Blogs - Page 4 of 9 - Focus Guru

How Being Consistent On Social Media Is One Of The Keys To Business Success

Nobody says being consistent is easy at first, but I will promise you that it makes a big difference. Just think about the most prominent brands on the market and you’ll spot they all have something in common. They are consistent. They’re always on your social media radar and through Focus Guru I’ll show you how you can do the same for your business too.

It doesn’t matter whether you make and sell your own products or services, or if you’re part of a network marketing team selling pre-packaged items, being consistent in your marketing and on social media makes a huge difference. If you’re part of a network marketing team, perhaps with Arbonne, Utility Warehouse, Forever Living, Enjo, PartyLite, or Tropic, you might already be using your company marketing material and upline support.

But do you use your marketing tools consistently?

Are you posting on social media regularly?

Have you made the most of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and Email to attract new customers?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, please contact me. If you would like more sales, please contact me and I can help. To do this, I’m offering a free 15 minute chat for business owners to help uncover anything which may be stopping you from being consistent in your social media.

“A quick phone call with Rachael has led to a page of notes with ideas and steps to take to help both of my Wedding and Kids businesses take a step forward!” – Charlotte Elizabeth

The free 15 minute chat may uncover areas in your personal life which are be preventing you spending time on business activities, and vice versa. For example, through the chat we may discover you’re more productive in the morning, perhaps there is less stress or fewer interruptions. It makes sense to keep this time free to complete your core activities, the “big rocks”. Equally, if the chat identifies you’re carrying out the school run ten times a week, don’t count on these hours to write your weekly newsletter.

In the Focus Guru Power Hours I’ll help identify your “best hours”, the times during the day where you can carry out the marketing tasks to propel your business towards a consistent social media presence. I’ll cover how to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and Email consistently, without any stress or overwhelm. Having a consistent approach pays off in many ways.

“Definitely worth a phone call, Rachael had thought of marketing ideas I hadn’t even considered or thought of!” – Charlotte Elizabeth

Building consistency into your marketing has far-reaching and sometimes unexpected results. It can take many contacts with a prospective customer before they are ready to buy from you. Estimates range from two or three contacts to more than twenty times. That means someone may need to see your marketing message twenty times before they buy from you.

I help make the process of being consistent really simple and easy to implement. Taking out a Focus Guru package makes sure your marketing message is delivered on time each day or each week in front of your targeted customers. You can choose exactly when and where your social media marketing is posted and if you need help writing the content, I can arrange this for you too!

To book your Focus Guru Power Hour, please contact me on 07756 772950 and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Are You A “Messy Desk” Person And Does It Matter?

Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

and there’s certainly evidence to support a theory that a messy desk belongs to someone with a streak of creativity, thinking outside of the box ideas, an entrepreneur or inventor, perhaps even someone with a touch of genius.

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

But if your messy desk is causing you stress or overwhelm, don’t panic! I can help. I won’t be able to tidy your desk for you, but I will empower you with real strategies to tackle the mess, to become more organised and show you how to restore order to chaos. I do this through Focus Guru Power Hours, where you’ll learn key skills to apply in your business and at home and achieve your goals.

“Rachael has great ideas and a fantastic system for getting yourself organised. Certainly worth a conversation to explore options.” – Sharon Broer

How Desks Get Messy

For some people, the flat surface of a desk becomes a magnet for clutter. It can only take a few minutes for a coffee cup, unopened post, receipts hastily scooped out of a wallet, a phone charger, loose papers and a multitude of other items start balancing one on top of the other. There comes a point when you don’t know if your desk is black or white or made of wood or metal, because it has vanished out of sight! Was there a mouse and keyboard somewhere under the clutter?

Possible Consequences

Loss of time is almost certainly a possible consequence. How long does it take you to find your car key, a client’s phone number, or the agenda for your next meeting? Not keeping on top of your paperwork can lead to losing client enquiries, failing to attend meetings and missing important deadlines. But it can also lead to feelings of anxiety, stress and depression. You may find you experience a tension headache, or backache. A messy desk also attracts dust, dirt and mould.

