"Getting Started Online"- Monetizing Your Knowledge

Several of my latest blogs have been about creating content products/programs and how to leverage them to increase your revenues.

A number of people have asked me how to get started monetizing knowledge and expertise ...... They ask...."What do I do 1st....what is the overall process?"

The overall process can be outlined in just 4 Building Blocks......

1. Positioning .... Position you and/or your company as an "expert" and integrate into all your communications.
2. Product Creation & Packaging .... Create high value & high margin information products/programs.
3. Promotion .... Create fresh, content driven online sales campaigns.
4. Partners .... Get the right promo partners to reach larger audience of buyers for your products & services.

First thing to consider ..... what are your objectives ...... consider your strategy alternatives and which one or combination do you want to implement. Some idea generators & alternatives to consider are:

• Evaluate your current products and make adjustments with your product strategies to improve your competitive advantage
• Starting a new business and need to create a product strategy and product suite for development and launch over next 3 to 5 years
• Create new revenue streams with content products/programs
• Have written a book and want to leverage it for additional sales of products you have and/or can create
• Create a lead generation system to increase leads for your sales staff
• Have a speaking offering and want to leverage those opportunities to sell more "stuff" 
• Use content products to enhance direct sales and/or channel partner sales efforts
• Bundle content products to add value to and differentiate current product/service packages
• Use content products to create internal training systems for your staff
• Use content products and online sales campaigns to target Donors and increase funding for your non-profit organization
• Use content products and mobile marketing techniques to more effectively capture contact info and and follow-up with your target buyers and customers

The rest of the steps to take to get you started and on your way to increasing your sales & building your business to the next level are below ..... see the whole picture, but a manageable approach to implementation is to take 1 step at a time ..... each step you complete will provide you the clarity to effectively focus on the next .... 

Here goes ... step-by-step....

1. Clarify your target customer profile .... define your most "qualified" customer ..... your middle of the road customer .... least likely to succeed customer ..... 
2. Evaluate your current products and services. How can they be improved to increase your competitive advantage?
3. Identify your expert/thought leader topic that adds the highest value for your target audience.
4. Create 1st draft of your product funnel model ...... set up a product/services funnel so each product/service leads to the next. 1st introduce your prospects & customers at an introductory level ..... keeping your focus on creating trust and rapport .... delivering value & helping them achieve results. This leads to a deeper relationship as they continue to apply what they are learning. The key is to always have another offering that keeps them moving up to higher value/deeper relationship/higher prices.... continuing to escalate the customer relationship.
5. Create a development schedule for your Product Funnel ...... prioritize your current products/enhancements and the new ones..... list your expected delivery formats, price points and go to market target dates.
6. Create a Product Framework for the primary product in the funnel ..... people are always looking for advice and "how to" information .... they want to shorten the learning curve .... get from Point A to Point B as efficiently & successfully as possible. A product framework breaks down the big picture steps required to get from Point A to Point B. 
7. Review & Adjust Product Funnel .... once you have developed your primary product framework, you can then consider how it impacts the products in your funnel down to the introductory level as well as the ones that continue up through the advanced and premiere level "stuff."  
8. Create expert positioning & supporting content ..... this includes things such as testimonials and stories that prove the positioning.
9. Create the 1st draft of product offerings  ..... includes what you will communicate to prospects and customers about what the offerings are and how they will benefit.....
10. Create the content to fit the product framework ..... stop short of production .... provide all the content you will teach within the framework you have created.
11. Identify the technology platform requirements .... todays technology capabilities no longer have cost  .... or ease of use  .... or available features .... standing in the way of getting started ..... 
12. Develop product production plan, schedule & get started making it happen..... now that the product framework and content has been created .... it is now time to produce it..... topic for another blog, but the solutions available today make the video, audio and other formats you will use for production .... so easy.... so cost effective.
13. Create the campaigns .... get ready to launch online communications to sell your products/programs.

Get started today !!! ... 

Take one step at a time ... 

1st Step you can take today .... COMMIT ......

