Sound Solutions: North Bank Audio Solutions

I recently gave an endorsement to my good friend and client Adam Urbanski of The Marketing Mentors for his upcoming Attract Clients Like Crazy event.

Well, if you’re on any of Adam’s lists, you should have already gotten his message about my testimonial, but I wanted to share you the link with you myself so that you could see what he did.

Have a look for yourself:
http://www.northbankaudio.com/mmtestimonial

What struck me about this was, not only did this testimonial become a vehicle for a powerful promotion that Adam could send out to his list, but it also became a promotion for me as well! I’ve already seen a few new opt-ins directly from this promotion he sent out.

The real reason I’m sharing this with you is two fold:

#1) I want you to learn from what Adam did.

Make sure you’re asking your clients, associates and even contractors or employees for testimonials.

When you’re asking for testimonials, coach your clients on what you’re looking for.

I’m going to follow this up soon with the anatomy of an effective testimonial, but listen to the one I recorded for Adam at the link above for the basic format.

#2) I want you to learn from what I did.

Are you offering testimonials to your associates who are highly visible in your target market? If the answer is  ‘no’, you’re leaving money on the table.

I knew that giving a testimonial to someone with as much  visibility in my target market as Adam has would pay off  for me just as much as it would for him.

Notice that I plugged my website in the beginning and end  of the audio I recorded. Whenever introducing yourself,  don’t use your company name - use your website.

Here’s that link again:
http://www.northbankaudio.com/mmtestimonial

One more thing… whenever dealing with testimonials, whether you are giving one or asking for one, audio and video is much better than just text.

You can truly identify with your audience and authentically present a message in these forms. Plus, different people like to learn in different ways and you need to make all of your information as easy to consume as possible.

Do you have any testimonial tips to share? Any big wins or horror stories? Do you absolutely disagree with what I just said?

Join the conversation. Add a comment below.

Over the last couple months I’ve been quietly developing and piloting a new online marketing program that’s unlike anything I’ve seen out there, but also desperately needed.

One of my first clients to take advantage of the beta test of this new system is Tracy Monteforte of WTPowers.com.

She gave me one members only teleseminar she did about a year back and my team and I repurposed it into articles, videos and podcast episodes all linking back to her site.

Instead of her content just sitting there, it’s working for her now and the valuable information she created a year ago is getting out to her target market through multiple online media channels.

Check it out:

1. Article marketing - We transcribed her teleseminar and harvested several articles which were then submitted to hundreds of online directories and publications. This is absolutely one of the most effective ways to gain traffic and improve your search engine rankings.
2. Podcasting - We set her up with a blog powering a podcast so that people can subscribe to her content. Blogs are traffic magnets to begin with, but we harnessed the power of her audio by submitting her to dozens of podcast directories which will now spider her feed, providing links back to her site. She’s also in the iTunes library now which is a huge credibility builder. People can subscribe to her podcast via RSS.
3. Videos - We combined the text and audio components and submitted them as “viral videos” to the top video sites including YouTube, Yahoo Video, Google and Meta Cafe. Check one of her videos here:

This is great because she, like so many entrepreneurs I know, always wanted to take advantage of these highly effective, low cost online marketing strategies, but she just couldn’t find the time and didn’t have the resources to do it herself.

Want your content to work for you too? Contact us to find out how.

Many of my clients know they and their clients and customers would benefit from them creating new information products, but they get stuck somewhere in the conceptual process.

They start thinking about creating a product and end up talking themselves out of it for some reason.

One of these reasons is that they think that they should only create a product that they are a reputible expert on. This logic is flawed because there are few ways better than creating a product to propel yourself to perceived expert status.

Another reason people get stuck when creating audio or video info products is that they don’t know which idea to move forward with.

I’ll give you a hint for this one…

“Listen to the marketplace.”

What kinds of questions do you find yourself getting asked all the time? Is there something you’ve accomplished and others have repeatedly asked your how you did it? Which of your blog posts get the most views or comments? Which of your marketing emails get the best response? What other products are selling well in your target market? Even if there’s already something out there similar, your target market may need to hear it from you in your voice in order for them to reap the full benefits of the information.

These ideas are the ones you should be focusing on - not just whatever you feel like creating a product about.

If you create an information product that responds to a need in the marketplace, you’ll avoid the trial and error and guesswork that so many information marketers, coaches and consultants go through in this area. You and your customers will both benefit because you’ll sell more products and gain more new clients and your customers will get what they want as well.

I’m getting ready to head to Europe for a gratuitous 30 day vacation. I can’t wait to go and see a part of the world I have never seen before.

Do you want to know the best part?

I’m actually going to MAKE money while I’m gone.

Because I planned this trip months in advance with no plan on how I was going to afford it or how my business was going to run without me, I was forced to get into solution mode. I’ll admit it - I had a few freak-out moments, but what this vacation has forced me to do is get all of my day-to-day business operations either off plate or simplified to the point of automation!

Creating this self-imposed deadline has gotten me out of the “I know I should delegate, but I’m so comfortable where I am” trap and I have now opened up nearly my entire schedule to fill with what I want. Granted - it came with some expenses, but overall - it’s been a huge growth spurt for me and my business.

I’m putting most things on autopilot and deferring most new projects until my return, but the great thing is, when I get back - I won’t be swamped and my business will be ready to launch into the next stage of growth in a way that it never would have been without this vacation.

Here’s the scenario:

• You have your call or presentation recorded.
• You want the audio recording cleaned up.
• You also want the call transcribed.

Here’s where the big mistake comes in…

Many people don’t know which order to have things done in.

Do they have the audio edited and then transcribed, or do they have it transcribed first and then edit the audio?

Well, I’m hear to tell you the best way to handle this situation. This tip will save you literally hundreds of dollars over the next year.

1. Have the recording transcribed first.
2. Then go through (or better yet - have your assistant go through) the transcription and highlight the portions that should be deleted from the audio. Do the highlighting digitally with a software like Microsoft Word.
3. Then, send the marked up transcription to your audio editor.

The reason this will save you so much money is by being specific about what needs to be taken out of the recording, your audio editor will spend less time communicating with you and less time working on your project. He or she will be able to easily locate the edit points and remove the unwanted parts without having to listen to the entire audio.

“So,” you might say, “that’s great and all, but what if I don’t have my recorded calls and presentations transcribed.”

Well, that’s another big mistake people often make. They spend the money to have a presentation recorded and sometimes event edited, but they don’t put in the extra money for transcription.

I’m hear to tell you that transcription can pay for itself, if you follow these steps:

1. Turn your recorded teleseminars into free or paid products. Remember to require an opt-in before you give away a free gift. With the audio, include the transcripts as a pdf eBook. This will double the value of your product and allow all types of learners to consume your content.
2. Chop up your transcript into marketing materials! Some great repurposing opportunities are blog posts, articles for submissions, press releases. You can even turn them into powerpoint presentations, lay them over the video and submit them to the viral video engines.
3. Don’t do it all yourself! This one is the real kicker. The beautiful thing about recordings is that they multiply your reach and  the impact you have on the world with little added effort. What would the point be of taking yourself away from your high payoff activities when you could hire someone else at a fraction of what you charge to do these things even better and faster for you?

Need some help getting started with these steps? Contact us or check out our free teleclass on leverage marketing here.