Bernie J Mitchell

marketing

  • How To Market A Coworking Space Right From Scratch

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    Bernie Mitchell

    In the last few weeks, I’ve had a deep few conversations with people who are ‘picking my brains’, on marketing their coworking space. 

    It seems like a lot of people are about to start a coworking space from scratch in the coming months. 

    Then I ended up emailing them these answers. So in real “They Ask You Answer” style here are the subsequently copied and pasted emails, edited of course. 

    What do you think is the most prominent problem people have when it comes to getting their act together for their coworking space?

    I don’t have time to market my coworking space.

    The one I hear is time. 

    How to find the time to market your coworking business?

    You have to find the time. 

    Stop doing something else and start marketing your coworking business. 

    I’ve been listening out for it this week. And without me even instigating it in a conversation, people said they couldn’t find the time.

    So what do you have time for in your day? 

    I never have enough time, and I’ve read so many books about productivity and time management. I’m sure I’ve lost brain cells.

    Of course, this is tough, because we all have enough time and to be able to find the time for that lucky combination of what we need to do and what we want to do is a never-ending balancing act.

    Look, I know you are short on time, you probably have not got time to read this article, let alone read a book on time, so let us get into it.

    But first, let me take a selfie.

    ACT ONE – How do I know all of this?

    Every weekday I am talking with coworking space owners and managers in London and Europe. I’ve been at this for nearly a decade chipping away and listening.

    I’m also picking apart things with marketing groups I’m a paid member of, so I am always learning and finding out what works. 

    Check out this post about the communities where I’m an active member.  

    ACT TWO – No One Is Coming To Save You

    No one is coming to save you. Not one book, blog post, podcast, or advert is going to turn your marketing around.

    It is all compound effect and connection.

    All you need is this: 

    1. A website with a blog – use WordPress. 
    2. An Email List – just get going with Mailchimp, you can change later.
    3. An Instagram account
    4. A Google My Business Page

    You have to have a website – no excuses.

    What You Need For A Coworking Space Website

    Get a website. Take a look at my mate’s Jammy Digital website for the complete no bollox guide on how to work this one out.

    How you can start a website

    I use WP Engine here and people way smarter than I, swear by it. The hosting is bulletproof, the support is 100%, I pay $36 a month, including a couple of extras and sleep at night and don’t get charged hidden fees.

    Also, at least once a year WP Engine GETS CHEAPER — Mas they scale they pass the saving onto customers!!

    Read the post here about the WordPress plugins we use on my site.

    Oh, and why does my site not look like me theme look here – that is the one everyone gets done with when setting up a WordPress blog.

    To get going, you ONLY need a website, with a blog section, email list and contact page.

    That’s it! Once you get that set up you can and all the other shit, not that you need much of it,

    It is crucial to get a Homebase set up; people google places on the website; they don’t look at Facebook pages.

    If you are Nas Daily, of course, you can use Facebook, but if you are reading this, you are probably a coworking space operator wondering how to get bums in seats.

    So Why Do I Need A Website Again?

    Oh, not this website thing again?

    Websites are what people expect to find when looking up a business, especially one with a physical address.

    Websites show up in search a million times better if you google your name all your social profiles will come up.

    If you google the title of an article or ‘coworking space near me’ websites come up.

    The more articles you put on your website over time, the more ‘authority’ you will have with google or said another way, the more Google trusts you and will direct people to your site to buy what you have.

    SEO, which means Search Engine Optimisation – or how well you get found when people type words into google, bing, yahoo and other search engines.

    FACT: the best thing you can do every week for SEO is to put an article on your website.

    FFS All This Website Stuff Makes Me Want to Lie Down

    You only need to get the website made, then after that, you can work on content, as in articles.

    And to begin with, those articles will be around events.

    It is enormous; everything you don’t know about is considerable.

    But think of it like this, if you had to give a talk next week to five thousand people about your coworking business and how you could help them how much time would you spend on that talk?

    You’d watch TED talks, make slides, get someone to design them for you get the whole space involved and pump it up.

    You’d do practice talks, knowing they’d b crap and get you to the space you want to be.

    Then you give the talk about even if only five hundred of those people were the right match for your space, it would be worth it.

    Out of those Five Hundred, if only 50 joined, you’d be jumping for joy.

    Why would you invest more in giving this talk than making your website?

    Potentially everyone on the planet with an internet connection can see your website if you are a London coworking business and need fifty people you have 8 million people who might pop by.

    You keep the entrance to your space clean as it is the first thing people see, how much time and effort does that get in comparison to your site?

    I Don’t Have The Budget For A Website.

    I’m going to tread gently here, but you do have the budget, you can find it.

    I’ve been in and around websites for over a decade now; I worked one my first on in 2006.

    I have sat by so many business owners who:

    Buy £250 Paul Smith Lamps every desk in their workspace but won’t buy a website.

    Go out for gourmet burgers every week instead of paying for a website.

    Read everything about content marketing but don’t pay for a website.

    Snort a ton of drugs but won’t pay for a website.

    Spend time and money chasing awards but won’t pay for a website

    Take their whole team out to watch Coldplay live and for dinner but won’t pay for a website.

    Throw money at everything else in their business to get it to work but not their website.

    I’m the same, I get excited about new website theme or project and go guns blazing into whatever version of engagingpeople.wpengine.com we are on, and then I get bored, stuck, distracted and it all goes to shit.