COMMIT ...... to using content products & online strategies ..... to increase your revenues ...... to implement the process I have outlined for you.

If you need help, reach out to me. I have all the processes to support each one of the 13 steps ..... getting you efficiently & successfully from start to reaching your desired outcome.

Follow @PatAlacqua

Position Yourself as a Thought Leader ... an Expert

Think about all the things you have learned on your career journey .... the things you have mastered ...

Consider positioning yourself as a thought leader in a "select" topic area .... someone with knowledge, advice and "how to" information that helps/adds value for a target audience ....

Take a specific topic/area of focus for what you have learned .... package it in a way that a target audience will find it useful and of high value ..... and willing to pay for it .....

Provide high value to others by "creating" information that can improve results ..... focus on creating products around your area of expertise .....

6 Steps to Building a Business ..... around your area of expertise ....

1. Choose a topic/area to focus on ..... decide what you will teach & choose a target audience to teach it to
2. Discover your audience's problems ...... identify their pain points and needs
3. Position your expertise ... create your story
4. Create something to sell .... create a product suite .... make it easy to experience & learn what you know and can share .... create a "buyer's path" that continues to add value and keeps them buying from you
5. Create an online infrastructure for marketing, sales, fulfillment & customer service .... this is not hard or costly ... there are low cost & easy to implement online systems available today .... systems that are managed and maintained online by others.
6. Create sales campaigns .... step-by-step communications to actively sell your products online and through promotional partners.

Get started today leveraging your career journey of learning .... create and sell products & services around your area of expertise.

Follow @PatAlacqua

Discovering Your New Product Concept

I find myself thinking all the time what might a new idea or concept be that I could launch & build a business around. I am also asked the same by others ... "How can I identify an idea or concept to build a business around." Many of us are looking for that next opportunity we can launch!

My recommended approach is to consider the target audience you would like to serve. Gather information from those target customers. The information you learn from them will often create the path to identifying a new product or service they may be willing to pay for if you were to create it.

Here are some questions to ask and sentences to finish for use when gathering insights from your target audience. The insights you get from the people you talk with will leave you clues on what kind of products, programs and/or services you might consider creating.

Here goes ....

1. My target customers feel they are falling short in this area ....
2. Most of my target customers would pick a fight to protect the belief that ....
3. Most of my target customers have no idea how to .....
4. Most of my target customers have the goal to .....
5. Most of my target customers deeply value ....
6. Most of my target customers are terrified that ......
7. Most of my target customers are frustrated with these things .....
8. Most of my target customers are held back by these things ....
9. What are your target customers trying to accomplish this year? (learn this ......, master this ....., achieve this ....., have this ...., to be this ....., to feel this ...., to experience this lifestyle ...., avoid this forever ......
10. What do your target customers need to double the results they are responsible for in their business?
11. What strategies have your target customers tried to improve their desired outcomes? What has worked? What has not worked?
12. What do your target customers search (google) for ..... topics and key words?
13. What do your target customers hate to do?
14. What do your target customers love to do?
15. What do your target customers pay good money for?
16. What are the 10 questions (FAQs) your target customers seem to always have?
17. What are the 10 questions your target customers should be asking and they are not yet asking?
18. How can you add more value for your target customers and make their lives more interesting?

After gathering all the above information from your target customers, ask yourself what products, programs or services you could create that would be perceived as high value by your target customers. Would they be willing to pay for them?

Take action now to learn these customer insights and you will be 1 step closer to identifying that new product idea or concept you can get excited about! 

Let me know any comments or questions you have in the comment section below. I will respond just as soon as I can!

Follow @PatAlacqua

How Do Low Cost Competitors Play the Game

Are you facing low cost competitors in your markets? 

Do you have a good understanding of how they operate? 

Are you exploring adjustments in how you operate in order to compete effectively?

