14 Mar 2008 02:22:53 | J.L. Siefers
This article is the result of a conversation I had with a
magician about his website. He wanted to know if I could build
him a nice looking site that had his name and contact
information on it. I explained to him the purpose of having a
website and what you want visitors to do when they land on your
site.
Why Do You Have a Website?
The number one reason magicians have websites is ego. They want
to be able to say to people, "You can visit my website at
www.bite-me-hard.com." When the person visits the website they
usually see one of two scenarios: Brochure Site
Typical Magician's Site - See Part 2 of this series for an
example.
The brochure site is nicely designed with contact information
and a few pictures. These sites usually look nice and clean. The
issue is visitor conversion. Many people view the site and move
on to another site. They may never return. You have missed out
on the opportunity to build a relationship with them. The key
element often missing with this kind of site is the ability to
capturing the visitor's name and email address so that follow up
direct marketing can be done. The direct marketing closes the
sale. It is rare for people to hire magicians as an impulse buy.
The typical magician's site is wonder to behold. How can one
person find so many different ways to use free animated graphics
on the home page? It is clear that the magician designing his
site learned how to color text, change fonts, and increase font
size. All done in the same paragraph! Check out my prior article
listed above for a detailed discussion of this topic.
Your website exists to get people to give you their permission.
That's right, their permission. The goal of the website is to
get visitors to give you their name and email. Believe it or not
this is valuable information that is not given away freely. The
website must be structured to induce people to trust you enough
to give this information to you.
This is why brochure sites and typical magician's sites don't
usually work well. If you haven't built a relationship with the
potential client, then it is unlikely they will book your magic
show. It is like it was in high school. You can walk up to the
prettiest girl in school and say "Do me!" Chances are it won't
be effective. Your website must establish a relationship with
potential client and gain her permission. After that you can
approach her and say, "Book me!"
Purpose of Permission Marketing
This approach to marketing is called Permission Marketing. It
has always been practiced but Seth Godin coined the term with
his book by the same name. Buy a copy and Amazon or your local
bookstore. The purpose of Permission Marketing is to turn
strangers into friends, and friends into clients.
I am not recommending spamming people to get more magic shows.
The key elements of Permission Marketing are communications from
you are expected, individualized, and interesting to the person.
Let,s look at the elements in the context of emails:
Expected - People are expecting emails from you
because they asked you to send them emails through your
subscription form on your website. Always use a double opt in
subscription system. Individualized - Every email sent by
you should be personalized to the person getting it. I don't
care if you are sending out ten or one thousand emails. Every
person should get an email that looks like it was written just
for them. Interesting - The subject of every email must be
related and relevant to the reason the person gave you're his
permission in the first place. If you entice a person to give
his name and email to learn how to use a magic show to create
the perfect birthday party, then don't send emails about a great
business opportunity called Amway.
Another important feature of Permission Marketing is that there
are different levels of permission. Permission levels range from
spam (no permission) to intravenous (sending products out to
customers without him ordering them). As people give you their
names and emails you start at the permission scale (just above
spam). Your main task is to use your communications and services
to move people up the permission scale. While you will never
likely get permission to just show and do magic shows uninvited
(intravenous), you can build a base of trusting and loyal
customers.
Gaining Permission With Your Website
Your website will impact your ability to gain permission from
visitors. Two general considerations are content and design. If
you have not taken the free Master Course on Selling Services, I
strongly encourage you to do so. The course covers the topics of
contents and design in more detail. You will find material that
you can use on your website right now.
People searching the web are looking for good information. They
will trust and reward those who give them the information they
seek. Many will give you permission to contact them again. This
opens the door to build trust and gain a loyal customer. What
kinds of content should the site provide? The simple answer is
whatever the person is looking for.
Let's assume a mother finds your website considering the
possibility of hiring a magician for her daughter's next
birthday party. She doesn't care that you do gospel illusion
shows or trade shows. In fact she might be put off by it. If
this magician does all of these other things, how important is
my daughter's birthday party going to be? You must view your
content from the visitor's perspective.
Provide content that she can use. For example, you can provide a
general guide to hosting a magical birthday party. Let her know
if she signs up with her name and email you will send her a
detailed step by step guide to hosting the perfect magical
birthday party. You could also put magic birthday party
invitations on your site personalized to your magic show, but
with space for it to be individualized to the child and her
birthday party.
With relevant and useful content you will begin to build trust.
You will get her to give you her name and email. You provide
even better content and increase her trust. You can contact her
about how your magic show will make her daughter's birthday
party one to be remembered always. The key to providing content
is to over-deliver on the person's expectations. Remember this:
The goal of your website is turn strangers into
friends, and friends into clients.
The design of your site is also important. Your site must be
easily navigated. You want visitors to find the information they
are seeking quickly and easily. Graphics add to the site but can
become clutter if you are not careful. It should have a clean
look. Don't be afraid to use a plain white background. It looks
good and text can be easily read. I would avoid reverse colors
for text. Light text on dark background can strain the eyes if
there is much material there.
An example of this approach is Learn-Great-MagicTricks.com. This
new site is still growing. It is clean looking. Information is
easily found. The content is useful for people learning to do
magic. Within one month, the site was listed in most search
engines, had decent rankings, was getting newsletter
subscriptions, and most importantly the site was earning money.
The point is that this advice works and I use it myself.
Copyright © 2005 J.L. Siefers, All rights reserved.
About Author :
J.L. Siefers has been performing great magic for years. He has
written extensively on many topics in magic. He has shown
hundreds of people how to successfully learn to do great magic
tricks.
