.
  • Most things you think of asking for …

Want help with any or all of that?

Think Different about Publishing, Marketing, and Story Productions

February 13, 2024 /

Consider how book publishing, course creation, stories, and marketing can all fit together holistically for you to share your stories and help people.

As humans, we tend to approach things in silos: write a book ~ create a course ~ sell a service ~ tell my story ~ do a broadcast ~ try marketing here ~ and write some stuff.

Me too.

Over the years I have tried a lot of boxes: writer ~ artist ~ musician ~ course creator ~ publisher ~ video creator ~ marketer ~ software engineer ~ driver ~ logger ~ fisher ~ minor ~ literature ~ philosophy ~ traveller …

Sometimes I think my most accurate job description is Chief Enabler to Do Stuff.

The list a variety of projects is vast and diverse!

Shared Visions Unlimited aims to integrate all of that to provide encouragement and services for Publishing, Course Creation, Story Production, and Marketing.

The essential idea is that we are all creative beings constantly exploring life and sharing things like stories, insights, products, and services to grow lives and businesses.

As Marie Forlio says, “The world needs that special gift that only you have.”

The main principle here is that there are many ways to get your message out into the world.

I will explore expanding and integrating media and strategies in the next sections.

Publish Your Book In Multiple Formats

I have helped people publish their books over the decades because they asked for my help. I recently recast Shared Visions Unlimited to include writing, publishing, and marketing services.

Betty Withrow and I have helped many authors complete their books and formatted and submitted the books to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark to get the printed and eBook versions out through the usual channels.

Here is an expanded list of where the content from your book could go:

We offer all of these versions.

  • Printed Book.
  • eBook (Kindle, Amazon Books, …)
  • Audio Books
  • Podcasts and Broadcasts (serial readings like Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and others used to publish their books).
  • Print Publications
  • Video
  • Flipbooks
  • Print Magazines
  • Digital Magazines
  • Digital Experience Editions

Courses and Membership Programs

If you come to me with a book you want published, I will likely suggest that you consider creating a related course or membership program to leverage your content and benefit more people.

If you talk to me with a course in mind, I will suggest you consider creating and publishing companion books as well.

And a comprehensive plan to develop and market the books, courses, and related stuff all at the same time using my Publishing Sales Machine.

Digital Experience Editions

I use the Kartra Membership platform to create a multimedia repository for books, audio, video, downloadable resources, exercises, and more to create a rich digital version of your book and any related course creation elements.

I marry a course creation platform with multimedia publishing.

Here are some examples:

Marketing Differently 

We often say the time to start marketing your book course or product is when you have the main idea and a working title.

Further than that, you can develop the content as part of your marketing campaign.

Let’s say you have an outline for a course and book. You can present each topic on your outline in live sessions and posts, all leading back to a landing page with an opt-in for a mailing list and a membership that grows over time.

You can start selling access right away, build engagement, and get feedback on your content.

Here are some related articles:

What Is Your Dream Project?

I can help implement the many components to take your books, courses, and story productions from concept to launch.

I can also help you repurpose the golden nuggets in your existing books, courses, and content. You likely have more resources than you think.

Or simply help you market existing products and services.

Let’s chat!

My Golden Offer

Let’s take a look at your publishing and marketing project and find a way to create a win for everyone.

One possibility is a modest retainer plus profit sharing for your offer.

I create the framework and marketing campaigns for success.

The Four-Hour Power Launch For Your Golden Offer

January 25, 2024 /

I have had a lot of success selling things like concert and stage production tickets from simple landing pages. Also things like How to Coach Baseball to Kids and other programs and products that people wanted.

It is a lot easier to sell something that people know they want and are actively seeking. Then the mission is to let people know about your Golden Offer and send people to the landing page.

The Four-Hour Power Launch is all about getting people to your landing page to either buy something or sign up for something.

Examples include:

  • Concert
  • Stage Production
  • Book Launch
  • Course Launch
  • Webinar Registration
  • Product
  • Information that Change Lives
  • …

Everything I will describe for a Power Launch can be done without cost with channels and tools you likely already have.

My Golden Offer is to have a discussion with you about doing a Power Launch for you in return for a percentage of sales

Your Golden Offer

This strategy assumes that you have a Golden Offer, like The Golden Key To Eternal Satisfaction, ready to roll and the mission is to let them know about it and get them to buy.

Here I am making up a Golden Offer that I am fairly sure would interest millions of people, as we head toward Superbowl Sunday.

