It is an age-old marketing rule that you have to interact with someone at least 7 times before they feel comfortable making contact.
Those interactions don’t have to be deep and meaningful.
It can start with a phone conversation and go on to include an email, a voicemail or even viewing something associated with your business, e.g. your logo.
Which is all well and good but when it comes to marketing, it does present a problem.
The vast majority of marketing activity only offers one interaction.
While getting media coverage and finding good guest blogging opportunities are great for building credibility, the real opportunity of building relationships with your target market will be wasted if you can’t follow through.
Unless of course you have a 5-step plan ready to own your audience.
#1: Create Flagship Content
The first step is to create a piece of flagship content. Something that your audience is going to fall over themselves to get. Something like this course or an eBook.
Having said that, it doesn’t have to be as in-depth as a course or book. It could be the blueprint of a useful process or a playbook of easy to employ tactics.
Whatever it is, it has to be compelling enough for them to swap it for their email address.
#2: Create a Landing Page for your Content
The problem with the vast majority of web pages is the density of information you find on each page.
Apart from the main content area, there is stuff going on in the header, the side bar (2 sidebars on some sites) and in the footer.
With so much going on, it’s difficult for your visitor to work out what to focus on.
If you want someone to give you their email address and download your content, you are going to want them to focus.
And focus means no distractions.
Creating a landing page that is dedicated to your flagship content creates that focus and is proven to deliver an insane increase in conversion.
#3: Choose an Email Provider
To capture the email addresses of your visitors, you are going to need an list building service.
There are a number of available. A couple have free options while others charge you from day one. Here are 3 of the most popular:
1. Aweber
2. Mad Mimi
3. Mail Chimp
I’ve always used Aweber and can highly recommend it although I know people who are just as satisfied with the other services.
Although easy to do, don’t get hung up on choosing a provider.
Too many people waste too much time trying to weigh up the pros and cons of each service.
The most important thing is to just choose one and get it up and running. The more time you take choosing, the more time you lose building your audience.
Integrating each of the services via an opt-in form on your website is relatively easy. You can find a number of blog articles and YouTube videos showing you how and many of the providers have easy to follow videos on their websites.
#4: Include Calls to Action in all Your Marketing
This is the most important step. Without a clear call to action, no one will know how to find your flagship content and the opportunity to own your audience will be wasted.
A call to action could and should be placed in all of the following places:
- At the end of media articles
- At the end of guest posts
- In your email signature
- In a prominent position on your website
- On business cards
- On physical promotional material
#5: Continue to Send Your List Great Content
Linking your list to your blog ensures that each time you post a new article, everybody who signed up for your flagship content gets your articles, the moment you post them.
Something that works incredibly well is to produce a string of 7-9 emails that your list receives over time, ensuring that you get your 7 touches.
This method of sending out pre-created articles is called an Autoresponder and is a function that comes with every email provider.
This is not a Nice to Have. It’s a Have to Have.
Like Rome, credibility and trust are not built in a day. They take time.
Therefore, no matter what marketing tactics you’re employing, if you don’t have a system that delivers multiple interactions with your audience, you will struggle to develop the relationship needed to boost sales.
Next time…
What comes next is completely up to you.
Now that you’ve been through the Prospector’s Playbook we’d like you to tell us what you’d like more of.
Perhaps there’s a topic that we’ve covered that you’d like more information on. Maybe you’ve got stuck and would like some help unsticking yourself. Or perhaps you’ve got a different topic you’d like us to cover.
It’s completely up to you.
All you have to do is let us know in the comments section below.
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