How To Change

In my Focus Guru Power Hours I will help identify the messy triggers in your life. Without fail, there is always a reason why you don’t file your receipts, or you have random phone numbers written on post-its. I can teach you systems and processes to manage clutter so that it doesn’t build up unmanageably. I will recommend strategies to make sure you don’t run out of time or energy to keep on top of things. The key skills are “Organisation” and “Accountability” and in your Focus Guru Power Hour you’ll learn exactly how to put these in place.

Why It Matters

Decluttering is proven to make us feel good. It’s satisfying to feel on top of clutter and mess. This doesn’t mean you can’t still have a coffee cup on your desk, or that you have to move every piece of paper into a filing system (or the bin). It’s about creating a positive working environment to enable you to sit at your desk, knowing what needs to be done, by when, and freeing up your time to pursue your goals.

Your Next Step To Achieving A Tidy Desk

I’ve mentioned Focus Guru Power Hours where in sixty minutes we’ll chat and I’ll guide you through proven strategies to improve your organisation and accountability skills. You’ll find the benefits reach far beyond whether your desk is tidy or cluttered. These are strong habits you’ll be forming to help you achieve more in your work and personal life.

Those goals you thought were out of reach will become achievable and the best part is you don’t need to leave your desk to participate! I offer a free 15 minute consultation to establish where you would like to start and give you a choice of Focus Guru Power Hours to help solve your most pressing problems.

To book your free 15 minute consultation, please contact me on 07756 772950 and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Mailchimp Training – Make Your Mailshots Work For You!

Focus Guru Power Hour Mailchimp Training – Make Your Mailshots Work For You!

Sending a personalised email is still one of the best ways to communicate with your customers. Whether you want to talk about a new product or service, relay industry news or share a special offer, sending an email gets your message directly in front of your customer at any time of the day or night.

There are several ways you can set up an effective mailshot and through Focus Guru, I recommend using Mailchimp, the easy-to-learn software that gives you full control of your mailing list. You can create emails to go to every customer, or set up custom tags, for example to email people you met through 4Networking, or at a trade show, or those who haven’t bought from you for a while.

“I was really impressed with Rachael’s knowledge of Mailchimp and how she helped make it really easy to keep in touch with my customers.” – Jenny Leggott, Transcend Zero

A number of my clients are using Mailchimp to send out a weekly newsletter promoting their services and announcing time-limited special offers. The response rate is excellent and Mailchimp includes a comprehensive dashboard so you can see at a glance how many emails have been opened and who has clicked on your links.

Armed with this level of detailed information, follow up messages can be sent, phone calls can be made, deals can be done, and sales can come flooding in. In your Focus Guru Power Hour covering Mailchimp Training, I show you from start to finish how you can make the most of your list of business contacts.

How does it work?

In your Focus Guru Power Hour, I’ll show you how to set up your Mailchimp account, or if you already have an account, we’ll start in the “Contacts” section. I’ll help you add your contacts and tag them in appropriate categories, which will be used time and time again to match the right contacts with the content you want to share with them.

For example, if you have 1000 email addresses, you can sub-divide your contacts into places where you’ve met, or services they are interested in, by location, or any demographic you choose. Sending relevant content to the right people will automatically increase your read response rate and reduce unsubscribe requests

We’ll run through a test email and then set up a real-world campaign so you can begin using Mailchimp straightaway. Or you can schedule your email if preferred. I’ll show you how the Mailchimp Scheduler enables you to send emails at your chosen time, on your chosen day.

Following the Focus Guru Mailchimp Training Power Hour, some clients choose to send their emails using the scheduler, for example regularly emailing their targeted customers first thing on a Monday morning. Others prefer to only send emails when something happens in their business or business sector.

The final step is the analytics, where I show you how to analyse and act on the response from your email campaign. This is where you can assess the effectiveness of your email. How many people opened your message? Who clicked on a link? What happened next?

