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MenuI am seeking to add 900 email subscribers (currently have 141) to ProjectManagementHacks.com by May 1. I am looking for suggestions for grow faster!
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Seems like you're headed in the right direction, especially with the webinars and the guest blogging - these are a great way to increase the interest to your service.
Also, 900 subscribers by May sounds totally realistic.
However, the website definitely needs a lot of work. It looks like a general blog, nothing too professional to convey trust and authority. No additional pages for your services, it's hard to get in touch with you, the only lead form is the Hello Bar on the top (that is a bit too large).
The landing page and the exit intent popup are also really bad - you'll have to work on the design aspects or use plugins such as OptinMonster for optins and Unbounce/LeadPages for landing pages.
No related posts, no way to convince a user to stay after a post is done.
The list is long, I can share a few other things as well and help you with the design concept and measuring your leads if you're interested.
You are on the right track, and the numerous guest blog posts are a good start. Your landing page definitely needs work, though - both in terms of visual design and conversion optimization.
One great way to drive more traffic back to your own site from guest blog posts (since that one link in your bio won't get many clicks) is to create an offer *specifically* for the readers of that particular site. Take for example your guest post on letsgrowleaders.com. Spend a couple hours bundling up some content (could be a PDF download, a template, a worksheet, etc. - feel free to get creative here) that caters specifically to that audience ("3 Project Management Templates for Leaders"), and then embed that offer at the bottom of your guest post. Be sure to get permission to include a call-to-action for that offer from the folks you're blogging for, of course, but crafting a unique offer for *their* audience will often win their approval.
I'd also recommend building out a module to collect email addresses directly within the post in addition to linking to your own landing page for the content -- it should help you increase your conversion rate & collect more emails.
Hellobar is actually a good option but given your skills probably would be best if you use something like http://convertkit.com/
I'm with Mario on considering a big of a redesign to convey a little more trust and authority. Might seem like a big investment now but it's totally worth it.
In terms of growth though, free reports (PDF downloads), and webinars are a great growth strategy.
In 2003 for example we launched this site with 5 PDF reports, and 3 audio interviews (case studies): http://www.agentpress.com. We got 3,000 subscribers in about 1.5 months.
Try pop-up domination, design a good opt-in and offer the free report as an incentive.
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Hi, how do I grow my (video) production company without 1) taking on too much overhead 2) burning people out 3) maintaining our strong culture?
There are three ways to grow any business: 1. Increase number of clients 2. Increase average sale amount 3. Increase frequency of sales If your company is already fully booked, I suggest that you start by simply raising your prices. You might lose some clients, but usually when a business raises prices, the clients they lose are the most troublesome ones. Refocus sales & marketing efforts on attracting higher-end clients or doing more work for your best existing clients. You can also typically boost your short-term bookings by pre-announcing the price hike and get some potential clients "off the fence" with an offer to sign now at the old rate. To avoid adding unnecessary overhead as the company grows, dedicate some time to building strong, repeatable systems and to automating processes where possible. The most important place to do this is in your sales systems, so that your revenues become predictable and you can scale them at-will by adjusting your sales & marketing expenditure. If your sales systems are already pretty solid and you want to boost your production capacity to keep up, again look to systematize and automate as much as possible. Break the whole production process down into steps: sale, concept, script, taping, editing, post-production, review, delivery, collecting payment, and so on. Write down each logical step, and then write down all of the physical actions that need to take place to get the desired result. Who can perform each of those actions? Is it something that could be partially or fully automated with software (e.g. project planning)? Something that you could outsource (e.g. video editing, bookkeeping)? Or is it something that is your "secret sauce" or otherwise requires specialized in-house talent (e.g. creative work, executive management)? By really getting down to exactly what roles must be performed by your employees, you can calculate how many employees you're going to need in a given role, for a given workload. Now you have a hiring plan. A highly-scalable organization will focus on doing what they do best, while automating, outsourcing, or eliminating as much as possible of the other work involved in performing their business. OK, last topic: Culture. People much smarter than me have written entire books on this topic. The best advice in regards to culture and employees largely boils down to: 1) Be *intentional* about creating the company culture. Decide up front what you will value as a company, and communicate this throughout the organization. 2) People REspect what you INspect. Trust your people, but verify. For example, if your organization is highly customer-service oriented, then make darned sure that your clients feel like they were treated just as you expected that they would be treated. Call them up personally. Make sure your employees are aware that you're doing this. 3) A new hire's indoctrination into the company culture begins the moment they first enter your world, and first impressions matter. Do your website, interview and hiring process, and new-hire orientation all reflect your intended company culture perfectly? Or does a new-hire get mixed messages because current standard practices or employee behavior is inconsistent with your stated values? 4) Hire people based on whether they are a cultural fit. Have each candidate interviewed independently by multiple people, all of whom are evaluating that person on cultural fit. If you're small enough, have the entire company interview them. If you hire someone who doesn't fit your culture, you have just eroded it. 5) People who share your company values almost certainly associate with other people who share those values. Leverage their networks to find great candidates. Even if they're not looking to make a move, or you're not hiring, or not hiring for a position they could fill, make the connection anyway, and keep in touch. The easiest way to fill a job in the future is when you already have a list of pre-qualified people who'd love to work for you. 6) The only way someone should be able to get fired is by violating the norms of your company culture. And if someone does commit a serious violation, they need to be let go--immediately. And here's one last strategy that can increase your profits without taking on much of any extra overhead at all: Think about what else your clients need—even things that you can't offer them directly. You already have a relationship with them, and if you're doing things right, it's a *trusted* relationship. Figure out what they need, find a partner who can deliver that for them, and then make an arrangement where you sell those products or services to your client and have them fulfilled by your joint-venture partner. 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How can I effectively use an old email list from a previous business to jump start my next business?
