This is part 4 (of 5) of my synopsis of Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling
- The Book Yourself Solid Web Strategy – In order to be able to start and continue conversations with prospects a web presence is critical as it positions you as an expert, build your brand, has global reach, and provides a forum for self-expression and learning. A website’s primary goal is to convert the traffic that lands on your site and in order to do this your website should include the information you want to present and be organized and labelled for easy navigation. Remember to keep your target audience in mind while you build your site because they are the ones you are trying to attract and then convert from a prospect to a client. In this chapter Michael presents a number of different website formats — the brochure, the menu of services, the testimonial, the portal etc. — allowing you to choose what best fits your audience and how you want to present to them. Of course a website only can convert if traffic comes to it and Michael shares a few strategies for this such as:
- Getting Listed in Search Engines through Site Optimization – build content-rich pages that are legitimately filled with keywords and phrases your target audience would use to find you and your offer.
- Boost Your Link Popularity – create relationships with other sites that have good web traffic and status.
- Leverage Your Signature – let people know what you have to offer or to sign up for your newsletter through by adding a link to your email signature.
- Use Article Directories to Promote Your Site – articles can introduce readers to you by including a brief bio at the end of your article with a link back to your website.
- Cross-Promote through Marketing Partners – promote others that you deem great and have them promote you making it easier to build relationships and prospects.
But again even if you get the traffic you still need to convert it. Michael provides five (5) principles for prospect conversion:
- Enticement – offer something of value as soon as they arrive on your site in exchange for their email address and permission to contact
- Consumption – follow up to help them make the most of your information
- Endowment – give your services to qualified prospects
- Enhancement – offer additional products/services that would be of further service to your clients
- Abandonment – as people leave your site without purchasing you could ask them why
- The Book Yourself Solid Speaking and Demonstrating Strategy – Another strategy to reach your target audience is to promote yourself or have others promote yourself. The former can be of two types:
- Conference Calls – monthly or weekly calls for clients to learn the benefits of working with you. You need to prepare new, timely and relevant topics for each call.
- Demonstrations/Educational Events – same as conference calls but in person. Best suited for where your clients are located close to you.
The latter, having others promote you involves presenting to associations or organizations. Public speaking allows you to address prospects and interest them in your offerings. Both you and the event organizers benefit, you get to market your offer and they get great content to satisfy their attendees. Regardless of what type of audience you are presenting to keep your talk simple. You need to teach your audience something they don’t know or haven’t realized yet. Michael provides some guidelines to ensure you put out a good presentation:
- Plan
- Define your message
- Know your audience
- Choose your role
- Know your materials
- Be prepared
- Organize your information
I will be covering the final two chapters on the Writing Strategy and Keep-in-Touch Strategy in my next article.
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