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How Publish Your Own Book For The First Time

August 11, 2020 by Dan Lok

You always wanted to publish your own book, but the thought of it terrifies you. Perhaps you played with the idea for some time now, but you don’t know where to start. If writing is your passion, thinking about writing and publishing your own book for the first time can be extremely overwhelming.

Writing a book takes an incredible amount of time, energy, and skill. You probably did your homework and explored the do’s and don’ts of publishing a book, but all the different advice and tips can be confusing. How do you decide what makes sense for you?

While learning how to get your ideas out into the world is easier than it ever was before, figuring out what ideas to get out is a little harder. The truth is, you can write a book easily, but writing a successful book is more difficult. You can publish your own book easily too, but you have to be strategic about reaching the right audience.

To help you avoid some of the most common pitfalls of first-time authors, we will share with you helpful tips for finding the right formula for a successful book.

Why Publish Your Own Book?

There might be a number of reasons why you would want to publish your own book. Regardless of what reason moves you most, one of the main purposes of your writing should be to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

Think about it, when someone says “I am an author” or “I wrote a book” what are the thoughts that come to your mind?

“Oh! She must be an expert in that field!”,

“She has a lot to say about the subject! That means she’s good at it!”,

“I know celebrities who have written books, maybe she is a celebrity too.”

“It would be great to work with her.”

“I want to know more about her.”

These thoughts label someone as an expert in your mind immediately. If you publish your own book, you will also be perceived as an expert almost instantly.

It’s a bit like when you go see a doctor. Without seeing his qualifications, you already perceive him as an expert. And you trust him instantly. This is the power a book can create for you.

Like many successful doctors, writing smaller pieces prior to writing a book helps establish that authority you want. If you start with blogs, copywriting, and videos, you create a following. Dan Lok developed his career with short pieces before launching his successful books.

Now, let’s look at the key steps for writing and publishing your own book for the first time.

1. Write With Purpose

“Successful people write a book with an end in mind.” Click To Tweet

This is one of the first principles of copywriting that Dan Lok teaches all his students – have a clear goal for your written piece, and your message will be heard. If you send a sales email to someone without a clear purpose, do you think it will prompt them to action? Probably not.

The same is true for a book. If you publish your own book, that’s an achievement in itself, but it’s not enough. If you write a book with no purpose, you are going to fail. As a matter of fact, you might even fail at finishing the writing itself if you don’t have a clear purpose.

If your purpose is to use your book as a marketing tool, then it would be a different type of book. This goal might affect not just the content but also things like the length of your writing. To start the marketing process, you might want to write a short book.

Students in Dan Lok’s High Income Copywriter® Program always learn how to research the audience before writing even a single word. If you miss this step, you risk writing something that your ideal reader won’t notice. Pay attention to the type of writing they read and think about your purpose to determine the length.

So before you even set out to begin writing, make sure you are clear on the purpose of your book. Setting a clear purpose and intention for it will allow you to define the type of book you should write.

2. Keep Your Reader in Mind

Have you ever heard of the term “Psychographics”?

This is a concept that Dan Lok teaches all his students in the High Income Copywriter® Program. It is one of the most important things that successful writers implement in their work consistently. Dan Lok team relies on it to get all our messages across.

In short, psychographics is about understanding the personality of your audience. It’s about understanding what your audience does, how they do it, and why they do it.

Most first time authors tend to write based on their own perspective. They write books based on their understanding of the subject. But successful writers write with their audience in mind. What do we mean by this?

Let’s suppose you are writing a book about getting a six-pack. You start writing your book and provide 10 very effective exercises that helped you get your six-pack. Let’s suppose that your book only included these exercises.

What do you think will happen? Well, by only writing about the exercises, your book would miss 2 very important steps to getting a six-pack: strong mindset and good diet.

You see, all copywriters know that writing from your personal perspective and about yourself doesn’t resonate with people. If you do this, you make a lot of assumptions. In the example above, the author assumes that the readers have the same mindset, making the method in the book unsuccessful for those with a weak mindset and a bad diet.

So if you want to write about getting a six-pack, it would make more sense to first research and think about the people who would want a six-pack. Think as a copywriter:

What do they struggle with?

Can you identify their needs and desires?

How can you really help them?

Thinking like this helps you focus on your audience’s needs, which will lead to more sales.

Meet Your Readers Where They Are

As you think about your audience, think about where they are on their personal journey. If your book does not meet your readers where they are, they will not benefit from it. They might try your exercises, but they will also give up quickly because they are not seeing results fast enough. Unless you educate them on the importance of having the right mindset and pushing through the pain, they will not see value in your book.

This is why it’s important that you use the right language. In his High Income Copywriter® Program, Dan Lok teaches all his students how to research their audience and find the best way to speak to them. Without this, your book could go entirely unnoticed.

Your book should match the language that your audience will understand. Using complicated words that might look good to fitness experts will do a disservice to your readers. They will not understand your points and won’t take the right actions.

3. Write About What You Love

One thing is for sure, writing your first book is going to be hard.

For that reason, we suggest that you choose something that you are passionate about. There are a few reasons for this.

A. Never Give Up

Like anything in life, everything you do for the first time is hard. If you are not passionate about the subject of your book, you will give up quickly.

Think back to the first time you drove a car. Or the first time you skied. It was hard. If you did not like these activities, you would have given up. In the same way, if you don’t love what you are writing about, you will give up quickly because it is too hard.

However, if you are passionate about your subject, you will push through the pain phase. You might even complain about it. But because you love this subject, you will push through and complete the book. And when you write about something you are passionate about, it does not feel like work.

This is why Dan Lok says that he never feels like he’s working: his life and work are perfectly integrated because he does what he loves. This is what your book should be to you too – pleasure. Publish your own book by making sure you love working on it.

B. Become an Expert

When you are passionate about your subject, you will most likely be an expert at it. This is because you most likely consume countless videos, articles, and books about your subject. In the process, you will most likely learn a lot that you can share with others.

As more and more people read your book and get value from it, your status in your field elevates. You become someone people recognize for their knowledge and expertise.

When you write a book as an expert, you will do so faster too as you already know your subject matter inside and out. The words will flow to you naturally and it will be a more enjoyable experience overall.

C. You Know Your Audience

When you write something that you are passionate about, you are your audience. So you know exactly what they’ve been through as you’ve been through the same journey. For example, if you achieved a six-pack after years and years of trying various things, you know the frustrations that your audience is going through because you are that audience.

You will know your ideal readers’ psychographics. You could simply look back a few years, remember what you used to do wrong, and what you had to change to achieve your results. This will allow you to create a book that your audience will want to read and that they will benefit from the most.

This is one of the most valuable things that Dan Lok offers through his High Income Copywriter® Program – the lessons he learned on his own journey. The lessons resonate with his students because he was once an inexperienced beginner in copywriting. He knows exactly how to motivate and move them in the right direction.

4. Use the Power of Persuasion

If you want to write a book, you must do so in a way that allows you to sell your ideas. But no matter what your book is about, your reader needs to be persuaded by you. They need to believe in your ideas and concepts for the book to really resonate with them.

Dan Lok always teaches his copywriting students – what you think and feel transports to paper. If you don’t fully believe what you write – your audience will sense that.

Going back to our exercise example, your readers need to be sold on your ideas and concepts in order to implement them. Once they are sold on these new ideas, they can take the right action and finally get the results they want. Therefore, if you are not selling your ideas in your book, you just wasted your time writing.

Dan Lok teaches all his students about the importance of selling through written words.

“No matter what the goal of your writing is, being able to persuade your readers is the key.” Click To Tweet

Here are 3 ways that can help you better sell your ideas and concepts to your audience.

A. Sell Your Main Concept – The Hook

The reason we suggest that you make sure you understand the purpose of your book first is to be able to write a good hook. You see if you already know your ideal reader and you have a clear purpose in mind, then you have to have a hook to attract your reader too

Without the hook, people will walk past your book at the bookstore without stopping. Without the hook, your book will be invisible. No one will pay attention to it, and it will be lost in the sea of books lined up on shelves.

However, with the right hook, your audience will feel attracted by your book, even if they are not looking for it. The hook is what gets the reader interested. People will feel the urge to share it with their friends and family even before reading the first page.

Benefits Hook

To achieve this effect, make sure the hook mentions the most important benefit that the reader will get from reading your whole book. It must be so compelling that it draws your audience’s attention from afar.

The hook is usually in the title of the book. Let’s take for example the book The 4-Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss. This book has such a compelling message and value that it sold more than 2.1 million copies worldwide in 40 languages.

