Recently I was working with a
speaker whose website was about 6
years old. It had evolved and
changed over the years and had a
ton of information and many
options for the visitor.
But even though he was getting
huge amounts of traffic, the
website wasn’t working. He wasn’t
getting booked for speeches or
selling product.
Why? His buyers were getting
confused. There were too many
options and as I once heard it said
‘a confused buyer never buys’.
Many of us have arrived at this
same place, myself included.
My old site wasn’t as streamlined
as I wanted so I started from
scratch and it seems to be working.
Is your site working the way you
want it to? Is it getting you booked?
If not, you might be confusing your
buyers and you should map out the
exact process and outcomes that you
desire.
Here are 3 quick checks for your
website:
1. Is it focused? Can your buyers
tell within 15 seconds what it is
you do? If you list more than 3
topics, I suspect they are confused.
2. Your ‘promise’ should be clear
letting your buyers know the value
and outcomes right up front.
3. Are you positioning as an
expert or a speaker? Remember
Brian Palmer’s quote from my book
‘The Wealthy Speaker’ he said
‘clients no longer want to hire
speakers, they want to hire smart
people who happen to speak’,
4. There should be a call to
action - what steps do you want
them to take?
As technology becomes more complex,
every once in a while, we need to
stop and regroup to ensure that
we’re not confusing our customers.
Happy booking!
ps: Watch for my brand new
product ‘Diary of a Killer Keynote:
How to Develop and Deliver a
Keynote that Blows Them Away’ with
Joe Calloway.
I believe this DVD will be one of
most helpful tools that I ever produced
and I can’t wait.
Choose Your BookMark:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
It seemed appropriate to do a tip about blogging
while launching The Speaker Launcher blog.
Many speakers are jumping on the blogging
bandwagon without giving their own marketing
strategy much thought.
You might have heard someone mention blogging
during a workshop or teleclass, does that mean you
should jump right in?
Before you spend the time, energy and money going
down the blog path, here are 6 key ideas that you
absolutely must consider:
Idea #1. Is your website working? One of the main
reasons for having a blog is to drive traffic to
your website and to ultimately book speeches. If
your website is NOT converting visitors into
speech or (at least) product buyers, then it’s not
working.
When your website is not working, more
traffic won’t help! Fix your problem first,
and then start the traffic flow.
Idea #2. Consider the purpose for your blog. Is it
going to be for sharing ideas, or will it be
promotional? The reason why blogs have become
popular is because they are effective marketing
tools (the search engines love them.) But guess
what? That only works if you know what you are
doing and how the technology works!
For instance, one big thing that I learned from my
techno guru was that I should take my keywords
into account when setting up all of my article
categories. (You’ll see what I mean when you
look to the right at the categories of this blog).
Idea #3. What is the content of your blog going to be?
Are you going to provide solid tips and ideas? If
not, I’d question whether or not it’s relevant.
I’ve seen blogs where people are talking about
what they had for lunch and quite frankly, who
cares? Test your blog for the ‘who cares’ factor
and make sure that your content is solid.
Ask yourself the question ‘is this content going
to position me as an expert and get me booked
into more speeches?’
Idea #4. Do you like to write? I have found that
writing keeps me plugged in to my business - the
more I write, the more business comes my way
despite the fact that I’m not an eloquent writer.
However, if you hate to write, then consider
keeping in touch with your clients in ways other
than a blog. Otherwise, it is going to become one
more thing that you procrastinate and beat
yourself up for not doing.
Idea #5. Are you technology challenged? If so,
blogging may be a hassle that you don’t want to
delve into. When you have to rely on other people
for everything you do, you might try to keep it
simple and focus your energy on booking speeches
instead. Not everyone is going to be successful
at every type of business strategy. Some speakers
will use technology to gain more hits on their
websites and book speeches while others will take
other paths like building relationships, giving
great speeches and making phone calls.
Idea #6. All roads should lead to action. Does every
tip or blog entry have a ‘call to action’? If
you want your clients to purchase your products,
then have some of your tips lead to a product. If
you want clients to book you for speeches, then
some tips should lead to a topic or program
outline. Mix it up and make sure that everything
you do has a purpose and a strategy.
Happy Blogging!
ps: What I’m giving you is very basic strategy. For
the technology side of things Tom Antion has a
good CD called How to Start a Blog (Weblog) to
Promote Your Business and Your Agenda, I recommend
that you bone up on blogging BEFORE delving in.
Link to Tom
Choose Your BookMark:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