Hang Out With Taylor Swift For Superbowl Sunday and Support Your Favorite Charity!

This assumes that the Kansas City Chiefs get by the Baltimore Ravens in the Conference Final. That will be tough as the Baltimore Ravens have been the most consistently competitive team through the regular season and the playoffs.

The Chiefs will need some Patrick Mahones ~ Travis Kelce ~ Taylor Swift magic.

The offer would look something like this:

Want to Hang Out With Taylor Swift On Superbowl Sunday?


Enter here to win a day with Taylor Swift including all of the Superbowl Sunday activities she attends ~ Pregame Events, Watch the Game, and Postgame Events.

As a winner, we will donate all of the net proceeds of this contest to a charity of your choice. We anticipate that donation to be millions of dollars that can change lives.

Enter the contest for $1

Enter Now!

Important: This is a fictional contest as a hypothetical example.

The Power Launch Roadmap

Here is the strategy I use do a launch within a day for a Golden Offer, something that people will want and sign up with a single exposure.

  1. Have a compelling offer.
  2. Create a Splash image for the offer.
  3. Create a landing page that presents the offer in a way that converts. I use Kartra for sales pages.
  4. Send your mailing list that describes the offer with a link to the sales page.
  5. Post one or more blog posts that send people to the landing page.
  6. Prerecord or live stream a video introducing the offer and sending to the landing page. I set up a LinkedIn event, then use StreamYard to broadcast to many channels, including:
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube
    • Facebook Profile, Pages, and Groups
    • Instagram
    • X (twitter)
    • …
  7. Use a social media tool like MeetEdgar to post to platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TicToc, Pinterest, …
  8. Publish as a podcast to Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Amazon, and others. I recently started using Buzzsprouts to push the podcasts out to the podcast platforms.

The main goal is to make sales, signups, and build a mailing list.

Most of the campaign is reusing the same marketing content across many platforms.

Since the whole process can be done in a few hours. you can repeat multiple times a week with variations of the posts.

I am available to do this with you or for you.

Paid Services to Consider

Everything described in the Power Launch Roadmap can be done with free or near-free websites and free video and social media accounts.

The following paid services can amplify the results, leverage your time, and integrate the marketing.

Paid Advertising

You can get your offer out to thousands of people in a targeted audience with Facebook ads and boosts for less than $40 a week.

This works very well for things like selling concert tickets and theater productions.

You may want to experiment with paid advertising with Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others. Start small and add money to ads that make sales.

You may also want to try radio and print ads. Radio ads can be very cost-effective for local markets.

Press Releases

Press releases can be a fantastic way to get publicity for your projects. An interview with a newspaper, magazine, radio program, or television station can be priceless.

You can send your press releases yourself.

You could also use a service to get your press release out to thousands of outlets.

Here is a comprehensive review of many recommended services for press releases.

https://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-press-release-service/

Available to Help

I can help you plan and implement your Power Launch for Your Golden Offer.

I can also do it all for you with my tools and strategies.

Add a Digital Experience Edition to Your Journey ~ Make Sales!

November 29, 2023 /

A Digital Experience Edition is for you if ANY of these apply to you:

  • You plan to publish a print book.
  • Your current books could use a boost in attention and sales.
  • You have multimedia content that could be made into books.
  • A course or membership program would fit your content.
  • You have stories to share!

What is a Digital Experience Edition?

A Digital Experience Edition is a structured collection of multimedia elements made available in a content portal.

Access to different parts of the content can be restricted by access levels.

What are the Benefits of a Digital Experience Edition?

Here are some of the advantages over printed books alone:

  • You can test your content early in the process by giving trusted reviewers access.
  • Videos, audio readings, downloads, exercises, and other elements can create a great experience for the reader.
  • You can start selling and marketing the Digital Experience Edition early in the Book Journey process.

Examples of Digital Experience Editions

Here are video tours of different uses for the Digital Experience Edition.

Tales from the Turkey Table by Bill Allman

This is a full-on Publishing Journey including a Digital Experience Edition, Paperback, and Kindle version.

The Rocket Norton Vault

This is a collection of most of musician and writer Rocket Norton‘s lifetime creative output, including books, recordings, videos, photos, and courses,

The Digital Experience Edition with Marketing Success Playbook

This package is for you if you have books, courses or other content that would go well in a Digital Experience Edition.

Includes:

  • Organizing your content into a Digitial Experience Edition.
  • Sales Landing Page.
  • Marketing Success Roadmap.
  • Launch Marketing.
  • Ongoing Content Expansion and Marketing Support.