As for Tim Ferriss’s book, the main goal his audience is after is working 4 hours a week. This is why this is such a successful book.

Similarly, if you want to write a book that will sell, you want your title to be as compelling. Determine the purpose of the book as discussed in step 1. Then, identify the keywords that will relate most to your audience as discussed in step 2. Use these to create your title.

B. Sell Your Chapters

The same way you create a hook for the title of your book, you want to create a hook for each chapter. Having compelling titles for each chapter will keep the reader wanting more.

Here are a few examples of chapter titles used in another bestselling book, How to Win Friends And Influence People, by Dale Carnegie.

– “The Big Secret of Dealing with People”

– “Do This and You’ll Be Welcome Anywhere”

– “A Simple Way to Make A Good First Impression”

– “If You Don’t Do This, You Are Headed for Trouble”

As you can see, these titles are all offering very compelling promises. Many of them are digging into people’s desire to learn “a secret” or giving them “a simple way” to achieve something they need.

Even though you don’t know what is in these chapters, you want to read them. Wouldn’t you agree? This is the same feeling you want your readers to experience when going through your table of contents.

C. Sell With Stories

Even if you’re not writing novels, you should always have compelling stories in your book. The fact that you write about something technical or business oriented doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be relatable and memorable. Quite to the contrary actually.

One thing that Dan Lok always teaches his students is that stories sell. Why? Because they are memorable and pull people in. This is especially true for well-crafted stories. The guiding principle behind copywriting is to establish an emotional connection because people act on their emotions.

So whatever your book focus might be, make sure you include memorable stories. Stories are filled with emotions. Using a story, you can explain your concepts and ideas and make them relatable and interesting to the reader too.

Why are stories so important?

It is rather simple. From the start of time, humans have always loved a good story. Even in ancient times, people assembled around a fire to tell stories to entertain each other. Stories are also great ways to share wisdom or to teach a concept while keeping the audience engaged.

Simply including some stories in your book will bring life to your ideas and concepts. Stories are also key to allow the reader to feel present and part of the journey you share through your book.

Stories also help the reader experience some of the concepts and ideas that may seem vague or abstract. They allow the reader to visualize the scene and feel the emotions. A story can inspire a new decision that can be life-changing.

5. How to Publish?

So you wrote a book – what now? You finally accomplished your life long dream of becoming an author and finished your manuscript. But where do you go next?

A few years ago, the most popular way to publish a book was through a publishing company. That has changed

Traditional Publishing

For this to happen, the aspiring author had to call as many publishing companies as possible. And their chance of being published was minimal. For example, the original Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times by publishing companies.

Apart from the fact that it might take weeks to a year before you get an accepted offer, there is a lot more that happens after a publishing company accepts to publish your book. From drafting and negotiating contracts, to royalty conversations, there is a lot more behind publishing a book than meets the eye.

Fortunately, things have dramatically changed. Amazon has given the ability to anyone to write and publish their own books.

Self-publishing

Self-publishing means publishing one’s work independently and at one’s own expense.

The cost of publishing your own book varies greatly from $100 to $2,500. The potential costs you might want to incur include editing, cover design, formatting, marketing, and more. One of the most popular self-publishing companies for authors is Kindle Direct Publishing.

By following the steps on the platform, you could publish your book within days. This includes providing you with the right book template to use based on the purpose of your book. Kindle Direct Publishing also gives you ideas of cover design you might want to use.

Most importantly, Kindle Direct Publishing shows you the step-by-step process to have your book listed on Amazon so you can start selling your book online.

6. Promote Your Work

Listing your book on Amazon will increase your chances of having your book read by more people. However, just having your book out there is not enough. You still need to sell your book.

Most authors who self-publish think that their book will sell just by being available. Unfortunately, it does not take long for them to realize that no one is interested in paying to read their book unless they are convinced this is a good investment.

What these authors are doing wrong is this – they are not proactive. It is true that they have done a great job to finish their book and get it published. However, the work does not end there. They have to sell the book. This is why it’s important to have a copywriting mindset and a sales strategy.

There are 2 main ways to effectively sell your book at a minimum cost.

Become An Amazon Best Seller

This method involves good planning. Usually you start the book launch 14 days before the date of the actual launch. At this point, you want to start building the intrigue about this new book that you have written, and it’s the launch date.

Over the 2 weeks period, prepare a series of content about your book, ready to go out to your social media audience. Make sure you use all the networks you have at your disposition from email lists, customers, business partners and even friends and family. You want to make sure as many people as possible are aware of your great book launch.

It is relatively easy to become a bestseller on Amazon. The bestseller award is given based on a 2-hour window. If your book is sold more than other books in the same category within the first 2 hours after launching, your ranking improves and could be ranked #1.

Testimonials and Endorsements

Another great strategy is to perform interviews with various influencers where you get the chance to promote your new book. Throughout the 2 weeks process, you want to spread out content about your book. You want to keep the intrigue around the content, while also selling the benefits the book will bring to your audience’s lives.

Grow Your Book Sales

Now, another very important step to take to make sure you have a successful book launch is to create a highly converting sales page.

What does “sales page” mean?

The sales page of your book is the description of your book. The reason some books do not sell as well as others is that authors of successful books use all possible ways to promote.

As you can see in The 4-Hour Work Week book example, Tim Ferriss successfully used the description of his book as the sales page.

To create a highly converting sales page you want to use all the strategies we shared in this article and those that Dan Lok shares in his High Income Copywriter® Program.

Write Your Way To Success

As you can see, the process of writing your first book and getting it published is rather simple. What is hard is to make sure as many people as possible get their hands on your book and benefit from your work. This process involves a lot of selling in print. Unfortunately, this highly valuable skill is not taught at school or at university. Still, it is the most important skill for every writer and entrepreneur.

Knowing how to “read” your audience, persuade your reader, and promote your writing is the key to a successful book. If you want to discover all the secrets of influencing and selling in print, then you might want to check out Dan Lok’s High Income Copywriter® Program.

As the author of 13 bestselling books, Dan Lok decided to put together this webinar that teaches you how to take your writing skills to the next level and generate reliable income with any writing project you chose. Register to the webinar for this free webinar by clicking here now.

How To Connect With Your Audience In A Meaningful and Unforgettable Way In The Age of Digital Platforms

July 26, 2020 by Dan Lok

Are you looking for ways to connect with your audience on a more meaningful level?

Whether you are a business owner or an influencer, you open up a door of opportunities the moment you build a presence on social media. One of those opportunities is the possibility to connect with your followers.

Connecting with your audience is powerful. When you see your follower count, it’s easy to forget that your fans are real people. But they are; when you start connecting with them, you can get them to be more invested in you.

Imagine this: your audience is so invested in you that checking your social media becomes part of their daily routines.

Becoming part of your audience’s routines allows you to build social capital. Your social capital encompasses all your relationships and is often more valuable than money. You can turn social into financial capital anytime you need to.

In other words – when you have followers who feel connected and invested, you have an easier time selling your products and services.

So forming a meaningful and authentic connection with your audience is worth your time and effort. Not only will you enjoy meaningful relationships, but you can also leverage them to generate income.

Further below, we’ll show you how to connect with your audience in a meaningful way. We’ll also go over how to raise interest in your personal story, and how to stand out in the age of digital platforms.

You’ll discover that this works – whether your personal brand already has a huge following, or yours is a local business starting out in the digital world.

The “Reality TV Factor”

How can we claim that building connections and leveraging social capital works for anyone?

All you need is to know one thing – the thing that will give you an edge in understanding human psychology.

It’s not about the tools. Whether you use Instagram Stories, YouTube lives or Facebook groups is less important; what really matters is understanding human psychology. If you understand how people think and why they feel connected to you, the platform you use doesn’t matter.

The one thing you have to master is what we call the Reality TV Factor. Simply put, it’s the reason why reality TV is successful, and why people remain basically glued to their seats while their favorite reality TV show is aired.

The same approach also works on social media. So what’s the success recipe of reality TV and how can you emulate it? The answer: authenticity and emotional stories.

The people we see on reality TV appear authentic and real to us. Hollywood stars we see in blockbuster movies, however, often seem superhuman: we think we can never achieve what they achieved.

But the stars of reality TV shows are humans – like us. Sometimes it’s just the girl next door, who has an unfortunate backstory but still tries to audition for a singing career.

It is the people with relatable struggles who inspire us to keep going. Reality TV always seems to showcase the backstories of the participants. Usually, the person with the most dramatic backstory is the audience’s favorite.

