Lots of great wisdom sharing with these business ladies.
Becky: It’s wonderful to get to meet you. We bring you to our Facebook live for Author Support.
We are looking for and discovering a lot of tools that our authors can use that gets them exposure. Marketing is one of those things that is easy to leave to the background.
My name is Becky Norwood, with Spotlight Your Business.
Nancy: Unleashed Mobile Apps
Becky: We are on Facebook already. Welcome, this is Natalie McQueen, of Spotlight on Your Business.
Let’s find out what you offer and what you’re doing and how beneficial it is for authors to consider something like this.
Nancy: We develop mobile apps for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We help them compete with big budget places.
You can take a mobile app to showcase your business.
You have what I call the trinity – social media where people learn about you and you get on your radar. They want to know more they get on your website to learn about your services, you, your background story and what you do. And then a mobile app is where people come to do business with you.
We have put this on a platform that is affordable and can compete with the big budget people.
For an author, a lot of our authors have businesses and that’s why they’ve written a book. And it’s to promote their business, showcase who they are and the mobile app can be incorporated in there.
You can sell your book from there, have appointments booked, you can have your podcast, YouTube and have that all together.
People can do business with you in a mobile app.
Becky: That’s powerful.
One of the things is – the challenge is many of the authors we work with have a business. The book is a chism, a foot in the door and establishment of authority, but a lot of work goes into marketing the book.
If someone is following you and interested enough to read your book you want to keep capturing them.
(With the Brillaint Biz App) I get push notifications when they make new posts and everything, that is quite attractive. You aren’t sending them to a website they don’t have to go anywhere.
Nancy: It’s all in the palm of your hand.
The Brilliant Biz Book has its own app and brought in all the authors and what they offer.
I happen to be an author in that book as well. The authors that are there are speaking to an audience who wants to hear from you.
That’s what an app does.
You are targeting people who want to hear your message and want to do business with you.
There are all kinds of different audiences. There are those you don’t pay for and those that aren’t yours. Those you specific…you can throw an ad out on Facebook but you’ll cast a net.
When you are talking to people who have an app on their phone they are saying “YES, tell me what is going on in your world I want to do business with you.”
We do do push notifications about one of our authors.
We do podcasts. We send notices to tell people we did a new podcast and get people to listen to it. Anyone who has any kind of business, coaching, retail, the push notice is so powerful.
You are saying to people – “here is what I am doing.”
They say “I want to hear from you.”
Natalie: I can see a huge advantage to this.
We encourage our authors to share insight or something that isn’t out yet.
It’s a way for them to build lists as well.
Nancy: What’s nice about the app is you can list events.
If they are out speaking they can have events. Audience members can put comments on the event, they can share the app to say “hey this is what is going on.”
You are looking at the power of building this. They want to hear what you have to say and check this out you have a book.
It brings credibility and authority.
A book is a powerful tool. It’s taken my business and put my business on one level to the next. I’m looked at as an authority and the exposure is amazing.
Becky: I’m looking at it (the Brilliant Biz Books app).
I have one of my authors using a technique … text your name and email to get a special thing. …very few few responded. They don’t want messages or texts from people they like a lot but don’t want to go that extra step because it feels on the … but this is downloadable.
Nancy: Apple, Android, and Windows phones.
Becky: I have the app up and I suppose you (Nancy) do too.
It’s prettier than this. -holds up phone-
It has about the book, chapter summaries, it’s such a gorgeous striking cover. I’m looking at it and it has podcasts listed, (asking?) the experts, events, brilliant moments, the blog, reader comments and share the app.
It’s pretty cool.
If someone is interested enough to follow and you’re speaking from the stage to tell them to download the app and let them know you’re speaking at another panel.
….
Nancy: Exactly!
I actually just did a presentation and it was (for) a small group of 11 people. I was giving an offering of a one on one sessions afterwards.
I told people to get on the app and go on “ask an author” and put in your info and send a note that says “I’m in.”
Of the 11, 7 signed up to talk to me right there on the app.
No filling out paper or anything.
I have reached out to them and scheduled one on ones. It was powerful.
That’s a pretty good ratio.
Natalie: You talked to us about having other people be able to put a picture or the cover of their book advertised on your app.
Nancy:You can have different types of advertising. You see the book in the background. I can change that to anything I wanted to.
Say you work in a business with different sponsors…
I have a bar here. What he has done is he has partnered with Jack Daniels to sell advertisements and there is a Jack bottle in the background. Jack pays for the ad.
I just got done speaking with a potential client about collaborating with experts in their field (with) different businesses to create a network.
….
If you have a product (and) you work with other vendors, getting them to sponsor your app for you (with) subliminal advertising is a fantastic way to put things together.
Your app can be a source of income without selling a product.
It can pay for itself.
Becky: In this crazy, busy world it is so easy to capture attention in the moment and then (be) forgotten in the business of life.
For the Brilliant Breakthroughs (app) it’s not intrusive at all. I notice it once in a while.
I look at it or I don’t depending on what I’m doing at the time, but I know I can go back to it which is cool.
Nancy: If people turn notices off they can go look at it later. It’s at their fingertips.
It keeps you on the forefront of the mind.
In the competitive world we are in – there are so many of us out there.
Other app developers or book publishers or coaches. A mobile app keeps customers informed. They want information.
They want to be drawn to you – not sold to. Fed information. That’s what we do with our Brilliant Biz Book app.
They want to engage. Apps get them engaging with you. Listening to the podcast, sending a message, buying a product. That helps you stay above the competition.
No more than a little corner bar in our area with 1600 downloads.
It’s amazing how they stand out.
And our book app it stands out. How many authors have apps?
Becky: I haven’t heard of too many for any reason.
That’s one of the purposes of what we are doing these expert interviews on behalf of authors. To show them the many many ways they can tap into marketing that is smart.
Smart marketing. As something that doesn’t take tremendous time or dollars, but is very efficient. We know how busy we are.
We know how swamped we can be and sometimes our marketing goes to the wayside. For authors their books get lost in the cobwebs of cyberspace.
Nancy: What’s nice is little snippets of information is all they want.
They don’t want a blog that goes on for 5 pages. They want maybe 500 words.
That’s what an app can do. Little snippets of information about who you are to encourage you to pick-up the phone to work with them.
How many times have you talked to your kids and they said they called so and so?
And they actually texted. Or Facebook messaged and they call that “talking.”
Becky: It’s a different world.
Nancy: You have to shift with that. 88% of smartphone users only use mobile apps to do business. Mobile websites do not have the same capabilities.
They don’t have the notifications or the interactive capability or loyalty programs or any of those things. These are all things you can do with your app.
Becky: We are so grateful for you taking the time.
Nancy: The best way to get through to me is to download the Brilliant Biz Book app and communicate with me that way. Or reach out to me on our contact page.
