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Your Website is More Than a Portfolio

Welcome back to our lead generation day, and today we are covering sort of on how we put it all together and how we walk away with a real plan. So the website is where we start one of the things that people, especially the creative space, and look at this eyes, also on page fifty six in the workbook, is that commonly assumed that a website is a showing off your works. So this is what I d'oh, this is a description off my service, this these added tech stats, this is sort of what what does what I do? This is where I am, this is who I am and now come here and buy. But what most websites don't do well is to encourage engagement. So the lead generation, if you look at the funnel on this illustration, you see that what we talked about yesterday in the linked in segment, where I showed you on how to use linked into get engagement. So if you are linked in and you are connecting with somebody and say, hey, I've written a block that might be interesting to you if you remember that, or I have som...

e information that I think might be value to you, and in the next segment, we talk about white papers and how that helps you with that, so all of your social networks connections are driving your traffic to your website so but what do you do with them? So we want to really put them into this funnel and have them fall into the website visitor and give them something which is the white paper, the ethical bribe or lead magnet off some sort so that they give us something in return so that's the way works, I give you something and in return I get your name and your email on some of the more on the larger lead magnets like you know, the big inside the corporate insides papers people can ask for actually quite a bit of information because in that world it's not uncommon to say how large is your company? What do you do? How many people are working there? What's your annual revenue? You know, if it's a public company minutes public record so there you know you can actually sometimes as quite a few few things the most creative the most people are willing to do is their name often only their first name and sometimes you known off course. Always the email address there are some things you need to know about the email which will cover in just one second so they come in, you give them something that give you something now their new email list so now you are going to touch them these are called touch points on an ongoing basis by continuing with your blocks because you've got the traffic that came to your block you got their email they've gotten something from you in return and now you have to stay in touch with them consistently so the rules ofthe touchpoints versus selling is a about you got haven't least sort of four touch points with content and then you can do a sale ah pitch so its content content content, content pitch content, content, content, pitch and depending on who you tribe is and how you how you interact with them and what the level off the relationship is sometimes of course especially you know, like when you have a product to sell or you work on a particular launch formula that you have a special offer, then your sale cycle might be in a two weeks or your announcement off your product launch might be two weeks your product launch might be about ten days and then, you know, so people are getting I pitched more often than you pull the content back to have people be in this cycle. What happens is when people get pitched because you know this free mentality that have been talking about sometimes a little bit in the way and then they go, I can't believe you're pitching me what do you think I do this pro bono so don't be afraid and you saw what I did yesterday and the day before in the you know what it in the authority plaid from day in the social network's day is we keep talking about why a free mindset is bad so I am seeding which it's called what I want my audience to do is I say the mind set off free on ly attract free because it just is not possible otherwise love attracts love if you give you find somebody was going to give something back but you can't say I only want to get because it's a lie a one way relationship so you want to train your tribe your customer you enlist to say hey here's the deal I give you content, content, content and it's good content but I do this for a living, so I ask that you at least listen to my my my wares and my value because based on the testimonials and videos that I get from my customers, what I do makes a difference in the life of so many people. So you need to give me the right to make sure that these people that are ready to find a solution are being serviced, so if it's not for you, just either opt out and go away or hang in there until it's done and we're back to the content because the lead time for someone to come into, you know, to become a customer of yours could be, you know, in this is back to the authority platform day where we had the graph where we said you are either have a broad approach where you just send something out. Any hope that somebody has a need for your particular service of product at that very time you your promotion arrives or you build up the focused approach by identifying who oh, who is interested in your product or in your in your service and over a period of time you build up the relationship so when the need is there in the top of mind awareness they go like, oh, let's stay effort he's been sending me the stuff I trust him. He seems to be consistent. Lead times sometimes can take anywhere from a day a minute, two sometimes years I have people in my tribe that literally have said for three years they're going to take the photo base intensive before they finally pulled the trigger. What makes people pull the trigger is that their pain point is now so high or they have a need. You know, like toilet papers and you run out of toilet paper, you have to go buy some, but on whether or not you buy the new upgrade for the iphone or you get, you know, a new computer or some sort of other item oftentimes is discretion area. So it's our job as as creators too, to talk about why our service and product makes their lives so much more fun. Remember the slight where we talked about what, what people want happiness to live better lives, to be healthy, to be fulfilled, to have purpose. So it's our job to go back to that slide and say, this is what happens when you use our our service or product your life it's better you are happier, you're more fulfilled you more content. So it is. This is how this sort of all works together, what we talked about because now you have the reasoning behind it in the purpose. So website is definitely more than a portfolio and for especially the creative like in the in the visual arts, like the illustrators and the photographers out there, please, please, please, if he's still using flash, I don't even know what to say to