Share Your Story And They Want To See You Succeed

So how to connect with your audience in a meaningful way? Share your backstory. Tell your audience why you are doing what you are doing.

Which obstacles did you have to overcome? How did you get to where you are today?

If you are an influencer building a personal brand, your backstory is your personal story. If you are using social media for your business, a great backstory to tell us how you got your business idea.

A great story showcases your Why. It explains to your audience why you do what you do.

A perfect example is Dan Lok himself. He often talks about his story – how we wanted to make money to support his mum but failed at 13 businesses and how he finally met his mentor and things started to go uphill for him.

His backstory shows us that he is a human being. He is not a superhuman multi-millionaire who never struggled. He faced obstacles, but he kept overcoming them.

If you tell your personal story, your audience becomes invested in you. They keep coming back for more and want to see you succeed.

If you tell your personal story, your audience becomes invested in you.

Sociology professor Beverley Skeggs said the following about reality TV, which also holds true for social media:

[…] people connect to other people who have the same values, who behave in the same way. We do get swept up in it, wanting to be behind somebody, wanting them to do well.

As long as you are authentic in sharing your story, your audience will become invested in you. When it comes to connecting with your audience, you want to be real and authentic.

Don’t Be A Superhuman

To connect with your audience in a meaningful way, show them that you are a human being – just like them. In fact, having flaws and hardships in your life will make you more authentic. If you are too perfect, you become less relatable.

Most people on social media get it the wrong way around. They think they have to show how amazing their life is, the great vacations they go on and so on. While this may attract attention, it does not remain relevant for long.

If you put up a facade, your audience will realize it and draw away from you. So, don’t feel like you have to be perfect to build up a following on social media. You might do much better if you aren’t.

The thing is, many people don’t have a particularly exciting life. To some degree, you are representing the ideal life they would want for themselves. But this ideal life isn’t about having fancy cars and living in a penthouse.

What people are interested in is who you are as a person and how you overcome hardships in your life. By sharing your story and being yourself, you give them the dramatic aspect that is missing in their lives.

What’s more, your digital platforms become addictive – like a TV show. Your audience keeps coming back to see how you are doing.

Now you know that building meaningful connections on social media is possible. Let’s get into actual strategies. What steps can you take to share your story with your audience?

Build A Community

Besides authenticity, there is another thing people on social media crave: a sense of community. They might feel disconnected in real life, and social media makes it much easier to feel like a part of a community.

Facebook groups are currently one of the best tools to connect with your audience and to build a strong community. Facebook groups are great because your audience comes up with the content.

So it’s not just you alone putting out content. Other members of the group can post too. It also allows your followers to engage on multiple levels: they get a chance to interact with you as well as with other like-minded people.

Many influencers and business owners invite their customers to join a Facebook group. But you can still turn to Facebook groups if you are just starting out and have no paying customers.

You can invite existing followers to join by telling them that you’ll publish exclusive content in your group.

Create A Dialogue

To connect with your audience, you want to create a space for dialogue.

It’s easy to post something, then leave the platform and never reply to any comments or messages. But that doesn’t help you connect with your audience meaningfully.

What you want to do instead is reply to comments and messages often. Be responsive and engaged. This is especially important in the beginning when you rise to your first thousand followers.

Nearly all digital platforms want lots of engagement on their platform. If you put out content that people want to engage with, you will be rewarded by the platform. For example, you’ll show up in other people’s feeds more often.

When you create a dialogue, you help the social platform to create a positive experience. Now only will the platform love you – your followers will, too.

Engaging with your audience shows that you appreciate them. It makes them feel validated and appreciated. So don’t be afraid to chat.

Once you have several thousand followers, it might get harder to follow up with every comment. It’s okay not to reply to everyone but make an effort to answer the most pressing questions.

If your audience grows bigger and it’s hard to keep up with comments, shares, and messages – here is what you can do.

Timed Engagement

Tell your audience when you will release new content. Then, let them know that you will be active in the comments for 30 minutes after you posted. This strategy is great for two reasons.

First, it gives your audience a reason to subscribe to your platform. If you are a YouTuber, make sure to tell your followers to activate the bell icon. If you are on Instagram, your followers can turn on notifications.

This way, they will be notified after you post and will be able to hang out with you.

This strategy also allows you to generate engagement right after posting. On most platforms, the first hour after you post will determine how successful your post is.

So if there isn’t much engagement within the first 30 minutes, you probably posted something your audience is less interested in. You can evaluate it and try something different next time.

Get Personal

Especially if you are a business owner, you might be thinking to make your social media only about your business. You showcase your products or services and give professional advice.

While some fans appreciate this, connecting with your audience means getting personal.

If you talk only about business and sales, you lose the Reality TV Factor. There is nothing for your fans to get invested in, nothing that entertains them and nothing to keep them coming back for more.

You can keep it professional and still get personal. A great example of this is Tuft and Needle Mattresses. They talk about their story, explain how and why they started their business; their audience feels connected to them as they emphasize care for mattresses.

They don’t talk about their tragic personal backstory – but they are telling an inspiring story and connecting with their audience in a meaningful way.

Go Behind The Scenes

Do you know what Russell Brunson says about connecting with your audience? What your fans enjoy most is seeing your journey.

They want to see what you do on a daily basis to achieve your goals. So if you wonder how to connect with your audience, remember: you don’t have to be creative. All you need to do is document your daily life.

Talk about what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what your next steps are. Show them your life in the trenches of your daily business. You’ll instantly be more authentic and form meaningful connections.

Sense of Belonging

Another powerful way to connect with your audience is by creating a sense of belonging. All influencers who connect with their followers in an unforgettable way do this.

1. Sense of Community

When you look at famous YouTubers with a strong fan base, they often share jokes with their audience. Outsiders don’t understand these jokes at all.

It’s likely that these inside jokes came to be during a video or live stream. Their audience remembers and keeps referencing them; over time, this creates a strong bond and a sense of community.

2. User-Generated Content

User-generated content is a fancy way of saying that you let your followers come up with ideas and share them on your social media.

When you look at Dan Lok’s YouTube channel, for example, he has a video format called Boss In The Bentley: his followers ask questions, and he answers while sitting in his Bentley.

3. Giveaways, Competitions, and Challenges

Connect with your audience by hosting special events with prices.

Ideally, the price is something unique to you, something they can only have if they join your event. Giveaways and competitions are also great for connecting with new followers.

Go Live

Going on a video live stream on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram is one of the best ways to form a connection with your audience. Live streams are what comes closest to face-to-face conversations just like you would have with a friend.

If it’s your first live stream, you want to prepare some topics in advance. Your fans will likely ask questions, but it’s great to have something prepared for when the chat goes quiet.

Live streams are usually even more authentic than reality TV. All you do is record yourself talking. You likely don’t have a producer or manager who tells you what you are allowed to say – you can just be yourself and talk to your fans.

Reality TV is popular, but most of us know that at least some aspects of it are likely staged. But we suspend our belief in order to enjoy the show.

This simply means that you can be more authentic on social media than on TV and form even stronger bonds with your fans.

How To Be Authentic?

Now, some people think they have to fake their life in order to be popular on digital platforms. They only show their finest holidays, rides in expensive cars, and fanciest outfits. While this will attract some followers, most of the population has seen enough in-authenticity.

They see through the smoke and realize it’s fake. What your audience likely wants is for you to remain genuine and real.

They don’t care about your expensive watch or handbag. They want to know how you got there, what you had to overcome, and ideas on how they can do the same.

Being fully authentic in public isn’t that easy. You might worry that you aren’t enough. But some people might need to hear exactly your story to get motivated – so don’t let anything stop you.

Be Yourself, Build An Audience And Make Money From It

Have you ever wondered how influencers make money on digital platforms? How did Dan Lok build his YouTube and go from local business owner to an international 8-figure entrepreneur?

He achieved all that and more by building his personal media platform, which allowed him to connect with his dream customers faster than ever before.

If you want to build a business on your personality, be yourself, and share your vision with the world, our High Ticket Influencer (HTI) Program is for you. In HTI, Dan Lok collected all his high-level advice for creating your platform, building your tribe, and monetizing it.

If that sounds like the life you are after, check out HTI here.

How To Strengthen Your Brand Reputation By Using Disruptive Technologies

June 24, 2020 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

If you ask business owners what they’re doing to strengthen their brand, you might get a variety of answers. Some might think that only the big guns think about branding. Some might have no idea how to even get a brand at all. But the truth is, every company, no matter how big, has a brand.