    The times over the last decade when I’ve been posting articles, podcasts and email newsletters every week I get more people asking me ‘can I hire you?’ #Justsaying

    If you opened a coworking space in London more than five years ago and you’d written a five hundred word article about events, freelancing, future of work, your local area and coworking anything your SEO would be bulletproof now.

    Please don’t be one of those businesses that pay a company for SEO but never puts any fresh content on your site. 

    The Main Reason You Don’t Have The Budget For Website.

    You don’t have the budget because you don’t understand how it works and can’t see where the money goes.

    It feels like a significant mystery expense and is too much to learn about.

    It’s like a coworking space, all those bloody people working in coffee shops would be so much better off if they’d come to you.

    What is wrong with them?

    To them, a coworking space looks like on office, or it looks like a coffee shop with a substantial monthly price tag.

    They spend £10 a day in a coffee shop every weekday, which is only a little less than a desk in your space.

    Really what is wrong with them?

    You read a lot of marketing stuff, and someone said websites are dead.

    Think of it like not taking a holiday because Elon Musk will be making trips to Mars soon.

    At some point in the next fifty years the role of the website as we know it will change, but for at least the next five years you’d be wise to invest in your website.

    That is why I made a point of only dealing with web site strategy, email marketing and content production.

    Other Social Gimmicks

    I’m always learning about all the other social media, adverts and other’ thing of the moment’ marketing strategy. But I’ve gone in-depth on making a website work to grow a coworking business.

    How To Use Instagram For Your Coworking Business

    Only Instagram?

    I’m going with this because I love Instagram, but there are other more robust reasons too.

    1. There is always someone running an Instagram workshop – my go-to is Brighton UK based Miss Instaboss for no-bullshit one to one stuff. 
    2. And if you give her money and it’s shit, I’ll refund what you spent. That’s how confident I am in her work.
    3. Real daily photos are the number one way in the world to convey how you see your space and what you’d show others.
    4. When you post, others will too.
    5. I post nearly every day from the Mainyard Studios in Bow Road London because I love taking photos and I love people who are in Mainyard with me.
    6. I pay for my studio like everyone else, ok it is THE SMALLEST studio in the building, and I don’t get a kickback for posting on Instagram.

    This type of feeling is there for everyone in places like:

    ARC Club Hackney

    Space4

    Good Space

    Workers League

    Impact Brixton

    Creative Works

    Platform 9

    These folks post on Instagram, and they don’t make me want to stick a fork in my eye. 

    If I am going to give you between £250 to £400 a desk, an honest Instagram feed is where I’ll look.

    What I won’t look for there are crappy offers and adverts. I’ll want to see what matters to you. 

    People in coworking seem to blow thousands of pounds on videos that are so slick they look suspicious and then can’t afford to do anything else.

    What I have been on Instagram over nine years now, and I’m there because I love photos and the connection I have with around 100 people. 

    1. You’ll get better and better.
    2. Post a few times every day, and you discover things in you that you never knew were there.
    3. FFS Don’t post quotes or hustle shite
    4. I know you think HUSTLE is cool, but it is bland, boring and you are hiding the real you.
    5. People don’t read a Simon Sinek or Helen Keller quote and get all pumped up and book a trial day – they think Fu<k me, another quote.
    6. The only way to stand out is being you, and you can be you every day for fifteen minutes,
    7. Unfair Advantage book by deals with Hustle topic 
    8. Talking about Hustle is harmless in the same way as referring to women as ‘birds’ is harmless; of course, it’s not.
    9. Down load this free iPhone app from Creative Live – it’s a free daily lesson on photography. Click here.
    10. Follow the #coworkinglondon – especially if you are an independent!

  • The no-nonsense Marketing tips during a pandemic.

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    Bernie Mitchell

    COVID has shaken up the world like nothing in recent memory. This is especially true for businesses and freelancers. We’ve all learned some hard lessons and had to admit that our old ways of thinking (like trying to plan 12 months ahead of time) are no longer going to work for us. 

    I sat down and spoke with three brilliant people to get some advice on how business owners and freelancers can continue to profit and build their customer base during a global pandemic.

     Monica Sood – Monica Ink.

    People are feeling desperate right now, how can that affect their marketing strategy?

    Desperate marketers make poor marketers. Right now, people want strong leaders and you’ve got to shift your mindset so that you value the value that your service brings to people’s lives. When you’re desperate in your marketing, you’re saying, ‘it’s all about me and my problems, please help me.”  When you think, ‘I feel really uncertain and vulnerable right now in my business’, this is the message that comes across in your marketing! 

    What is your best tip for marketing during COVID?

    You need to shift your mindset so that you’re razor-focussed on the value you provide for your customer. It’s amazing what happens once your customers understand how you can help them. Desperation repels people. Don’t be desperate in your marketing. Be the guide.

    Belinda – Cornish Marekting

    What advice do you have that can help companies and freelancers gain business during COVID?

    Right now is not the time to hold back information. The more information and more value that we can share, the better. 

    Don’t think about what you sell, think about the people that you’re serving and what they need you to offer right now. 

    Can you give me an example of what you mean?

    I’m currently working with an electrician. He’s been doing a bunch of videos about how to keep your electric safe and how to figure out if you actually need an electrition to come out to your house. He serves his local community, and right now, this is exactly what they need and want. They want to be kept safe, and by doing these videos he’s helping them accomplish that. 

    Sharing these videos on social media actually helped him in more ways than he expected. He did a few uploads about Evee cars and how they charge. Well Mercedes came across these videos after he tagged them and they ended up reaching out and asking if they could use them on their own platforms. 

