Do you think Amazon doesn’t matter? Do you feel they could never cut into your business? That is exactly what local and mega pharmacies thought until Amazon announced they may be getting into the pharmacy business. Since then, all hell has been breaking loose. Out of fear of the possibility of Amazon entering the marketplace, CVS is buying Aetna health insurance for $69 billion. This purchase will entrench the two companies deeper into the health insurance space and make them much larger customers for key suppliers and partners.
But this isn’t happening in your business, so no worries, right?
The Behemoths are Coming
If you’re a lawyer, you have Avvo and others starting to compete in your space.
If you’re an orthodontist or a dentist, you now have at-home braces to compete with.
Maybe your business isn’t affected yet, but it is coming. Thousands of people read this blog each month, and you know what? Most won’t give another thought to this issue after the three minutes it takes to read it. But that would be a mistake.
The Amazons of the world are coming. They want to take your business and money. You can wait until they get here and likely lose it all, or you can simply take action now and be one of the few who survive.
How the Mighty Have Fallen
If you think I’m simply being an alarmist, ask Borders, Barnes & Noble, Toys R Us, Sears, and Kmart if they wish they’d taken action sooner. The former kings of the retail industry are shuttering their stores and filing for bankruptcy, and it’s not because people have stopped buying. Last Black Friday, Amazon sold 200,000 toys in just the first five hours. The consumers are there, but the old ways of business aren’t winning them over anymore.
So, how do you win against these behemoths?
The good news is that you have the foundation of what you need to win: YOU.
What Amazon Can’t Replicate
It is impossible for these giants to win against you if the business is built around your personality. People don’t connect with Amazon the company, but they can connect with you, the lawyer, doctor, or plumber.
They can have a relationship with you that makes the price less relevant. That makes you their go-to provider. That makes your customers immune to the siren song of those corporations. But you have to start now, or the cost for being late to the game will be either your entire business or hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars in lost revenue, slow growth, and customer churn.
This is your wake-up call. The time is nigh. You have to act now or put your family and business at risk.
Customer Relations Matter
Building a relationship starts with media and communication. Be present in your customers’ lives, and not just when you’re asking them for money. Let them peek behind the curtain of your life. Build talking points that let people get to know you — and to help you get to know your customers and prospects better as well.
Engage them with multiple media channels, lots of quality content, and personality.
But all of that creates an additional problem: When do you have time to create all this content?
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be difficult.
Bring In the Pros
If you’re reading this and don’t currently publish a newsletter with me and The Newsletter Pro, then I have good news for you. We ghostwrite the content for you, which includes interviewing you and writing and editing the content so it sounds like you wrote it. Content is the start of this process.
Not yet using The Newsletter Pro? Grab a free copy of my book on newsletter marketing.
Stepping Beyond the Newsletter
Once you have custom content written, you can reuse it and slice it up into smaller chunks. Let me give you a few examples:
- Set up a spot in your office to record videos or simply use an iPhone to record a section of one of the articles — maybe even add a little to the original story. Now you have a video for your website and YouTube.
- Rip the audio from that video to make an MP3.
- Take quotes from the articles and use them on Facebook and Twitter.
- Use the same article as a starter (or use the complete article) for an email to your list. I recommend using them just as a starter, since the articles are long, but it’s up to you.
- Add the articles to your blog. *cough*
- Add links to the articles on your social media sites.
- Take the article and use it as a follow-up mailer for unconverted leads, with the article on one side and an offer on the other side. This strategy depends on the topic of the article.
You get the point: Reuse the content in the example above in many ways. You spent 15 minutes on the phone being interviewed to get the content, and other than recording the video, someone else can create and implement every single other strategy I listed above.
What if you had two or three articles just like this one? How much content could you pump out each month in a pretty short period of time if you repurposed all your custom content?
I’ve Heard It All Before
I typically get two objections here. One of them is “If I reuse the content, people will know and be annoyed.” Let me tell you, only your spouse and parents are paying close enough attention to your business to consume that much information from you and remember it. No one reads everything you put on social media, every email you send, each blog post you write, AND watches all your videos. If they do, then good news: They are going to buy something from you.
Of course, you may also be thinking, “I don’t need a newsletter. I’ll just create online content.” Big mistake. In a recent “day in the basement” a friend of mine had with Dan Kennedy (if you don’t know, Dan does his personal consultations in the basement of his home), the topic of newsletters came up, and Dan said, “You must, MUST be doing a newsletter every month. It’s critical to maintain this relationship. It’s what makes you different and attracts them to you.”
The Power of Print
All the other gurus you listen to got their start with Dan. He is the guru’s guru, and he isn’t wrong. You need to have a foundational piece to your marketing that gets done each month and builds the relationship. The smart ones then leverage the content to create all the other marketing and content they need each month. If you think you can cheap out on this and email it, think again. “Digital-only is a huge mistake,” says Dan. Even Amazon now has physical stores and sends postcards, so tell me again why it would be smart for you to go digital-only?
Only You Can Save Your Business
Do you want to be here two years, three years, five years, or even 10 years from now? You have to build relationships with customers and prospects. If not, you will struggle, and you may lose it all and have to start over. I know that paints a grim picture, but I’d rather hit you with the truth so you can fix it now instead of struggling after it is too late.
Want help with a newsletter and getting ghostwritten content that you can reuse? Make an appointment to chat with a Pro. Need help now? Call 208-297-5700 and let them know you’d like to speak with a consultant about starting your newsletter campaign.