Now, more than ever, building a good brand is easy. Surprisingly easy. You don’t need to pay expensive graphic designers for logos- you can use an app. You don’t need to put your employees through a daylong session with a photographer – great photos can be taken with phones too.

Template website builders can create websites in hours. Their quality can match what professional web designers do for most users. Unfortunately, this comes with a downside. Now that everyone can be a brand, it’s harder to be number one.

But do you need to be number one to be on top? Do you even need to be the first? The answer you’ll get in this article might surprise you. But here is a quick peek: Perception is reality. You only need to be perceived as superior and consumers will treat you so.

Now, as you will learn, this is not as easy as it sounds. But by the end of this article, you’ll know how to shift perceptions and gain this superiority status. You’ll understand what you need to strengthen your brand and become a disruptor at the same time.

How To Strengthen Your Brand By Becoming A Disruptor

You’ve probably heard the term disruptor before. But what does it actually mean? Can only startups become disruptors? How do you go about it? Do you need to be innovative?

In this article, we’ll discuss what you need to disrupt an industry. You’ll discover what steps you can take to do so. But let’s begin by defining disruption first. According to its official definition by Clayton M. Christensen, disruption has five criteria:

1. It’s a process, not a product or service, that occurs from the fringe to mainstream

Are you hoping that your product will be the new Netflix? You’ll be disappointed. Powerful disruptors didn’t change the game the day they came out. Blockbuster refused to buy Netflix many times before. Few people took Wikipedia seriously as a source of information at first.

Go in with the mindset that you have to work hard and that it won’t be easy. But with the right framework, you have a chance to succeed.

2. Originate in low-end (less demanding customers) or new market (where none existed) footholds

This means that disruptive technologies originally don’t appeal to mainstream demand. They satisfy a need that first occurs in emerging markets or is unimportant to the current market. What does this mean?

A new product or technology doesn’t always have to be the very best. It can be a cheaper solution with fewer features than the current incumbents offer. Not every customer needs a space station’s worth of technology in their pockets. Especially if it costs a monthly salary to buy.

Some people are happy with a $200-$300 smartphone. They don’t need the latest features.

Your solution could also meet demand current incumbents don’t address. Going back to our Netflix and Wikipedia example: You remember, before them, consumers needed to go to public libraries and video rental stores. It seems ages ago, doesn’t it?

3. New firms don’t catch on with mainstream customers until quality catches up with their standards

This is important. Most disruptive offers are seen as inferior. Consumers won’t buy only because your product is cheaper. Looking back at Netflix and Wikipedia:

Libraries cost a rental fee for books, the same as video rental stores. Wikipedia was free and Netflix charged significantly lower fees. This didn’t give their customers a reason to use them yet, did it?

Netflix needed to step up their game. In the beginning, they offered to send DVD’s to you via mail. They offered a longer return time, so you can conveniently watch them. But only after Netflix became a video streaming service, the market cherished their offer.

In the case of Wikipedia, people didn’t trust the information at first, as everyone could edit it. Wikipedia became a credible source of information after they started monitoring their sources.

4. Success is not a requirement and some business can be disruptive but fail

You might ask: Isn’t the whole point of disruptors to be more successful than their contemporaries?

But remember, it’s a process, not a product or service. Yes, you might have a solution that would be highly disruptive but the market won’t go crazy over you at first.

To master this phase, excellent marketing and presence in the marketplace are crucial. We’ll tell you about this later on.

5. The new firm’s business model differs significantly from the current industry leaders

This is usually what disruption is known for. The big players were not able or willing to go with the times. As a consequence, they were disrupted by a company that thought outside the box.

We’ll give you an easy process to find a spot to disrupt the market later on as well. But for now, let us remind you that you don’t have to tick off all the boxes to become disruptive or succeed as a new company. Yet it helps to know those aforementioned influencing factors ahead of time.

Let’s take a deeper look into those criteria of successful disruption and how you can use them to become successful disruptors.

Once you have a clearer understanding of it, you’ll see why the disruption strategy further down might work well for you.

Before You Strengthen Your Brand, Focus on People

Focus on the people in your company specifically. Disruption needs innovators, out-of-the-box thinkers, and leaders.

How can you build a disruptive company without the people to support the process? Not getting traction in the market can be tedious, mentally taxing, and frustrating. It’s easy to lose faith and give up. But with the right team on your side, executing a disruptive idea is easier.

Dan Lok says: An average idea with an excellent team is worth way more than an excellent idea with an average team. But how do you get such an excellent team?

Train for innovators

Innovation is a learnable skill. So make sure to give your staff the relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities. Look for a strong desire to be the first and prepare them for heavy competition trying to keep you down. This will happen sooner or later and if you’re prepared, that’s one more step towards success.

Change the culture

Allow employees to explore, experiment, and bring in new ideas. Let them be on the offensive and take initiative on their ideas. Most companies try to play it safe when they start but disruption needs another approach.

Hire for disruptors

Being unconventional requires unconventional methods to hire people. Put a hiring process in place to see their creativity, thinking skills, and problem-solving skills.

With the right team by your side, you can now focus on earning your place in the mainstream. To be truly disruptive, make sure to start from scratch. Don’t just try to work within the boundaries as everyone else. Step completely outside the box and approach from an angle no one else comes form. As Albert Einstein put it: We cannot solve problems with the same mental state in which we created them.

Strengthen Your Brand By Superior Presence

This a powerful strategy that Dan Lok used to build his global empire. Remember, a successful disruptor makes customers feel that the quality of the product meets their standards. Yet, value is very subjective, right? But if you control how people perceive you, there is a good chance you also control how they perceive your offer.

People don’t buy because they understand that you’re better. They buy because they feel understood by you. So get in their daily lives, and be in front of them as much as possible.

Ask yourself – how can I be constantly in front of my target audience?

You see, it usually takes 5-20 touchpoints until a client considers to buy from you. Why is that? Today’s market is very crowded and consumers get bombarded by different ads constantly.

So what then if you don’t have a huge advertising budget? Well, this could be a challenge. It’s hard to overcome loud competition and cut through the noise.

This is tough for disruptors especially. At first, customers don’t know, like, or trust you. Yet, with increasing touchpoints, you gain increasing attention and trust.

What can you use to get exposure? Technology and tools that is accessible to the masses, relatively cheap and free: Content. Use blogs, YouTube videos, webinars, social media posts, podcasts, emails…to just name a few.

You might wonder – Which of those platforms and tools should I use? The short answer is – all of them. If this is not possible yet, focus on the medium that your ideal prospect is most comfortable with.

Strengthen Your Brand With Content Variety

It pays great dividends to use funnels as well to educate and warmup your clients. A rule of thumb is, for every $1000 you want to charge give them one hour of valuable and relevant content.

What kind of content can you create? Anything you like, but there are two types of it: Paid and Organic.

Paid content entails anything that you pay for like Facebook and Google Ads. Organic content is anything you put out for free, like blogs, emails or social media posts.

You can mix and match them together, to create automated value ladders for your clients. This way, you’ll be able to engage them when they are ready, on their time and on their terms.

This way you will be different and more valuable. Remember, any company can just put out one ad hoping to get their business. But putting out content is beneficial to you in more than one way:

It enhances brand awareness
It allows you to prepare your clients. You can pre-handle objections, filter out unqualified prospects, and more
It gives you an authority status. By creating content on every platform, you’ll gain a stronger status in your industry.

Imagine you’re looking for a product and there are multiple providers.

One of them has thousands of posts, hundreds of articles, and you see their ads everywhere. The others only have a great website and a newsletter. hat would you think if you were the customer?

How To Strengthen Your Brand And Penetrate The Market

How else can you make your audience appreciate you? Make it easier for them to explore your product or service. Show them you truly understand them.

Become your own client. Walk a few miles in their shoes, look for their most pressing problems. A problem is a product, as Dan Lok says. See what they are using to solve those problems.

What current solutions can they access? Are they sufficient? If not, what’s missing? That’s where you can come in and give them what they are looking for.

You can use this checklist to do your research:

Scan the market for strong demands. Are there certain hot products available currently? Do any of those get criticism for certain missing or unwelcome features?
Find that one pressing demand you want to satisfy and map out your ideal audience
Become your ideal audience and recreate their lifestyle. What is their life like, why are they using the product or service you want to disrupt? What are possible alternatives and what does your future customer like and doesn’t like about it?
If you found the missing piece of the puzzle, now strategize how you can solve it easier. How can you do it cheaper, and more conveniently for your customer? Ask yourself: Why didn’t the competition address this pain point yet?
Once you have your solution, it’s time to become visible. Find a proven formula and strategy to market within your niche. Execute the blueprint with your team

Once you have traction and people are picking up on your offer, it’s time to scale. Use a combination of social media, paid and organic traffic and remote teams. Remote teams increase your agility and allow you to use employees more efficiently. They don#t spend long times in commute and could even work in different time zone. This way, you can quickly react to what happens in the market. Especially if your competition tries to make a move against you.