    Can it be bad to tell people how you do what you do? 

    So many people worry that if they give information away, people won’t have a reason to hire them. That isn’t true. You can tell people how to do marketing, how to write a podcast or a blog…whatever your specialty is. But the average person won’t be able to do what you do just by reading your advice. They don’t have the skills you have. By sharing your expertise, they can work on improving their own skills, but will also be more likely to hire you because you’ve shown yourself as a trustworthy expert. I don’t think I’ve ever lost business for giving too much information away.

    What is your best tip for building a business during COVID?

    One of the biggest tips I can give for marketing during COVID is to screw the 12-month plan. We don’t know what things will look like a year from now. You should look back over the past 30, 60, or 90 days and think about what you would have done differently and what you need to do to feel like you’re moving forward. Then make that your new plan for the immediate future. 

    Jo Caruana – WriteMeAnything

    What are you telling people to do in regards to COVID marketing?

    We’re telling our clients to embrace this as an opportunity. At first, people responded as if I was telling them to poke their eyes out. But now the ones who have embarrassed this advice are gaining traction and seeing what a massive opportunity this is. 

    Everyone has more time on their hands these days to take a step back and think about whether the way we’ve been doing things over the past few years is the only way to get things done. Now is the time to reflect, strategize, and diversify. 

    Can you give an example of what you mean?

    So many companies are coming out with new products and services that they wouldn’t have even considered before COVID. One business, which typically teaches cooking classes at their school, has started making recipe boxes for people to take home. They then teach the class online. It’s very different from what they did before COVID, but it’s been a success.

    This is also great from a marketing standpoint because the media is loving these types of stories, so I’m also telling business owners to reach out to local media and let them know how their business has changed during COVID. 

    What is your best tip for doing business during COVID?

    The world is coming together right now in a way that it never has before and now is a great time for business to build relationships that can last a long time. 

  • How To Market Your Coworking Space: The Simple Way.

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    Bernie Mitchell

    I bet you think marketing is hard, I do. 

    For over a decade I’ve been trying to figure out marketing, both mine and other peoples.

    Everyone seems to be doing better than me, is ahead of the curve, on the ball and whatever else. 

    They’re more immediate on Instagram, terrific on twitter, fancy on Facebook and more linked up on LinkedIn than me. 

    Oh, and they have an email list with a million more people than me.

    I was dying, I looked at what worked and what did not, I also looked at what I LOVED and what made me want to put my face in a food blender. 

    I simplified everything, I took a machete to my operation and ended up with the good bits.

    Then I started to teach this to people in the European Coworking industry, and that was a whole new way of engaging people. 

    Everything you read here I’ve done myself, done for other people and been taught it directly by most of the people mentioned in this post. 

    1. Build a sales funnel

    The very first thing you need to do is build a sales funnel. 

    You’d know this as collecting emails to build an email list.

    You can make a landing page with an email list in most email marketing platforms like MailPoet, Mailchimp, Convert Kit. 

    If the only thing you do is make an email list, you will be doing great.

    Companies that had an email list before the COVID-19 hit and had a direct connection and permission with their customers, members and prospects had a better chance of surviving.

    Recently I’ve been on webinars with friends like Event Managers blog and StoryBrand where they have 5000+ people attending.

    Why?

    Because they have an email list colossal email list, they have built up over the years.

    I’ve kept close contact with the London Coworking Assembly and my own community because I can email then and invite them to things. 

    I’ve been able to listen, offer help and ask questions – because I have contact. 

    To further back up my case, all those Uber cool books about being lean and bootstrapping recommend making a landing page with an email list to test an idea. 

    They don’t recommend blowing 10k on a website to impress your mates of by running Facebook adverts. 

    A study done by Mackenzie worked out that for every $1 spent on email marketing, you get $40 back over time. 

    2. For your email list, you need a lead magnet 

    WTF is this? – Chill! This can be a simple checklist.

    For a coworking space, this could be – “10 things to look for when choosing a coworking space”, “10 best places to get a coffee and sandwich near our coworking space”. 

    This absolutely should not be a 100-page ebook on business success or being a freelancer. 

    While an email address is an emotional equivalent of handing over, £20 people will only use something simple. – this kinda confused me. What do you mean here?

    Don’t become yet another ebook sitting on someone’s computer desktop. 

    3. Email people.

    Email people stuff that is hyper-relevant to them and useful.

    This is where the whole story thing starts.

    Don’t email last-minute event salvage invites. 

    Spend a few minutes asking people what is important to them, what they need help with and email that. 

    A great book to help you in business and finding out what people need is the “mum test“ by Rob Fitzpatrick.

    People will tell you what they think you want to hear, which is different from what they’d pay money for or read. 

    You know when it sounds like someone is reading your thoughts? 

    I bet it is because they’ve read The Mum Test!

    Email is solid gold over Instagram hearts, Facebook likes and RT’s. In the past, I’ve been part of a lot of projects where we’ve spent time and money to build up followers and likes only to have the platform change the rules or people go somewhere else. 

    4. Pick ONE social media platform and commit deeply.

    Being everywhere is easy when you are Coke or EasyJet, but most people reading this are in the micro or small business arena. 

    You are looking for connections and few solid leads, not 1000’s of sales a day.

    First, just post and see what works, but you won’t know what works unless you post. 

    Then make a plan of where you want to lead people, this will be what you talk about in real life. 