Use the "audience" feature on facebook and import all of your emails. Facebook will match them so that you can ran ads to promote your new startup or service to whoever has a fb profile with that email. Happy to help if you need more infoHJ
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How has Uber grown so fast?
Obviously, they do the fundamentals well. Good brand. Good experience. Good word of mouth. Good PR. Etc. Etc. But after my interview with Ryan Graves, the head of Global Operations at Uber (https://www.growthhacker.tv/ryan-graves), it became clear that they are operationally advanced and this is a huge part of their success. I'll explain. Uber isn't just a single startup, it's essentially dozens of startups rolled into one because every time they enter a new city they have to establish themselves from essentially nothing (except whatever brand equity has reached the city ahead of them). This means finding/training drivers, marketing to consumers, and building out local staff to manage operations for that city. This is where Ryan Graves comes in. He has a protocol of everything that must be done, and in what order, and by who, to ensure the best chance of success in a new city. So how has Uber grown so fast? Essentially, they figured out how to grow in one locale and were relentless about refining their launch process to recreate that initial success over and over in new cities. No plan works for every city, and they've had to adapt in many situations, but it is still a driving factor for their success.BT
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What is the industry average conversion rate for cold emailing?
Cold emailing is just as bad for you and the recipient. Even if you have the perfect list, the attempt to sell in a cold email is rarely going to be effective. You're better off curating the list to the top prospects, find a mutual connection on LinkedIn or even just cold-invite them on LinkedIn,. Worst case scenario, send a 'permission pass' email where you simply gauge interest and let them know you won't be emailing them again if there's no interest. Keep it very short, non-commercial with just solid information/links to web, and an easy to reply yes/no answer.BI
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How do you approach an influencer, a "guru" or a podcaster /blogger in your niche offering a commission without being too direct?
Do the opposite. Think about it from their point of view. They get requests like these all the time and most of the time the request comes from random people they don't know. That would be kind of annoying right? You get an email from someone you don't know but they want you to do something for them? You'd delete that email too. Best way to get their attention...get a referral from someone they know and trust. Get someone else they know and trust to introduce you (this is the whole reason I built my business www.reverralriver.com). Referrals work the best. Second best way...develop a relationship with them before asking for anything. Don't email and ask for something right away. You wouldn't ask someone to marry you on a first date would you? Develop the relationship slowly. Give them value before ever asking for anything in return. Over just a few short weeks you could easily establish a relationship to the point where you could actually mention an "ask" which should be very open-ended and create absolutely zero work/friction for the person you are asking. One of my favorite techniques to warm-up a relationship...just email and tell them you appreciated (insert an article they wrote or service they provide, whatever, just stroke their ego). Tell them you're a fan and often point people their way. Then go way above and beyond and find their physical mailing address (it's not that hard to do) and send them a small gift or hand-written postcard in the mail just to say thanks. Then email them once you know they got it and just say thanks again. Then start emailing them various articles or things they might think are valuable, I'd say no more than once every 4 days. Connect on LinkedIN and message them funny pictures or GIF's. Show them you're human. Make them laugh and smile and just say "Hey I appreciate all you've done so just wanted to return the favor and make you smile (insert funny GIF here)". Then, once they know who you are, don't ask them directly to partner...ask them if they know anyone who would be interested in partnering. Below is a template I've used with great success...and the beauty is that they will often ask for more info and get interested themselves, but usually only if you have offered them some sort of value to stand out amongst the crowd. --- Hey (prospect first name), Hope you laughed at the last GIF I sent. I was just wondering if you knew anyone that would be interested in a partnership/affiliate opportunity… Real quick summary… I’m building a SaaS that automates the process of asking for referrals…it uses artificial intelligence to find potential leads in your existing customers network and makes it super simple for your customers to make the referral (one click of a button). If you know anyone that has an audience of people that would benefit from something like this I'd be grateful for an intro. I won't let you down I promise if you can make an intro. I’ll draft up all the marketing material and do all of the work, so all they would have to do is say “ok”, hit copy, paste, and send and I’d be happy to pay them 25% commission for life (or if there is another payment structure in mind I’m happy to talk about it) So what do you think? Can you help me out? Thanks, Parker ---- If you found this useful please upvote. Book a call with me if you want to know more or if I can help further.PW
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