Don’t underestimate the power of social media. When you want to strengthen your brand take a look at which social media platforms can help you. If you’re more in the B2B space, LinkedIn might be a good choice to start.

Facebook can give you great insights into your metrics and has a lot of data on your audience. TikTok and Instagram are also very powerful, especially with teenage audiences. Now, some of those platforms still count as low value or low status. This is why the established businesses rarely use them, if at all.

This might be one of the pathways into the mainstream. Appear where your competition doesn’t go. From there, you can build up a powerful following under the radar of the incumbents. As with many disruptors, they might only notice you when they can’t ignore you anymore.

It’s Not Easy To Strengthen Your Brand As A Disruptor – Unless You Know This

If you want to shortcut this path, you might find value in Dan Lok’s program created it for his high-level clients. You see, many companies want to hire Dan for consulting to grow faster, manage their teams better and become crisis-proof.

Yet, he has to reject most of those requests as he has only a very limited amount of time available. This is why he created the High Ticket Influencer Program. It’s a blueprint on how to dominate your industry by becoming the most influential company in the niche.

You’ll learn how to build an elaborate content system to attract clients. What’s so special about it? It warms them up and sells for you while being fully automated and consistent.

In this program, Dan explains how to leverage webinars and social media to become nearly omnipresent. This enables you to sell with powerful messages 24/7. Furthermore, you’ll learn how to make your disruptive offers into high ticket offers and l increase your margins.

As a bonus, you’ll also gain access to Dan’s directors of Copy, Revenue, and Advertising. This way, you get insights on possible weak spots before they become a serious problem.

But all of this is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you ever wished to have Dan’s influence, reach, and status, then this is the program for you. It contains the exact, step-by-step blueprint to replicate what Dan did in record time.

If you want to become a disruptor and strengthen your brand, check the High Ticket Influencer Program here.

Want To Scale Your Business For International Expansion?

May 23, 2020 by Dan Lok

Are you looking to join those at the top of the business pyramid? Is it time to finally ascend your company to the next level? Are you ready for international expansion? The biggest players in business are those that cater to the global market. If you want to play at their level, you need to scale your business for international expansion.

If you are scaling your business, you have to be aware of what else you need to consider. The person you are now is the person who managed to bring the company to where it is today. But if you want to expand your business to the next level and beyond, you can’t stick to being the same person you are now. You need to think like an international business owner. It’s time to evolve. You need to upgrade your knowledge, your skills and your mindset.

Scaling your business brings on many unknowns. Knowing what things you still have to learn in order to get where you want to go, is critical to achieving success. These are factors such as different target audiences, needs, desires, and the jargon that they use.

On top of understanding your target audience’s desires, you also need a strong team to help you scale. This means knowing how to find people that are just as passionate and driven as you are. The more ‘A players’ you have in your company, the faster you can scale your business. Finding team members that you can trust and delegate tasks to on your behalf will give you a competitive advantage over everyone else.

If you’re looking to expand into different markets, there’s a lot to consider. Here are our best tips on how to scale your business for international expansion:

The International Market is Composed of Many Diverse Regions

One of the biggest mistakes CEO’s make is generalizing the international market. This means thinking that your audience’s needs and interests in one country will be the same as another. Before you decide to scale your business for international expansion, you must first focus on the local market.

The international market is segregated based on region. These regions consist of geographic areas such as Canada, the US, India, China, Japan, Russia, and Europe. Each of these regions has their own set of cultural differences that make them unique. As a result, they also have their own customs, needs and dislikes that differ from other regions.

To efficiently scale your company for international expansion, you need to look at each of these regions as their own separate marketplace. This means doing in-depth research to understand everything there is to know about a certain region. Once you get a better understanding of the marketplace that resides in that region, you can begin to scale your company for that specific region.

This means tailoring your product towards that specific region’s needs. Just because your product performed well in one region, does not mean the same for another. This is because the needs of the European marketplace for example, differ heavily from the needs of the Chinese market. There are differences in these two countries based on a variety of factors – such as language, culture, geographic location and ethnicity.

If you want to take your company to the next level, you need to understand and be aware of these differences. Knowing these differences allows you to tailor your product to that specific region for maximum results.

You Don’t Have Just One Target Audience, You Have Multiple Audiences

In order to customize your product to a particular region’s taste and interests, you need to familiarize yourself with their culture. Know their customs, traditions, and the ‘lingo’ that they use. This is where doing your research beforehand becomes critical.

For example, let’s say your company sells Mac and Cheese, and is based in the US. The ad that you’re running has a Caucasian family sitting together at the dining table. Everyone is laughing, talking about their day, and enjoying their dinner of Mac and Cheese.

Based on statistics, this ad has performed well and the demand for your Mac and Cheese is growing year after year. Now let’s say you want to expand your company and begin targeting the marketplace in China. Do you think you will see much success if you run the same type of ads in this new region? Most likely the answer is no.

This is because your US based ads target a different niche audience. In China, the majority of people that live there are of Asian ethnicity, not Caucasian. Immediately, your ad will be a turn off to the Chinese marketplace, because they cannot relate to it.

As well, most Chinese people prefer to eat rice for dinner, instead of pasta like macaroni. As a result, there is less demand for your product and you will be competing with well established rice companies for market share.

Lastly, the primary language of China is Mandarin. If your ad is running in English, only a small percentage of people will be able to understand what is going on.

This example illustrates how a different region has many factors to account for. If you don’t focus on localizing your product to that region, you will not gather much interest due to cultural differences.

Focus on Localizing Before You Go International

The same holds true for all international regions. Each country has its own differences and particular niche audience. If you want to succeed internationally, you need to account for all these factors.

The way you market your product will determine its success. Details such as the packaging, the words you use, the images, the colors and what you stand for, all impact how consumers will view your product and brand. Especially when it comes to entering a new marketplace.

This means if you’re looking to scale your company for international expansion, you need to localize your offering. You need to customize your product to that region, and account for all the little factors that will affect how well it succeeds. Being aware of these differences when entering a new region will allow you to scale your company quicker and overcome resistance.

Besides having different needs, different regions also have different business practices. These are things such as different business laws, paperwork requirements, and processes you have to go through. As a result, you may have to make numerous changes to how you market your product or brand before it’s considered acceptable.

Achieving legal business compliance in a region like Germany comes with many strict requirements and paperwork to be handled. This process may take weeks or even months before you’re given the green light. If you’re looking to expand your company for international expansion, make sure you have additional resources prepared for when unexpected situations arise.

You don’t want to hype your audience up for a big product launch, only to realize it’ll be delayed by two weeks. Do your research beforehand and be aware of how all these minor things can impact your business.

Behind Every Great Company is an Even Greater Team

Creating a business that is local and successful is a challenge. Finding the right team members to help you scale that business to the international market is exponentially more difficult. If you’re looking to scale your business for international expansion, you’ll need a strong team to support your vision.

The difference between a good company and a great company is the team standing behind it. In order to scale your company internationally, you need reliable team members who can ensure things run smoothly. As you’ll be entering new and uncharted territory, success will depend on whether or not your team members possess certain traits.

These are traits such as ownership, accountability, being a team player and being results driven. Unlike 9-5 employees who are only interested in a paycheck, you want to look for people who can become a valuable asset to your company. Who have an entrepreneurial drive to achieve great things and set new standards.

You want people who are always striving to improve and become a better version of themselves every single day. Because those traits will translate over to the kind of work they will do to help grow the company. Setup your business structure so that your employees are rewarded for their efforts. Make them aware that the more results they can produce for the company, the more they’ll be financially rewarded.

If you’re looking to scale your company for international expansion, you’ll want the best ‘A players’ you can find. The more of these types of people you have in your company, the more you’ll grow.

How To Scale Your Company For International Expansion

There are many ways you can scale your company for international expansion. However you choose to do it, you need to be sure your team is on the same page.

This is why finding good team members is important. If you’re looking to take on the world, you need people who you can trust to delegate tasks to. As the CEO, the last thing you want to do is waste your time completing trivial tasks. Your role is to be the visionary that will lead the company to success. That means you need to be aware of your time and how you spend it.