    Standing in the kitchen at your coworking space, what do you talk about?

    If you are warm and friendly in the kitchen with a high connection, don’t go online and suddenly become a wanky 10X your super Entrepreneur life guru. 

    It’s not you, and the last thing we need online is another 10x business success guru. 

    For a coworking space, I’d urge you to double down on Linkedin and not be an asshole.

    Linkedin is where business people with the budget are. 

    10’000 like on your Facebook page is worth very little compared to 1000 people following your important daily updates on Linkedin. 

    If you think you might be spamming – you are. 

    The next platform I’d recommend is Instagram, it is fun, fast and visual.

    Look at what all the big coworking spaces are doing and don’t do that, be yourself and REMEMBER you are looking to create honest connections with people. 

    5. Put something on your website at least once a week.

    Every time you update your website, search engines notice and rank you higher, then you get more traffic and then you which then get more leads, and then you understand you more sales.

    I know it’s all about the community, but you won’t have any fucking community unless people are giving you money. 

    Choose the methods that work best for you. And when I say works best for you, I mean that you LOVE, thrive, get energy from and can see yourself doing forever. 

    I love writing, and I love podcasting, but podcasting comes out a little ahead.

    I’ve recorded and produced well over six hundred episodes across projects and clients in the last decade. 

    I’ve done the same amount of blogs, but the podcasts were way more natural and energizing for me. 

    Do a video, podcast or blog and then post it once a week.

    My mate Marcus Sheridan has tested posting frequency and lead generation over the last ten years. 

    His research confirms that three articles a week are the ideal amount for building authority and website traffic in your space.

    This is a big commitment but works if you go all in. I’ve met UK based clients of Marcus’s who have added 100’000’s of pounds of annual revenue with a sustained and focused posting strategy. 

    Also posting regularly on your website is the best and most simple SEO work you can do. 

    6. Stop talking about community

    Yes, people want to be part of something. I have this vast human need to be part of something.

    When you talk all day about community people get confused about the rules, the meaning, are they cool enough? 

    Then when they get there they want to see where it is, immediately, you are selling the invisible, it is like selling ‘spirituality’. 

    Say ‘we have a great community spirit here’ but don’t rant about the community you will end up going around in circles and wasting time.

    The same goes for programs. Let membership of the community own them and run them. That’s less work for you and more commitment from the people there. 

    Stu Maclaren co-founded WishList, a membership plugin for WordPress we use for the London Coworking Assembly.

    Stu and now teaches people to run communities, he always points out people can only cope with an hour’s worth of content a week.

    An hour’s worth of content could be a community lunch once a week, which has always been one of the most simple and successful things I’ve seen in ten years of coworking. 

    7. Don’t buy social media adverts

    We’ve all done it, paid to boost a post after a suggestion from Facebook or got all horny about Instagram adverts.

    Maybe it is just my feed, but when I see coworking spaces advertising on Instagram, they are always the venture-backed ones with slick videos. Even I am tempted to rent a desk.

    But they are selling a feeling and allure. 

    When COVID hit the spaces I know with a solid sense of connection and community kept going. 

    And then the ones that rented desks found it harder to keep people. 

    Social media advertising fails because people don’t understand how to execute the process. 

    The thing you need in place is a sales funnel.

    So when people move from social media to your landing page or website, they are taken to a call to action, which is usually an email sign up form.

    That email sign can simply be to download your lead magnet or join your list. 

    When I do social media or buy google adverts, I hire my mate who knows what they are doing, because I don’t. 

    Sort your website and sales funnel out first, then do adverts. 

    8. Have a pure one line phase for your business

    At the top of your website have something so fucking simple your child would understand it. 

    “We make bags’ or ‘Get Your Work Done Here’ – mine is the title of this blog. Hope to market your coworking space the right way.

    I believe in what you are reading on this page. I’ve tried and tested it, argued it, got results from it for me and others.

    I’ve worked with all the people I mention in this post. And if you woke me up with a bucket of cold water in the middle of the night and asked me any of this, I’d be able to start talking in a second. 

    In the book Marketing Made Simple, JJ and Donald outline the one-liner exercise, it is – problem, solution and fixes. 

    I’m going to be every ruder, being all airing, weak, flowery, over-designed and ambiguous will confuse people.

    Things of brands like Ronseal – “it does exactly what it says on the tin.” 

    I don’t know if they even still run that, but I always say it.

    That is what you are aiming for.

    I’ve looked at hundreds and hundreds of coworking space websites, and they all have some combination of community, collaboration and something else.

    Every time I run a workshop or webinar, I ask ‘what are the words people use most on their coworking space website?’

    Community, collaboration and entrepreneurship come up.

    These are concepts, like clutter is a concept, terror is a concept – so the ‘war on terror’ was a shit idea.

    It has to be unique to you and make it as plain and straightforward as you think, what would your space say on the tin?

    9. Execute 

    JJ researched 1000’s of people and companies to see how the StoryBrand framework I love so much worked.

    It worked in every company, and the only deciding success factor was execution.

    I have been following the 12 week years book since 2016.

    Every week since then I’ve lived my life in 12-week segments with an accountability partner. Every Monday at 10 am no matter where we are in the world, Karen and I have a call. 

    We talk about what we’ve done and what we have failed to do and read each other the next week. 

    Eventually, we got better and better at execution in the ECA. We have a weekly call at 12:30 UK time and do the same.

    We track our progress and say where we went wrong.