you, but but this's, that this's me speechless because I don't even really know howto respond to that. A website has to have the least a capability ofthe search engines finding you and you writing something so that you come up in the key words in the meta data so there is a tool bar called an alexa to bar which allows you to sort of get an idea off the ranking and the visitor off a particular website. So you want install that in your browser so when it come to photographers website and they send me let's say they fill out the uncovering session application in the free giveaway for great of life and then I go to the website and it says twelve million six hundred ninety four thousands search result I guarantee you your website never get seen because if you are the twelve million search result, that means you have zero traffic and then you can click on it. So there's tools for adams for youtube are we can actually see what the traffic is that goes to a particular website and when you flatlining it's bad in business and then when you see the flat line in there in the ranking, they have no visitors and then you look what people search them for and there's like nothing in it so people don't even search for them, they don't even come up so it's a pretty clear indicator for any client that you are in the world off internet marketing meaningless that's not good so but we're going to change that just hanging there so the website is more than a portfolio your website is your number one selling tool so on my web site to give you a couple of examples, so I have a media page it's called press room, so in my press room, kenna, we'll find the audio clip on how to pronounce my name would she have only known it exists, so but because I get that so often, and I have been called bertha and betty one too many times, I have actually clear it created the clip and put it on on my on my web site in the press room. Then I have a you know, my press image, so anybody who wants to down, you know, find an image or write about me can download an image off me because I want to control what images of me out there, because otherwise they're going to google my name and go on image surge and it going to find some crazy pictures where picture I'm looking like like this, and they're going to publish that which I don't want someone control my pop might my pr out there's, I give them away for free so that people can use it. Then I have an introductory blurb remember the blurb you talked about that goes at the bottom ofthe your blog's guess what blurb that is that is that blurred, yeah, so you put that in there and you talk about the official it is a respected you know career coach speaker author of happy woman happy world who you know whatever I wanted to say then I have a a downloadable pdf with the most frequently asked questions so when people say while we considering interviewing her what could we even asked have sample suggested questions what is the women's code why do women needed why is this different than anything else and I give them the length off my answer this is a two minute answer this is a three minute answer so that they can pick and choose and kind of get an idea off kind of what an interview partner I am then I have samples off interviews you know some with me in person some with me on audio so that they can see what I look like when I'm on either stage or when I'm life in an audio interview because they want to know can she make her points issue you know like rambling on how does she look like on camera is she going to be a good guest so I make it easy for people to engage you know then that's just one page so you want to think through what does your customer who comes to your website what do they need to know about you that will help them to make a decision on who you are and it is guaranteed not your curriculum vitae the about you section is where people go first believe it or not but you will have a a lot off aa lot off happiness on that because you already have learned in thesis social networks day how to tell your story and guess what goes in the about your story and it is not when I was four years old my dad gave me a camera and ever since then I fell in love with photography and I like photography and I like capturing images so if you if that's only a website that's the first thing you do you go and you scratch that out and just in case you need some assistance on this I have for you on page fifty eight I have some notes for you to write down as we're going through these different elements so if you have notes on what you need to change based upon we talk about so you can take a nuts so in the workbook now we are on page fifty seven and um let's just go through this so a website is used for the generation and vetting and community building so I also have my membership sites that are plugged into my wordpress site so when you go and the photo is intensive or on the women's code there is membership only content that is that you get through my membership site why is it attached to my website, because if somebody goes in, the photo is intensive and watches a video for an hour that's really good for my ranking and s e l because it shows that something's going on this website, that people are spending ah, large amount of time interaction in it, so everything that you do should be connected to one thing, which is why I don't recommend doing the word press dot your name, blawg or the block spot dot your name blawg, because it doesn't help you anything with with with traffic or search engine optimization or any of that type of stuff. So so while that is a great way to get started and to sort of learn how it works, but ideally you always want to have that attached to your stuff, do not send people away from your website. Send everybody to your websites, evie, everything has to be attached to a website for promotion. So what I'm doing in for creative life is I met the be articulate dot com forward slash creative life page. So that is it, you know, a promotional page, so we have built this page. I'm just going to show this really quickly, so we have built this page and it is a straight forward promotion. But the promotion means that this is the engagement that we hope to achieve so it follows the principle which is talk about I give you something in return you give me something you give me an email so and I give you a variety of things to choose from this is a little bit more than what I usually would do like force like as a usually no more than three but for the purpose of this class and because I'm teaching this and because I you know, we talk about so many different things is important for me to find out who is interested in what so you see how the engagement goes, what they're interested in so the more engagement points you have on your website as long as they're not on the same pay each but if there are special it for something you know so in the women's code there is an engagement just for the