“I’d definitely recommend the Focus Guru Power Hours to anyone who wants to learn more about Mailchimp and set up their own campaigns.” – Jenny Leggott, Transcend Zero

If you would like to book a Focus Guru Power Hour on Mailchimp Training, please contact me on 07756 772950. I also offer Focus Guru Power Hours on using Zoom, Hootsuite, online calendars, plus building organisation, networking and accountability. Let’s get started!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How to Maximise the Benefits of Calendly and Zoom

Focus Guru Power Hour – How to Maximise the Benefits of Calendly and Zoom

Using an appointment scheduler to arrange meetings with colleagues and customers is one of the best ways to make sure everyone knows what’s going on, and when. There’s no excuse someone didn’t get the memo or the post-it on their desk. Using an app to manage your online diary is proven to increase attendance and reduce “no shows”.

How to use Calendly and zoom to organise meetings

In my Focus Guru Power Hours, I work with business owners and team members to optimise their working hours. I help people use their time twice, avoid squirrels, and increase productivity. I do this through 121 learning sessions, offering easy to implement techniques in organisation, time management and accountability.

“I spent time doing one of Rachael’s training sessions, which has gone on to benefit my management team and also in the process saved time within the business. Highly recommended.” – Mike Woodcock, Adept Cleaning Services

One of my favourite topics is time management and nothing demonstrates this better than knowing what you want to achieve, having a deadline to aim for, and the resources to make this happen. Whether you’re doing this for yourself, or for your team, having an appointment scheduler, such as Calendly, is one of the key foundation blocks to unlock your time.

These are my top tips for managing time and resources using Calendly and Zoom. I cover this in more detail in my Focus Guru Power Hours and ensure you have the knowledge and skills to run efficient meetings at any time of the day or night.

Tip 1 – Schedule Meetings

Have you been in a meeting where the time has run away with itself? Perhaps you’ve gone round in circles, avoiding a key issue. Maybe the decision maker hasn’t turned up. Maybe you didn’t have the right facts and figures to implement a solution.

Scheduling meetings using Calendly makes sense. You can offer a choice of timeslots and keep meetings running to time.

Tip 2 – Use Zoom Video Conferencing

This year, more than ever before, we’ve used Zoom to meet family, friends, colleagues and customers virtually when we haven’t been able to meet in person. The term “Zooming” has entered our language. To “Zoom someone” is in our 2020 vocabulary.

Calendly supports Zoom video conferencing. Instead of booking a meeting and sending a separate Zoom link, simply add “Zoom” as your venue and the meeting link is automatically generated.

Tip 3 – Respect Your Time

I think this is really important. No one wants to be the person clock-watching, or checking their watch worrying they’ll be late for the next meeting, collecting children from school, or feeling stressed that the meeting could have been wrapped up twenty minutes ago.

Using the Calendly appointment scheduler and Zoom video conferencing allows a finite time for a meeting (if you wish). This offers peace of mind to all parties, enabling everyone to organise their day in the most efficient way.

If you’d like to know more, please contact me on 07756 772950. I offer a free 15 minute consultation to find out more about you and your business and how we could work together to implement time, energy and resource solutions.

Focus Guru Power Hours are available for yourself or members of your team. In the space of sixty minutes I’ll make sure you have the knowledge, software and skills to run efficient meetings everyone will benefit from attending. Let’s get started!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How Do You Feel When Someone Asks You To Use Their Appointment Scheduler?

Love them or hate them, the use of online diaries and appointment scheduling apps is on the increase. Designed to maximise productivity, these clever apps are running our lives. But how do you feel about appointment scheduling? Does it work? Is it rude? Has it changed your life?

How to use automation to organise meetings

At Focus Guru, I help business owners make the best use of their time, energy and resources. Speaking recently with different clients, I’ve noticed a big change in the way they want to book appointments with prospective customers, organise team meetings and plan their networking follow-up calls.

Using an appointment scheduler, my clients have time to work during the day as well as speaking with their customers, without the time spilling into home life, hobbies and holidays.

A shift towards online calendars

Instead of an old-fashioned paper-based diary, there is a distinct shift towards online calendars and appointment schedulers. Having an electronic diary means appointments and events can be scheduled and shared with colleagues or family members, as and when required.