    What I’ve learnt, the hard way is that execution gets results. One blog every week gets you traffic, one email newsletter every week gets you readers, and one podcast every week gets you sales. 

    10. You have to do some marketing and stick to it.

    The podcaster Mitch Joel says marketing is everything, and I don’t think business owners want to be ‘marketers’ – I don’t want to be an accountant or lawyer, but it comes up. 

    In 2019 I worked with a coach on my business. She highlighted that while I taught and consulted on marketing, I did not actually do any marketing.

    I did a podcast here, and Instagram post here and article there but I did very little of what I taught people. 

    All my business came by word of mouth or referral, which, of course, is excellent. 

    But how much money was I leaving on the table? A lot.

    I know coworking spaces that have been open for nearly a decade, and they fight every day for customers and do well. 

    But if you went to their website, there are about ten blogs, when there could have been 600 posts, videos or podcasts talking about events, people, the local area and cats on treadmills. 

    The email list could be in the 1000’s. 

    They’d be doing less work to get people in their space, now more than ever it is going to be harder. 

    Don’t get someone on their gap year to do your marketing, in the same way, you would not get an intern to do your accounts, draft your lease or fix the electric’s in your building.

    Marketing is as severe as a heart attack for the success of your business. As I’m writing this, the whole world is online because of COVID. And if you are not online, you are pissing in the wind. 

    11. Bonus one

    If you have a coworking space software, learn how to use it.

    In most software for coworking spaces, there is a membership community area, and you could make more of this. 

  • How to avoid being caught in the Email Newsletter void.

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    Bernie Mitchell

    Another email newsletter???

    Have you ever said that to yourself when you received one of those? You know, you subscribed to one of those cause you were really into the product they’re selling. You really want to know what they have to say, what’s new with them. And then you kind of lost interest in what they have to say. (Or maybe you got conned into subscribing into it).

    And you’re probably thinking “what if my subscribers think like that too?”. 

    How often do I have to send an email? 

    What if people unsubscribe because I send out too much? Or maybe they lose interest because I send out too few? 

    “What do I put in there?”

    “What’s the best way to send them out?”

    And the next thing you know you’re sitting by your kitchen table or office staring blankly at your monitor or out the window.  (Which I can say happened to me a bit more than I like.)

    How often do you send out an email newsletter?

    When I was starting with my website, I also have to struggle with those questions. I don’t want to come off annoying by sending too much because that would make people unsubscribe or mark them as spam. 

    Some say that ideally, you can send once or twice a month. 

    However, that frequency of email newsletter will possibly result in less engagement from your subscribers. It may seem like you are not that committed to keeping their loyalty to your brand. 

    Can I send once a day then? 

    That will only work if you have an event that you are promoting. You can send as much as 4 times a week the closer it is to the date of your event. Otherwise, you’re just spamming.

    How MANY should I send then?

    Once a week is the right frequency of sending an email campaign. If you take a look at this graph by Smartrmail:

    You can see that by sending on average 1 to 2 email newsletters per week, has the highest engagement from your subscribers. And then it gets low as the numbers increase. Sending one every day will definitely make your readers either mark you as spam or worse, click that unsubscribe button. 

    When is the best time to send out newsletters?

    Doesn’t any time work? Sure. If you want to just hit send and people to not open your email. 

    And that is just lazy marketing. You know, just like doing a school project from your least favourite teacher. Doing it just for the sake of getting it out of the way. Half-assed and has utter disregard for the result of that project.

    Of course, you’re not like that. This is your business we’re talking about. You actually want people to open your email and read your newsletter. You didn’t just pour all that effort in doing a great email newsletter just for it to be get lost in the vortex of emails, right?

    Well, it turns out, there are certain days of the week that has higher opening rates than the rest of the week. And you have to take into account the time too. For instance, Tuesdays at between 6 to 10 in the morning are when most people check their emails. Or you know at 8 in the evening just before people get to bed. (Check this blog by Coschedule to get what I am saying).

    Which Email Marketing tool to use?

    There are tons of email marketing tools that can help you deliver your newsletter. I can’t say for much which one is really the best. That is somehow would be subjected to my own bias. 

    But if you insist, when I was starting with my own email marketing campaign, I don’t know which one to use. I have tried a lot and the apps that I find to be compatible with is MailChimp or ConvertKit. 

    Even then, I can’t decide which one I like most. And then back in March 2020, MailPoet for WordPress landed on App Sumo and I was hooked.

    The bad news is that it is built for WordPress and does not work on other website platforms, so skip to the next bit if you don’t use WordPress.

    What I like most about it is it shows up neatly in the sidebar of your WordPress dashboard and writing an email is as easy as writing a blog.

    The styling, H1, H2, H3 and paragraph are super simple before I always had styling issues when I copied and pasted text from Grammarly into Mailchimp – it drove me mad.

    Another feature I love with MailPoet is that adding whole posts or links to posts, blogs and other content from your website is super slick and easy.

    It is a ‘drag and drops feature’ that is actually a drag and drop feature!

    You can check out WPKube and WPLift for tips on how to use Mailpoet effectively and enjoy its full features.

    The key is to find the right email marketing tool for you. Most tools offer free trials. Take advantage of those.

    Coschedule that rocking Email Newsletter!

    I have been using Coschedule for years. I have it as a plug-in in my WordPress. And I have of course tried other tools. And I like this one the best. It is easy to use and you can integrate your favourite email marketing tool with it. 

    You can schedule your email newsletters, your social media campaigns and all your content in one place. 