Thinking about your answers to the following questions may help you identify some strategies you should be considering:

1. Are there opportunities for you, or new competitors, to radically change the business model in your industry or in a segment of it?
2. Have you reviewed your value propositions recently? Are they still relevant to your targeted customer segments? Or...... have they become out of date as a result of changes in customer needs and competitive developments?
3. Have you added unnecessary complexity and cost to you business over recent years? Do you have brands, products, product variants (sizes, flavors, colors, grades, etc) in your product suite that no longer meet real customer needs & are not truly valued by customers? Are you providing services that are not needed or valued? Would it make sense to bundle or unbundle some of your offerings so you can offer customers a solution that better fits needs and perhaps reduced the complexity of your business at the same time?
4. Do your marketing communications convey your value proposition effectively or might another approach be more effective?
5. Are you being innovative enough in controlling your costs? Are there ways you could make a "step-change" reduction in your costs? Could you move significant activities to other players in your value chain ...... perhaps even reconfiguring your value chain......who might be able to manage them more efficiently and possibly even more effectively?
6. Could you benefit from being less customer driven? Are you listening too much to your customers .... or to the wrong customers..... and responding too much to their articulated needs that may not be well thought through? Are your customers always right? Should you perhaps try to lead them to new offers, that in the long run may deliver more value and/or lower costs to both of you? If your current customers are not interested, are there other segments of existing users, or potential new users, who might be interested in your new offers?
7. Are you in a business that has very high price elasticity? Should you consider a radical drop in price to stimulate primary demand in your market before a competitor sees this opportunity & gains competitive advantage by doing it?
8. Have you tried to systemically understand your low cost competitor's business systems in real depth? What ideas would you come up with if you set the objective of coming up with 5 to 10 learning points from low cost competitors? Could you significantly improve your competitive position by implementing some of the ideas without threatening your core business model......assuming you still believe you have the right one?

Follow @PatAlacqua

Recognizing Innovators - 10 Behavioral Characteristics

The following are 10 Behavioral Characteristics as outlined in The Business Model Innovation Factory by Saul Kaplan:

1. Innovators always think there is a way.
2. Innovators know that without passion there can be no innovation.
3. Innovators embrace change to a fault.
4. Innovators have a strong point of view but know they are missing something.
5. Innovators know that innovation is a team sport.
6. Innovators embrace constraints as opportunities.
7. Innovators celebrate their vulnerability.
8. Innovators openly share their ideas and passions, expecting to be challenged.
9. Innovators know that the best ideas are in the gray areas between silos.
10. Innovators know that a good story can change the world.

Identifying innovators and connecting them together in purposeful ways is the secret sauce for business model innovation. Change begins with the ability to recognize an innovator when you meet one.

 
Follow @PatAlacqua

Strategic Partnerships - Advantages & Disadvantages

The Right Strategic Partnership Means:

• Spreading risk and trusting others to act in joint best interests
• A fit between partners so objectives match and activities show synergy
• Identifying complementary skills, competencies and resources in partners
• Sharing confidential information

Advantages - Strategic Partnerships Can Help An Organization:

• Find an outlet for excess capacity
• Gain quick, low risk access to new markets
• Strengthen its technological base
• Achieve economies of scale through high volume, low cost and mass distribution
• Overcome geographic, legal and trade barriers
• Speed up innovation & new product introduction

Disadvantages - Unsuccessful Partnerships May Result In The Following:

• A lack of strategic fit
• An imbalance in the relationship between the partners
• Implementation problems because of differing leadership styles 
• A lack of trust and confidence
• Slow decision making
• Key requirements for a market project are concentrated in one of the partners

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Creating a Partnership 

1. What changes are effecting our markets?
2. How long will these changes last?
3. How fast can we adapt to these changes?
4. Is investment in our own resource levels the best answer?

 

Follow @PatAlacqua

Things You Can Do to Grow Your Business

As you consider your alternatives for growing your business to the next level .... the following should be on your list:

• Find New Markets
• Grow New Niches in Your Current Market
• Expand Product Lines
• Provide More Total Solutions to Address Customer Pain Points
• Brand Your Company & People as Thought Leaders

As you focus on the above list, you will will need to consider

• New Product Development
• Strategic Alliances
• Acquisitions or Mergers

Follow @PatAlacqua