Your time can be divided into segments, colour-coded and reserved, for example, for meetings, sport or family activities. The time segments can be a five minute slot for a quick check-in at home, or a capped half hour consultation with a prospective client.

Automatic reminders encourage attendance

There’s nothing worse than being ready for a call and the other person fails to show up. How many times has this happened to you? Do you give them a second chance? Or a third?

Appointment schedulers have a great feature where they can be configured to send a reminder about your upcoming meeting. The app can also remind the person you’re speaking with that they have a meeting with you.

This alone is responsible for ensuring both parties are aware of the upcoming meeting and encourages attendance.

Rude and impersonal or does it show you value your time?

When the first person asked you to use their appointment scheduler, how did you feel? Did it feel rude and impersonal? After all, you were just asking for a chat with them. You might have wanted to buy their product or service. Perhaps you met someone at a 4N Online meeting and wanted to carry on your 121 and they asked you to book a time slot.

However, is it any different booking a 3pm to 3.30pm phone call via an appointment scheduler than verbally arranging a time? Does it show you value your time? Is it more reliable than writing the meeting time and date on a scrap of paper?

Would an appointment scheduler work for you?

There are many good reasons to use an appointment scheduler. From your side, you can choose the times you want to be available and when you want to switch off the phone. It can be relaxing to know you have a quiet hour or two to spend with family, to shop, read, or catch up with friends.

You’ll also know in advance who’s calling and can prepare documents or check facts and figures before they call. Having the answers ready and information to hand automatically reduces stress and creates a positive impression.

In my Focus Guru Power Hours, one of the topics I cover is how to choose the right appointment scheduler for your business. There are several to choose from and cater for single users, families, teams and entire organisations.

I’ll make sure you know how to set up appointments, send out professional invitations and organise the times you wish to be available. This will give you the right tools to manage your appointments and increase your working productivity.

To book your Focus Guru Power Hour, please contact book a free discovery call into my calendar and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How Making A Cup Of Tea Can Improve Your Organisation Skills

When was the last time you stopped to make a cup of tea? Was it just before reading this? Or will you make yourself a drink in a few minutes? Stopping for a quick tea break actually has more benefits than you might think.

Stopping for a drink helps your brain process your recent activities.
The act of making a cup of tea has sequential actions which must be followed.
Rehydrating regularly throughout the day is proven to enhance your productivity.
Taking a break is a great way to come up with new and innovative ideas.

How can making a cup of tea help you get organised?

The human brain is said to process around 30,000 decisions each and every day. This starts from the moment you wake up, perhaps the alarm has gone off and you decide whether to switch it off and get up or hit “snooze” and have another ten minutes in bed. The decisions continue as you decide what to wear, which shirt, blouse, skirt, trousers, shoes, bag, jewellery is right for the day’s activities.

Each item you choose to wear becomes a decision and each decision can have a consequence on the next decision.

It’s the same when making a cup of tea. We all know the ingredients, the teabag, the milk, perhaps a spoonful of sugar, the water, the cup, the kettle, the electricity, and we make plenty of cups of tea each day on auto-pilot.

Our brains know what to do and when, in order to achieve the intended result.

50 Steps To Make Your Cup Of Tea

If something goes wrong, perhaps the milk has gone stale, the teabag splits or there’s a power cut, our brains are creative and there will be a workaround. It might surprise you to learn there are approximately 50 steps to making a cup of tea. That’s around 50 decisions your brain is making. It’s 50 things to keep track of, and that’s where your organisation skills are essential.

For example, there’s no point trying to boil an empty kettle. There’s no point trying to stir the tea without a spoon. From lifting the kettle lid, turning on the tap, allowing the water inside, turning the tap off, closing the lid, turning on the electric, putting the kettle back on the base, pressing the switch, waiting for the water to boil…you get the idea. There are lots of steps!

Using Your Time Twice

As humans we’re great at concurrent activity. We can do two things at the same time. I call it “using your time twice”. While the kettle is boiling the water, you’re probably opening the cupboard door, choosing your cup, closing the cupboard door, going to the fridge, opening the fridge door, picking up the milk, closing the fridge door…going back to the cup and the kettle, opening the milk carton, pouring in the milk, closing the milk carton, retracing your steps to the fridge. More steps!