women's coats and in the photo businesses and engagement just for photo biz so you learn what they're interested in and then you delivered to them specifically to the interests then off course the web sites used for marketing google reads a website we talked about membership sales and it is also for sale so on page fifty seven I would like you to just take one moment I put some check marks in here and let's just think about you know just talk out loud what are you going to use you upside for jen what you going to use your website for? From all these things in the workbook I'm excited about the lead generation because that's the point that's the point where I'm at right now I'm creating my website to be just like an opportunity for me to figure out what lists to put people on s o that because there's different directions that they could go in and so I'm using my website as a way to get related to what they're passionate about so that when I connect to them I actually connect with them on the sub eject that their passion about not and some clear very good excellent stephane what you're going to use your website for one is to leverage my experience with you know the experience we had a corbis and things like that too become an authority on the value of imagery in terms of relating that to sales you know, there's certain things you look for an image that reads on small on it so it would be service description for you hard, partially ok and what else and then building the background for the creative agency to become an authority on what we call connected thinking which is the connection between business strategy, technology and customer research on buying that down into something that's meaningful and drives attachment to customers through the web interaction very nice. So then your in your early generation then if you do the customer interaction, I would put special emphasis that whatever you lead generation is shows how clever your interaction strategies are so you can not just put something out there and said, give me this in return for that but if that's what you're teaching customer interaction than what you do has to showcase that cleverness and demonstrates that composing papers yes, yes or, you know, in if you have a secret sauce sort of process or case studies might work for you really well, if you are allowed to talk about them because we talked about that, a lot of the stuff you do is sort of secret behind the scenes stuff, but a case study might work really well. So in the social network stay we saw clint and that's how clinton built his authority by giving us the case studies off the people he had worked for and what he had achieved. So if that is possible, that would be that would be good. So for you then that could be even a slide chair or an animated process to to say, you know, this is what we do, you know, we were people come in, we put him in the washing machine, we add our secret sauce, you know, it's, wash, rinse dry and then you know he was sort of what comes out so you can make that depending on what the brand is humorous or clever or you know there's so many different ways to do it but if you are in a particular space that that does something that is unique that part off the engagement has to turn someone's head yeah so I pay really good attention to that darryl well I've got a question for you on this certainly have portfolio in there as this you have to work for um I have currently have three different websites teo try to funnel customers in specific areas um depending on that kind of specialty whether it's portraiture or products and land or slash just advertising and heat the humor stuff that I do so should I integrate that into a singular site and then funnel people appropriate through that you know you are very specific case and your portrait are not head shots are going are the head should know that their profession portrait's yes so what I would do with you I would follow sort of my formula you know I would do the umbrella I would say bernstein productions and then I would put the three towels which actually works really well on websites to say what are you looking for I want to make you know people look good I want to make products look good I want to have fun doing advertising and so people then can click and then you have you send him to the sort of landing page for that particular product and that's where you have a specific lead magnet for that particular brand what you could do is off course because the home page where most people go whatever then would be bernstein productions is that always should have something that and then in your case that could be a case study as well or it could be you know, because you have humor, it could be it could be sort of a you could play a video with some of the things that you do with behind the scenes stuff because you have such visual visual stuff you know you're playing with a rubber chicken for example would be wonderful on dh have, you know, sort of some some in there that gets people for deeper engagement or it could be just a video off you talking and saying, hey, you know, the sterile thanks for coming over, let me just tell you what we do and, you know, please, you know, select what is appropriate for you so it's very much like we're talking but honesty and saying you were really specialized in making people and products look good while we're having fun doing it may guarantee you being home by, you know, being out of you for happy hour so that's where that goes so that it draws me and says I want to know about more about you so I would definitely play with that I think it would be better for you because you may not have enough traffic for all three sides and then it becomes so much work to blogged on threes different sides in three different topics and in your block categories you then pick what the defend categories are for you know, people places having fun and advertising or whatever that might be and you have the block categories selected so then when somebody goes on the block and they only want to hear about things that are relating to x y or z they click it and all the block both come up in that particular blawg role in the category or you then because we don't want to just talk about really boring stuff I want you to have the adventures with the rubber chicken which is then really now you see how important is that you know what their problems are because now you can come up with content that there excited about that they want to read and that engages them that's answer your question yeah okay, I think what about you, captain? So I think I would um I'm still trying to kind of wrap my head around what this looks like as as a business or a former I don't know but um with the community part I would I want to bring people in with the notion of living off line with purpose um and I I see something like curating images that feel that strike emotions in people that can either, uh, help a re brand your company