$488 for the first month, plus $188 per month for ongoing hosting and marketing support.

We meet weekly to prioritize actions.

Limited Packages Available

If you want the Complete Book Journey with the Digital Experience Edition, published books, and comprehensive marketing, the Publishing Sales Machine may be for you.

What is the Publishing Sales Machine?

We combine the content collected during the book development process to create a Digital Experience Edition, Marketing Assets, and Sales on the journey to publishing the print editions.

This makes the Book Journey fun and profitable early in the process.

Is the Publishing Sales Machine Right for You?

Let’s chat.

How To Sell Books Published Through IngramSpark and Amazon KDP

November 13, 2023 /

Most authors who self-publish themselves or through a book consultant make few or no sales.

Part of the problem is that they upload the formatted files and covers to IngramSpark or Amazon KDP and expect sales to roll in without fully understanding how the books get sold.

IngramSpark

IngramSpark is a great choice for many authors because it puts your book into a very large distribution channel including most book retailers, libraries, Apple Books and Amazon.

So. How do you sell your book through IngramSpark?

IngramSpark does not provide a way for your fans to buy your book directly through them.

You sell by doing one or all of the following:

  1. Buy print copies yourself and sell them.
  2. Take payments yourself and order the books from your author link to IngramSpark to be printed and delivered to the client by IngramSpark.
  3. Convince book retailers to order through IngramSpark and promote your books.
  4. Send them to Apple Books and Amazon to buy them.

The bottom line is:

No One Will Buy Your Books If You Don’t Market Them

And selling the books yourself may required and recommended. We can help with that.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Understanding how your books sell on Amazon is easier to understand.

  1. Upload your book.
  2. Send people to Amazon to buy printed books or Kindle books.
  3. Order copies to give away or sell in person.

Since IngramSpark submits to Amazon KDP, IngramSpark is a good way to get on Amazon and also have a wider distribution through the IngramSpark distribution network.

Our Book Journey Marketing Plan

Betty Withrow and Greg Dixon offer a Complete Book Journey service that takes a book through development, writing, editing, formatting, and publishing through IngramSpark, Amazon KDP, or a book publishing company if you can secure a publishing deal.

Our marketing plan includes:

  • Sales Landing Page.
  • Blog Posts.
  • Social Media Posts.
  • YouTube Support.
  • Book Brigade.
  • Publicity Strategy.

We can also help with the sales and drop-ship model that works well with IngramSpark.

They can also help with direct sales of a digital version of your book Greg Dixon calls a Digital Experience Edition.

The Digital Experience Edition

Greg Dixon creates a multimedia version of your book that includes the text as well as images, audio and video components that enrich the reader experience.

We can create a Digital Experience Edition of your book and make digital sales as soon as the final editing is completed and while the book is being formatted and submitted for publishing.

Generate sales AND create a buzz for the printed book

Let’s talk about what would work for your book ready to be published.

And a Digital Experience Edition may create some life and cash flow to books you have already published that are getting little or no sales.

Let’s talk about your books.

Your Book Journey With Betty Withrow and Greg Dixon

October 3, 2023 /
View on LinkeIn

Betty Withrow and Greg Dixon talk about what they mean by a Book Journey and how it could look for Your Book Journey.

Betty and Greg can help you with your book from idea to publishing and marketing by either teaching you the steps or by working with you.

Typical Book Journey

  • You decide you want to write a book.
  • Brainstorm topics and themes for a book.
  • Brainstorm titles and descriptions.
  • Collect ideas for the book content.
  • Create an outline.
  • Expand the outline.
  • Developmental Editing
  • Copy Editing
  • Proofreading.
  • Formatting.
  • Final reviews and edits.
  • Submit for publishing
  • Marketing (which we will encourage you to start at the beginning of the book journey).

Your book journey may look a little different, though these are the main steps.

Betty Withrow and Greg Dixon can help you with your book journey from where you are in the process now.

Maybe you are at step one or you could be ready for editing and formatting,

Let’s discuss.

Book Journey Offers

Betty Withrow and Greg Dixon can help you in various ways, including a retainer to take the journey with you.

Publishing Sales Machine

A great path for you could be their Publishing Sales Machine where they combine creating a book, a continuity program, and sales during the development process.

The main idea is that the content that would go into a book can also go into an online course or program as well as be used for marketing to boost your authority and attract clients and sales.

Betty and Greg offer a low-cost workshop program as well as a personal retainer.

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