You’ve gotta understand how marketing leads to sales

buy- trade something for something else
- not necessarily money
  - read (time trade)
  - share (reputation trade)

The buying cycle

Customer looks for help
Get a taste for you and what you do
Gorge on your stuff
Buy

Exposure to an ad

The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it. The second time, they don’t notice it. The third time, they are aware that it is there. The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before. The fifth time, they actually read the ad. The sixth time they thumb their nose at it. The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it. The eighth time, they start to think. “Here’s that confounded ad again.” The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something. The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it. The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads. The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product. The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value. The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time. The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it. The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future. The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product. The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product. The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully. The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.

This is called effective frequency
Exposure builds reputation
Step missing from The buying cycle
- a win before the buy
- Experiencing a win lowers the number of required exposures
- nothing opens wallets like results

The buying cycle flow chart

ebombs are free to make and live forever
ebombs are tiny fixes
the more you write, the more on-ramps to get customers on-board
What if your audience doesn’t research?
- If just trying it doesn’t work, they will start seeking

First Try! Come up with 5 marketing topics for…

Come up with 5 blog post topics from the thread at What to do with client that takes weeks to respond? : freelance

What could go wrong if you don’t start with a contract
How to communicate effectively with clients
How to avoid being ghosted by clients
How to know clients will ghost you before you even start working with them
How to spot a good client (and a bad one)
What I learned from my first bad client
Why you should always get a deposit for every client project
50 excuses clients give for not paying on time
Why your client is ignoring you
When to use email vs. phone for client communication

Learn the Ebomb Recipe that WORKS

ebomb = educational content marketing

A good ebomb:

answers a question
proves you understand them
- be very specific
add a call-to-action to join your list

Exercise: Come up with as many potential ebomb concepts as you can from just one thread

How to stop worrying about non-billable time
Which non-billable tasks are actually necessary for freelancers?
How much time should I spend on billable vs. non-billable?
What should I be billing for as a freelancer?
What should I not be billing for as a freelancer?
How to manage time spent communicating as a freelancer
Should I bill for time spent communicating as a freelancer?
How to carve out time for yourself from your busy freelancing schedule
How to avoid overworking as a freelancer
How to maintain work/life balance as a freelancer
How to efficiently manage contractors in your freelance practice
How many contractors is too many for your freelance practice
How to wrangle task switching as a freelancer
Task switching will destroy your productivity
How to track time on your freelance projects
The best apps for freelance time tracking
You should be charging for tasks you aren’t currently charging for
Charge your client to figure out WTF they want you to do
Workstation ergonomics for freelancers
How to work fewer hours while still paying your bills
How to freelance away from home cheap or free
The best freelancing work schedule

Virtual Hot Seat: How good are your ebomb topics?

30x500 Ebombs Virtual Hot Seat Workbook and Cheat Sheet.pdf

Comparison to Eliza

Eliza included stuff about getting clients moving
Her items are more click-baity like titles where mine are more rough ideas for topics
“in 10 minutes a day” is a good hook
Cute

Comparison to George

George’s are hard to read and understand
- may not be a native English-speaker
Some seem like re-statement of the exact same topic idea
- particularly the task switching ones
George goes further afield with the “healthy and tasty dinners in less than 15 minutes” topic
Again, more clickbaity than mine

Teacher feedback

If you could write a book about a topic, it’s not specific enough for an ebomb
Once you’ve picked a topic
1. narrow it by choosing an angle on the topic
2. narrow again by choosing a specific fix to provide
give them something specific to do, even if it’s only in their head
no win, no ebomb
choose the fix for the problem you’re going to write about before you start

Comparison to Amy and Alex

Their notes are rougher concepts than Eliza’s and George’s (which were presented as post titles in many cases), but they’re even rougher than mine
In one case, they note the type of information they’re delivering: experiment/how-to
Most allude to the fix, except for those which are “guides” which are a bit more nebulous

Analyze my own

Which topics could become a full book or product?

How to manage time spent communicating
How to avoid overwork
How to carve out time for yourself from your busy freelancing schedule
How to maintain work/life balance
How to manage contractors

Which are specific and small?

How to stop worrying about non-billable time
Which non-billable tasks are actually necessary for freelancers?
How much time should I spend on billable vs. non-billable?
What should I be billing for as a freelancer?
What should I not be billing for as a freelancer?
Should I bill for time spent communicating as a freelancer?
How many contractors is too many for your freelance practice
How to wrangle task switching as a freelancer
Task switching will destroy your productivity
How to track time on your freelance projects
The best apps for freelance time tracking
You should be charging for tasks you aren’t currently charging for
Charge your client to figure out WTF they want you to do
Workstation ergonomics for freelancers
How to work fewer hours while still paying your bills
How to freelance away from home cheap or free
The best freelancing work schedule

What single fix will I give?

Fixes listed in the order the topics appear in the list

Bill enough for billable time to pay for non-billable
tracking time, regular communication, marketing and sales
number of hours for each
list of billable tasks
list of non-billable tasks
Too broad. Could give multiple fixes for this.
Yes
too broad
too broad
too broad
too broad
way to figure out a number
several answers that would help
Just a sort of manifesto. No fix here, except making the reader realize this is a bad idea.
Harvest
This is a list of fixes, so maybe not good ebomb material?
list of tasks to charge for
description of discover engagement and how to execute (maybe too much for single ebomb?)
maybe this should be divided into desk, keyboard, mouse, etc
too broad (or charge more 😅)
list of places you can freelance (coffee shops, libraries, parks)
not sure what I was thinking here 😅

What will be their tiny win?

Less anxiety about non-billable
peace of mind, knowing they aren’t wasting time (or things to eliminate if they are)
adjust their schedule (or know theirs is OK)
Know they aren’t giving something away they should be charging for
inverse of above
?
Confirmation/understanding
?
?
?
?
Confirmation/understanding
?
Understanding and ways to minimize task switching
Instructions for how to track time
?
Less money lost
Less time non-billable
Feel better after work
?
get out of rut
Better balance

Action Challenge! Create your very first REAL ebombs

Challenge Part 1 - Collect 10 questions from your audience’s watering holes (approx. 1 hour)

Getting a web dev job without a CS degree painstorming

Challenge Part 2 - Ebombs on Easy Mode (approx. 1 hour)

Challenge Part 3 - Ship an ebomb! (Approx. 10 mins)

Done!

Quartz 4

Explorer

30x500 Use found pain for good section