How To Successfully Market Your Business With A Pink Spoon

If you have ever signed up on a website to receive information in the form of a free report, newsletter or ebook and had this delivered to your inbox, you have experienced the pink spoon. A pink spoon is a ‘free taste’ of what a business has to offer. It is like the ice cream franchise that offers potential customers the opportunity to sample a flavour of their ice cream using a pink spoon. If a potential customer likes their ‘free taste’ they will go on to make a purchase. This catchy phrase was coined by Andrea J. Lee, award-winning author, coach, consultant and online business manager.

Why is Pink Spoon Marketing a good way to boost business?

• It is a lead generation tool. Providing a free offering to visitors to your website is a good way to capture people’s names and email addresses.
• It allows you to keep in regular contact with your prospects. You are building a mailing list that you can broadcast to.
• It is a way to build relationships and trust. As you continue to communicate with your list, they get to know you and see the value of the products and services you have to offer.
• It generates new business. You will earn paying clients when your services fit with their needs.

A Pink Spoon can apply to almost any industry and there are many possibilities of what you can offer as a freebie. Here are a few examples:

• a 5 part (or 6 part etc.) e-course
• a free report
• a newsletter subscription
• a free chapter of your book

Are you ready to start setting up your pink spoon to build your database? You will need:

• An email marketing or shopping cart service with website sign up form and autoresponder capabilities, i.e. AWeber, Practice Pay Solutions. (If you’re not quite ready to start selling products you can still go with a shopping cart and upgrade your cart later with the selling features.)
• A pink spoon sign up form and attached thank you page on your website. The sign up form should be one of the first things someone sees when they visit your website. Generally the form is added to the top right of a web page and is really obvious. The form is usually quite simple asking for First Name and Primary Email with a Submit button. If it takes too long to complete the form or the info you are asking for seems too personal to give out on a website for a free offering, the less likely people will sign up. It is also good practice to indicate that you will never share your prospects information with anyone and that they have the option to unsubscribe at any time.
• An autoresponder or a series of autoresponder emails to be sent out on a predetermined schedule to deliver your free offering and broadcasts for ongoing communication with your list.
• Support with the process. If you are technically challenged, find a Virtual Assistant or a Webmaster who is familiar with this marketing strategy and who has the technical expertise to set up and customize the shopping cart and your website.

If you are willing to take the initiative, pink spoon marketing is something that can be set up once and continue to work for you time after time.

The Top 7 Reasons You Don’t Have Time For What’s Important

One of the most common challenges I hear from small business owners is that they do not have enough time to focus on what’s really important in their business. In order to solve this problem you first have to determine why this is a challenge. Once this is clear, you can look at strategies to help you manage the little things better and free up more time for what’s important.

What’s important is unique to each business and is usually related directly to the core business activity and why the business owner started the business in the first place. Personal satisfaction and achievement, pride in the job and a flexible lifestyle are generally valued higher than wealth creation.

Here are the top 7 reasons you don’t have time for what’s important:

1. You are spending too much time on “X” – Replace “X” with one of your top time wasters. What is it that you always seem to get stuck on for hours at a time? For important but often repetitive tasks like replying to email inquiries or submitting proposals, create and save templates that can be used over and over and modified when needed.

2. You don’t follow a schedule – If you start your day by sitting down at your desk wondering what you will do today, you will not be productive and likely not accomplish anything important. End your day by creating a to-do list for the next day. You will have focus and know what needs to be done.

3. You have too many clients/commitments – This seems like a good problem to have, however, it’s better to have fewer clients that get your full attention than more than you can handle. With too many commitments the quality of your work can suffer along with your good reputation.

4. You have trouble saying “no” – Make it a rule to never promise what you can’t deliver. This means sometimes having to say “no”. Your clients, family and friends will respect you for your honesty and will trust your word.

5. You are unorganized – Your work area is a disaster zone. Papers strewn across your desk, no set schedule and you’ve misplaced your day timer. Before you jump into your work day, take 15 minutes to clear your desk and clear your mind saving you more than the 15 minutes you invested.

6. You have bad habits – You know what you’re doing wrong and you know how to correct it but you’re stuck in the habit. I’m sure you’ve heard the quote by Tony Robbins, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” Start by replacing one bad habit with a good habit.

7. You need help – You are doing everything ‘right’, the problem is that your business has grown to the point that you cannot continue to do it all and still maintain your high standards. You’ve heard about outsourcing and are ready to look into this further.

Identify what challenge has the highest impact on your time and then focus 100% of your effort on that one thing. To make the change successful, keep it simple and do not overwhelm yourself. A change will do you good!