I hope you can see how quickly the number of steps add up. You can see all the micro-decisions taking place. All to make a simple cup of tea.

Improving Your Organisation Skills

In this example I’ve shown how these micro-decisions become the jigsaw pieces to build the complete picture. If you feel you’re lacking organisation skills, perhaps you’re the person who runs out of milk, or doesn’t have a clean cup to drink from, I can help you change into the person who has everything under control.

Organisation skills are simply habits which can be learned and improved on at any stage of life and applied in business and at home. I can help you become the person who’s prepared for many eventualities, simply by becoming more organised.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to boil the kettle! I can easily make two cups of tea, so if you fancy a chat to see how you can improve your organisation skills, please contact me.

I offer a free 30-minute consultation to find out more about you and your business. This can lead on to working together to identify areas in your business or personal life where a little extra organisation will free up your time to enjoy the things you want to do.

Please contact me on 07756 772950 or drop a message in the comments and let’s get started!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Power Hour for “New Businesses” – Let’s Get Organised!

As a new business owner do you feel daunted by all the tasks in your business that need doing? Was it easier when you were employed by a company and everything was already in place and tasks were organised for you? This is more common than you might think, especially for businesses under three years old. Let me explain how a Power Hour can help you with all of that.

Power Hour helps you get organised in just 60 minutes

Many new business owners race to get their business at a certain level. Even though you’re just starting out, you might feel you have to be competing at the top to win new clients. You might feel frustrated that the tools you used to have in place need to be rebuilt from scratch. But that’s ok. Establishing and running a new business takes time, effort and energy. It takes organisation.

Some people are naturally organised. To outsiders, they seem to intuitively know what needs to be done, by when and by whom. This has probably come from years of experience, trial and error, making mistakes and learning how to change things to make them more organised and more efficient. The good news is that becoming organised is easy to learn.

I would like to share with you some of my top tips and if you think these are helpful, let’s book a Focus Guru Power Hour to expand on the themes. We’ll open up more time in your diary to spend with family, friends, hobbies and holidays. I will help you find more hours in your day and more energy to enjoy your work and downtime. All from becoming more organised!

“Rachael changed my life literally. I now know exactly what needs doing, when it needs doing, and which task will be the most profitable. Invaluable session!” – Caroline Andrew-johnstone, Networking Rebel

I work with many start-ups and newly established businesses to help the owners and their team to see the wood for the trees. It can be a quagmire knowing what to do first. Sometimes it’s like the chicken and the egg. I offer a unique way to prioritise your incoming tasks, to look at your systems, processes, procedures and priorities, to help you take control of your day, rather than letting the work control your time.

In your Focus Guru “Let’s Get Organised” Power Hour we will achieve:

Prioritising Your Workload
Breaking Down Tasks
Using Technology to Streamline Processes
Changing Your Mindset
Stopping Feelings of Overwhelm

Focus Guru Power Hours aren’t for the faint-hearted. I will ask questions about how you want your business to run and what you want to achieve. It may challenge you to think differently about the tasks you do, the clients you work with, how you manage your time and more. But the results will be worth it.

“Rachael’s butt-kicking, no-nonsense, organised approach has held myself and my team of six accountable. This alone is saving me over £2000 per month!” – Adrian Savage – Dynamic Marketing Lab

If you know you need to be a little more organised to achieve everything you want to do, let’s have a chat. I offer all small business owners a free 15 minute chat to see if a Focus Guru Power Hour would benefit your business. Focus Guru Power Hours cover many business related themes, from organisation to accountability, from streamlining processes to automating repetitive tasks. Let’s get started! Please book your 15 minute call here: https://calendly.com/rachael-8/15min

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way with no “Squirrels!”

www.getfocus.guru

Remember To Treat Yourself As Well As Looking After Everyone Else

It’s very easy to get rushed off your feet looking after the wants and needs of other people. This could be answering questions for colleagues at work, finishing tasks out-of-hours for a boss, making sure your children are fed, clothed and entertained. It could be helping a neighbour with their shopping or checking in on relatives who may have been self-isolating during lockdown.

