Lessons learned from office hours with Patrick Mckenzie

Two weeks ago I was in Las Vegas at the tail end of my vacation to attend MicroConf. Microconf is a Conference for individuals who want to run a self-funded startup. Although the majority of its attendees run software related businesses, I do not think one line of code was shown the whole time. The conference's focus is on sharing and teaching people battle-tested strategies to building an audience, marketing on a budget and selling 101.

I found out about this conference because I follow Patrick Mckenzie online. If you do not know Patrick, he has been influential to the way Ben and I have run our business's in the last 4 to 5 years. I learned how to price my work from him, I learned how to market myself from him. I can go on and on, so it was a no-brainer when MicroConf offered attendees a chance to do office hours with him I jumped at it. It was a group office hour session with about 12 other super smart people and we all talked about our businesses and shared ideas on how to grow them. This is a blog post about some strategies I learned from Patrick and all the other people in the room.

Get people promoted

When creating a web application that is used by someone who is not the decision maker (to buy the software) in a company. A tactic to sell your software is to provide the user with some sort of report that creates insight and value to the user's job. A deliverable that makes the user a star to his/her Boss. The user will continue to show this report to his/her boss and sell your software as an indispensable aspect of their job and will convince the company on your behalf that it is in their best interest to upgrade. Do not solve a problem only, but also produce a visual representation of the solution.

Build an audience with 30 day email courses

Patrick called this A cheat code to life. He outlined a whole sequence on how to use about 6 emails teaching something valuable to a targeted audience and getting people to join your mailing list after they have learned something valuable from you. He has a course on this but it's reserved only for attendees of Microconf. I will link if he opens it up or has a paid version in future.

Get on people's Podcasts

Another way people said was a good way to bring traffic to your product or grow your audience is to do guest appearances on other people's podcasts that are relevant to what you are trying to sell. Hosts of Podcasts are perpetually looking for interesting people to interview on their shows or if you are brave enough start your own podcast, that is even better. Sometimes getting famous people is as easy as just asking (They need to market stuff too). Podcasts can even be more effective if you get the podcast transcribed into a text format after it is completed. Post it on your website to improve your SEO on the topic and bring long term traffic to you. Check casting words for transcription services.

Always be powered by...

He mentioned when doing a B-2-B-2-C (Business to Business to Customers). A solution in which you are selling to a business and also its customers through the same solution always add a "Powered by [add your company here]". For example, Mailchimp helps companies send out newsletters to their customers. It is very likely that some of your company's customers also need hep sending newsletters too. That is free advertising for you to potential customers.

A/B test your headlines

He is a fan of A/B testing. Writing copy for your web-application is a big deal and can make or break your conversion funnel. So he recommends you should always A/B test headlines on your landing page for your products, ebook, emails newsletters etc. One tiny change can make you 5x more on whatever you are collecting, money, emails or followers.see Copy Hackers

Charge More

I cannot end this post without the number one advice Patrick is known for which is, the best way to make more money is to Raise your prices.

Besides learning a lot about marketing and selling, I met a lot of interesting people and gained insights into various ways people are making money online. It was a fascinating experience and I will be probably there next year 🙌🏾