When you have a team of people you can trust, you can spend your time doing the important things in your company. These are things such as deciding on a new product launch, building connections with other affluent business people, or planning out next month’s marketing strategy. Any other task that can be delegated should be left to your team members to handle.

For example, when Google wanted to expand their international presence, they sent small teams from their headquarters to new regions. These teams were then responsible for growing a local team in that region. And as time went on, these smaller teams grew larger and larger as the company’s presence in that region grew as well.

By delegating tasks to your team, you can efficiently scale your company for international expansion. This means looking at the resources you have, and planning out the best way to utilize them. The better your team members are, the more resources you’ll have available.

A resourceful person will always make opportunity fit his or her needs.” – Napoleon Hill

Utilize Influencer Marketing To Reach A Greater Audience

The more people you know, the more likely you are to become successful. This is why many companies look to influencer marketing when breaking into a new region.

Influencer’s offer many benefits to companies and brands. Firstly, the influencer already has a large audience of followers. This is valuable to a company because it means they don’t have to spend time building up an audience base. By contacting the influencer directly and getting them to promote their product, they can reach a larger group of people.

Secondly, influencer’s have celebrity status. Because many people look up to and may even aspire to become just like them, they hang onto their every word. As a result, the influencer has a lot of power when it comes to influencing an audience to take action. In fact, research shows that 49% of consumers base their purchases based on influencer recommendations.

This is why big companies like Nike and Adidas utilize celebrities like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods to endorse their products. They understand the influence these people have over the general masses. And they know that by tapping into the connections these celebrities have, they can channel that influence toward their own product.

Lastly, the influencer has familiarity with both the region and the people there. This allows them to overcome cultural differences, language barriers, and increase the chances your product will stand out.

Leveraging an influencer’s existing audience base is a good way to promote your brand to a new market. Utilizing an influencer and getting them to endorse your brand or product is another great method to scaling your company for international expansion.

Leverage Business Connections and Your Personal Network

If you’re looking to scale your business, you’ve most likely been in business for quite some time. During that time, you should have met a few trustworthy business contacts. If you’re looking to break into a new international region, get in touch with your old business contacts.

Look at your network of people you know. Make a list of the people who have connections or do business in regions that you want to break into. Then, set up a meeting with them and let them know your plans. In many cases, your business contacts operate in a certain geographic location. As a result, they will know more about that region than you do.

Leverage their experience and knowledge to help you enter the market for that region. Even if they don’t know much about a certain country or city, chances are they know someone who does. This allows you to quickly familiarize yourself with the business practices and cultural differences of a region. They can act as your local business tour guide, providing you with valuable information about what opportunities to pursue and which ones to avoid. In exchange, you can give them some form of compensation for all their help.

This is similar to using influencer marketing to enter a foreign market. But instead of leveraging their audience base and followers, you are leveraging their knowledge and experience. This is also a great way to open up the door for other business opportunities down the road. One successful business deal often leads to another, and if you both have something to gain, it’s a win-win situation.

Don’t be afraid to call up old business contacts. As long as there’s something in it for them, they’re more than glad to provide you with their expertise.

Learn How to Expand Your Company into an International Empire

Scaling your company for international expansion is not that simple. Whenever you are entering a new marketplace, you need to be aware of your target audience’s needs. This means accounting for things such as the culture, language, traditions, customs, processes, ethnicity and restrictions.

Without a good understanding of the differences between each region, you will not be able to attract and influence your audience. A marketing ad aimed at targeting the Western demographic in North America, will not have the same effect if presented in the East. This is due to things such as cultural sensitivity and a different style of doing things. What may seem intriguing and even clever in one region, may be insensitive or even controversial in another.

Having a good understanding of your target audience is crucial for international expansion. Regardless if your business is online or in person, you’ll want to do your research beforehand to increase your odds of success. One method to do this, is to find someone who knows that region well and leverage their experience and knowledge. They can offer you a perspective that others might miss, because they live there or have done business in the region for many years.

If you’re an online coach struggling to scale your business, the High Ticket Influencer™️ program may be for you. Inside, you’ll get an in-depth look at the systems and strategies you can use to scale your business to 6-7+ figures fast. You’ll receive a marketplace-proven roadmap on how to go from $0 to $1M/month in less than 8 months by doing what no one else does. If you want to learn more, click here now.

How To Expand Your Business Into New Markets

May 19, 2020 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Do you want to know how to expand your business into new markets? The current global economic crisis has been forcing many business owners to think creatively.

If you’re losing money because your current market is on lockdown, then you probably want to find ways to expand your business.

For many small, local businesses, it’s especially important to get into online markets and shift to online operations. If your business has been relying on physical stores, you need to learn how to go from brick and mortar to click-and-order. In other words, you need to educate yourself on the best practices for running an online business.

As a business owner, you are constantly challenged to expand, branch out, and test new ideas. But now more than ever, you need ideas that work and get you cash flow fast.

Expanding your business into new markets is probably one of the best ways to stay afloat in times of crisis. So, below are our best tips for how to expand your business:

How To Expand Your Business Step-by-Step

If the economy was good, you could simply go out and test your ideas. But that’s not possible right now.

Now is the time to be a bit more careful with your business decisions and plan before you act. For those who know how to seize it, there is an opportunity in a crisis.

Before you act, map out your plan strategically and diligently.

Step 1: What Are Your Possibilities?

First, you want to look at your possibilities. Do you want to break into a new market with a product or service you already have? Or do you have a new product and want to get it known in other markets?

Do you want to stay in the same market sector, but address a new customer sector, for example going from business to customer (B2C) to business to business (B2B)?

Expanding your business into new markets can also mean changing the way you deliver your product or service, for example, an online download instead of an in-person cashier.

Step 2: Market Research

Do market research. This is important, so you don’t want to skip this step.

Even if you can make educated guesses about your market, still take the time to look into this. Research what your market cares about. What problems do they have? How can you help solve those problems?

When you ask how to expand your business into new markets, you are actually asking how can you expand into new markets successfully.

You could easily go out there, start an online campaign to market to a new audience, and see if somebody buys. But that’s a very risky approach. Why? Because you have no idea if your strategy will resonate with your new market.

That’s why research is so important. Imagine if your research uncovers that your desired new market responds well to do it yourself services. But you wanted to offer a done for you service.

If you do research in advance you can adjust accordingly. If you don’t do any research, you’ll still come to the same conclusion but lose money and time on the way.

Step 3: Make a Decision

Now you know your options and you know your market. So, it’s time to make a decision. Do you want to enter this market or would you rather look into a different one?

It can happen that you made assumptions about a good market to expand into but after your research, you realize it’s not what you envisioned.

If you decide that it’s not your desired market, go back to step one. If you decide to proceed, go to step 4.

Step 4: Strategize to Expand Your Business Into Another Market

Now it’s time to plan out your strategy. How will you introduce your product? How will people find you? How do you position yourself?

Do you have to adjust to a certain culture? Do you have to change or tweak your messaging?

The clearer your plan is the better. Don’t leave anything to chance, but also be flexible enough to pivot if needed.

Enter a New Market with Existing Products

Now that you are clear on your step-by-step plan, let’s take a deeper look at your possibilities when it comes to how to expand your business.

The first possibility you have is taking a product or service you already have, and marketing it in a new way. This could be as simple as changing from a local business to an online business model.

Let’s assume you are selling shoes. You were selling shoes at your local brick and mortar store. But because of the lockdown, you want to open an online shop.

The product (the shoes) doesn’t change. You are still selling the same shoes. All you change is the way you market the product, and the way you deliver it.

Still, there are some pointers to keep in mind. If we stick with our shoe sales example, you’ll realize that buying shoes online isn’t the same as buying them in a local store. Your clients can’t try them on. People might order your shoes, but send them back because they don’t fit.

This is only one example, but you can generally expect new challenges with any new market you break into. If it were easy to expand into a new market then you’d already have done it.

Tweak Your Product

In some cases, you can still use a product or service you already have, but you need to tweak it.

Picture yourself selling marketing coaching sessions for entrepreneurs. Usually, you offer face-to-face meetings for your coaching, in person.

Now, if you want to get into the online market, you’ll likely shift to video coaching sessions. But, you could also record your training sessions and make it a complete online video training.

Pre-recording coaching sessions is great, because it requires no extra time from you once the product is in place. It’s a perfect way to scale your business without burning yourself out with too much work. Essentially, you can sell your recordings an infinite number of times.

Making some changes to an existing product or service is also easier than creating a completely new one. So, this strategy is one of the fastest ways when it comes to how to expand your business.