Top Tip - Make time for a long soak in a soothing bath this month — Top Tip – Make time for a long soak in a soothing bath this month

To make sure you can carry on helping others it’s important to take care of yourself. When flying, there’s the safety talk at the start of the flight advising passengers to “put your own oxygen mask on first” and this makes sense. How can you look after someone else when you’re running out of air?

Luckily, help is at hand! You really don’t have to do everything yourself, all the time. Through collaboration with others, learning accountability and extra time management skills can make a big difference. I can help with these things, but I also wanted to share with you the power of looking after yourself through something as simple and straightforward as making time to treat yourself.

Detox and Relax

Making time in your diary to relax and recharge is a vital part of keeping the balance between being busy and being stressed. It’s great to be busy, jumping from one job to the next to the next. But it can be draining on your time and your energy and this is where scheduling in “relax and recharge” time is essential for your mental and physical health.

When we feel good, we enjoy life more. The knock-on effect of being happy often makes us more outgoing and more productive. We achieve more and look for new opportunities.

Make Time for Bath Time

This is my top tip today! At least once a month, make time to run yourself a deep bath and immerse yourself in warm water to soothe troubles away. Add a shake of Arbonne’s Rescue & Renew Detox Soak dissolving sea salt crystals into the mix and you’re set for an aromatic journey whisking you away from anything that’s playing on your mind.

Let the pure essential oils cleanse and revitalise your skin. With natural ingredients such as grapefruit, tangerine, lavender, juniper berry, orange, rosemary, dandelion, turmeric and ginger root, you’ll be transported into a luxurious blend of smells and senses revitalising you inside and out.

Find Out More

I’ve been using Arbonne products myself for many years and can thoroughly recommend the Rescue & Renew range of sensual, relaxing and revitalising ways to relax and recharge. The products are vegan, cruelty free, gynaecologic and allergy tested, meaning they can be used safely no matter your skin type or skin sensitivity.

I’m an Arbonne Consultant and can advise on health, nutrition and skincare, offering advice and accountability to help you achieve a healthy lifestyle with more energy to enjoy the things you love.

If you’d like to know more about Rescue and Renew products, or if you’d like a free 15 minute consultation to find out how being an Arbonne Consultant can make a big difference in your life, book in here.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

What Do People Think You Do And Are They Right?

When running a business, it’s essential to be able to explain what you do as easily and quickly as possible. Being able to describe your business in 40 seconds in an interesting and engaging way is important, especially when meeting new people at 4Networking meetings.

When you’re in a room with 10, 20, 30, 40 or more people from local, national and International businesses, it can be difficult to stand out. It can be harder to stand out if you are in the same industry as someone else in the room. It’s not uncommon for two web designers to attend the same event, or two electricians, or two accountants.

Occasionally, you might be in a room with representatives of the same company running your own businesses but selling the same services. You’ve all had access to the same product training and learned the same strategies to discuss and sell the services.

So, how do you tell people what you do?

A good test to start with is to ask a friend or colleague to describe to you what they think you do. This gives a great starting point to find out what people think and then compare it with what you think they think! You might be surprised at what this reveals. It gives you a starting point to review and refine your 40 seconds and your elevator pitch.

The way you say what you do makes a big difference.

It’s your posture, your voice, your expression and your enthusiasm that makes the difference. If you’re promoting the same product as someone else or are competing for the same customers, the difference in the delivery of your 40 seconds can make or break someone’s first impression of you.

Even if you don’t feel confident, stand tall, look people in the eye and smile. Be positive about yourself and your products and services. I attended a 4Networking meeting recently and someone stood up and said, “you’ll probably hate me but…” then at another meeting someone started their 40 seconds with “I’m another one of those annoying…” and it influenced my decision whether I wanted a 121 with them, or not.

If you don’t believe in your products and services, why should anyone else? Why would I want to buy something from you? Our interaction has begun on a negative step when it would have been easier to be positive from the outset.

A little repetition never hurts.