    Start Sending!

    “Signing up is a powerful signal of intent to buy. Send them emails until they do.” – Jordie van Rijn

    You’ve got your well thought out email newsletter, now what’s left for you to do is hit send and get back to doing it again.

    And over time, you’ll improve greatly and that doing your own brand of email marketing would be easy peasy. 

    How about you? Do you have other blocks on email marketing that concerns you, aside from these? Hit reply and let me know or maybe you know, book a complimentary call and let’s talk about it and figure it out.

  • How To Market Your Coworking Space In A Coronavirus World

    ·

    Bernie Mitchell

    OMG, who the hell is selling in the Coronavirus downturn?

    Well, hopefully, a lot of people as we need to keep the economy going. Which is completely different just profiteering from it and ambulance-chasing. marketing

    I’ve been keeping a keen eye on how people are dealing with marketing and communication, the language in use and online stunts, in the last two weeks. 

    In that time, it quickly got to the point where the last thing I wanted in my email was another lesson how to work remotely or to hear ‘our number one concern as a company is the safety of our….’ 

    Or while I walk around our local supermarket chain and every five minutes they announce ‘we’re are doing everything we can to serve you during the coronavirus.’

    And I mean EVERY five minutes. 

    Side note: For some no bollox advice on remote working lookup Pilar Ort and Lisette Sutherland. 

    I’ve learning how to be a remote worker from them since 2012. Check out Pilar and her podcast at Virtual Not Distant here and Lisette Sutherland here.

    What does a marketer do?

    Smart and hilarious Mark Ritson wrote this epic opinion piece, and I’m with him.

    Get the fuck on with it rather than spending time on labels, press releases and comms.

    Read the full post here: Forget about empathetic emails during the coronavirus outbreak and start making your brand money.

    Don’t get me wrong; a lot of my friends are writing incredibly useful stuff to help people deal with life at this time. 

    And your marketing doesn’t have to stop just because there is a pandemic. As they say “distancing doesn’t mean disconnected”.

  • FFS Don’t Stop Marketing! And how to do that NOW!

    ·

    Bernie Mitchell

    Have your feet even touched the floor this week?

    The air surrounding us is bleak with uncertainty and everything seems to be in a standstill.

    And ‘homeschooling’ and ‘remote work’ has left the realm of progressive parents and digital nomads to become the new normal. 

    And it seems that people treat contacting the Corona Virus comes second from how everyone can get through this- economically.

    How communities arise out of the aftermath 

    My mate Tom was due to come to London a few weeks ago to screen his documentary ‘The Response.’ 

    It is about communities and coming together during, and after a crisis, this is where I’d encourage us to look. 

    I’d say this is the time to be working together to support each other more than ever.  

    A few posts ago I wrote about all the communities I am a part of, for learning, growth and moral support – I’d be dead in the water now if it were not for these people.

    The Assembly Call

    In the London Coworking Assembly, we run a daily call at midday for space owners and community managers to connect and help each other out. 

    Every day there is new information about support for businesses and also information that applies to members of coworking spaces.

    Plus this is great for keeping our mental health in check; this is an incredibly stressful time for everybody. 

    People who run coworking spaces are sorting their businesses out and supporting members too, at this moment in time,  their risk of burning out is higher more than ever. 

    Light at the end of the very long tunnel

    There is uncertainty ahead for everyone. Maybe you are about to open a coworking space, or you have been going on for a decade.

    As bleak as life this week is, I cannot remember a time when governments have been so alert and responsive to the businesses sector. 

    Maybe you don’t know what you are going to do yet, if you are going to keep going you then you should keep going. 

    When the time comes for ‘the new normal’ the people and business who built an email list and thus built a sales funnel are going to come out the other side of this mayhem fighting. 

    I certainly don’t mean to sound flippant, but you can either spend the next few weeks:

    Sitting around watching Netflix

    Cry into your pillow non-stop 

    Do nothing and hope a long lost Aunt dies and leave you her fortune. 

    OR

    Cry into your pillow for a bit (£u<k me this is a stressful time, let it all out) 

    Watch a Netflix movie to chill out – I’m loving the car chase in 6 Underground and then get on with communication for your business. 

    FFS Don’t Stop Marketing!

    And how to do that. 

    For the love of a ‘higher-being’ don’t stop marketing! 

    I know that sounds mad to say at this moment in time, but when the money starts to flow again, NO ONE will know who you are. 

    My mate Marcus saved his company in 2008 by marketing his way out of it – read here On Cutting Your Marketing Department and Budget During Tough Times.

    You don’t want to be running paid adverts on Linkedin about in-person meeting space and coworking like WeWork. 

    (I’m sure this an error on their part!)

    Sales Funnel equals survival. 

    You do need to think about keeping in touch, and a sales funnel. 

    At this moment in time, a sales funnel is an email list. 

    You can make money, save you money and time with some of these LOW-costs ways.

    1. Low-cost online training for you and your team

    Business Made Simple University is a group of online course’s from the authors of StoryBrand book.

    Here you’ll learn how to build a sales funnel, make a lead generator and create an email list. 

    They are adding new courses on running teams and building your company. 

    Cost $275 a year – (that is around £225) – visit BusinessMadeSimple.com and register for the very inexpensive online platform. 

    Pro-Tip

    There is a code on page 51 to get a buy-one-gift-one offer, allowing you an extra seat for free if you have a copy of the new Marketing Made Simple book,

    I would print it here, but that is terrible marketing karma. 