to be a more warm and fuzzy this is what we do for the environment this is what we do for um you know, way don't I I don't know I'm still you if you're good, you're good, you're good. So houston, with the picture, the picture that comes to my mind right away so if you have a a company, a brand that talks about I'm really teaching you teach you how to make meaningful connections online and how to have emotion, so the first thing you have to do is figure out how to make that happen on your own so I would then create a lead magnet that has something to do with you actually physically sending them something that they can touch and they can feel too engage the senses because you say my job is to make you have meaningful engagements outside the internet and then you are engaging them on the internet that's a little bit difficult, so then the objective would be taken out of there and say, if you want to know how this works, you have to give me you know we have to start building a relationship you have to tell me your name and your address so I can actually send you what I'm talking about and then you create a piece that has that sort of interaction interactive piece where you show them on howto have that experience because for you it's about creating an experience so you have to crack design and you have to design an experience that creates an emotion and it has to be done in such a way that it appears to be a formula that's reputable okay so you focus on the who said it was easy if it's different and unique hears the bell curve you doing something that hasn't been done before? Well there's good news and bad news you can call be anybody uh nobody can call b you know everybody will call you eventually but you are at the forefront so but you're smart and you your pain point is high enough for you to wanting to change that so that is the driver is like if I am feeling like this imagine how many others of feeling like this if that many others of feeling like that what do I have to tell them what worked for me what made the difference for me you said yesterday in usaid and the social networks say you said that you watching the pita videos really made an impact on you and changed what you eat not to say that you have to go out there now and being activist for this but what was it about the experience that you felt something that made you change the way you eat so if there is which there is it's a formula which is usually you know like images that evoke a feeling and an action that's deplorable and then there is a sort of result that comes that comes out of it so what is that formula to that experience and then you know figure out how to repeat that that's what I would do perhaps in the white paper segment all right let's talk about you john so I guess is kind of combination of building a community you can uh feel um but then yet haven't have ah online gallery this is not quiet for folio you definitely have to have a portfolio yes and I think that for you way talked about it yesterday that we also want to engage people in such a in such a way that they that they recognize that you're not just out there a photographer the camera shooting close ups of flowers but that that is sort of a mindfulness and a simplicity a guy to simplicity to discover the simple things in life so it's not like stop and smell the roses it's like hey do you see the tulip you know so so getting people to recognize the small things in life so yeah wonderful ok ok so let's talk about the about and contact us so this is going to go pretty quickly so we already talked about what your story is so in the about us that's where the story goes in however form it you want to write this it could door or a film it it could be a video where you talk about hey you know I'm a single mom you know this is what happened to me and you follow the formula remember the formula the storytelling formula is in the workbook and we are going to have that formula again in the playbook thiss aft afternoon in segment number four where it's even much more detailed where we will be doing this together so you you'll be having that by the end of the day very exciting to meet the contact form the contact us has to be easy so there's good news and bad news so if you put your email on your web site I promise you that some thought some bought and some terrible person somewhere in russia china or god knows where we'll find your email and they will spam you so but what is thea alternative to not having an email address on the web site so contacting you has to be very easy do not make me look for it do not make me have to search on how to give you my money because I will go to somebody who wants my money and who is willing to talk to me write it right away or engage so howto call you contact you email you how to get a the bid and don't make like getting a free estimate a benefit because I don't know anybody he was paying for getting an estimate of any kind that's just part of the games that don't make something sound fancy are important if it's really not hey call us because we're providing free estimates in your neighborhood because which is finishing up a project really that's the best you can do so come up with something a bit more fun all right here is guiana in indiana is a photographer in canada and she does the's absolutely phenomenal images of dancers that you know I mean you just look at this and it's like wow I mean so just take a look at this picture here of this dance I mean there's so much emotion talk about emotion in them and she says thanks a lot beyond to know I feel the confidence I was lacking before I met you it's true you have changed my life this generosity you give us make even more happy because you are a woman you are the authority and are leading us I'm proud of you and I feel proud of being a woman thank you for all that energy you share with us, it will push me father and father. I'm completely recharged and you can find her at a jonah garcia cruise dot com. She was self fabulous because she she came in and she's sort of this beautiful, quiet woman that, you know, just sees the beauty in the dance and the art and she's, like, I don't know if I can make money with this, right? And so we went with her through this hole. You know, we went with her through very much the same process and next thing you know, she is now telling dancers not on asking them to take the head shots, but saying, if you want to be the authority in your subject, if you want people to notice you, you cannot just submit a head shot. You have to submit a picture here, girls cat that evokes emotion in the person that is doing the audition because how good is if is how good is it if I get a dancer audition package with a head shot? But I see none of this beautiful, beautiful stuff, the persona that they are on stage, and it changed everything for her. And all of a sudden she goes, I know exactly why we need to be talking about this right now, so powerful testimonial