In a busy 4Networking meeting you may find repeating your name, company, product or service during your 40 seconds helps the details stick in people’s minds. Think about the people you remember from 4Networking meetings and the chances are they will have repeated their message several times. They may have a prop, a branded mug, company t-shirt, roller banner or other subtle marketing around them reinforcing their company name and brand.

When networking in a room, there’s a school of thought that you should sit by your banner so people can see you and your banner at the same time, giving double the message. It also comes in handy when photographs are taken as your company name is prominent afterwards, even if someone has forgotten your name.

In 4N Online meetings, having a branded background is another great way to reinforce your company, products, services and special offers. Everyone is encouraged to take screenshots and these pictures with your company branding will be online within minutes of the meeting closing.

If you’re concerned about the impression you’re giving at face to face meetings or in online meetings, then I highly recommend you head over to the Networking retreat App and start engaging with the content Stefan Thomas puts out there, for free!

I offer Focus Guru Power Hours covering general administration, streamlining processes, and uncovering new methods to save time and money within your business. As well as how to stay connected using Mailchimp.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Focus Guru Power Hours – How To Write Outstanding Content For Your Email Marketing

Keeping in touch with your customers and prospective customers using emails is one of the best marketing strategies available today. Your messages can be written and sent as and when you want, or you can schedule messages to be delivered at set times of the day or night.

This is perfect if you have a special offer to announce, or a new product launch to promote. You can write the content and it can be delivered on your unique timescale. This is where you can “write it and move on” or “set it and forget it”.

Top Tip: Contacting customers on a regular basis keeps your company at the top of the list when they need the services you sell.

Content, subject line & Consistency is key to your emails being opened

Writing the Right Words

How do you know what to write? How do you choose the words to keep your reader interested? What are the “trigger words” to make sure they read your message? How do you encourage customers to click and buy from you and not one of your competitors?

These are some of the many questions I’m asked, and I can share with you my advice on how to make sure your emails are read and not deleted. Many people read their emails on a tablet or mobile device. This means they are making split second judgements to read or recycle your email based purely on the sender, subject and first line of your message.

Sender, Subject, First Line

In my “Unlock the Secrets of Mailchimp Success in 5 Easy Steps” Focus Guru Power Hour, I show you how to set up your Mailchimp email campaign with these key details. Having a properly formatted sender name and email address elevates your company above those who don’t take the time to check for spelling mistakes, grammar errors or missing punctuation.

Look at the difference in impact between using “Focus Guru Power Hour” and “focus guru power hour” as the sender name. Using capitals elevates the impact. It stands out more than using all lower case. Having a bigger and bolder presence in someone’s inbox helps your message to be seen. It also demonstrates attention to detail and shows value in the service being offered.

The same is true for the subject and first line. If these are potentially the only words between your email being read and being binned, it’s vital to make sure they are interesting, informative or entertaining.

Eye-Catching Images

There’s the saying how “a picture tells a thousand words” and with many email programs supporting HTML content and images, there’s no reason why you can’t add relevant images into your email campaigns.

You may wish to use your own product images, or images showing how your services can be used. Alternatively, you can find images (royalty-free or paid-for) from websites such as Canva or Unsplash. There’s no excuse for sending a plain-text email anymore!

Create Engaging Content

This comes back to writing the right words, using pictures and creating the informative, educational or entertaining content that will keep your readers interested and motivated to follow the links to your website, or to pick up the phone to speak with you.

I can help discuss the aims of your email campaign. What do you want to achieve? What do you want your customers to do? What’s the next step? If you need help creating the content for your email messages, I can help with this too.

Through the Focus Guru Power Hour “How To Write Outstanding Content For Your Email Marketing” you’ll learn how to use these steps to make your email campaigns come to life and achieve great results. You’ll learn how to set up your Mailchimp account and run successful email campaigns all year round where your customers actively read your messages and take note of your call to action.

Book your Focus Guru Power Hour here. I run 121 workshops via Zoom on many, easy to use, business tools, including Mailchimp, online calendars, networking tips and much more. Let’s get started! Book your Focus Guru Power Hour today!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way