    Stop Googling everywhere for ‘how-to’ or signing up for random free marketing webinars. 

    Commit to Business Made Simple University and get a simple, grown-up understanding of how to market your business all without being sold to all the time. 

    2. Do you have a WordPress Website and email list?

    If you have an email list AND have a WordPress Website, I’d recommend swapping to MailPoet for your email newsletters. 

    It is what I’m using for all my websites now.

    Why?

    You will get lifetime access to Mailpoet for from $49 for 5000 subscribers, on unlimited websites   You can check the deal here.

    Mailpoet is WAY more straightforward than Mailchimp.

    Mailpoet shows up in your WordPress dashboard, and this is one of the things I like best about it. 

    Organizing my posts and social media is a breeze as I use Coschedule and it can be a part of your WordPress dashboard too.

    By being part of your WordPress site, it means you have to log into it more often, show it love, and it becomes part of your day. 

    I have always found it is too easy to forget about your website and not go there for days on end, even though it is the online shop front for your business.

    You pay a one-off fee of $49, and that is it – for the rest of your life – Check the deal here

    Full disclosure – I get a kickback at no extra cost to you when you buy Mailpoet. 

     

  • How To Gear Up Your Business Best In The Covirus Shut Down.

    ·

    Bernie Mitchell

    Just because the World is shutting down, it does not mean your business has to.

    Hard as it may seem right at this moment in time, there is plenty of good work to be done in the downtime, so you can come back stronger than ever.

    Are you on Linkedin? 

    Have you seen the onslaught of commentary about the effects of the Co-virus on our businesses and the economy? 

    My friend Leah from Norway posted that realistic and heartwarming video message.

    Leah’s main point was to use the downtime to gear up and rise above being down about business slowing down. 

    She runs an in-person communication training company with her husband, Oscar. And the isolation order wallops her business so there’s not a lot of in-person happening right now.

    Her main point is to actively use the downtime to gear up and rise above the slowing down of your business.

    And with that, I’m going to use this time to gear up, get blogs, podcasts and online training completed.

    It’s tough

    Friends in events got struck and I heard how tough work is getting from talking with a lot of you this week.

    >> If you are in events get to the Event Manager Blog go remote webinar here on Wednesday 18th 

    I’ve spoken with more than one coworking space owner who is worried because they don’t know what is going to happen. 

    Most independent coworking spaces are home to people who run their micro or small businesses and have their struggles with the world grinding to halt.

    Between cancelled events, postponed orders, supply chain issues and people stopping buying anything expect toilet roll the uncertainty is everywhere. 

    It seems very unfair that people who have built their own business or project are now faced with the injustice of something like the Co-virus bringing the world to a stop. 

    How do you keep going? 

    I get the sense many of my people are wondering if they have what it takes to keep going.

    But it does not have to be like this. 

    I believe that just because the world comes to a stop, our business and projects don’t have to. 

    All my events for the year got cancelled one after another, I too was spinning earlier this week.

    A lot of them I was talking at or running workshops. I am even more pissed off as I have put so much effort into listening over the last two years and building a message that connects and helps people in the coworking industry. 

    I feel for people like:

    Marko in Prague. He got funding for a coworking symposium at the university where he is an assistant professor. 

    Mark and Manel in Spain, who put so much effort into raising the bar of the content even higher for their 2020 conference.

    The German Coworking Federation conference held out to the last minute and then finally cancelled!  

    And our monthly London Coworking Assembly breakfasts will probably become an online event for a bit. 

    But then

    I spent most of this week in a funk. It was the first anniversary of my Dad’s death and everything is cancelled.

    My head was certainly not in the right place, but these days I know it is ok not to be ok sometimes. 

    Then Thursday happened.

    2 pm UK time I get a WhatsApp message from my mate Hector, founder of Included, the worlds most excellent collaborative buying platform for the coworking industry. 

    We have a group call in a few hours; last-minute get together can you come?

    The European Coworking Assembly, Included and the amazing Women Who Coworking movement, the call is a joint effort between them.

    Four hours later, there are around forty people on the call. 

    From every corner of the earth, people were sharing about the co-virus and how to deal with it. 

    There was uncertainty all around. 

    But there was also an immense sense of community. And it is always a joy for me to see so many people I know from so many different places online at the same time.

  • How To Avoid The Pain Of Your Marketing Plan – (and it’s not what you think)

    ·

    Bernie Mitchell

    One of the recurring themes for people is finding the right tool to make their marketing work like magic.

    When I ask people what they need the tool for they say something like, ‘to make marketing simple and save time.’


    Before we go on, I had to work this one out too.

    I thought a tool could save my life and then when I dug a bit deeper, I realised I did not know what I wanted it to do.

    So to cut to the chase, you need to know what you want your marketing tool to do. And please, saving you time is a given – you would not use a tool that would have you take MORE time, would you?

    Start with knowing where you want to go, what your goals are and where you will focus your energy. You can read about how to do this in this post here.

    Everyone Does Not Have It Together

    I know it looks like everyone has it together, but they don’t.
    If you’re in a peer group, decent networking group, coworking space or mastermind you soon find out!

    Side note: if you want to grow and save time, you should be in a peer group.
    As trust grows you find out your peers are not the David Ogilvy or Arianna Huffington you thought they were.

    They don’t have it together either!

    The Hard Work Of Working It Out

    While articles like this one help you kick the can down the road, you have to do the painful thinking and working it out.