Expand With a Completely New Product

Some markets might be lucrative to break into, but they are completely different from what you’ve done so far. In such a case, you might have to create a completely new product.

A perfect example of this is when you go from B2B to B2C or vice-versa. Both markets have different needs, different pain points and different ways to do business.

What could that look like? For example, maybe you run a beverage company. In the B2C sector, you sell drinks to consumers. In the B2B sector, it could be about selling drink vending machines to corporations or becoming a vendor for supermarkets.

Do you see how selling drinks to individuals or selling vending machines to a business are very different business models? It’s a completely new product with different messaging and a different price point.

But even if you stay in B2B or B2C, you can still break into a new market with a new product. If you sell shoes, maybe you want to go to handbags.

If you sell coaching sessions, maybe you want to write a book and address a whole new market that way.

Expand Your Social Media Network

Do you know why Dan Lok is active on every major social media platform and market in every possible way? Because every sales channel attracts slightly different people.

Most businesses stick to one or two social media platforms. Maybe they use Facebook and Instagram often, but never post on YouTube. However, if you limit your social media channels too much, there will be certain market sectors you’ll never address.

And that’s exactly why expanding your social media efforts is a great way how to expand your business.

Expand Your Delivery Options

Your forms of delivery and delivery options might have to change, too. Uber Eats or similar delivery services are a perfect example. Until recently, part of the market was completely opposed to ordering food. They would cook at home or go to a restaurant.

Now with the lockdowns, more people are giving food delivery a try, and finding that it’s not so bad after all. Many restaurants switched to delivery so they would survive the crisis.

So, expanding your delivery options opens up lots of new possibilities.

A New Consumer Market

Wondering how to expand your business into new markets? Another way to look at it is your consumer market.

Maybe you are marketing to a certain age group, gender, or location? Expand your market by going wider.

Your product or service is solving a certain problem for a certain group of people. So, you can find a similar audience with similar problems and expand that way.

Another possibility is to go deeper into your existing market. Have a look at your existing clients. Do they have a need for a new product from you?

Let’s assume you are selling a three month business coaching program. Maybe your clients are doing great after your coaching, and now they want to tackle bigger problems with your help. You could offer them a six month or a year-long program.

If you sell shoes, your clients might be interested in getting shoelaces, socks, or other accessories from you, too. Maybe people are doing more walking, now, and more people want to buy walking shoes. You might have to adjust your inventory accordingly.

Don’t think in the category of products, think in terms of needs and problems your clients might have, and you’ll see potential to expand.

Relationships and The Human Element

Now, how to expand your business into new markets is also a question of location. For example, if your market is in America, you could expand to Europe or Asia.

This might not be as easy because you have to pay a lot of attention to cultural differences. What works great in one part of the world might be frowned upon in another corner of the planet.

However, you also don’t want to go into analysis paralysis. If you’ve done your research, sometimes the best thing you can do is just start. Try, and see if your model works. You can always make adjustments later.

The customer is a marketing genius. If something doesn’t work, they’ll let you know by not buying. That’s why marketing heavily relies on testing. You won’t know what really works until you tried it.

The customer is always the marketing genius. If it doesn't work, they don't buy. Click To Tweet

If you want to expand your market across cultures, it’s especially important to form relationships. Talk to your customers. What problems are they facing? What do they wish they had? In other words, what demand is already there and can be solved by you?

The human element is important in any market. People buy people. Building a relationship with your audience will always give you a competitive advantage.

Acquire Another Business

Business acquisition is a very advanced way of how to expand your business. To make this work, you need knowledge and capital. But if you make it work, it’s one of the fastest ways to expand into a new market.

Acquiring a business or merging with one can virtually double your business size overnight. It holds immense possibilities.

But, you have to do intense research, negotiate, and really think it through. It’s not a decision you make lightheartedly. If you run a small business, other options might be better for you.

How To Analyse A Market

After evaluating your options you might wonder: how do I actually research my target market? There are many ways to conduct market research, so here are some pointers.

Customers

Have a look at your customers. Find out their needs, pain points, and struggles. How does your offer help them?

Most businesses would focus on the client’s demographics like age, gender, and location. It’s important but do you know what else to look at? Almost more important than demographics are your client’s psychographics.

What’s that? Psychographics are wishes, needs, and preferences your customers might have. What are they interested in? Whom do they already buy from? What keeps them awake at night?

Looking at psychographics allows you to really understand your customers.

Competitors

Looking at your competitors is such a great way to better understand your market. Why? Because success leaves clues.

What is already working for your competitors? What can you emulate? There is no shame in doing something similar if there’s already a demand for it.

However, you also want to look at the reviews your competitors receive. What’s missing? What do people wish for or what do they criticize? Maybe there is something you can do better than your competition. That’s your competitive advantage.

Usually, it’s easier to get into a market where there is already some competition. Breaking into a completely new market is harder.

Market Size And Possible Barriers

You also want to look at your target market from a high-level view. This includes questions like:

How big is the market? How specialized?
Is it a growing market or is it contracting?
How competitive is it?

The answers to these questions will have great effects on your strategy. If a market is very competitive then you probably have to be more specialized. If the market is very big, you might want to find a niche.

It’s also a good idea to look at possible barriers to entry beforehand. What could stop you or slow you down? Typical barriers to entry are high costs. Some barriers are natural, others are imposed by the government.

For example, the government might collect a special tax for beverages that contain alcohol. It’s impossible to know this beforehand. It’s a barrier imposed by the government.

Natural barriers can look completely different. Maybe your business requires a huge warehouse. You can’t build it anywhere you want as there are natural obstacles like rivers or forests.

Environmental Factors

Finally, it’s important to note that no market exists in a vacuum. The market’s environment has a great influence.

Environmental factors include government regulations, technical developments, and cultural factors. Analyze them early on so you can expand your business successfully.

Find out which environmental factors could be dangerous for your business and which you can leverage for your success.

Even a change in a different market sector could affect your target market. Keeping an eye on these aspects as not only important at the beginning but pretty much all the time.

Even if you’ve been in a market for 30 years, you want to keep adapting to technological changes for example. If you can’t keep up your business runs at the risk of becoming irrelevant.

Ready For Next-Level Business Advice?

How to expand your business into new markets is a question of knowledge and skill. What if you could learn a lot more about business and marketing from Dan Lok himself?

And what if we told you that right now, you can get his 14 best training packages and save 57%? If your business is struggling right now because of the crisis, learning from someone who has done it all before is invaluable.

Dan Lok has been in business for over 20 years, and this isn’t the first recession he’s seeing. The Ultimate Training Collection includes everything he used to build a global empire. Discover The Ultimate Training Collection here.

How To Attract Better Clients And Raise Your Prices (With Zero Resistance)

April 23, 2020 by Dan Lok

Dealing with difficult clients can be a nightmare. Knowing how to attract better clients will not only increase your business growth, but also your peace of mind.

Most people do not know how to attract better clients. They get stuck in the mindset of thinking their product isn’t good enough, or their price is already too high. As a result, they think that their current clients are the only ones they can do business with. In reality, their limiting beliefs are the only thing holding them back. And the truth is that knowing how to attract better clients has nothing to do with your product, price or the marketplace. It has to do with you.

Think about how you got to where you currently are. You might have a few clients you are working with, and charge them a certain amount. However, every time you try to get new clients and raise your prices, you are met with resistance. And this happens to almost everyone you talk to. Why is this the case? You never had difficulty pitching your price in the past. Why only now, are you suddenly meeting resistance when you are trying to go for something greater?

As you’ll soon discover, one of the biggest reasons why business owners and entrepreneurs don’t know how to attract better clients is because of themselves. If you are struggling to attract better clients and raise your prices without resistance, here are some of my best tips on how to overcome these issues.

If You Can’t Attract Better Clients, It’s Your Fault

If you’re struggling to attract better clients, you need to take a step back and analyze the situation. What is the reason you aren’t able to attract better clients? What’s the common factor that’s holding you back? If you analyze deeply enough, you may come to a shocking conclusion: The common factor is you.

In life, many people struggle to get what they want. This is evident with people who are trapped in the rat race and unsatisfied with their jobs. They go to work every single day from 9-5. They force themselves to wake up sleep deprived. They’re miserable, and would much rather do something else, like chasing their dreams or finally starting their own business. Yet despite their desire, nothing ever changes. They’re still stuck at their boring old jobs, settling for something they don’t want. Why?

The reason is because of themselves. They hold themselves back with their own limiting beliefs. For example, a 23 year old might want to quit their job and become an entrepreneur. Yet they can’t, because they’re afraid they won’t be able to pay the bills. They’re afraid their business venture will not succeed, and they’ll be left on the streets broke. These are fears that they themselves create, that are not reality.