    The good news is that you save time in the long run by planning well, but don’t let planning be all you do.

    Working it out is hard, having the guts to commit to something is scary, and no one knows if it will work out.

    I often start to whimper out because I’ve run into something that looks like work. I whimper especially hard if that work might lead to success, in fact, I get ready to run away.

    Two Stupid Things I’ve Learnt With Tracking Weekly

    Through tracking my behaviour via the ’12 Week Year’ book I’ve noticed two stupid things I want to do at an exact point.

    One

    I always want to change the project tool I am using.
    Something makes me think that if I move everything from one place to another, I will.

    I’ve tried SO MANY project tools over the last ten years, and I’m at home in every one of them.

    It is the work you do that counts towards your goal, not the device or gadget.
    (BTW the ones I like the best are Meister Task, CoSchedule and Things – but that is another post.

    Two

    I always want to change everything I am doing, even if it is working.
    I want to change lanes and start a new business instead of getting on with this one.

    One of my hardest lessons from all my 12 Week Year tracking is sticking with my original goal and plan.

    Keep Going On Your Plan

    Staying true to the plan is where the money is, plans don’t fail; it is the execution that fails.

    You will think you are being smart and insightful by looking at the plan and finding shortcuts.

    You may see yourself as a Formula One pit crew tweaking mid-race, but you are avoiding the real work of execution.

    For example, if you have a business or project and don’t put anything on your website about it.

    This is because you are always changing your mind, you are bleeding valuable energy.

    My mate Donald from Storybrand always points out this: “If your competitor communicates their product or service better than you do, they’ll win, even if yours is better.”

    Don’t Change Lanes

    Changing lanes is exhausting for you and others when I am part of a team that changes it’s mind all the time I want to leave.

    You may get very mentally invested in things you work on. And when your subconscious smells that you’re going to use all your creative energy changing lanes it will tap out before you know it.

    You may love the brainstorming, love new ideas and fantasy, but at a certain point, you’ll need to move and get on with it.
    Actually ‘doing something’ is where the gold is because so few people do.

    Both the ‘Storybrand’ and ‘12 Week Year’ books both put a significant emphasis on execution. Which means carrying out the plan you made, not changing ideas every 10 minutes.

    I took a live workshop with Donald Miller, he talked about how many people he has met who fail to execute and get overtaken in the market by people with inferior products and services.

    I was in tears, is that all I needed to do my whole life? Write some articles and send some emails?

    Tracking London Coworking Spaces

    I’ve been tracking London Coworking Spaces in a Google spreadsheet for a few years now.
    And only a few of them ever update their website!

    When I say update, I mean post fresh content like blogs or articles.
    New words on your website are free AND the best way for Google to notice your site every week is updating it with new words.

    Less than half of the two hundred plus London Coworking Spaces on my spreadsheet post and article every six months!

    Yes – SIX MONTHS – so you can become one of the most active forces in London Coworking online, by posting once a month.

    With around 8 million people in London, and say there are 400 coworking spaces.

    (No one can get a straight answer on this).

    With an average of 120 people per location (according to Deskmag) that means there are thousands of people who could be looking for a desk.

    But if there is nothing on your website, are you really there?
    Is that why you don’t have the business you need?

    But It Is Too Complicated!

    Picking a few things to do and doing them will start to get you results.

    In Meet Up’s and workshops I run people always, and I mean ALWAYS walk in and start talking about SEO.

    They blab about the front page of Google before they’ve even written and published a post, or built a website.

    This is why it is too complicated, reading stuff in books and then doing it is harder than you think, but it is not complicated.

    Talking about concepts and strategies above where you are operating right make it complicated.

    I read a lot of books when I was depressed as hell all those years ago.I’d lose myself in them and get an idea of what life could be like, the beliefs and practices gradually became ingrained in me.

    Nowadays, I read the same books and pop my head up to find out I have done most of the work.

    I can’t describe the joy of reading something and then realising I’m already doing it.

    It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts

    John Wooden

    Which brings me here.

    I hope this section will help you get going.

    Another book that is a massive influence on my life in the last two years is the David Goggins book Can’t Hurt Me.

    A long time “Goggins take-away” for me is to stop blaming others and get on with it.

    As he puts it “No one is coming to save you.” – You could add to that, “not even a paid Facebook advert or project tool.”

    This weeks “Goggins take-away” is double down on your weaknesses.
    For example, my weakness is not ‘learning Japanese’ or ‘tight rope walking.’ My’ weakness’ is consistency with my content production.

    My Weakness

    My weakness is something I need to be my strength, but writing and making my website perform with the consistency of a Rolling Stones World tour is hard work, so I avoid it.

    Having it as one of my 12 Week Goals has made me drill down on where this fails.

    My Strength

    Getting people together is so natural to me, I don’t notice I’m doing it. Running our London Meet Up’s on Podcasting, writing and art and the London Coworking Assembly is second nature to me.

    Coming Up

    Over the next few weeks, I’ll document how I’m fixing one step at a time.

    I’ve been asking everyone at Write Club, my coworkers at Mainyard and people at Coworking Conferences where their blocks are.

    I don’t actually know anyone who does NOT struggle with getting stuff on their website, even though it is one of the best things you can do!

    I even joined a self-help group about it earlier last year, and that is certainly helping!

    If you would like to get help with your content production to choose one of my half-day workshops.

    Choose from Email Marketing, building a 90 Day Plan, Podcasting and Storytelling – full details here.