Until they decide to overcome their own limiting beliefs, they will never find success. The same is true for attracting better clients – unless you believe you can do so, unless you believe you are worthy, you will never get them.

Your Clients Can Sense Your Fear, Doubt And Uncertainty

This is true when it comes to business and in life. Humans can smell other people’s doubt, fears and uncertainty from a mile away. This is why knowing how to attract better clients has nothing to do with the actual product you are offering. Your clients are picking up on your own internal struggle and the limiting beliefs that are in your head. As a result, they don’t believe that you can get them the results they want, because you yourself do not believe that either. If you can’t convince yourself, how can you expect to convince your clients?

When interacting with other people, we give off unconscious behaviors that others judge us on. These are things such as our body language, tonality, the words we use and how we carry ourselves. If we speak in a confident manner, with a clear booming voice while standing up straight, others will perceive us as confident. But if we hunch over, and whisper when we are talking to our prospects, how do you think they will react when you say you charge X amount for your service?

Sell Me This Pen, And Do It Consistently

Here’s an example of how unconscious factors affect the clients you attract and the prices you can charge. Hold a pen in your hand, and repeat the following sentence out loud as though you were talking to a client:

“I charge $1 for this pen.”

Carefully note how you said that sentence. Your tonality, speed at which you said it and how loud your voice is. Now say this sentence out loud:

“I charge $10,000 for this pen.”

Did you notice a difference? Most likely when you said the second sentence, it differed from the first way you said it. You might have hesitated slightly, or your voice could have changed. This is because internally, you do not believe that a pen is worth $10,000.

Now imagine that you are offering a product or service to your clients, and you tried to raise your price that you charge them. When you tell them your price, the exact same thing is going to happen. If you do not believe that your product or service is worth what you say it is, you are going to hesitate. That slight difference in how you say your price, is what your client is going to pick up on. And if they sense that you are conflicted with how much you charge for your service, they will know you are bluffing them.

The 4 Types of Limiting Beliefs That Are Holding You Back

In order to get the kind of clients at the prices you want, you need to overcome your limiting beliefs. As you saw with the pen exercise, unless you fully believe what you are saying, your voice is going to rise like a helium balloon.

The reason your communication pattern changes is because of one of these reasons:

You are attached to the sale
You don’t believe in your product
You don’t believe your product is worth that price
You are afraid of your prospect

If you want to overcome your limiting beliefs, you need to change your mindset and do the opposite. For example, if you believe the reason you can’t get what you want is because you are attached to the sale, you’ll need to practice having an ‘I don’t care attitude’.

Let’s go into each of these 4 beliefs, and how you can overcome them.

Limiting Belief #1: Attachment To The Sale

One of the most common reasons people don’t know how to attract better clients, is because they are attached to the sale. They are attached to the outcome of closing the prospect, and are afraid of not being able to make the prospect say yes. If you go into a business meeting with this mindset, you are setting yourself up for failure.

When you are attached to a sale, the way you communicate will come off as needy or desperate. If you’ve been in business long enough, you’ll know one thing: People don’t do business with needy and desperate people.

No one likes to do business with someone who is needy. It’s a trait that puts people off, and makes them uncomfortable. Instead, you should have the mindset that you are good no matter what happens.

One of the core principles I teach all my students as closers, is that it has nothing to do with you. Whether or not you make the sale, has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU. If you successfully close the prospect on a $10,000 deal, it has nothing to do with you. If you fail to close the prospect and they say no to your offer, it has nothing to do with you. So many people beat themselves up over what they perceive are their mistakes, when in reality it has nothing to do with them.

The truth is, whether or not your prospect buys is their decision. You can’t force them to say yes. The only thing you can do is influence them to see the value you bring to the table. If they say no, or you think the prospect is a bad fit, it’s completely fine to walk away.

Whether or not you make the sale, has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.

Limiting Belief #2: You Have No Belief In Your Product

Another reason why entrepreneurs don’t know how to attract better clients is that they don’t believe in their product. They don’t believe their product or service can deliver the results they are promising.

If you are not certain about your product, if you do not display confidence, you cannot influence someone. Your prospect has their own doubts and fears they are dealing with when interacting with you. And if you yourself also display doubts and fears about your product, it is only going to add onto the doubt they have in their minds.

The only way you can influence the person you are talking, is if your confidence level is higher than theirs. Have you ever met a salesperson who seemed so certain about something, that you were influenced to buy what they were talking about? You might not have any idea what the product or service is about, but the way they spoke with such conviction convinced you that it would be a safe decision.

This is why people who are naive fall for scams or bad deals by smooth talking salespeople. They get entranced by the way the salesperson carries themselves, that they don’t stop to actually think about what they’re buying. If you want to learn how to attract better clients and raise your prices, you need to know how to do the same thing. You need to project confidence in the way you carry yourself, and infect your prospect with the same certainty. That is how you get them to say yes.

Certainty is influence. - Ed Mylett Click To Tweet

Limiting Belief #3: Believing Your Product Is Too Expensive

Similar to limiting belief #2, you believe your product is not worth what you are charging. In the pen example, you had no trouble saying that a pen was worth a dollar, because that is the standard market price for a pen. But when you tried saying it was worth $10,000, you suddenly had difficulty doing so. This is because of the price.

Unlike limiting belief #2, this has nothing to do with the product itself. The pen is still a pen in both examples, however the price reflecting that pen is different. The reason why people struggle in knowing how to attract better clients is because deep down they think their product is too expensive. They don’t believe their product is worth so much, or they lack evidence that supports that belief.

For example, suppose you were offering consulting services and you charged $5,000 an hour. If someone had said yes to you before in the past, and you were able to generate for them a 10x ROI because of your consulting, you would easily be able to state your price to your next client. This is because you have evidence from your previous client that what you do works.

However, if you’ve never had a client pay you $5,000 for your services, how could you possibly have the confidence that your advice would work out? You have no reason to believe you can charge so much for your services. Because you have no reason, you have no belief.

To overcome this limiting belief, you need evidence. This could be from a case study, or a free trial you’ve done for clients in the past. The only way you’ll get confidence, is if you have the evidence to support it.

Confidence comes from competence. Click To Tweet

Limiting Belief #4: Fear of Your Prospect

The last limiting belief that prevents people from learning how to attract better clients, is fear of the prospect. You might be new to the business world and lack experience dealing with people. Or your prospect might be intimidating in some way – either physically or mentally.

If you are afraid of your prospect, that is already a problem. You need to ask yourself why you are afraid, and overcome that issue. Are you afraid they will hurt you? Do you fear they will discover you are a scammer? Or is it something else about your prospect, such as how they look or how they smell?

Being afraid of your prospect is actually a more common issue than most people know. Of everyone that you interact with, not everyone is going to like you. And the truth is, they don’t have to. Just like you aren’t going to like everyone you meet, they aren’t necessarily going to like you. But despite how you or your prospect personally feels about each other, you need to put those feelings aside. Your personal life and your business life should be kept separate. You have something they want, and they have something you want. It’s a fair trade and exchange, where both parties walk away as winners.

If you have a valuable product or service that you can offer your prospect, there is no need to fear them. The most common reason why people are afraid of the prospect, is because they have nothing of value to offer them. In that scenario, it is perfectly fine to walk away and not close the deal. After all, you two are not a good fit, which means there is no reason to do business. Move on, and find someone who is.

The 6 Step Process To Learning How To Get Your Dream Clients With Ease

Most people struggle to know how to attract better clients and raise their prices without objections. The biggest reason for their lack of success, are their limiting beliefs that hold them back.

Unless these limiting beliefs are dealt with, you will not be able to find success. Your prospect will sense your unconscious behaviour, and become turned off or suspicious as to your true motives.

Overcoming these limiting beliefs is the first step towards getting what you want in business and in life. Unless you’re able to confidently assert yourself, you won’t be able to get the prospect to say yes to your product or your price.

I know many entrepreneurs that struggle to attract the kind of clients they deserve. They’re stuck dealing with bad clients that are difficult to work with, and don’t pay them what they’re worth. The biggest problem is that they put up with these clients, when in reality they are worth so much more. That’s why I’ve put together a 6 step program to help any struggling entrepreneur or business owner overcome these objections to get the clients they deserve.

If you’re tired of being undercharged or dealing with bad clients, and want a step by step system that allows you to attract your dream clients with ease and charge them the prices you want, click here to get my 6 Steps To 6 Figures Formula Program now.